Ch. 14. WRONGS. 203
per, and an ape, and fo cafl into the fea . Solon, it is true, in his laws, made none againfl parricide ; apprehending it impof- fible that any one Ihould be guilty of fo unnatural a barbarity p . And the Perlians, according to Herodotus, entertained the fame notion, when they adjudged all perfons who killed their repu- ted parents to be baflards. And, upon fome fuch reafon as this, mufl we account for the omiffion-of an exemplary punifhment for this crime in our Englifh laws ; which treat it no otherwife than as fimple murder, unlefs the child was alfo the fervant of his parent 11 . FOR, though the breach of natural relation is unobferved, yet the breach of civil or ecclefiaflical connexions, when coupled with murder, denominates it a new offence ; no lefs than a fpecies of treafon, called parva proditio, or petit treafon : which however is nothing elfe but an aggravated degree of murder r ; although, on account of the violation of private allegiance, it is fligmatized as an inferior fpecies of treafon *. And thus, in the antient Gothic constitution, we find the breach both of natural and civil relations ranked in the fame clafs with crimes againfl the flate and the fovereign c . PETIT treafon, according to the flatute 25 Edw. III. c. 2. may happen three ways : by a fervant killing his mafler, a wife her huiband, or an ecclefiaftical perfon (either fecular, or regular) his fuperior, to whom he owes faith and obedience. A fervant who kills his mafler whom he has left, upon a grudge conceived againfl him during his fervice, is guilty of petit treafon : for the traiterous intention was hatched while the relation fubfifled be- tween them ; and this is only an execution of that intention *. So if a wife be divorced a mcnfa et thoro, flill the vinculum ma-
o Ff. 48. 9. 9. " ab ir.colis in patriam, fubditls in P Cic. pro S. Rofeit. . 25. " hberii in furcntes, maritis in ux-orei, (et ' i Hal. P. C. 380. "vice verja) fervis in dcminos, out etiat* ' Fofter. 107. 324. 336. " ab bomim in femet ipfum." Stiernh. de jurt Seepag. 75. Goth. I. 3. c. 3.
- " Omnium gravijjlma (tnfttur vis fafia i Hawk. P. C. 89. I Hal. P. C. 380
B b 2 trimomi
