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the person delivering, or him to whom it is delivered. But it is a qualified property in them both; and each of them is entitled to an action, in case the goods be damaged or taken away. So also in case of goods pledged or pawned, upon condition, either to repay money or otherwise; both the pledgor and pledgee have a qualified, but neither of them an absolute, property in them. But a servant, who hath the care of his master's goods or chattels, as a butler of plate, a shepherd of sheep, and the like, hath not any property or possession either absolute or qualified, but only a mere charge or oversight.

We have thus considered the several divisions of property in possession, which subsists there only, where a man hath both the right and also the occupation of the thing; but there is also property in action, or such where a man hath not the occupation, but merely a bare right to occupy the thing in question; the possession whereof may however be recovered by a suit or action at law: from whence the thing so recoverable is called a thing, or chose in action. Thus money due on a bond is a chose in action; for a property in the debt vests at the time of forfeiture mentioned in the obligation, but there is 'no possession till recovered by course of law. All property in action depends entirely upon contracts, either express or implied; which are the only regular means of acquiring a chose in action, and of the nature of which we shall discourse more at large in a subsequent chapter.

And, having thus distinguished the different

degree or quantity of dominion or property to which things personal are subject, we may add a word or two concerning the time of their enjoyment, and the number of their owners.

First, as to the time of enjoyment. By the rules of the ancient common law, there could be no future property, to take place in expectancy, created in personal goods and chattels; but now that distinction is disregarded: and therefore if a man, either by deed or will, limits his books or furniture to A for life, with remainder over to B, this remainder is good. But, where an estate-tail in things personal is given to the first or any subsequent possessor, it vests in him the total property, and no remainder over shall be permitted on such a limitation. For this, if allowed, would tend to a perpetuity, as the devisee or grantee in tail of a chattel has no method of barring the entail.

Next, as to the number of owners. Things personal may belong to the owners, not only in severalty, but also in joint-tenancy, and in common, as well as real estates. They cannot indeed be vested in coparcenary; because they do not descend from the ancestor to the heir, which is necessary to constitute coparceners. But if a horse, or other personal chattel, be given to two or more, absolutely, they are joint-tenants thereof: and, unless the jointure be severed, the same doctrine of survivorship shall take place as in estates of lands and tenements. But, for the encouragement of husbandry and trade, it is held that a stock on a farm,

though occupied jointly, and also a stock used in a joint-undertaking, by way of partnership in trade, shall always be considered as common and not as joint property; and there shall be no survivorship therein.

CHAPTER XXVI.

OF TITLE TO THINGS PERSONAL, BY OCCUPANCY.

WE are next to consider the title to things personal, or the various means of acquiring, and of losing, such property as may be had therein. And these methods of acquisition or loss are principally twelve: 1. By occupancy. 2. By prerogative. 3. By forfeiture. 4. By custom. 5. By succession. 6. By marriage. 7. By judgment. 8. By gift or grant. 9. By contract. 10. By bankruptcy. 11. By testament. 12. By administration.

And, first, a property in goods and chattels may be acquired by occupancy.

Thus, whatever moveables are found upon the surface of the earth, or in the sea, and are unclaimed by any owner, are supposed to be abandoned by the last proprietor; and therefore belong, as in a state of nature, to the first occupant or fortunate finder, unless they fall within the description of waifs, or estrays, or wreck, or hidden treasure; for these, we have formerly seen, are vested by law in the king.

Thus too the benefit of the elements, the light,

the air, and the water, can only be appropriated by occupancy. If I have an ancient window overlooking my neighbour's ground, he may not erect any blind to obstruct the light: if my neighbour makes a tan-yard, so as to annoy and render less salubrious the air of my house or gardens, the law will furnish me with a remedy. If a stream be unoccupied, I may erect a mill thereon, and detain the water; yet not so as to injure my neighbour's prior mill, or his meadow: for he hath by the first occupancy acquired a property in the current.

There is still another species of property, which being grounded on labour and invention, is more reducible to the head of occupancy than any other. And this is the right, which an author may be supposed to have in his own original literary compositions: so that no other person without his leave may publish or make profit of the copies. And the statute 8 Ann. c. 19. (amended by statute 15 Geo. III. c. 53.) hath declared that the author and his assigns shall have the sole liberty of printing and reprinting his works for the term of fourteen years, and no longer; and hath also protected that property by additional penalties and forfeitures; directing farther, that if, at the end of that term, the author himself be living, the right shall then return to him for another term of the same duration and a similar privilege is extended to the inventors of prints and engravings, for the term of eight and twenty years, by the statutes, 8 Geo. II. c. 13. and 7 Geo. III. c. 38. besides an action for damages, with double costs, by statute

17 Geo. III. c. 57. All which parliamentary protections appear to have been suggested by the exception in the statute of monopolies, 21 Jac. c. 3. which allows a royal patent of privilege to be granted for fourteen years to any inventor of a new manufacture, for the sole working or making of the same; by virtue whereof it is held, that a temporary property therein becomes vested in the king's patentee.

CHAPTER XXVII.

OF TITLE BY PREROGATIVE AND FORFEITURE.

A SECOND method of acquiring property in personal chattels is by the king's prerogative: whereby a right may accrue either to the crown itself, or to such as claim under the title of the crown, as by the king's grant, or by prescription, which supposes an ancient grant.

Such, in the first place, are all tributes, taxes, and customs; whether constitutionally inherent in the crown, and branches of the census regalis or ancient royal revenue, or whether they be occasionally created by authority of parliament.

There is also a kind of prerogative copyright subsisting in certain books; which is held to be vested in the crown upon different reasons. Thus, 1. The king, as the executive magistrate, has the right of promulging to the people all acts of state and government. This gives him the exclusive

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