Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/145

Ch. 1. much for the declaration of our rights and liberties. The rights themelves, thus defined by thee everal tatutes, conit in a number of private immunities; which will appear, from what has been premied, to be indeed no other, than either that  of natural liberty, which is not required by the laws of ociety to be acrificed to public convenience; or ele thoe civil privileges, which ociety hath engaged to provide, in lieu of the natural liberties o given up by individuals. Thee therefore were formerly, either by inheritance or purchae, the rights of all mankind; but, in mot other countries of the world being now more or les debaed and detroyed, they at preent may be aid to remain, in a peculiar and emphatical manner, the rights of the people of England. And thee may be reduced to three principal or primary articles; the right of peronal ecurity, the right of peronal liberty, and the right of private property: becaue as there is no other known method of compulion, or of abridging man’s natural free will, but by an infringement or diminution of one or other of thee important rights, the preervation of thee, inviolate, may jutly be aid to include the preervation of our civil immunities in their larget and mot extenive ene.

I.&ensp; right of peronal ecurity conits in a peron’s legal and uninterrupted enjoyment of his life, his limbs, his body, his health, and his reputation.

1.&ensp; is the immediate gift of God, a right inherent by nature in every individual; and it begins in contemplation of law as oon as an infant is able to tir in the mother’s womb. For if a woman is quick with child, and by a potion, or otherwie, killeth it in her womb; or if any one beat her, whereby the child dieth in her body, and he is delivered of a dead child; this, though not murder, was by the antient law homicide or manlaughter. But ir Edward Coke doth not look upon this Rh