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than for the Ease and Welfare of that People for whose Benefit and
Protection that Trust was raised: To which Thomas Bladen, Esq
at that Time Governor, was pleased, amongst other Things, to an-
swer, "That, as to the Common Law Fines, the Proprietary of this
Province has the same Right to them as the King to the Common
Law Fines, &c.a in the Courts of Westminster Hall, and Lords of
Manors, and other Seigniories to those arising in their Courts,
Manors, and Seigniories: Those Fines, &.a were always reckoned
as much a Part of the King's Revenue, unaccountable to Parliament,
as his Demesnes, and the Fines, &o due to the several Lords, re-
ceived by them as part of their Estates, by the same Right as their
Rents, and with which their Tenants have nothing to do; such
Fines, &a due to the King are amongst his Casual Revenue next to
his Firmse Majores & Minores, and stiled in the Law Debita At-
terminata, and so called because Terms or Times of Payment were
assigned by his Writ, and these Payments were on large Fines and
Amerciaments affered Secundum Qualitatem delecti & Quantitatem
contenimenti. I mentioned so much of this Part of the Law, that
those Gentlemen in your House who make the Law their Study,
may consult their Books, which will certainly inform them of the
Truth of what I now say, by which Means they may satisfy them-
selves and you, that what is urged by your Address of the Common
Law Fines, &c.a being recorded by the Proprietary in Trust, for and
to the Use of the People, has no Foundation in Law or Reason;
but, that the King has an absolute, uncontroulable Title to this
Branch of his Casual Revenue, the Proprietary of this Province
to the Common Law, &.a or any other unappropriated Fines here,
and Lords of Manors in England to those in their Courts, and in
their Manors, and may dispose of them with as much Liberty, as
any Person in the World can his own private Fortune, and Estate,
nor can your Supposition, of the Proprietary being divested of the
Government, alter the Case, for it be no otherwise than if the Lord
of a Manor, or Possessor of an Estate, should alienate, or be
deprived of that Estate, the Rents, Privileges, and Emoluments of
that Manor and Estate, would be vester in the next Possessor; but,
surely, that Change would not give a Right in those Rents, Privi-
leges, or Emoluments, to any other Person than to such Possessor;
for, altho' the King is intitled to the Common Law Fines Ratione
Coronse, the Proprietor Ratione Domini, the Lords of Manors
Ratione Manerii, and private Persons to their Rents by Reason of
their Estates, yet none of those Considerations make them ac-
countable, either to Parliament, People, Tenants, or any other
Person, for what they so receive for those Fines accruing by
Breaches of the King's Peace, and Violation of his Laws, where
they are not particularly appropriated by positive Laws, must, in
the Nature of them, belong solely to his Majesty, who is reckoned
in the Eye of the Law, to be solely injured by such Transgression."
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L. H. J.
Liber No. 52
Nov. 15
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