perſons. Here he has a tranſient property in theſe animals, uſually called game, ſo long as they continue within his liberty[1]; and may reſtrain any ſtranger from taking them therein: but the inſtant they depart into another liberty, this qualified property ceaſes. The manner, in which this privilege is acquired, will be ſhewn in a ſubſequent chapter.
The qualified property which we have hitherto conſidered, extends only to animals ferae naturae, when either reclaimed, impotent, or privileged. Many other things may alſo be the objects of qualified property. It may ſubſiſt in the very elements, of fire or light, of air, and of water. A man can have no abſolute permanent property in theſe, as he may in the earth or land; ſince theſe are of a vague and fugitive nature, and therefore can admit only of a precarious and qualified ownerſhip, which laſts ſo long as they are in actual uſe and occupation, but no longer. If a man diſturbs another, and deprives him of the lawful enjoyment of theſe; if one obſtructs another's antient windows[2], corrupts the air of his houſe or gardens[3], fouls his water[4], or unpens and lets it out, or if he diverts an antient watercourſe that uſed to run to the other's mill or meadow[5]; the law will animadvert hereon as an injury, and protect the party injured in his poſſeſſion. But the property in them ceaſes the inſtant they are out of poſſeſſion: for, when no man is engaged in their actual occupation, they become again common, and every man has an equal right to appropriate them to his own uſe.
These kinds of qualification in property depend upon the peculiar circumſtances of the ſubject matter, which is not capable of being under the abſolute dominion of any proprietor. But property may alſo be of a qualified or ſpecial nature, on account of the peculiar circumſtances of the owner, when the thing itſelf is very capable of abſolute ownerſhip. As in caſe of bail-
