ginning, which will be within time of memory, and thereupon the custom will be void.

3d. It must have been peaceable, and acquiesced in; not subject to contention and dispute.

4th. Customs must be reasonable; or rather, taken negatively, they must not be unreasonable.

5th. Customs ought to be certain.

6th. Customs, though established by consent, must be (when established) compulsory, and not left to the option of every man, whether he will use them or not.

7th. Lastly, customs must be consistent with each other: one custom cannot be set up in opposition to another.

13. To what, however, must all special customs submit?-79. To the king's prerogative.

14. What are understood by those peculiar laws which, by custom, are adopted and used only in certain peculiar courts and jurisdic tions ?-79.

The civil and canon laws.

15. What is understood by each of these laws absolutely taken ?— 80-82.

By the civil law is generally understood the civil or municipal law of the Roman empire, as comprised in the Institutes, the Code, and the Digest of the Emperor Justinian, and the novel constitutions of himself and some of his successors.

The canon law is a body of Roman ecclesiastical law, relative to such matters as that church either has, or pretends to have, the proper jurisdiction over.

16. What are the courts in which the civil and canon law are per mitted to be used ?-83.

1st. The courts of the Archbishops and Bishops, and their derivative officers.

2d. The military courts.

3d. The courts of admiralty.

4th. The courts of the two universities.

17. Under what superintendency are all these courts ?-84.

Under that of the courts of common law.

18. To whom does an appeal lie in the last resort?-84.

To the King; which proves that the jurisdiction exercised in courts is derived from the crown of England alone.

19. Of what do the leges scriptæ consist ?-85.

Of statutes, acts, or edicts, made by the king's majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in parliament assembled.

20. Of what kinds are statutes?-85, 86.

They are either general or special, public or private.

21. How are statutes connected with the common law ?-86. They are declaratory of the common law, or remedial of small defects therein.

22. What rules are to be observed with regard to the construction of statutes?-87-91.

1st. There are three points to be considered in the construction of all remedial statutes :-the old law; the mischief; and the remedy.

2d. A statute which treats of things or persons of an inferior rank cannot, by any general words, be extended to those of a superior

3d. Penal statutes must be construed strictly.

4th. Statutes against frauds are to be liberally and bene. ficially expounded.

5th. One part of a statute must be so construed by another, that the whole may (if possible) stand.

6th. A saving, totally repugnant to the body of the act, is void. 7th. Where the common law and a statute differ, the common law gives place to the statute; and an old statute gives. place to a new one.

8th. If a statute that repeals another, is itself repealed afterwards, the first statute is thereby revived, without any formal words for that purpose.

9th. Acts of parliament derogating from the power of subsequent parliaments, bind not.

10th. Lastly; acts of parliament that are impossible to be performed, are of no validity.

23. For what purposes are our courts of equity established, and in what matters are they only conversant ?—92.

To detect latent frauds and concealments, which the process of the courts of law is not adapted to reach ; to enforce the execution of such matters of trust and confidence as are binding in conscience, though not cognizable in a court of law; to deliver from such dangers as are owing to misfortune or oversight; and to give a relief, more specific and better adapted to the circumstances of the case, than can always be obtained by the gener ality of the rules of the positive, or common law.

They are only conversant in matters of property.

BOOK I.

OF THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS

CHAPTER I.

OF THE ABSOLUTE RIGHTS OF INDIVIDUALS.

1. What are the primary and principal objects of the law?-122. RIGHTS and WRONGS.

2. How are rights subdivided?-122.

Into, first, those rights which concern and are annexed to the persons of men, and are called jura personarum, or the rights of persons; secondly, such as a man may acquire over external objects or things unconnected with his person, which are styled jura rerum, or the rights of things.

3. How are wrongs divisible?-122.

They are divisible into, first, private wrongs, which, being an infringement merely of particular rights, concern individuals only, and are called civil injuries; and, secondly, public wrongs, which, being breaches of general and public rights, affect the whole community, and are called crimes and misdemeanors.

4. Of what sorts are the rights of persons which are commandea to be observed by the municipal law?-123.

First, such as are due from every citizen, which are usually called civil duties; and, secondly, such as belong to him, which is the more popular acceptation of rights or jura.

5. How are persons divided by the law?-123.

Into natural persons and artificial. Natural persons are such as the God of nature formed us; artificial are such as are created

and devised by human laws for the purposes of society and government, which are called corporations or bodies politic.

6. Of what two sorts are the rights of persons, considered in their natural capacities ?-123.

First, absolute, which are such as appertain and belong to particular men, merely as individuals or single persons. Secondly, relative, which are incident to them as members of society, and standing in various relations to each other.

7. What is meant by the absolute rights of individuals ?—123. Those rights which are so in their primary and strictest sense; such as would belong to their persons merely in a state of nature, and which every man is entitled to enjoy, whether out of society or in it.

8. What is to be expected of the law as to the absolute duties of individuals ?—124.

It is not to be expected that human municipal law should at all explain or enforce them. It has no concern with any other but social or relative duties.

9. What is the principal aim of society?—124.

To protect individuals in the enjoyment of those absolute nights which were vested in them by the immutable laws of

nature.

10. What then is the first and primary end of human laws ?—124. To maintain and regulate these absolute rights of individuals. Such rights as are social and relative result from, and are posterior to, the formation of states and societies; so that to maintain and regulate these is clearly a subsequent consideration.

11. What general appellation is there for the natural rights of man ?-125.

The natural liberty of mankind.

12. In what does this natural liberty consist ?—125.

It consists properly in a power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, unless by the law of nature.