Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/147

Ch. 1. The contraint a man is under in thee circumtances is called in law dures, from the Latin , of which there are two orts; dures of imprionment, where a man actually loes his liberty, of which we hall preently peak; and dures , where the hardhip is only threatened and impending, which is that we are now dicouring of. Dures  is either for fear of los of life, or ele for fear of mayhem, or los of limb. And this fear mut be upon ufficient reaon; “',” as Bracton exprees it, “' .” A fear of battery, or being beaten, though never o well grounded, is no dures; neither is the fear of having one’s houe burned, or one’s goods taken away and detroyed; becaue in thee caes, hould the threat be performed, a man may have atisfaction by recovering equivalent damages : but no uitable atonement can be made for the los of life, or limb. And the indulgence hewn to a man under this, the principal, ort of dures, the fear of loing his life or limbs, agrees alo with that maxim of the civil law; . law not only regards life and member, and protects every man in the enjoyment of them, but alo furnihes him with every thing neceary for their upport. For there is no man o indigent or wretched, but he may demand a upply ufficient for all the neceities of life from the more opulent part of the community, by means of the everal tatutes enacted for the relief of the poor, of which in their proper places. A humane proviion; yet, though dictated by the principles of ociety, dicountenanced by the Roman laws. For the edicts of the emperor Contantine commanding the public to maintain the children of thoe who were unable to provide for them, in order to prevent the murder and expoure of infants, an intitution founded on the ame principle as our Rh