Chapter the eighteenth.
Of TITLE by FORFEITURE.
FORFEITURE is a puniſhment annexed by law to ſome illegal act, or negligence, in the owner of lands, tenements, or hereditaments; whereby he loſes all his intereſt therein, and they go to the party injured, as a recompenſe for the wrong which either he alone, or the public together with himſelf, hath ſuſtained.
Lands, tenements, and hereditaments, may be forfeited in various degrees and by various means: 1. By crimes and miſdemeſnors. 2. By alienation contrary to law. 3. By non-preſentation to a benefice, when the forfeiture is denominated a lapſe. 4. By ſimony. 5. By non-performance of conditions. 6. By waſte. 7. By breach of copyhold cuſtoms. 8. By bankruptcy.
I. The foundation and juſtice of forfeitures for crimes and miſdemeſnors, and the ſeveral degrees of thoſe forfeitures, proportioned to the ſeveral offences, have been hinted at in the preceding volume[1]; but will be more properly conſidered, and more at large, in the fourth book of theſe commentaries. At preſent I ſhall only obſerve in general, that the offences which induce a forfeiture of lands and tenements to the crown are principally the following ſix; 1. Treaſon. 2. Felony. 3. Miſpriſion of
- ↑ Vol. I. pag. 289.
