Q. In what manner is property legally conveyed?

A. 1. By deed. 2. By record. 3. By custom. 4. By will.

Q. What is a deed.

A. A deed is a writing sealed and delivered by the parties. To render it valid, the person contracting must be capable; it must be founded on good and sufficient consideration, not upon usurious contract, nor on fraud or collusion, nor to injure just creditors.

Q. What is meant by record?

A. This is a conveyance not depending on the consent of the parties themselves, but on the sanction of a court of record. It is made by private

acts of parliament, king's grants, fines, and common recoveries for cutting off the entail.

Q. What is meant by custom ?

A. Conveyance by custom is confined to copyhold lands, and is according to the custom of the

manor.

Q. What is conveyance by will?

A. It is the devising any kind of property to be enjoyed after the testator's death. A will must be in writing, signed by the testator, and witnessed by at least three credible persons. Legacies left to the witnesses are void.

CHAP. XII.

Of Personal Property.

Q. WHAT is meant by personal property? A. It signifies any kind of property that is not contained under any of the foregoing heads.

Q. How many kinds of personal property are there?

A. Two; absolute and qualified.

Q. What is absolute property?

A. Absolute property is when a man has not only the right, but also the use of any moveable chattles as goods, plate, money, jewels, clothes, &c.; and domestic animals, as horses, bullocks, sheep, swine, &c.

Q. What is qualified property?

A. Such as the owner has only a temporary property in, while it remains in his posession :for example, wild animals confined-as ferrets, hawks, deer in a park, hares or rabbits in a warren, fish in a private pond, &c.; these, if they stray away and do not return, it is lawful for any one to take. Bees are the property of him who hives them.

Q. What are the titles to personal property?

A. 1. Occupancy, which gives the first occupant a right to goods of alien enemies; things found animals feræ naturæ, &c. 2. By preroga

tive, as all tributes, taxes, customs, forfeitures, and fines. 3. By forfeitures for crimes, &c. 4. By custom or general use. 5. By succession. 6. By marriage, the personal property of the wife being absolutely vested in the husband. 7. By judgment in a court of law. 8. By gift or grant; gifts are gratuitous, grants are for some consideration. 9. By contract or purchase. 10. By bankruptcy. 11. By will.

Q. What is an executor?

A. An executor is the person to whom a testator commits the execution of his will.

Q. What is an administrator?

A. When a man dies intestate, the ordinary or bishop is obliged to grant administration of his effects to his widow or next of kin. If a man without kindred dies intestate, any person procuring authority from the crown, may oblige the ordinary to grant him administration. The duties of an executor and administrator are nearly the

same.

Q. What are those duties?

A. To bury the deceased in a manner suitable to the property he leaves; but extravagance in the funeral must be at his own charge. He must prove the will of the deceased; must pay his debts; then legacies. If any surplus remain, and there be no residuary legatee, it is the property of the executor.

B

CHAP. XIII.

Of Wrongs.

Q: WHAT is meant by wrongs ?

A. Wrongs are of two species, private and public. Private wrongs are an infringement of the rights of individuals, and are therefore called civil injuries. Public wrongs are a violation of public rights, and are called crimes and misde

meanors.

Q. By what means may we obtain the redress of civil injuries?

A. To redress civil injuries the courts of justice before described were established; and by applying to those courts redress may be obtained. Some injuries, however, may be redressed by the parties themselves.

Q. How may this be done?

A. 1. In defence of one's self or relatives. 2. Reprisal, or seizing one's own goods wherever found. 3. Removal of nuisances. 4. Distress

for rent, or damage by cattle, &c.

Q. How is redress to be obtained by application to courts of law and equity?

A. By action for damages,

Q. What are the injuries that affect the rights of persons?

A. they are injuries either against their lives,

their limbs, or bodies, their health, or their reputation.

Q. What are the wrongs affecting the life? A. They will be more properly described hereafter.

Q. What are the injuries that affect the limbs or bodies?

A. 1. Threats of bodily harm. 2. Assault, which is an attempt to offer to beat. 3. Battery, which is an unlawful beating. 4. Wounding. 5, Maiming, which is depriving a man of any member, an eye, &c.

Q. What other personal injuries are actionable? A. The principal are, 1. Injury to health, by unwholesome practices, as selling bad provisions or wine, or by the exercise of any trade which corrupts the air in the neighbourhood,

2. Injury to reputation, by slanderous words; these, if spoken of a peer, a judge, or great officer of the realm, are a heinous offence, and called scandalum magnatum; by printed or written libels; and by malicious prosecutions.

3. Injury to personal liberty, by false imprisonment; forcibly detaining any one in the street is deemed imprisonment.

Q. What are the injuries to personal property for which redress may be obtained?

A. If it be in a man's own possession, it is an