Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (4th ed, 1770, vol IV).djvu/215

 Ch. 14. WRONGS. 203

per, and an ape, and fo cafl into the fea. Solon, it is true, in his laws, made none againfl parricide ; apprehending it impof- fible that any one Ihould be guilty of fo unnatural a barbarity p. And the Perlians, according to Herodotus, entertained the fame notion, when they adjudged all perfons who killed their repu- ted parents to be baflards. And, upon fome fuch reafon as this, mufl we account for the omiffion-of an exemplary punifhment for this crime in our Englifh laws ; which treat it no otherwife than as fimple murder, unlefs the child was alfo the fervant of his parent 11. FOR, though the breach of natural relation is unobferved, yet the breach of civil or ecclefiaflical connexions, when coupled with murder, denominates it a new offence ; no lefs than a fpecies of treafon, called parva proditio, or petit treafon : which however is nothing elfe but an aggravated degree of murder r ; although, on account of the violation of private allegiance, it is fligmatized as an inferior fpecies of treafon *. And thus, in the antient Gothic constitution, we find the breach both of natural and civil relations ranked in the fame clafs with crimes againfl the flate and the fovereign c. PETIT treafon, according to the flatute 25 Edw. III. c. 2. may happen three ways : by a fervant killing his mafler, a wife her huiband, or an ecclefiaftical perfon (either fecular, or regular) his fuperior, to whom he owes faith and obedience. A fervant who kills his mafler whom he has left, upon a grudge conceived againfl him during his fervice, is guilty of petit treafon : for the traiterous intention was hatched while the relation fubfifled be- tween them ; and this is only an execution of that intention *. So if a wife be divorced a mcnfa et thoro, flill the vinculum ma-

o Ff. 48. 9. 9. " ab ir.colis in patriam, fubditls in P Cic. pro S. Rofeit. . 25. " hberii in furcntes, maritis in ux-orei, (et ' i Hal. P. C. 380. "vice verja) fervis in dcminos, out etiat* ' Fofter. 107. 324. 336. " ab bomim in femet ipfum." Stiernh. de jurt Seepag. 75. Goth. I. 3. c. 3.
 * " Omnium gravijjlma (tnfttur vis fafia i Hawk. P. C. 89. I Hal. P. C. 380

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