in the general acceptation of the law, comprises every species of crime, which occasions at common law the forfeiture of lands or goods. This most frequently happens in those crimes for which a capital punishment either is or was to be inflicted; for those felonies that are called clergyable, or to which the benefit of clergy extends, were anciently punished with death in all lay, or unlearned, offenders; though now, by the statute-law, that punishment is for the first offence universally remitted. Treason itself, says Sir Edward Coke, was anciently comprised under the name of felony; and in confirmation of this we may observe, that the statute of treasons, 25 Edw. III. c. 2. speaking of some dubious crimes, directs a reference to parliament; that it may be there adjudged, "whether they be treason or other felony." All treasons, therefore, strictly speaking, are felonies; though all felonies are not treason. And to this also we may add, that all offences, now capital, are in some degree or other felony; but this is likewise the case with some other offences, which are not punished with death; as suicide, where the party is already dead; homicide by chance-medley, or in self-defence; and petit-larceny, or pilfering; all which are (strictly speaking), felonies, as they subject the committers of them to forfeitures. So that, upon the whole, the only adequate definition of felony seems to be that which is before laid down; viz. an offence which occasions a total forfeiture of either lands or goods, or both, at the common law; and to which capital or other punishment may be superadded, according to the degree of guilt.

To explain this matter a little farther: The word felony, or felonia, is of undoubted feudal original, being frequently to be met with in the books of feuds, &c., but the derivation of it has much puzzled the juridical lexicographers, Prateus, Calvinus, and the rest; some deriving it from the Greek, φαληρος, "an impostor or deceiver;" others from the Latin, fallo felici, to countenance which they would have it called felonia. Sir Edward Coke, as his manner is, has given us a still stranger etymology; that it is crimen anno felleo perpetuum, "with a bitter or gallish inclination." But all of them agree in the description, that it is such a crime as works a forfeiture of all the offender's lands or goods. And this gives great probability to Sir Henry Spelman's Teutonic or German derivation of it; in which language indeed, as the word is clearly of feudal original, we ought rather to look for its signification, than among the Greeks and Romans. Felon then, according to him, is derived from two northern words: fee, which signifies (we well know) the fief, feud, or beneficiary estate; and lon, which signifies price or value. Felony is therefore the same as pretium judicii, the consideration for which a man gives up his fief; as we say in common speech, such an act is as much as your life, or estate is worth. In this sense it will clearly signify the feudal forfeiture, or act by which an estate is forfeited, or escheats, to the lord.

To confirm this, we may observe, that it is in this sense, of forfeiture to the lord, that the feudal writers constantly use it. For all those acts, whether of a criminal nature or not, which at this day are generally forfeitures of copyhold estates, are styled felonies in the feudal law: "felicit, per quas feudum amittitur." As "si domino defecerit noluerit; si per annum et diem cessaverit in petenda investitura; si deminuit curavit, i.e. negavit fe a domino feudum habere; si a domino in jus cum vocante, ten citatus non comparaverit;"—all these, with many others, are still causes of forfeiture in our copyhold estates, and were denominated felonies by the feudal constitutions. So likewise injuries of a more substantial or criminal nature were denominated felonies, that is, forfeitures; as assaulting or beating the lord; vitiating his wife or daughter, "si dominum cucurbitaverit, i.e. cum uxore ejus conuocaverit;" all these are deemed felonies, and the latter is expressly so denominated, "si fecerit feloniam, dominum forte cucurbitando." And as these contempts, or smaller offenses, were felonies or acts of forfeiture, of course greater crimes, as murder and robbery, fell under the same denomination. On the other hand, the lord might be guilty of felony, or forfeit his seignory to the vassal, by the same act as the vassal would have forfeited his feud to the lord. "Si dominus commissit feloniam, per quam vassalus amitteret feudum si eam committerit in dominum, feudis proprietatem etiam dominus perdere debet." One influence given of this sort of felony in the lord is beating the servant of his vassal, so as that he loses his service; which seems merely in the nature of a civil injury, so far as it respects the vassal. And all these felonies were to be determined, "per laudamentum five judicium parium suorum," in the lord's court; as with us forfeitures of copyhold lands are presentable by the homage in the court-baron.

Felony, and the act of forfeiture to the lord, being thus synonymous terms in the feudal law, we may easily trace the reason why, upon the introduction of that law into England, those crimes which induced such forfeiture or escheat of lands (and, by a small deflection from the original sense, such as induced the forfeiture of goods also) were denominated felonies. Thus it was that suicide, robbery, and rape, were felonies; that is, the consequence of such crimes was forfeiture; till by long use we began to signify by the term of felony the actual crime committed, and not the penal consequence. And upon this system only can we account for the cause, why treason in ancient times was held to be a species of felony; viz. because it induced a forfeiture.

Hence it follows, that capital punishment does by no means enter into the true idea and definition of felony. Felony may be without inflicting capital punishment, as in the cases instances of self-murder, excusable homicide, and petit larceny; and it is possible that capital punishments may be inflicted, and yet the offence be no felony; as in case of hereby by the common law, which, though capital, never worked any forfeiture of lands or goods, an inseparable incident to felony. And of the same nature was the punishment of standing mute, without pleading to an indictment; which at the common law was capital, but without any forfeiture, therefore such standing mute was no felony. In short, the true criterion of felony is forfeiture: for, as Sir Edward Coke justly observes, in all felonies which are punishable with death, the offender loses all his FELT his lands in fee-simple, and also his goods and chattels; in such as are not punishable, his goods and chattels only.

The idea of felony is indeed so generally connected with that of capital punishment, that we find it hard to separate them; and to this usage the interpretations of the law do now conform. And therefore, if a statute makes any new offence felony, the law implies that it shall be punished with death, viz. by hanging, as well as with forfeiture; unless the offender prays the benefit of clergy; which all felons are intitled once to have, unless the same is expressly taken away by statute.

Felonnies by statute are very numerous; and as this work will not admit of a proper enumeration, we must refer to the Table of the quarto edition of the Statutes, where they are set forth in alphabetical order.