By a Law of Edward the Confessor, Usurers were banished the kingdom, and a person convicted of the crime forfeited all his substance, and was to be treated as an outlaw. If the Reader feel any desire to penetrate into the motives that dictated this Law, these are the concluding words of it. Hoc autem asserebat ipse Rex se audiisse in Curia Regis Francorum, dum ibidem moraretur, quod Usura radix omnium vitiorum esset. (LL. Ed. Conf. c. 37.) The doctrine, as laid down by the Mirror, is, that the goods and Chattels of Usurers should remain, as Escheats to the Lords of the Fee. (Mirror c. 1. s. 3.) The Reader will find some curious disquisitions on the subject of Usury in the Ancient Dialog. de Scaccario. (L. 2. s. 10.)
[278] Our Author alludes to the Inquisitions made under the Justices Itinerant, an institution generally ascribed to Henry the 2nd, and, as generally, imagined to have been first ordained in the Great Council at Northampton in the 22nd year of the Reign of that Monarch. Lord Coke, however, ascribes to them a much earlier origin; and from the Records in the Exchequer, it should seem, that there had been Justices Itinerant to hear and determine Civil and Criminal causes, so early as the 18th of Henry the first. Lord Littleton thinks, the first appointment of Justices Itinerant was made by Henry the first, in imitation of a similar Institution in France established by Louis le Gros. Justices Itinerant ad communia placita were continued until the 10th of Edw. the 3rd, when they seem to have given way to Justices of Assise, Nisi prius, Oyer and terminer, and Gaol delivery. (Vide Madox’s Excheq. 96. Litt. Hist. Hen. 2. Vol. 4. 271. Hale’s Hist. Com. Law 140. 168—2 Inst. 497.)
[279] The Mirror confines the punishment to those attainted of Usury after their decease, “but not, if they be attainted thereof in their lifetime, for then they lose but only their moveables; because, by penance and repentance, they may amend and have Heirs.” (Mirror c. 4. s. 12. See also Fleta L. 1. c. 20. s. 28. and Dial. de Scacc. L. 2. s. 10.)
[280] Vide [Book 14]. [Note 2].
[281] Sir Wm. Blackstone, when speaking of the Law of Escheat, informs us, that it is adopted in almost every country, to prevent the robust title of occupancy from again taking place. (2 Bl. Comm. 10.) See Fleta L. 6. c. 1. s. 11. “By common custom and use only,” says Skene, commenting on the Regiam Majestatem, “the King is the last Heir.” (L. 2. c. 55.)
[282] The Translator follows the Reading sanctioned by all the MSS.
[283] See Co. Litt. 13. a. b.
[284] See Bracton 71. b.
[285] How similar the Norman Code was in this respect, the Reader will perceive, on turning to Le Grand Cust. de Norm. c. 24.
[286] Utlagatus, the outlaw, or, in the expressive term of a far distant day, the frendlesman, or, as we should now write it, the friendless man. (Bracton 128. b. See Dial. de scacc. L. 2. s. 10.)