GENERAL HISTORY. 



[Ill 



scendants, however far removed, 

 would be deprived of the means 

 of establishing their right to lands, 

 to which he, if alive, would have 

 a prior right, and such land would 

 escheat to the lord of the manor. 

 This law rested upon feudal prin- 

 ciples, which were by no means 

 conformable to modern ideas of 

 justice, and was in fact a relic of 

 barbarism. It had been said in 

 the discussions on the bill in the 

 last session, that instances of the 

 evil which he was desirous of 

 guarding against were not likely 

 to happen ; but at this very time, 

 he was professionally concerned in 

 a case precisely in point. A 

 woman had been convicted of a 

 murder in Oxfordshire 50 years 

 ago ; and the estate she would have 

 been entitled to, had she lived, 

 had passed from one possessor to 

 another, and a valuable considera- 

 tion had been given for it ; yet, 

 information having been given, 

 that the property, by reason of 

 corruption of blood, had escheated 

 to the crown, and it being found 

 by an inquisition, that this was 

 really the case, claim had been 

 laid to the property as belonging 

 to the crown. 



The question being put, Mr. 

 Yorke rose to declare, that he 

 must object even to the introduc- 

 tion of such a bill into parliament. 

 His reasons were a repetition of 

 the arguments he had formerly 

 employed against any alteration of 

 the laws of England, on the ground 

 of a trifling inconvenience, and 

 particularly against any relaxation 

 of the punishment for treason. 

 Leave was however given to bring 

 in the bill ; and Sir S. Romilly 

 afterwards moved for leave to 

 bring in a bill to alter the punish- 



ment of high treason ; which wag 

 granted. 



On the motion for committing 

 the bill for abolishing corruption 

 of blood, Mr. Yorke enforced his 

 former objections, and said that 

 he should propose leaving out of 

 the bill the words "or treason," 

 and that it should run thus : " that 

 no attainder of felony, not ex- 

 tending to treason, petty treason, 

 or murder, do lead to corruption 

 of blood." 



Sir James Mackintosh in a 

 learned and eloquent speech sup- 

 ported the bill. He gave an ac- 

 count of the introduction of blood 

 for treason into Scotland, where, 

 as in all other countries of Europe, 

 it was unknown in the reign of 

 queen Anne, and contended, that 

 it was by the best authorities re- 

 garded as a temporary expedient ; 

 and that the making it general and 

 unconditional in 1799, was the 

 real innovation. He ridiculed the 

 idea, that a law through which a 

 person unborn might at a remote 

 time miss an estate, which would 

 otherwise have come to him, could 

 have any effect in deterring a man 

 from the commission of a crime ; 

 and he thought there could not be 

 a more favourable time than the 

 present, for abrogating the rigour 

 of ancient laws. 



The Solicitor General ^Serjeant 

 Shepherd) in reply, denied, that 

 the proceeding of the legislature 

 in 1799, with respect to the cor- 

 ruption of blood, was an innova- 

 tion, and asserted that it was 

 rather a restoration of the law as 

 it existed prior to 1708. He was 

 decidedly of opinion, that this 

 punishment ought not to be taken 

 away in cases of treason. After a 

 speech from Sir S. Romilly, iu 



