Chapter the twenty fourth.
Of Things Personal.
Under the name of things
perſonal are included all
ſorts of things
moveable, which may attend a man's per
ſon wherever he goes; and therefore, being only the objects of the law while they remain within the limits of it's juri
ſdiction, and being al
ſo of a peri
ſhable quality, are not e
ſteemed of
ſo high a nature, nor paid
ſo much regard to by the law, as things that are in their nature more permanent and
immoveable, as lands, and hou
ſes, and the profits i
ſſuing thereout. The
ſe being con
ſtantly within the reach, and under the protection of the law, were the principal favourites of our fir
ſt legi
ſlators: who took all imaginable care in a
ſcertaining the rights, and directing the di
ſpo
ſition, of
ſuch property as they imagined to be la
ſting, and which would an
ſwer to po
ſterity the trouble and pains that their ance
ſtors employed about them; but at the
ſame time entertained a very low and contemptuous opinion of all per
ſonal e
ſtate, which they regarded only as a tran
ſient commodity. The amount of it indeed was, comparatively, very trifling, during the
ſcarcity of money and the ignorance of luxurious refinements, which prevailed in the feodal ages. Hence it was, that a tax of the
fifteenth,
tenth, or
ſometimes a much larger proportion, of all the moveables of the
ſubject, was frequently laid without
ſcruple, and is mentioned with much unconcern by our antient hi
ſtorians, though now it would ju
ſtly alarm our opulent merchants and
ſtockholders. And hence likewi
ſe may be derived the frequent forfeitures inflicted
by
