DUVALL v. WATERS.—1 BLAND. 537

*In general waste is the abuse, or destructive use of prop-
erty by him who has not an absolute unqualified title. 572
And in general trespass is an injury, or use, without authority, of
the property of another, by one who has no right whatever.

At common law, if the owner of the inheritance had good rea-
son to believe, that a tenant in dower, or by the courtesy, or a guar-
dian designed to commit waste, he might, before any waste was
done, have a prohibition directed to the sheriff, commanding him
to prevent it from being done; and in execution of this writ of
prohibition, the sheriff might, if necessary, call to his aid the
posse comitatus. This writ was extended, by a statute passed in
the year 1267, to tenants for life and for years: and afterwards,
in 1285, it was taken away, and another form of writ given in its
place; but when the Court of Chancery first granted injunctions,
it seems to have taken its jurisdiction, from this writ of prohibi-
tion of waste. Co. Litt. 53; 2 Imt. 209, 389: 52 Hen. 3, c. 23; 13
Edw. 1, c. 14; Kilt. Rep. 209, 212; Jeferson v. Bishop of Durham, 1
Bos. & Pul. 108, 121; Goodeson v. Gallatin. Dick. 455.

After waste had been actually committed, the ancient corrective
remedy, in a Court of common law, was by a writ of waste, for
the recovery of the place wasted and treble damages, as a compen-
sation for the injury done to the inheritance. Co. Litt. 53; 2 Inst.
300. There were however, several cases to which the writ of
waste did not extend; and as to such cases, the party was left

or they are reserved for public use, as for ship building, or the like, it is
then held to be waste to fell such trees: and the tenant in fee simple, may
be restrained from cutting them by injunction.—Jacob L. Dict, verb Waste;
Bishop of Winchester v. Wolgar, 3 Swan. 493. note. By a clause in the
Colonial Charter of Massachusetts; and, by several -Acts of Parliament,
all white pine trees of the diameter of twenty-four inches and upwards,
of twelve inches from the ground, growing in Maine, New Hampshire,
Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, were, under the
Colonial Government, reserved to the use of the Crown for masting the
royal navy. This white pine, the ancient and majestic inhabitant of the
North American forest, says Michaux, is still the loftiest and most valuable
of tkeir productions, and its summit is seen at an immense distance, aspiring
towards heaven, in some instances to the height of one hundred and eighty
feet from the ground, and far above the heads of the surrounding trees.
The felling of any of these white pines was prohibited by a heavy penalty,
made recoverable in the Colonial Courts of Vice-Admiralty, without a trial
by jury. The claims of right to these trees, and the execution of the laws
for their preservation, produced much irritation among the colonists; inso-
much so, that the controversies respecting them, in those colonies to which
the statutory prohibition of felling them extended, may be considered as
some among the minor causes of the Revolution—9 Anne. c. 17; 8 Geo. 1, c.
12; 2 Geo. 2, c. 35; 1 Chal. Opin. Em. Law, 111, 116, t!9, 187; 2 Hutch. His.
Mass. 228: 2 Belk. N. Hamp. 28, 89, 128; Michaux's Sylva art. White Pine.—
Since the Revolution Congress have deemed it expedient to make similar
reservations of the Live Oak, and Red Cedar, growing on the public lands,
for the use of the navy,—let March, 1817; ch. 22; 2d March, 1831, ch. 65.