were formerly heir-looms; but in the year 1747, it was enacted that a man's firelock should be the only one so taken.

*

The goods which are taken in distress or execution, must remain one month as a pawn, redeemable by the tenant or defendant, on payment of the rent, or of money recovered in an action at law. If not redeemed, they are to be sold by public auction. Should goods be fraudulently removed, the landlord may, within a fortnight of his rent's becoming due, seize them wherever they are to be found; and no sale, assignment, or other agreement, can set aside the landlord's just claim, in the first instance, to one year's rent. Whatever relates to a distress, or execution, is the business of the Coroner; and he is entitled to one shilling in the pound for his trouble, chargeable on the tenant or defendant.

If the sentence of a court of law is not in due time attended to, or an appeal made, execution against the defendant's goods is granted as a matter of course.

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CHAPTER V.

On private Wrongs, and their Redress.

THE distinction between private and public wrongs is thus defined by Blackstone: private wrongs, or civil injuries are an infringement or privation of the civil rights which belong to individuals, considered merely as individuals: public wrongs are a breach and violation of the public rights or duties due to the whole com munity in its social, aggregate capacity. The difference between them, though founded, perhaps, upon the law of nature, is generally the consequence of positive law. Wrongs, the redress of which is intended as a compensation to the individual injured, I term, private: and those for which the criminal is more severely punished, chiefly as an example to others, and with little or no benefit to the injured man, I term, public.

Any person cutting his neighbour's grass or corn, breaking fences, or putting cattle into his fields at night for pasture, might formerly be fined and punished at the discretion of the

Governor or Deemster. The party aggrieved might also recover damages at the court of common law; and the evidence taken before the Governor or Deemster was to be sufficient for the jury. But this method was abolished in 1665 a complaint of trespass is to be made to the Coroner or other proper officer, who must, without delay, nominate, charge, and swear four honest neighbours, to view the trespass and estimate the damage. Upon their verdict being given, which is to be four times the actual damage, the defendant is to pay the amount to the plaintiff. If he refuses payment, the Deemster, on application made to him, will immediately issue an order to the Coroner, to take a sufficient quantity of his goods in execution,

The trespass jury is, properly speaking, composed of four arbitrators, who, if they cannot agree, sometimes choose a fifth person, or umpire, and herein they differ from other Manks juries, who are obliged to give an unanimous verdict.

Dogs worrying sheep or lambs, the fact being proved before the Deemster, are to be hanged; and the owner is to pay certain damages to the injured party.

If the boundary or fence between two estates be in a ruinous or insufficient condition, both parties must contribute equally to its repair. If either refuse, the Deemster, on application made to him, will appoint a jury of four judicious men of the sheading to examine the boundary, and to report an estimate of the expense of such repair as would keep the fence in a proper state for the term of ten years. The moiety of such estimate having been awarded by the Deemster against the defendant, the plaintiff is obliged, with all convenient speed, to erect a stone wall, at least two feet four inches broad at the foundation, sixteen inches broad at top, and five feet high, covered with copeing or projecting stones.

Persons, having been found guilty of slander in the temporal or spiritual courts, are subject also to actions for damages at the court of common law.*

Nuisances, encroachments, filth, or rubbish, in any town, are to be removed by the offender, by order of its respective High-bailiff. If the party neglects to do so, he is to be fined ten shillings for every offence; and if the High-bailiff neglects to present him before the Governor or Statute-book, 1736.

Deemster, himself may be presented by any one, and be fined in the same sum, one half to the informer; the other half, in this case, and the whole penalty in the former case, being appropriated to the improvement of the marketplace.* Pigs going at large in the streets subject the owner to a penalty of an English shilling each.

A woman, convicted of adultery in the ecclesiastial court, loses her wife's or widow's right, and is entitled to only such alimony or property, as the court thinks proper to allow. Neither of the parties is liable to any other punishment, except church censures.

A person may recover damages for false imprisonment, vexatious or frivolous arrests. The action was formerly brought in the court of chancery: the amount of damages was referred to a jury; but the Chancellor might mitigate it if he thought it extravagant. An act of 1777 takes the matter out of the Chancellor's jurisdiction, and directs such suits to be brought before the court of common law, and finally determined by a jury. Damages for vexatious or frivolous arrests, made by the authority of the Water

* Statutes, 1776 and 1777.