[Footnote 276: “It is answered,” says the Regiam Majestatem, “that no Man may succeed to him, but only the King by the reason aforesaid.” (L. 2. c. 52.) But Bracton resolves the question by informing us, that in such a case, the Land would escheat to the Lord; nor, would the circumstance of Homage having been received, alter the case, _quia homagium evanescit heredibus deficientibus ubique_; (Bracton 20. b.) a doctrine which has been strangely misinterpreted, and that by a highly respectable writer, who considers the position laid down by Glanville, that the Lord was precluded by receiving Homage of his claim to the Escheat, as not to be relied upon; because, _in the very next Reign_, the Lord was _ultimus heres_ to a Bastard. In support of this conjecture, the Author in question appeals to Bracton. (Ubi supra.) See Dalrymple on Feuds p. 64. Bracton wrote the Law of the times as it stood when he composed his treatise, which was not _in the very next Reign_, but towards the latter end of the Reign of Henry the third, the better part of a century later than when Glanville wrote. Had the fact, however, been as assumed, the conclusion drawn from it would by no means be warranted: since, to argue from what is Law at one period in order to refute what was so at another _anterior_ period is the purest sophistry.] [Footnote 277: The Ancient _Romans_ punished Usury with more severity, than they did Theft. (Cato de re Rusticâ Proem.) The _Norman_ code imposes a forfeiture of all the offender’s property, provided he had been guilty of Usury, within a year and a day before his death. (Grand Custum. de Norm. c. 20.) By a Law of Edward the Confessor, Usurers were banished the kingdom, and a person convicted of the crime forfeited all his substance, and was to be treated as an outlaw. If the Reader feel any desire to penetrate into the motives that dictated this Law, these are the concluding words of it. _Hoc autem asserebat ipse Rex se audiisse in Curia Regis Francorum, dum ibidem moraretur, quod Usura radix omnium vitiorum esset._ (LL. Ed. Conf. c. 37.) The doctrine, as laid down by the Mirror, is, that the goods and Chattels of Usurers should remain, as Escheats to the Lords of the Fee. (Mirror c. 1. s. 3.) The Reader will find some curious disquisitions on the subject of Usury in the Ancient Dialog. de Scaccario. (L. 2. s. 10.)]