was undoubtedly adding ſorrow to ſorrow, and was conſonant neither to reaſon nor humanity. Wherefore it was firſt ordained by king Henry I, that if any perſon eſcaped alive out of the ſhip it ſhould be no wreck[1]; and afterwards king Henry II, by his charter[2], declared, that if on the coaſts of either England, Poictou, Oleron, or Gaſcony, any ſhip ſhould be diſtreſſed, and either man or beaſt ſhould eſcape or be found therein alive, the goods ſhould remain to the owners, if they claimed them within three months; but otherwiſe ſhould be eſteemed a wreck, and ſhould belong to the king, or other lord of the franchiſe. This was again confirmed with improvements by king Richard the firſt; who, in the ſecond year of his reign[3], not only eſtabliſhed theſe conceſſions, by ordaining that the owner, if he was ſhipwrecked and eſcaped, "omnes res ſuas liberas et quietas haberet," but alſo, that, if he periſhed, his children, or in default of them his brethren and ſiſters, ſhould retain the property; and, in default of brother or ſiſter, then the goods ſhould remain to the king[4]. And the law, ſo long after as the reign of Henry III, ſeems ſtill to have been guided by the ſame equitable proviſions. For then if a dog (for inſtance) eſcaped, by which the owner might be diſcovered, or if any certain mark were ſet on the goods, by which they might be known again, it was held to be no wreck[5]. And this is certainly moſt agreeable to reaſon; the rational claim of the king being only founded upon this, that the true owner cannot be aſcertained. But afterwards, in the ſtatute of Weſtminſter the firſt[6], the law is laid down more agreeable to the charter of king Henry the ſecond: and upon that ſtatute hath ſtood the legal doctrine of wrecks to the preſent time. It enacts, that if any live thing eſcape (a man, a cat, or a dog; which, as in Bracton, are only put for examples[7],) in this caſe, and, as it ſeems, in this caſe
- ↑ Spelm. Cod. apud Wilkins. 305.
- ↑ 26 May, A. D. 1174. 1 Rym. Foed. 36.
- ↑ Rog. Hoved. in Ric. I.
- ↑ In like manner Conſtantine the great, finding that by the imperial law the revenue of wrecks was given to the prince's treaſury or fiſcus, reſtrained it by an edict (Cod. 11. 5. 1.) and ordered them to remain to the owners; adding this humane expoſtulation, "Quod enim jus habet fiſcus in aliena calamitate, ut de re tam luctuoſa compendium ſectetur?"
- ↑ Bract. l. 3. c. 3.
- ↑ 3 Edw. I. c. 4.
- ↑ Flet. l. 1. c. 44. 2 Inſt. 167.
