agreeable to his own convenience, provided he found them unoccupied by any one elſe.
Property, both in lands and moveables, being thus originally acquired by the firſt taker, which taking amounts to a declaration that he intends to appropriate the thing to his own uſe, it remains in him, by the principles of univerſal law, till ſuch time as he does ſome other act which ſhews an intention to abandon it: for then it becomes, naturally ſpeaking, publici juris once more, and is liable again to be appropriated by the next occupant. So if one is poſſeſſed of a jewel, and caſts it into the ſea or a public highway, this is ſuch an expreſs dereliction, that a property will be veſted in the firſt fortunate finder that will ſeiſe it to his own uſe. But if he hides it privately in the earth, or other ſecret place, and it is diſcovered, the finder acquires no property therein; for the owner hath not by this act declared any intention to abandon it, but rather the contrary: and if he loſes or drops it by accident, it cannot be collected from thence, that he deſigned to quit the poſſeſſion; and therefore in ſuch caſe the property ſtill remains in the loſer, who may claim it again of the finder. And this, we may remember, is the doctrine of the law of England, with relation to treaſure trove[1].
But this method, of one man's abandoning his property, and another's ſeiſing the vacant poſſeſſion, however well founded in theory, could not long ſubſiſt in fact. It was calculated merely for the rudiments of civil ſociety, and neceſſarily ceaſed among the complicated intereſts and artificial refinements of polite and eſtabliſhed governments. In theſe it was found, that what became inconvenient or uſeleſs to one man was highly convenient and uſeful to another; who was ready to give in exchange for it ſome equivalent, that was equally deſirable to the former proprietor. Thus mutual convenience introduced commercial traffic, and the reciprocal transfer of property by ſale, grant, or conveyance: which may be conſidered either as a con-
- ↑ See book I. pag. 285.
