d are called crimes and misdemesnors.

THE objects of the laws of England falling into this fourfold
division, the present commentaries will therefore consist of the four
following parts: 1. _The rights of persons_; with the means whereby
such rights may be either acquired or lost. 2. _The rights of things_;
with the means also of acquiring and losing them. 3. _Private wrongs_,
or civil injuries; with the means of redressing them by law. 4.
_Public wrongs_, or crimes and misdemesnors; with the means of
prevention and punishment.

WE are now, first, to consider _the rights of persons_; with the means
of acquiring and losing them.

NOW the rights of persons that are commanded to be observed by the
municipal law are of two sorts; first, such as are due _from_ every
citizen, which are usually called civil _duties_; and, secondly, such
as belong _to_ him, which is the more popular acceptation of _rights_
or _jura_. Both may indeed be comprized in this latter division; for,
as all social duties are of a relative nature, at the same time that
they are due _from_ one man, or set of men, they must also be due _to_
another. But I apprehend it will be more clear and easy, to consider
many of them as duties required from, rather than as rights belonging
to, particular persons. Thus, for instance, allegiance is usually, and
therefore most easily, considered as the duty of the people, and
protection as the duty of the magistrate; and yet they are,
reciprocally, the rights as well as duties of each other. Allegiance
is the right of the magistrate, and protection the right of the
people.

PERSONS also are divided by the law into either natural persons, or
artificial. Natural persons are such as the God of nature formed us:
artificial are such as created and devised by human laws for the
purposes of society and government; which are called corporations or
bodies politic.

THE rights of persons considered in their natural capacities are also
of two sorts, absolute, and relative. Absolute, which are such as
appertain and belong to particular men, merely as individuals or
single persons: relative, which are incident to them as members of
society, and standing in various relations to each other. The first,
that is, absolute rights, will be the subject of the present chapter.

BY the absolute _rights_ of individuals we mean those which are so in
their primary and strictest sense; such as would belong to their
persons merely in a stat