vesting Chancery powers in a Chancellor, in the Senate, or other high authorities. The Civil Code of Louisiana, which was digested from all the heterogeneous pre-existing laws, chiefly, we believe, by the labors of Mr. Livingston, and promulgated in 1824, has been highly praised as a model of its kind, and a specimen of the benefits of a judicious codification.

We proceed to treat of Municipal Law, on points which are common to most of the states, under the heads of Laws of Persons; Laws of Property; Laws of Crimes; and Laws of Procedure.

§ 1. The Laws of Persons, or, as they are termed by Blackstone, the Rights of Persons, arise from their relations to the government, or to each other; and hence are either official or private. Of official rights and duties, we have already spoken, as far as we had room, under the branch of Constitutional Law. In their private rights, persons are regarded as either citizens, or aliens; males or females; adults or minors; sane or insane; masters or servants; principals or agents; and as either natural or artificial persons; the latter meaning corporations or partnerships. We shall first speak of the laws concerning domestic relations; or those of husband and wife; parent and child; guardian and ward; and master and servant: and afterwards treat of business relations, which are more public in their character.

Females, in this country, have no political rights, as of voting, or holding public offices; but, while single, they have the same legal rights as males. By marriage, their legal rights pass mostly to the husband; who, with his wife, is considered as one legal person. He can dispose of her personal, but not of her real property, or land, without her voluntary consent; and he becomes liable for her support, and for her debts, whether contracted before or after marriage. Marriage is considered, in law, only as a civil contract; but as one of the highest importance and obligation. The marriage of idiots, or lunatics, or of persons nearly related, is generally forbidden by the civil law. Parents are the legal guardians of their children, whom the law regards as their servants. Guardians of idiots or insane persons are usually appointed over them; but guardians of orphan minors are more frequently chosen by themselves, to manage their affairs, under proper restrictions. Apprentices are temporary servants, bound to their masters for a certain term, by an indenture, or form of law; and held to faithful service, in return for the art which they acquire.

Artificial persons, are either corporations, or partnerships. A corporation, is a body of men incorporated by statute or charter, for certain express purposes; as banking or manufacturing. It may hold property, and be subject to obligations, like individuals. Corporations are usually managed by responsible trustees or directors; and they are public or private, perpetual or temporary, according to their objects and charters; their seal, and the signatures of their officers, being the evidence of their obligations. Partnerships, are associations of two or more persons, by contract, for business or other specified purposes. Each partner is a legal agent for the whole firm, within its proper scope, and is liable for its debts and

obligations. Executors, and administrators, are persons appointed or chosen to settle the estates of persons deceased.

§ 2. The Laws of Property, are included by Blackstone under the title, Rights of Things; a term borrowed from the Roman law. Property, is any thing deemed valuable, which can be exclusively owned by one person; whether in actual possession, or in expectancy, as when secured by contracts, or expected by inheritance. Personal property, or personalty, includes moveable articles, called goods and chattels; but Real property, or realty, includes things fixed and immoveable, and hence said to be tangible; as lands, tenements, and hereditaments. The word tenement, comprehends not only land itself, but the fixtures upon it, and privileges connected with it. Lands are termed corporeal hereditaments; while easements, or privileges, which may be held distinct from the land itself, as right of way, right of rivers, commons, and the like, are termed incorporeal hereditaments. The right of real property, in our own country, rests originally on first possession, or purchase from the aborigines; and it is generally held allodially, that is, by independent right; and not, as it is often held in Europe, by feudal tenure.

An Estate, is an interest in any real property. An estate in possession, is one actually held: but an estate in reversion, is one which by law will revert to the person claiming it, after the temporary right of some other person to it has expired. An estate in remainder, is one expressly granted to the expectant, after the termination of some previous grant or particular estate in the same. A freehold estate, is one held in fee simple, subject to no conditions or contingencies; and an estate in fee, is one which, at the death of its owner, if not otherwise disposed of by him, descends to his heirs. An estate for life, is one terminating with the life of the tenant, or of some other person; the tenant holding it either for life, or for, that is, during another's life. An estate for years, is one secured to the tenant, by lease, for a certain period. An estate tail or entailed, is one which must revert to the grantor, in case the grantee should not, at his decease, leave heirs as prescribed: and an estate in trust, is one conveyed to a trustee or trustees, for the benefit or use of a third party, called the beneficiary, or cestui que trust. An estate in severalty, is one entirely owned by a single person; but an estate in joint tenancy, in coparcenary, or in common, has two or more owners; with certain differences implied by these several terms.

A title, which is the evidence of right to an estate, may be acquired by occupancy for a sufficient time; by marriage; by descent or inheritance; by devise or bequest, that is, by the will of another; and by deed of purchase, or by mortgage, with failure of redemption. A mortgage is the grant or conveyance of an estate in fee, as security for the payment of money; with the condition that if the money be duly paid, the grant shall thereby become void. A contract, is an agreement between two or more legal persons, respectively to do, or not to do a certain thing or things, for a consideration therein specified. Such are indentures, deeds, bonds, mortgages, policies of insurance, and promissory notes. A promise, differs from a contract, in having no specified consideration or inducement. A will,

or testament, is a voluntary instrument, disposing of the testator's property, after his decease.

§3. The Laws of Crimes, are included in the first parts of Blackstone's Books on Private, and Public Wrongs. Crimes may be classed either as directly against the public welfare; or against private persons; or against private property. In the first class may be mentioned treason, piracy; insurrection, riots, or affrays; resisting the execution of the law; obstructing or injuring public works, as highways; creating public nuisances, by contaminating the air, or water, and the like; gambling, profanity, and other violations of public morals; and all similar offences. Perjury, or false swearing; and bribery, which is hiring or being hired to pervert justice; including embracery, or an attempt to corrupt or unjustly influence a jury; are usually both public and private wrongs. Crimes against private persons, are such as murder, or inflicting death unlawfully and intentionally; manslaughter, or doing the same criminally, though without direct intention; injury to personal safety, as assaulting, maiming, stabbing, shooting, or poisoning; injury to personal liberty, as seizing or kidnapping; injury to personal character, as slander, or libelling; and injury to personal purity, as bigamy, adultery, and the like. Crimes against private property, are arson, or setting fire intentionally to dwellings or buildings contiguous to them; and, of like character, setting fire to, or destroying other property; also burglary, or house-breaking by night; and, analogous to it, other house-breaking; also robbery, or forcibly taking away property; and larceny, or stealing; together with forgery, counterfeiting, fraudulent conveyances, swindling, and the like.

Of the particular punishments, which, for these and other offences, vary in the different states, we have not sufficient room to speak particularly. The punishments generally in use, are capital punishment, or the infliction of death, usually by hanging; next imprisonment, either in penitentiaries, which are state prisons, or in jails, which are county prisons; and lastly, fines or amercements, exacting the payment of money to the state, the informer, or prosecutor; or damages, awarded to the injured party. Corporal punishments, such as whipping, branding, and cropping, are now seldom inflicted; solitary confinement being generally regarded as the punishment best calculated to reform the offender. On the theory of punishments we have already briefly spoken, under the head of Political Philosophy. (p. 103.)

§ 4. The Laws of Procedure, include the latter parts of Blackstone's Books on Private and Public Wrongs; relating to the mode of redressing injuries, or of punishing crimes. Proceedings in Courts of Justice, are styled either civil or criminal, according as they relate to the former or the latter objects. The violation of any legal right, produces an injury or wrong. If it be a dangerous one to society, the public authorities take cognizance of it, as a public crime; otherwise it is regarded as a private wrong, for which the injured party has a civil remedy; whether it relates to his lands, goods, person, or reputation. The redress usually sought, is the recovery, either of some specific article of property, or of damages,

to compensate for some injury sustained. An action or suit, is the whole course of legal proceedings, to obtain redress for a private wrong. The party who commences it, or sues, is called the plaintiff; the other, the defendant. An action of debt, is one for the recovery of a debt; an action of covenant, is for breach of a sealed contract; and one of assumpsit, is for breach of a contract not sealed; these being all termed actions of contract. Among actions of tort, are those of trespass, for violent or forcible injury to person or property; of trover, for the recovery of goods stolen or wrongfully taken; of detinue, or of replevin, for obtaining goods wrongfully withheld; and of ejectment, for recovering possession of real property. An action on the case, or of trespass on the case, is for any injury to the person, property, health, reputation, or comfort of the complaining party, inflicted without actual or constructive force.

The term process, includes all writs and orders, issued by courts to their executive officers, in the course of judicial proceedings. A summons, is a writ, commanding the sheriff or constable to summon the defendant; and a capias, requires him to take the defendant, and bring him into court. In some cases, the defendant is permitted to give bail, or security, in a certain sum of money, for his appearance. A writ of attachment, is one for the seizure of property. The declaration or count, is the plaintiff's statement of the cause of action; to which the defendant may either demur; maintaining that there is no sufficient cause of action, or that it is not brought in legal form; or he may plead in abatement, against the jurisdiction of the court, the identity of the parties, or the like; or finally, he may plead in bar, that is in traverse, denying the allegations of the plaintiff entirely. After this may come the evidence of witnesses; the arguments of counsel; the charge of the judge to the jury; the verdict of the jury; and the judgment of the court; enforced by a writ of execution, unless the cause be removed to a higher court.

CHAPTER V.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

POLITICAL Economy, is that branch of knowledge which investigates the nature, sources, and proper uses of national wealth. The name is from the Greek, nos, a state; and oixovoμia, housekeeping: this latter term being derived from the words ocxos, a house; and voμos, law. In many respects, Political Economy may be said to bear the same relation to a state, which Domestic Economy does to a single family: for, although professedly relating to the wealth of nations, it indirectly examines many points of comfort and well-being, which are connected with the acquisition, and expenditure of wealth. connection with legislation and government, and its subserviency thereto, will at once be perceived from its definition; while the merchant, and even the moralist may derive important lessons from a knowledge of its facts and principles.

Its

The first regular system of Political Economy, appears to have been that adopted by Colbert, under Louis XIV., and promulgated in the French Tariff of 1664. It has since been called the Mercantile System; as it maintained that the chief source of wealth is foreign trade; the value of which it supposed to be measured by the balance of trade, or excess of exports over imports: this balance being usually made up in specie. The doctrine thus promulgated has also been termed Colbertism; from the name of its author. This theory was followed by the Agricultural (or Physiocratic) System of Quesnay; who published, in 1758, his "Tableau Economique,' maintaining that the earth is the only source of wealth; and that all taxes should be levied on land, or its produce. Adam Smith, in his celebrated treatise on the "Wealth of Nations," published in 1776, maintained that all wealth consists of material products, deriving their value solely from the labor bestowed upon them; while mental labor and acquisition he overlooked, as unproductive. His system was introduced into France by J. B. Say; the first edition of whose work, printed in 1802, was suppressed by the order of Bonaparte. Say was the first writer who recognised the existence of mental wealth, consisting of acquired skill, or learning; but of this, his system made no practical application. That such wealth really constitutes capital, as much so as land or buildings, and like them, is productive of more wealth, was first proved and incorporated in this science, we believe, by our countryman, Prof. Vethake.

In 1817, Ricardo published his "Principles of Political Economy and Taxation," in which he differed from Adam Smith, in maintaining that a rise of wages occasions a fall of profits, and hence may take place without causing a rise in prices; as also, that prices of products do not depend upon rent; and that as population increases, profits decrease, because inferior land must then be cultivated. Rev. T. R. Malthus has written exclusively on Population; the increase of which he considers as limited by the means of subsistence, referring particularly to food. Prof. Vethake, in his recent, able treatise on this science, has shown, we think conclusively, that this increase is limited, not by the means of subsistence only, but by the means of support, or the amount of necessaries and luxuries actually possessed, in comparison with the amount desired. We proceed to treat of Political Economy under the heads of Production, Distribution, Exchanges, and Consumption, of Wealth.

§ 1. The Production of Wealth, is generally the result of labor; that is of effort or exertion, physical or mental, directed to this object. Wealth or property, is that which can be appropriated by an individual or society, and made to have an exchangeable value. Wealth always possesses utility, technically speaking; but there are objects which possess utility, without constituting wealth; as air and light. The term utility, it will be seen, is here applied to many things, which being in demand among men, have an exchangeable value; although they may, like ardent spirits, be really injurious to the best interests of society. This principle is distinctly recognised by the political economist; who terms such articles useful, only because they will command useful articles in exchange. By national