office, will by bribery, extortion, or other unlawful means, make his purchaſe good, to the manifeſt detriment of the public.
VI. Dignities bear a near relation to offices. Of the nature of theſe we treated at large in the former book[1]: it will therefore be here ſufficient to mention them as a ſpecies of incorporeal hereditaments, wherein a man may have a property or eſtate.
VII. Franchises are a ſeventh ſpecies. Franchiſe and liberty are uſed as ſynonymous terms: and their definition is[2], a royal privilege, or branch of the king's prerogative, ſubſiſting in the hands of a ſubject. Being therefore derived from the crown, they muſt ariſe from the king's grant; or, in ſome caſes, may be held by preſcription, which, as has been frequently ſaid, preſuppoſes a grant. The kinds of them are various, and almoſt infinite: I will here briefly touch upon ſome of the principal; premiſing only, that they may be veſted in either natural perſons or bodies politic; in one man, or in many: but the ſame identical franchiſe, that has before been granted to one, cannot be beſtowed on another; for that would prejudice the former grant[3].
To be a county palatine is a franchiſe, veſted in a number of perſons. It is likewiſe a franchiſe for a number of perſons to be incorporated, and ſubſiſt as a body politic, with a power to maintain perpetual ſucceſſion and do other corporate acts: and each individual member of ſuch corporation is alſo ſaid to have a franchiſe or freedom. Other franchiſes are, to hold a court leet: to have a manor or lordſhip; or, at leaſt, to have a lordſhip paramount: to have waifs, wrecks, eſtrays, treaſure-trove, royal-fiſh, forfeitures, and deodands: to have a court of one's own, or liberty of holding pleas, and trying cauſes: to have the cognizance of pleas; which is a ſtill greater liberty, being an excluſive right, ſo that no other court ſhall try cauſes ariſing within that juriſdiction: to have a bailiwick, or liberty exempt from the ſheriff of the county, wherein the grantee only, and his officers, are to
