the most part, the courts at Westminster Hall have a concurrent jurisdiction with these, or else a superintendency over them; and the proceedings in these local and special courts are to be according to the course of the common law, unless otherwise ordered by Parliament; for though the Sovereign may erect new courts, the Crown cannot alter the established course of law.

CHAPTER VI.

WRONGS AFFECTING THE

PERSON-REPUTATION

LIBERTY-AND RELATIVE RIGHTS.

Let us now discuss Private Injuries; that is, the several injuries between subject and subject that are cognizable in the Courts of Common Law; as, in one or the other of these Courts, every possible injury that can be offered to a man's Person may meet redress.

Explain the several Injuries cognizable in the CommonLaw Courts.

All WRONGS being a privation of right, the plain natural remedy for every species of wrong is the being put in possession of that right whereof the party injured has been deprived. This may either be effected by the specific delivery or restoration of the subject-matter in dispute to the legal owner, as where lands or personal chattels are unjustly withheld or invaded; or, where that is not a possible, or at least not an adequate remedy, by making the sufferer a pecuniary satisfaction in damages; as in case of assault, or breach of contract, to which damages the party injured has acquired an incomplete or inchoate right the instant he receives the injury, though such right be not fully ascertained till they are assessed by the intervention of the law. The means whereby this remedy is obtained is in general by a suit or action, defined to be "the lawful demand of one's right."

ACTIONS are subject, in the first place, to this principal division. They are distinguished into three kinds :-Actions Personal, Real, and Mixed.

Personal Actions are those whereby a man claims the specific

recovery of a debt, or of a personal chattel, or damages for breach of contract; and likewise whereby a man claims a satisfaction in damages for some injury done to his person or property.

ant

The forms of personal actions now in use are:—Debt—CovenAssumpsit — Detinue Trespass — Trespass on the Case

Replevin.

Real actions, which formerly had regard to real property only, were such whereby the plaintiff claimed the specific recovery of lands, tenements, or hereditaments. Real actions, as such, are now altogether abolished by 3 & 4 Wm. IV., c. 27; see also 23 & 24 Vict., c. 126. The only mode now by which land is specifically recovered is by action of Ejectment, which will be afterwards explained.

Mixed Actions partake of the nature of the two, wherein some real property is demanded and personal damages for a wrong sustained; as, for instance, an action of waste to recover damages is brought by him who has the inheritance in remainder or reversion against the tenant for life who has committed waste therein, to recover not only the land wasted, which would have made it what was termed a real action; but also a personal recompense for a wrong sustained.

Under these three heads every action in a court of common law may now be maintained.

How are "Injuries" which affect the personal security of individuals divided? and explain them.

The absolute "rights" of each individual were defined to be the right of "PERSONAL SECURITY," the right of "PERSONAL LIBERTY,” and the right of “ PRIVATE PROPERTY," so that the wrongs affecting those "rights" must be of a corresponding nature.

I. Personal Security.

1. As to injuries which affect the personal security of individuals, they are either injuries against their lives,* their limbs, their bodies, their health, or their reputation.

The two next species of injuries affecting the limbs or bodies may be committed :—

* With regard to the first subdivision, or injuries affecting the life of man, being one of the most atrocious species of crimes, we reserve its consideration for the Fourth Book.

PERSONAL SECURITY AND DEFENCE.

1. By threats, or menaces. A menace alone makes not the injury; but only, if any consequent inconvenience ensue.

2. By assault, which includes an attempt or offer to beat another without touching him; as if one lifts up his cane, or his fist, in a threatening manner at another; or strikes at him, but misses him; this is an assault and is described to be "an unlawful setting-upon one's person." It is an inchoate violence, and though no actual suffering be proved, the party may have redress by action of trespass, wherein he may recover damages.

3. By battery, which is the beating of another. The least touching of another man's person wilfully, or in anger, is a battery; for the law cannot draw the line between different degrees of violence, and therefore totally prohibits the first and lowest stage of it" every man's person being sacred, no other has a right to meddle with it, in the slightest manner."

4. By wounding, which consists in giving another some dangerous hurt. This is an aggravated species of battery.

5. By mayhem, which is an injury still more atrocious, and consists in violently depriving another of the use of a member proper for his defence or occupation.

For these three last offences an indictment, at the suit of the Crown, may be brought, as well as a civil action for damages.

To render these acts, however, either actionable or indictable, they must be committed unlawfully; for they are all in some cases justifiable. Thus assault and battery are justifiable in the case of a parent or master who moderately corrects his child, his scholar, or his apprentice. So also, on the principle of self-defence; for if one strikes me first, or even only assaults me, I may strike him in my own defence; and if sued for it, may plead son assault demesne; or that it was the plaintiff's own original assault that occasioned it. So likewise in defence of my goods or possessions. If a man endeavours to deprive me of my goods, I am justified in laying hands upon him to prevent him; and in case he persists with violence, I may proceed to beat him away. Thus, too, in the exercise of an office, as that of churchwarden or beadle, a man may lay hands upon another to turn him out of church and prevent the disturbance of the congregation; and if

sued for this, or the like battery, he may set forth the whole case, and plead that he laid hands upon him gently—molliter manus imposuit-for this purpose.

II. INJURIES affecting a man's health may be constituted by selling him bad provisions or wine; by the exercise of an obnoxious trade, which infects the air in his neighbourhood; or by the neglect or unskilful management of his physician, surgeon, or apothecary. Mala praxis is a great misdemeanour and offence at common law, whether it be for curiosity and experiment, or by neglect; because it breaks the trust which the party had placed in the medical practitioner, and tends to the injury of the patient. These are wrongs or injuries unaccompanied by force, for which there is a remedy in damages by a special action of trespass on the case.

In cases of gross misconduct the party may also be indicted. This action, of trespass- or trespass upon the case-is a universal remedy, given for all personal wrongs and injuries without force; so called, because the plaintiff's whole case or cause of complaint was set forth at length in the original writ, and is so now raised by the pleadings.

III. INJURIES affecting a man's reputation or good name are, first, by malicious and defamatory words, tending to his damage and derogation. As if a man utter any slander or false tale of another, which may either endanger him in law, by impeaching him of some punishable crime, as to say that a man has poisoned another, or is perjured; or which may exclude him from society, as to charge him with having an infectious disease; or which may impair or hurt his trade or livelihood, as to call a tradesman a bankrupt, a physician a quack, or a lawyer a knave. that do not upon the face of tion as will be injurious, it is should aver some particular damage to have happened. Words of heat and passion, as to call a man rogue and rascal, if productive of no ill consequence, and not of the dangerous species before mentioned, are not actionable; neither are words spoken

But with regard to words them import such defamanecessary that the plaintiff