ment, to the Roman law, especially during the times of the empire. Previous to the era of Augustus, banishment was a legal commutation of punishment for certain capital offences: the Roman law subjecting the criminal perdere aut Titam aut patriam; or, in other words, awarding him the punishment of death, if he should be found, after a certain period, within the precincts of Italy. When the criminal had either escaped from justice or had not been apprehended, the sentence of aquæ et ignis interdictio (prohibiting all and sundry, under the severest penalties, from supplying him with the necessaries of life, or from receiving him into their houses,) was pronounced against him; and this sentence became, in process of time, the usual form of a sentence of banishment from Italy. These practices and enactments of the ancient Roman law appear to have been afterwards naturalized and established in most of the states of modern Europe. By the law of England, for example, a criminal, who had committed a capital offence, was in certain cases permitted to escape with his life, on condition of his abjuring the realm, or quitting the kingdom. In such cases, the oath of abjuration was administered to the criminal by the coroner of the district, and a cross was placed in his hand, to ensure him protection on his journey to the limits of the
