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664 u c h a p t e r i x u When Jurisdiction and Property Cease. I. How the Right of Property, and that of Sovereignty, are originally acquired, and how they may be transferred, has been sufficiently declared ; let us now see how they may entirely 1 cease. And first, that they may cease, by being abandoned and deserted, has been by the Way already shewn; for Where there is no Will, there is no Property. But there is also another Manner of their ceasing, when the Subject in which the Jurisdiction or Property is, ceases to be, I mean, when this happens before any Alienation is made either expressly or tacitly, as in Successions to an Intestate. And therefore,2 if aPersondieswithoutanySignification of his Will, and leaves no Relations behind him, all the Right that he has dies with him too, and then his Slaves (unless some human Laws 3 I. (1) That is, so that the Right is extinct. For in all Cases, where the Thing itself over which we have such a Right, is not destroyed, it may hereafter belong to some other Person; but then this will not be by a Continuation of the same Right, but by Vertue of a new Title. 2. See Pufendorf, B. IV. Chap. VI. § 14. B. VI. Chap. III. § 11. and B. VIII. Chap. XI. § 1. 3. By the Roman Law, all the Goods of Persons dying intestate, and who had no legal Heir, belonged to the Treasury; and consequently Slaves, who were reckoned among Goods. Code, Lib. X. De bonis vacantibus, &c. Leg. I. See also the Digest. Lib. XLIX. Tit. XIV. De jure Fisci, Leg. I. § 2. and Cujas, on the Code, Lib. VI. Tit. LI. De Caducis tollendis, with Fabrot’s Notes; as also those of Mr. Schulting, on Ulpian. Tit. XXVIII. § 7 p. 673. But if the Master abandoned his Slave, he belonged to the first Occupant, according to the general Rule concerning Things abandoned. See Digest. Lib. XLI. Tit. VII. Pro Derelicto, Leg. I. and Leg. ult. Unless the Master thus deprived himself of his Right, by inhuman Avarice, because his Slave was afflicted I. That Property and Jurisdiction cease when he who had the Right dies and leaves no Successor. when jurisdiction and property cease 665 obstruct it) shall be free, and the People who were under his Government shall be at their own Disposal, because they are not in their Nature Things that may be possessed, unless they voluntarily part with their Liberty; but all other Things belong to 4 the prior Occupant. II. The same may be said, 1 if a Family that had any Right, happens to be extinct. III. 1. And the same is also to be understood if a People be extinct. Isocrates , 1 and after him the Emperor 2 Julian, said, that States were immortal ; that is, they might possibly prove so. Because the People is one of those Kind of Bodies that consist indeed of 3 separate and distant with violent Sickness; for then such a Slave was set at Liberty. Digest. Lib. XL. Tit. VIII. Que sine manumissione,&c. Iknownotwhyoneof ourAuthor’sCommentators asserts that this Right of taking Possession of a Slave thus abandon’d, was abrogated by Novel. XXII. Cap. XII. For Justinian in that Place only confirms the Law before quoted, by ordering that if a Master abandons his sick Slave of either Sex, his or her Marriage with a free Person should be reputed valid, by Vertue of the Freedom acquired by such a Slave, according to the Title of the Digest. Pro Derelicto, to which we are referred; and thus Julian understands it in his Abridgment. See Novel. CLIII. Cap. I. The Expressions of that here produced are indeed perplexed; as they are through the whole Compilation; but it will appear on a proper Attention, that the Emperor only distinguishes two Manners of abandoning a sick Slave; one by turning him out of the House; the other by taking no Care of him, though he is kept. 4. Even though the Goods fall to the Sovereign, for the SovereignbecomesMaster of them by Right of first Occupancy. The whole Difference is, that no other Person can then make Use of that Right. II. (1) As that of Denmark was formerly, Crantzius, Vand. VIII. 23. That of Rugenlandt, Crantzius, Vand. VIII. 12. That of the Pelasgi and the Thessalians, Gregor. Lib. VII. That of the Usanchanidae, in Persia, Leunclav. XVI. Add...

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