Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/307

 Ch. 8. was undoubtedly adding orrow to orrow, and was cononant neither to reaon nor humanity. Wherefore it was firt ordained by king Henry I, that if any peron ecaped alive out of the hip it hould be no wreck ; and afterwards king Henry II, by his charter, declared, that if on the coats of either England, Poictou, Oleron, or Gacony, any hip hould be ditreed, and either man or beat hould ecape or be found therein alive, the goods hould remain to the owners, if they claimed them within three months; but otherwie hould be eteemed a wreck, and hould belong to the king, or other lord of the franchie. This was again confirmed with improvements by king Richard the firt; who, in the econd year of his reign, not only etablihed thee conceions, by ordaining that the owner, if he was hipwrecked and ecaped, "omnes res uas liberas et quietas haberet," but alo, that, if he perihed, his children, or in default of them his brethren and iters, hould retain the property; and, in default of brother or iter, then the goods hould remain to the king. And the law, o long after as the reign of Henry III, eems till to have been guided by the ame equitable proviions. For then if a dog (for intance) ecaped, by which the owner might be dicovered, or if any certain mark were et on the goods, by which they might be known again, it was held to be no wreck. And this is certainly mot agreeable to reaon; the rational claim of the king being only founded upon this, that the true owner cannot be acertained. But afterwards, in the tatute of Wetminter the firt, the law is laid down more agreeable to the charter of king Henry the econd: and upon that tatute hath tood the legal doctrine of wrecks to the preent time. It enacts, that if any live thing ecape (a man, a cat, or a dog; which, as in Bracton, are only put for examples ,) in this cae, and, as it eems, in this cae Rh