R A N 



RAN 



not obtained his liberty at the time of his death, it can be 

 no debt to him, or to his heirs, unlefs the agreement was 

 othcrwife : and he is not reputed to have received his hberty, 

 till he is abfolutely permitted to depart free ; when neither 

 he whofe prifoner he was, nor the fovereign, oppofed his re- 

 leafe and departure. If indeed he has only been permitted 

 to take a journey for applying to his friends, or liis fove- 

 reign, ia order to obtain the means of ranfoming himfelf, 

 and he dies before he is polledcd of his full liberty, before 

 his final dilchargc from his parole, nothing is due for his 

 ranfom. If, after agreeing on the price, he is detained in 

 prifon till the tinae of payment, and he dies before, the 

 debt is paid by his death, and does not affeft his heirs ; fucli 

 an agreement on the part of him, who detains his prifoner, 

 being no more than a promife of giving him his liberty for a 

 certain fum paid down. A promife of buying and felling 

 does not fuppofe the purchafer to pay the price of a thing, 

 if it happen to penfli before the bargain is concluded. But 

 if the contraft of fale be perfed, the purchafer fliall pay the 

 price of the thing fold, though it (hould happen to perifh be- 

 fore the.delivery of it, provided there was no fault or delay 

 in the feller. F r this reafon, if the felltrr has abfolutely 

 concluded the agreement of the ranfom, and from that time 

 owns himlelf a debtor for the ftipulatcd fum, remaining no 

 longer as a prifoner, but for the fecurity of the payment, 

 his intervening death does not extinguilh the debt : the ran- 

 fom agreed on remains dill due. If the agreement fays, 

 that the ranfom fhall be paid on a certain day, and the 

 prifoner happens to die before that day, then the heirs are 

 bound to difcharge it ; for the ranfom was due, and the day 

 was affigned, only, as the term for payment. Upon the 

 fame principles, ftri£lly fpeaking, it follows, that a prifoner, 

 releafed on condition of procuring the releafe or difcharge 

 of another, fliuuld return to prifon, in cafe the latter hap- 

 pens to die befare he could procure him his liberty. Such 

 an unfortunate cafe, however, is entitled to regard, and 

 equity feems to require that this prifoner fhould continue in 

 the enjoyment of hberty, provided he pays a juft equivalent ; 

 it being now out of his power to purchafe it precifely at the 

 price agreed on. If a prifoner fully fet at liberty, after 

 having promifod, but not paid, his ranfom, happen to be 

 taken a fecond time, it is evident that, without being ex- 

 empted from paying his firft ranfom, if he is wiUing to be 

 fet at liberty, he mud pay a fecond ranfom. On the con- 

 trary, though the prifoner has agreed for the price of his 

 ranfom, if betore the execution of the compaft, before he 

 is fet at liberty in virtue of it, he be retaken by his party, 

 he oi.'es nothing. It is here evidently fnppofcd, that the 

 finifhing hand was not put to the compaft, and that the 

 prifoner had not acknowledged himfelf debtor for the rate 

 of his ranfom. He whofe prifoner he was, had, as it were, 

 only made him a promife of felling, and he had promifed to 

 purchafe ; but the purchafe and fale had not aftually paffed 

 into cffeft ; the property was not aftually transferred. The 

 property belonging to a perfon does not pafs to him who 

 takes him prifoner, unlefs at the fame time he feizes on fuch 

 things. Of this there is no doubt, efpccially in our times 

 of moderation, when prifoners of war do not fall into fla- 

 very. And even by the law of nature, the property of a 

 flave's goods does not, without fome other reafon, pafs to 

 the mailer of a flave. There is nothing in flavcry of which 

 this can itfelf be the natural effeft. If a man obtain a 

 power over the liberty of another, does it follow that he has 

 likewife a right over his property ? Therefore, if an enemy 

 has not dripped his prifoner, or the latter has found means 

 to conceal fomething from his fearch, what he has preferved 

 Ih'juld belong to him, or he may employ it towards the 



10 



payment of his ranfom. At prefcnt even prifoners are not 

 always dripped. The death of a prifoner puts a period to 

 the right of him who had taken him ; therefore an hodage, 

 given for the procuring of a perfon's liberty, is to be re- 

 leafed the moment the prifoner expires ; and if the hodage 

 dies, the prifoner is not releafed by fuch death. The re- 

 vcrfe of this is true, if one, indcad of being an hodage for 

 the other, had been fiibdituted in his dead. Vattcl'a Law 

 of Nations, b. iii. ch. 17. 



Formerly it was a common praftice to ranfom Britifh 

 diips, when captured by an enemy, by delivering to the 

 enemy what was called a ranfom-bill, which fecured to the 

 captor the price agreed upon, and operated as a bill of fale 

 of the diip and cargo to the original owners, and as a pro- 

 teftion to the diip againd other cruifers of the enemy during 

 the remainder of the voyage. A hodage was delivered to 

 the captor, for fecuring to him the pundtual payment of 

 the dipulated fum. Tliis ranlom-bill, independent of the 

 hodage, was confidered as a contrail of the law of nations, 

 and obligatory upon the owners, as well as upon the captain 

 and hodage who figned it ; and adlions have been often 

 brought upon them in our courts of common law. And 

 where the diip or goods were infured, the amount of the 

 ranfom was ufually taken to be the meafure of the demand 

 of the infured upon the underwriters, in refpedl of the cap- 

 ture. But this praftice of ranfoming diips captured by the 

 enemy being found to operate more to the diladvantagc than 

 for the benefit of this country, it was thought proper at 

 length to prohibit it altogether. And therefore by dat. 

 22 Geo. III. c. 25. § I. it is enabled, that it diall not be 

 lawful for any of his majedy's fubjefts to ranfom, or to enter 

 into any contrail or agreement for ranfoming, any diip or 

 vedel belonging to any of his majedy's fubjcits, or any 

 merchandizes or goods on board the fame, which diall be 

 captured by the fubjefts of any date at war with his ma- 

 jedy, or by any perfon committing hodilities againd his 

 majedy's fubjefts. By § 2. all contrafts and agreements 

 which diall be entered into, and all bills, notes, and other 

 fecurities, which diall be given by any perfon or perfons for 

 ranfom of any fuch diip or vedel, or of any merchandize or 

 goods on board the fame, diall be abfolutely void in law, 

 and of no effeft whatever. And by § 3. a penalty of 500/. 

 is given to the informer, for every offence againll the aft. 

 This datute has put an end to all quedions on the law of 

 ranfoms. Mardiall's Treatife on the Law of Infurance, 

 vol. ii. 



In our La-w Booh, ranfom is alfo ufed for a fum paid 

 for the pardoning of fome notorious crime. 



Horn makes this difference between ranfom and amt-rcia- 

 vient, that ranfom is the redemption of a corporeal punidi- 

 ment due to any crime. 



It is never ufual to afi'efs a larger fine than a man is able 

 to pay, without touching the implements of his livelihood, 

 but to infiift corporal punidiment, or a limited iniprifon- 

 ment, indead of fuch fine as might amount to impnfonment 

 for life. And this is the reafon why fines in the king's 

 court are frequently denominated ranfoms, becaufe the pe- 

 nalty mud otherwife fall upon a man's perfon, unlefs it be 

 redeemed or ranfomed by a pecuniary fine (Mirr. c. 5. § 3. 

 Lamb. Eirenarch. 57.); according to an ancient maxim, 

 " qui non habet in crumena luat in corpore." Yet, when 

 any datute fpeaks both of fine and ranfom, it is holden, that 

 the ranfom diall be treble to the fine at lead. Dyer. 232. 



RANSTADT, in Geography, a town of Germary, in 

 the principality of Stolberg ; 17 miles N.E. of Frankfort 

 on the Maine. 



Ranstadt, or Mari Ranjiadt, a town of Saxony, in 



the 



