Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/155

Ch. 1. cutoms, but by the judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. And by a variety of antient tatutes it is enacted, that no man’s lands or goods hall be eied into the king’s hands, againt the great charter, and the law of the land; and that no man hall be diinherited, nor put out of his franchies or freehold, unles he be duly brought to anwer, and be forejudged by coure of law; and if any thing be done to the contrary, it hall be redreed, and holden for none.

great moreover is the regard of the law for private property, that it will not authorize the leat violation of it; no, not even for the general good of the whole community. If a new road, for intance, were to be made through the grounds of a private peron, it might perhaps be extenively beneficial to the public; but the law permits no man, or et of men, to do this without conent of the owner of the land. In vain may it be urged, that the good of the individual ought to yield to that of the community; for it would be dangerous to allow any private man, or even any public tribunal, to be the judge of this common good, and to decide whether it be expedient or no. Beides, the public good is in nothing more eentially intereted, than in the protection of every individual’s private rights, as modelled by the municipal law. In this and imilar caes the legilature alone can, and indeed frequently does, interpoe, and compel the individual to acquiece. But how does it interpoe and compel? Not by abolutely tripping the ubject of his property in an arbitrary manner; but by giving him a full indemnification and equivalent for the injury thereby utained. The public is now conidered as an individual, treating with an individual for an exchange. All that the legilature does is to oblige the owner to alienate his poeions for a reaonable price; and even this is an exertion of power, which the legilature indulges with caution, and which nothing but the legilature can perform. Rh