Thus it is neither a
harm nor a wrong to take fish from a pond unless the pond is
possessed or owned by some one, and then only to the possessor or
owner. It is neither a harm nor a wrong to abstain from
delivering a bale of wool at a certain time and place, unless a
binding promise has been made so to deliver it, and then it is a
wrong only to the promisee.
The next thing to be done is to analyze those special relations
out of which special rights and duties arise. The chief of
them--and I mean by the word "relations" relations of fact
simply--are possession and contract, and I shall take up those
subjects successively.
The test of the theory of possession which prevails in any system
of law is to be found in its mode of dealing [165] who have a
thing within their power, but not own it, or assert the position
of an owner for with regard to it, bailees, in a word. It is
therefore, as a preliminary to understanding the common-law
theory of possession, to study the common law with regard to
bailees.
The state of things which prevailed on the border between England
and Scotland within recent times, and which is brought back in
the flesh by the ballad of the Fray O'Suport, is very like that
which in an earlier century left its skeleton in the folk-laws of
Germany and England.
Pages:
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218