in time of war, supersedes and abrogates the civil law, as to those engaged in the war, hence the appeal was properly made here to "martial law," for the punishment of an offender who was engaged in the war himself. It extends to the camp and its environs and to near field and other operations of war and has its basis in actual necessity and the chief military officer is the person who enforces such rules, so the King, in this instance, was the proper authority to ask the punishment of Pistol from.

CHAPTER XXI.

"FIRST PART OF KING HENRY THE SIXTH."

274. Condemned woman's privilege of pregnancy.
275. Compromise.

Sec. 264. Homicide.

"Reig. Salisbury is a desperate homicide;
He fighteth as one weary of his life.
The other lords, like lions wanting food,
Do rush upon us as their hungry prey."

Homicide is the destruction of the life of a human being, either by himself, or by the act, procurement or culpable omission of another.2 When the death is caused

by the intentional act of the deceased himself, the offender is called felo de se and when the death is caused by another it is either justifiable, excusable, or felonious, according to the facts connected with the killing.3

To constitute the crime of homicide the person killed must have been entitled to live, and in legal contemplation a soldier of the enemy, in time of war, has no right to his life, but may be killed by the enemy in battle, without the one killing him, being guilty of a homicide. So the

1

1' Henry VI, Act I, Scene II.

1 Hawkins, Pl. Cr. sec. 2; 2 Bishop, Cr. Law, sec. 538.

1 Hawkins, Pl. Cr. Ch. 8.

12 Bishop, Cr. Law, supra.

killing of the soldiers of France, by the soldiers of England did not amount to a legal homicide, and the speaker in this verse was technically wrong, in so applying this name to lord Salisbury.

Sec. 265. Distraining property.

"Glo.

nor king

Here's Beaufort, that regards nor God

Hath here distrain'd the Tower to his use."

Distress, at common law, was the taking of a chattel, or other personal property, out of the possession of the owner, into the custody of the party injured, to procure satisfaction for the wrong done. It was resorted to for the purpose of enforcing payment of rent, taxes or other duties, as well as to exact damages for the trespasses of cattle. The remedy is of great antiquity and is said to have dated back to the Gothic nations of Europe, since the Roman Empire and English statutes made various amendments to the remedy since the days of Magna Charta.3

As the remedy by distress was virtually a taking of the law into the hands of the landlord, or other person entitled

Blackstone's definition of homicide, as the "killing of any human creature," is not in strict accordance with the law as presented by other writers, as it leaves out of the definition of the crime that the killing must have been done by another human being. 4 Bl. Comm. 177; 1 Hawkins, Pl. Cr. sec. 2.

Repulsing Richard's suit, Lady Anne tells him, in King Richard III: "Anne: If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide, These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks." (Act I, Scene II.)

Referring to King Richard, in his talk to his troops before the battle Richmond said: "Richm. . . . For what is he they follow? truly, gentlemen, a bloody tyrant and a homicide." (Act V, Scene III.)

'Henry VI, Act I, Scene III.

22 Bl. Comm. 6.

Bacon, Abr. Distress: 4 Dane, Abr., 126; Taylor's Land. and Ten., sec. 566; Coke, Litt. 317.

to the compensation or redress exacted, it was more or less of a high handed proceeding, considering the property rights of the one whose property was distrained, hence Gloster accuses the bishop of Winchester of resorting to the remedy of distress and of holding the Tower for his

own use.

Sec. 266. Proclamation.

"May. Nought rests for me, in this tumultuous strife, But to make open proclamation:

Come, Officer, as loud as c'er thou canst."

A proclamation is the act of causing some state matters to be published or made generally known. In English practice, it was also the declaration made by the crier, under the authority of the court, that something was about to be done. There was the proclamation of rebellion, and proclamation of "exigents," known to the old English law, and the proclamation here used comes nearer the latter in its object, for under this proclamation, on the issuance of a writ of exigent, a proclamation issued to the officer of the county where the offenders lived and he made three proclamations for the offenders to yield themselves or be outlawed.3 This is no doubt the threat intended by the Mayor of London, in this instance, in order to preserve the peace.

'1' Henry VI, Act. I, Scene III.

2 Bacon, Abr.; Buller, Nisi Pr. 226; Dane, Abr.; ch. 96a; Brooke, Abr.

Bouvier's Law Dictionary.

York said, in 2' Henry VI: "York.

Let's

as I hear, the king is fled to London, to call a present court of Parliament. pursue him, ere the writs go forth." (Act V, Scene III.) Hastings orders a proclamation, in 3' Henry VI, as follows: "Hast. Sound, trumpet; Edward shall be here proclaim'd:Come, fellow soldier, make thou proclamation. (Gives him a paper. Flourish.)

Sold. (Reads) Edward the Fourth. by the Grace of God, etc., (Act IV, Scene VII.)

Sec. 267. Truant in the law.

"Suff. 'Faith, I have been a truant in the law; And never yet could frame my will to it;

And, therefore, frame the law unto my will.”1 The speaker means to convey by this phrase that he had never followed the investigation of legal matters with any degree of duty or timely application, but had been remiss in his duties in all matters pertaining to the law. In other words, that he had shirked his duty in legal matters, or had idled, loitered and absented himself when legal matters were in issue, instead of applying himself as he ought to have done.

Sec. 268. Brawl.

"War.

This brawl to-day,

Grown to this faction, in the Temple garden,
Shall send, between the red rose and the white,
A thousand souls, to death and deadly night."

A brawl is a noisy quarrel, or a tumult commenced by those not careful about the peace or quietude of a neighborhood or of any person. A common brawler, at common law, was one who disturbed the peace of a neighborhood by fighting or quarrelling and was indictable for the maintenance of a nuisance, or for being a nuisance himself. That Warwick's prediction as to the final outcome of the "brawl" that day started between the factions. of York and Lancaster is in the nature of a prophecy, is abundantly borne out by the history of the long wars between these two houses.

King Edward asks, in 3' Henry VI: "K. Edw. Is proclamation made.-that, who finds Edward, shall have a high reward, and he his life?" (Act V, Scene V.)

'1' Henry VI, Act II, Scene IV. 21 Henry VI, Act II, Scene IV.

3 Wharton, Law Lexicon.