Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (4th ed, 1770, vol IV).djvu/207

 Ch. 14. WRONGS. 195

" -vidci'ite, nullo fctentc, dam perpetratur u :" for which the vill wherein it was committed, or (if that were too poor) the whole hundred, was liable to a heavy amercement; which amercement itlelf was alfo denominated murdnim. This was an antient ufage among the Goths in Sweden and Denmark j who fuppofed the neighbourhood, unleis they produced the murderer, to have per- petrated or at leaft connived at the murder x : and, according to Braclon y, was introduced into this kingdom by king Canute, to prevent his countrymen the Danes from being privily murdered by the Englim ; and was afterwards continued by William the conqueror, for the like fecurity to his own Normans z. And therefore if, upon inquifition had, it appeared that the perfon found flain was an Englishman, (the prefentment whereof was denominated englefcherie 3 } the country feems to have been ex- cufed from this burthen. But, this difference being totally abolished by flatute 14 Edw. III. c. 4. we muft now (as is ob- ferved by Staundforde b ) define murder in quite another manner, without regarding whether the party flain was killed openly or fecretly, or whether he was of Englifli or foreign extraction.

MURDER is therefore now thus denned, or rather defcribed, by fir Edward Coke c j " when a perfon, of found memory and " difcretion, unlawfully killeth any reafonable creature in being " and under the king's peace, with malice aforethought, either " exprefs or implied." The beft way of examining the nature of this crime will be by confidering the feveral branches of this definition.

FIRST, it muft be committed by a perfon of found memory and difcretion: for a lunatic or infant, as was formerly obferved, are incapable of committing any crime j unlefs in fuch cafes where

" Glanv. /. 14.,. 3. ' i Hal. P. C. 44-. w Braft./. 3-/r. 2.c. 15. .7. Stat.Marlbr. Brift. ubifvpr. i. 26. Foft. 2^1. k P. C./. l.C. 10. x Stiernh. /. 3. c. 4, =3 Inft. 47. v l.i.tr. 2.t. ,;.

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