such temporary possession; we are seldom
made responsible for inevitable accident, but the consequences of a
voluntary fault must always be imputed to the author. [168] A Roman
pursued and recovered his stolen goods by a civil action of theft; they
might pass through a succession of pure and innocent hands, but nothing
less than a prescription of thirty years could extinguish his original
claim. They were restored by the sentence of the praetor, and the injury
was compensated by double, or threefold, or even quadruple damages, as
the deed had been perpetrated by secret fraud or open rapine, as the
robber had been surprised in the fact, or detected by a subsequent
research. The Aquilian law [169] defended the living property of a
citizen, his slaves and cattle, from the stroke of malice or negligence:
the highest price was allowed that could be ascribed to the domestic
animal at any moment of the year preceding his death; a similar latitude
of thirty days was granted on the destruction of any other valuable
effects. A personal injury is blunted or sharpened by the manners of the
times and the sensibility of the individual: the pain or the disgrace of
a word or blow cannot easily be appreciated by a pecuniary equivalent.
The rude jurisprudence of the decemvirs had confounded all hasty
insults, which did not amount to the fracture of a limb, by condemning
the aggressor to the common penalty of twenty-five asses. But the same
denomination of money was reduced, in three centuries, from a pound
to the weight of half an ounce: and the insolence of a wealthy Roman
indulged himself in the cheap amusement of breaking and satisfying the
law of the twelve tables. Veratius ran through the streets striking
on the face the inoffensive passengers, and his attendant purse-bearer
immediately silenced their clamors by the legal tender of twenty-five
pieces of copper, about the value of one shilling. [170] The equity
of the praetors examined and estimated the distinct merits of each
particular complaint. In the adjudication of civil damages, the
magistrate assumed a right to consider the various circumstances of
time and place, of age and dignity, which may aggravate the shame and
sufferings of the injured person; but if he admitted the idea of a fine,
a punishment, an example, he invaded the province, though, perhaps, he
supplied the defects, of the criminal law. [Footnote 168: Sir William
Jones has given an ingenious and rational Essay on