To the same branch of the royal revenue properly belong also such rights and interests as the Crown enjoys in the "foreshore." But, by the Crown Lands Act, 1866, ss. 7-15, these have now been transferred to the Board of Trade, in aid of the reduction of the national debt; and compensation out of the consolidated fund is to be made to the Crown for any consequent diminution of its land revenue (o).

None of the restrictions above mentioned extend, of course, to the private estates of the Crown; that is, speaking generally, to such estates as have been or shall be hereafter purchased or acquired by his Majesty with moneys out of his privy purse, or with other moneys not appropriated to any public service, or which have or shall come to him, his heirs or successors, by gift, devise, or inheritance from any of his or their ancestors, or from any other person or persons, not being kings or queens of this realm (p).

IV. [To the ordinary revenue of the Crown might also have been referred (1) the advantages which used to arise from the profits of the military tenures, to which most lands in the kingdom were subject, till the 12 Car. II. (1660) c. 24, in great measure abolished them; and (2) the profitable prerogative of purveyance and pre-emption. The latter was a right enjoyed by the Crown, of buying up provisions and other necessaries, by the intervention of the king's purveyors, for the use of his royal household,

[at an appraised valuation, in preference to all others, and even without consent of the owner; and also of forcibly impressing the carriages and horses of the subject, to dc the king's business on the public roads, in the conveyance of timber, baggage, and the like, however inconvenient to the proprietor a prerogative which, during the feudal times, prevailed pretty generally throughout Europe. In those times, the king's household, as well as those of inferior lords, was supported by specific renders of corn and other victuals, from the tenants of the Crown demesnes; and there was also a continual market kept at the palace gate, to furnish viands for the royal use (7). These arrangements sufficed so long as the king's court continued in any certain place; but when the court removed from one part of the kingdom to another, as was formerly very frequently done, it was found necessary to send purveyors beforehand, to get together a sufficient quantity of provisions and other necessaries for the household. And then, lest the unusual demand should raise provisions to an exorbitant price, the powers before mentioned were vested in these purveyors, who in process of time very greatly abused their authority, and became a great oppression to the subject, though of little advantage to the Crown. Wherefore, King Charles, at his restoration, consented, by the 12 Car. II. (1660) c. 24, to resign entirely these branches of his revenue and power; and the parliament, in part recompense, settled on him, his heirs and successors for ever, an excise duty on all beer and ale and certain other liquors sold in the kingdom. So that this hereditary excise, the nature of which shall be further explained in a subsequent part of this chapter, at one time formed the fourth branch of his Majesty's ordinary revenue.

V. Another branch of the king's ordinary revenue is usually reckoned to consist in the profits arising from his (7) 4 Inst. 273.

[forests. The nature of forests has been sufficiently explained in a former book of these Commentaries; and what we here refer to are only those profits arising to the sovereign from hence, which consisted principally in amercements or fines levied for a variety of offences against the forest laws in the forest courts (r). These have now fallen into abeyance.]

VI. The profits arising from the king's ordinary courts of justice make another branch of his ordinary revenue. These consist not only in fines imposed on offenders, forfeitures of recognizances, and amercements levied upon defaulters (s); but also in certain fees due to the Crown in a variety of legal matters. The receipts on the latter account have, however, by the effect of recent improvements in the administration of justice, been considerably reduced, and are also now in great measure prepaid by way of stamps affixed to the various documents in use; so that but little, under this head, is at the present time directly returned into the royal exchequer.

VII. We shall class together, as a seventh branch of the sovereign's ordinary revenue, his right to royal fish, and to wrecks, treasure-trove, waifs, and estrays. Our reason for so classing them is, that they are all of the nature of bona vacantia, or things found without any apparent owner; and these vest in the Crown, by way of exception from the general rule of law. For, by that general rule, bona vacantia are considered as returning, as it were, into the common stock of mankind, and consequently belong, as in a state of nature, to the first occupant or finder; though he is bound, before he appropriates them, to take reasonable pains to discover the former owner, whose right remains, unless they were designedly abandoned by

(r) As to forests, ride sup. vol. 1. pp. 407-411.

(s) See the Fines Act, 1833, con

taining provisions for the more speedy recovery of fines and penalties.

him (t). The particular subjects of claim, however, which are above enumerated, and to which may now be added personal property held by trustees for beneficiaries, all of whom have died out (u), are all held to vest in the Crown. The true general origin of this peculiarity probably is, (though with respect to some of the objects in this class other reasons are assigned in the books,) that they were formerly of sufficient value, or of sufficiently frequent occurrence, to attract attention, and to be made the subject of particular regulation; while the other cases of finding were, from their insignificance, neglected, and left to the operation of the ordinary rule of law. The regulation which it was thought proper to make, was that of allotting them to the Crown, either to prevent the strife and contention which the mere title of occupancy is apt to create and continue, or else to provide for the support of public authority in a manner the least burdensome to individuals; and in point of fact at least, we find that, while the property in bona vacantia generally is vested in the finder, subject to the rights of the original owner, in the particular instances above enumerated it is annexed to the Crown (x).

1. [Royal fish. These are whale and sturgeon, which, when either thrown ashore, or caught near the coast, are the property of the king, on account, as it is said in the books, of their superior excellence (y). Indeed, our ancestor seems to have entertained a very high notion of the importance of this right, it being the prerogative of the Kings of Denmark and of the Dukes of Normandy;

(t) Britt. ch. 17; Finch, 177; Armory V. Delamirie (1721), 1 Stra. 505; Merry v. Green (1841), 7 M. & W. 623; Bridges v. Hawkesworth (1851), 21 L. J. Q. B. 75.

(u) In re Gosman (1880), 15 Ch. D. 67; Cunnack v. Edwards, [1896] 2 Ch. 679.

(x) Bract. 1. 1, ch. 12.

(y) Plowd. 315. It is said, in the Case of Swans (1592), 7 Rep. 16 a, that a swan is, in like manner, a royal fowl; and that all swans, which have no other known owner, do belong to the king by his prerogative.

[and from one of these it was probably derived to our princes (2). It is expressly claimed and allowed in the De Prærogativa Regis (a); and the most antient treatises of the law now extant make mention of it, though they seem to have made a distinction between the whale and the sturgeon, the head only of the whale belonging to the king, while the tail belongs to the queen. But the whole of the sturgeon belongs to the king.

2. Shipwrecks are also declared, by the De Prærogativa Regis, to be the king's property; and were so, long before, at the common law. Wreck, by the antient common law, was where any ship was lost at sea, and the goods, or cargo, were thrown upon the land (b), in which case, the goods so wrecked, were adjudged to belong to the king; for it was held, that, by the loss of the ship, all property was gone out of the original owner (c). But it was ordained by King Henry the First, that, if any person escaped alive out of the ship, it should be no wreck (d); and afterwards, King Henry the Second, by his charter (e), declared, that if on the coast of either England, Poictou, Oleron, or Gascony, any ship should be distressed, and either man or beast should escape or be found therein alive, the goods should remain to the owners, if they claimed them within three months, but otherwise should be esteemed a wreck, and should belong to the king, or other lord of the franchise. This charter was confirmed, with improvements, by King Richard the First; who, in the second year of his reign (ƒ), not only established these concessions, by ordaining that

(z) Stiern. de Jure Sueonum, 1. 2, ch. 8; Gr. Coustum. ch. 17. (a) The Prarogativa Regis is "an apocryphal statute which

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may represent the earlier prac"tice of Edward I." (Pollock and Maitland, Hist. of Eng. Law, i. p. 336.)

(b) Sir Henry Constable's Case (1599), 5 Rep. 106.

(c) Dr. & St. d. 2, ch. 51. (d) Spelm. Cod., apud Wilkins, 305.

(e) 26th May, 1174; 1 Rymer, Fod. I. 36.

(f) Rog. Hoved. in Ric. 1.