fences is similar. The parental and filial relations, so far
as they are affected by institutions, comprise those both of master and
servant, and of guardian and ward; so that the offences are
correspondent.
The relation of husband and wife also comprises those of master and
guardian to servant and ward. But there are further certain reciprocal
services which are the subject of the marital contract, by which
polygamy and adultery are constituted offences in Christian countries,
and also the refusal of conjugal rights.
From domestic conditions we pass to civil. Eliminating all those which
can be brought under the categories of trusts and domestic conditions,
there remain conditions, constituted by beneficial powers over things,
beneficial rights to things, rights to services, and by corresponding
duties; and between these and property there is no clear line of
demarcation, yet we can hit upon some such conditions as separable. Such
are rank and profession which entail specific obligations and
rights--these are not property but conditions; as distinguished from
other exclusive rights bestowed by the law, concerned with saleable
articles (_e.g._, copyright), which convey not conditions, but property.
So, naturalisation conveys the conditions of a natural born subject.
Public offences are to be catalogued in a manner similar to private
offences.
My object has been to combine intelligibility with precision; technical
terms lack the former quality, popular terms the latter. Hence the plan
of the foregoing analysis has been to take the logical whole constituted
by the sum of possible offences, dissect it in as many directions as
were necessary, and carry the process down to the point where each idea
could be expressed in current phraseology. Thus it becomes equally
applicable to the legal concerns of all countries or systems.
The advantages of this method are: it is convenient for the memory,
gives room for general propositions, points out the reason of the law,
and is applicable to the laws of all nations. Hence we are able to
characterise the five classes of offences. Thus, of private offences, we
note that they are primarily against assignable individuals, admit of
compensation and retaliation, and so on; of semi-public offences, that
they are not against assignable individuals, and, with self-regarding
offences, admit of neither compensation nor retaliation; to which a
series of generalisations respecting each cl
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