Sec. 249. THE THREE PRIMARY CLASSES OF ABSOLUTE RIGHTS.-The absolute rights of individuals, in those countries where liberty has had its fullest growth, are arranged in three principal or primary articles: 1. The right of personal security; 2.

Blackstone, the social forces and the teachings that have been the immediate cause of advancing human rights and liberties. During the period when Magna Charta was being forged into a chain for the restraint of tyranny, the "mad priest of Kent," thus harangued the slave-like peasants:

"Good people, things will never go well in England so long as goods be not in common, and so long as there be villains (vassals) and gentlemen. By what right are they, whom we call lords, greater folk than we? On what grounds have they deserved it? Why do they hold us in serfage? If we all came of the same father and mother, of Adam and Eve, how can they say or prove that they are better than we, if it be not that they make us gain for them, by our toil, what they spend in their pride? They are clothed in their velvet and warm in their furs and ermines, while we are covered with rags. They have wine and spices and fair bread, and we eat oat-cake and straw and water to drink. They have leisure and fine houses. We have pain and labor, the rain and the wind in the fields. And yet it is of us and our toil that these men hold their state." Quoted from Lancaster's Hist. of Eng., p. 86.

From these questions and this reasoning sprang the charters of liberties and tenets of equality; from such arguments came the spirit of unrest which lightened the Mid-Ages and burst forth in the glad sunshine of Declarations of Independence and Equality, and inspired the revolts which overthrew the monopoly of government. "By what right are they, whom we call lords, greater folk than we? On what ground have they deserved it? Why do they hold us in serfage?" Ah, these are the questions that sometimes occur to the "man with the hoe." And woe betide

The right of personal liberty; 3. The right of private

property.

The rights included in these divisions have been developed by the various charters, constitutions and statutes enacted by the people, and consist, as Blackstone observes, in a number of private immunities, either a residuum of natural liberty, not sacrificed by the laws the lordlings that do not relax their power when these queries have unified the workers!

Are not the same questions being asked as to the justice of the new form of oppression and serfdom which has come upon us? By what right are they, whom we call captains of industry, greater than we? By what means have they attained their positions? Why are they permitted to enthrall the workers? The king, the noble, the priest, with unlimited power, was actual tyranny and a continued menace to liberty. Each of these has been overthrown by the "mad priests" of the past. But are not the captains and "lords" of industry of the present just as formidable and tyrannous? The noble with a thousand serfs-the millionaire with ten thousand wage-slaves-how are we to distinguish them on principle?

They of the past were oppressed by the principles of vested rights and hereditary distinctions working a monopoly of power. We have vested rights and unprincipled individualism working a monopoly of industry.

Where are the leaders who shall solve this modern problem and vanquish the idols and monsters of the twentieth century? Ah, they are here, but instead of being welcomed as saviors and leaders, they are as yet but "mad priests" in the wilderness. Such is the course of evolution. Each stage must be gone through. From the worm the butterfly; from the "mad priests" come the Gracchi, the Cromwells, the Washingtons, the Lincolns. We build monuments to the heroes (fools) of the past; we stone those whom our posterity will honor. Verily, we belong to the same simian tribe, and have the same traits as our ancestors.

of society to the public convenience; or else those civil privileges, which society provides in lieu of natural liberties given up by individuals. And the same author further observes that "the preservation of these, inviolate, may justly be said to include the preservation of our civil immunities in their largest and most extensive sense." 1 Bl. Com. 129.) It is these classes or articles of rights which are to be considered in our next chapter.

CHAPTER II.

ABSOLUTE RIGHTS, AND REMEDIES FOR THEIR INFRINGE

Sec. 250.

MENT.

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION.As we have seen in the preceding chapter, the absolute rights of individuals fall in one or the other of the general divisions: 1. Personal Security; 2. Personal Liberty; or, 3. Private Property. These divisions we shall consider in their order, together with the remedies for their violation.

I. PERSONAL SECURITY.

Sec. 251. MEANING OF PERSONAL SECURITY.-The right of personal security consists in a person's legal and uninterrupted enjoyment of his life, his limbs, his body, his health, and his reputation. (1 Bl. Com. 129.)

Sec. 252. SECURITY OF LIFE.-"Life," says Blackstone, "is the immediate gift of God, a right inherent by nature in every individual; and it begins in contemplation of law as soon as an infant is able to stir in its mother's womb."

Injuries affecting the life of man, are justly considered as the most atrocious species of crimes, and while the immediate injury is to the individual alone, the ultimate effect of such crimes is the subversion of all civil society. From the remotest ages the remedy or punish

ment for the taking of life, has invariably been to deprive the offender of his life. The life of man cannot be restored when taken, nor properly compensated in damages. The best that the law can do is, by affixing the greatest possible penalty to the offense, seek to minimize its occurrence by the severity of the punishment. See 3 Bl. Com. 119; IV idem 176-7.

In a few of the States of Union capital punishment has been abolished. But in a majority of States and in nearly all civilized countries, the death penalty is still inflicted for felonious homicide. In a number of States unlawful homicide or murder is divided by statute into degrees, and the punishment inflicted according to the grade of the crime.*

Sec. 253. SECURITY OF LIMBS.-Next to a man's life, the common law regarded the limbs or members of a person which are useful to him in fight. These, in the language of Blackstone, are also the gift of the wise Creator, to enable man to protect himself from external injuries in a state of nature. The common law regarded as a very serious crime the offense of mayhem, or the depriving another of any member useful in fight. (1 Bl. Com. 130; IV idem 205-7.)

SELF-DE

Sec. 254. SAME SUBJECT FENSE AND DURESS.-In defense of life and limbs, when attacked, a man is pardoned though he take the life of his adversary. His resistance and acts are regarded as done upon necessity and compulsion. So,

*See Rev. Stat. Ohio, Secs. 6808-11.