MAXIMS OF THE LAW. 175 



the son and heir murder his father, it goeth to the second 

 brother, 



But if the rule be one of the higher sort of maxims that 

 are regula rationales, and not positive, then the law will 

 rather endure a particular offence to escape without punish 

 ment, than violate such a rule. 



As it is a rule that penal statutes shall not be taken by Cap. 12. 

 equity, and the statute of 1 Ed. VI. enacts that those that 

 are attainted for stealing of horses shall not have their 

 clergy, the judges conceived that this did not extend to him 

 thatVtole but one horse, and therefore procured a new act for 

 it, 2 Ed. VI. cap. 33. And they had reason for it, as I take riow. 467. 

 the law; for it is not like the case upon the statute of ^&quot; 3 ca jj 46 

 Glocest. that gives an action of waste against him that 

 holds pro termino vitte vel annorum. It is true, if a man 

 hold but for a year he is within the statute ; for it is to be 

 noted, that penal statutes are taken strictly and literally 

 only in the point of denning and setting down the fact and 

 the punishment, and in those clauses that do concern them ; 

 and not generally in words that are but circumstances and 

 conveyance in the putting of the case : and so see the 

 diversity ; for if the law be, that for such an offence a man 

 shall lose his right hand, and the offender hath had his 

 right hand before cut off in the wars, he shall not lose his 

 left hand, but the crime shall rather pass without the 

 punishment which the law assigned, than the letter of the 

 law shall be extended ; but if the statute of 1 Ed. VI. had 

 been, that he that should steal a horse should be ousted of 

 his clergy, then there had been no question at all, but if a 

 man had stolen more horses than one, but that he had been 

 within the statute, quia omne majus continet in se minus. 



REGULA XIII. 



Non accipi debent verba in demonstrationem faham qua 



competunt in limitationem veram. 



THOUGH falsity of addition or demonstration doth not hurt 

 where you give the thing the proper name, yet nevertheless 

 if it stand doubtful upon the words, whether they import a 

 false reference and demonstration, or whether they be words 

 of restraint that limit the generality of the former name, the 

 law will never intend error or falsehood. 



And, therefore, if the parish of Hurst do extend into the 12 Eliz. 21. 

 counties of Wiltshire and Berkshire, and I grant my close ^j^ 91 * 

 called Callis, situate and lying in the parish of Hurst in the Dy . 376. 

 county of Wiltshire, and the truth is, that the whole close 7 Ed. 6. 



Dy. 56. 



