CHAPTER I.

OF FRANCHISES IN GENERAL.

[Sidenote: Royal privilege.]

[Sidenote: Forfeiture.]

A franchise is a royal privilege in the hands of a subject; and is forfeited by misusing it. _Finch_, 164.

[Sidenote: Record.]

If a franchise be of record in any court of the King it is sufficient. _27 H. 6. 9._

[Sidenote: _Quo warranto._]

Allowance of franchises in _Quo warranto_ or in Eyre shall conclude the King, for this is the suit of the King to try franchise; _contra_ of allowance in the Common Bench or other court. _10 H. 7. 13._ _Br. Fraunches & Liberties_, 40.

[Sidenote: General statute.]

Franchise bound by general statute, _tam_ within _quam_ without the franchise. _19 H. 6. 1._

Franchise or other special liberty or privilege shall not be defeated by general statute. _19 H. 6. 64._[16]

[Sidenote: Prisons.]

Albeit divers lords of liberties have custody of the prisons and some in fee, yet the prison itself is the Kings _pro bono publico_; and therefore it is to be repaired at the common charge; for no subject can have the prison itself. _2 Inst._ 589.

None can claim a prison as a franchise, unless they have also a jail-delivery of felony, which the dean and chapter of Westminster hath not, and therefore ought to send a calendar of 'prisoners' to Newgate, or return the _Habeas Corpus_ to _B. R._ with a claim of their franchise. _1 Salk._ 343.

[Sidenote: _Magna Charta._]

By _Mag. Char._ c. 38., are saved to all archbishops, &c. earls, barons, and all others, all liberties and free customs which they had enjoyed before.

In the preamble to many of the old statutes it is stipulated that all the lords spiritual and temporal, and the other lieges of the King having liberties and franchises, shall have and enjoy all their liberties and franchises which they have of the grant of the Kings progenitors and of his own grant and confirmation. This is the constant preface to the petition rolls to which the King always answers "_Le Roy le voet_." _Rot. Parl._ _passim_. And that all persons and corporations may fully enjoy their liberties, [and] franchises, [was] one prime cause of calling parliaments, and so declared, and the conservation of them one chief petition of the commons when violated. _Abridgement of the Records_[17]. _Table_, _voce_ Liberties.

[15] Note, that these words are in this work used in two different senses, but both equally common: viz. 1. for the privilege itself, as the franchise or liberty of _Retorna Brevium_: 2. for the manor or territory in or over which that privilege is exercised, as the Liberty or Franchise of the Savoy. There will seldom, if ever, be any confusion or obscurity on this account.

[16] Vide _Co. Lit._ 115. and the case of the King against Pugh. _Douglas_ 179.

[17] Published by Prynne under the name of Sir Robert Cotton, but said to have been actually compiled by William Bowyer, keeper of the records in the Tower in the time of Queen Elizabeth.