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Ideas there are but two sorts: Ideas
which are copies of external objects perceptible
to the senses — Ideas of Sensation Images: Ideas
which are copies of the ideas excited in the
mind by the 1st sort mentioned — Ideas of
Reflection.
For a word to be understood, any a word I mean
that expresses any thing else besides the
bare internal operations of the mind, it must raise
up an internal image, a copy of certain the
visible & tangible objects in a certain situation:
till the mind a man upon hearing of that
word has learnt to raises up to to itself in his mind that groupe of
images he cannot be said to understand it.
or raise up [+] If you would explain a word, some image or images must be raised up [+] in the
[+] which there is
no way no of doing
but by means of
other words to which
the images in question
are already attested
mind of him to whom it is to be explained.
To do this, and at the same time to intimate
that the word in question is to be understood
as representation of these images, is
to explain it.
Almost all the words terms used in Law, those I
mean that belong to it as a science, after all
the Institutes and the Dictionaries that
have been written, remain to this hour unexplained.
Among these terms is the word Possession.
Lawyers talk as glibly of Possession, as if
they understood it. A word that people are
incessantly repeating, it never enters into their
heads to suspect that they do not understand.
Meantime if ever Lawyer arrived of at this
point of knowledge, it is more than he ever
yet communicated to the public.
I am in a my house: my Servant is in it
too. He walks about, in it, and runs up and
down in it, as much (or more) than as I do.
Yet the House is in my Possession, in mine
alone, and not in his.
Round about my House is a farm of mine belonging
to it. One of the fields is a field of turnips.
I never was in it. Yet has it been all
along in my possession. My servant has
often been in it to gather turnips. Yet it
never was in his.
At Fifty miles distance his another farm.
I manage never was in it in my life. I manage
it by my Bailiff. It is in my Possession
as against my Bailiff and against
all the world besides.
Further on I have another. I let
it to a Tenant; He is in possession of it
as against me, and all all the world in amongst the
rest. I am at the same time in possession
of it, as against all but him,
or any one by him appointed.
But I am in Possession have taken rent for it. I am now in possession
of the Rent. This rent was
money: not one farthing of which am
I now in possession of at present.
What I have a man has under Lock and
Key he has in his possession. What
a man has in his possession at the
instant preceding that in which it is alledged he stole
it, he cannot according to Law be said
to have stolen. committed Theft upon. A Butler had having his
master's plate under Lock and Key,
stole it. For this he was indicted as for
a Theft. and the Judges who ever they were determined it to
be a Theft. They thought they had
said a very acute thing, in saying making
a distinction, and saying, That what the Butler
had in his care was not the possession, but
the custody. Meantime at bottom this
Law Terms not understood — Possession. | 1.
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Identifier: | JB/014/013/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 14.
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civil code |
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law terms not understood - possession |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [britannia with shield motif]]] |
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