Term Reports in the Court of King's Bench Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1817 Excerpt: ... 1788. against whom such an action can be maintained. If it be reasonable that they should be by law liable to such an ac Rossell tion, recourse must be had to the Legislature for that purpose. The Men of But it has been said that this action ought to be maintained IV0N' by borrowing the rules of analogy from the statutes of hue and cry: but I think that those statutes prove the very reverse. The reason of the statute of Winton was this; as the hundred were bound to keep watch and ward, it was supposed that those irregularities which led to robbery must have happened by their neglect. But it was never imagined that the hundred could have been compelled to make satisfaction (a), till the statute gave that remedy; and most undoubtedly no such action could have been maintained against them before that time. Therefore when the case called for a remedy, the Legislature interposed; but they only gave the remedy in that particular case, and did not give it in any other case in which the neglect of the hundred had produced any injury to individuals. And when they gave the action, they virtually gave the means of maintaining that action; they converted the hundred into a corporation for that purpose; but it does not follow that, in this case where the Legislature has not given the remedy, this action can be maintained. And even if we could exercise a legislative discretion in this case, there would be great reason for not giving this remedy; for the argument urged by the defendant's counsel, that all those who become inhabitants of the county, after the injury sustained and before judgment, would be liable to contribute their proportion, is entitled to great weight. It is true indeed that the inconvenience does happen in the case of indictments; but that is only beca...