MAXIMS OF THE LAW. 183 



of benefit; but the use the law raiseth without suit or 

 action ; and besides, the law doth match real considera 

 tions with real agreements and covenants. 



So if a suit be commenced against me, my son, or bro- 19 Ed. 4. 5. 

 ther, I may maintain as well as he in remainder for his *9 Ed^22. 

 interest, or his lawyer for his fee ; and if my brother have 21 H ] 6. 

 a suit against my nephew or cousin, yet it is at my election is. 16. 

 to maintain the cause of my nephew or cousin, though the 22 H. 6. 5. 

 adverse party be nearer unto me in blood. 14 nie. e. 



So in challenges of juries, challenge of blood is as good 14 H. 7. 2. 

 as challenge within distress, and it is not material how ^4 ^5 

 far off the kindred be, so the pedigree can be conveyed in Com 42 g 

 a certainty, whether it be of the half blood or whole. 



So if a man menace me, that he will imprison or hurt 15 H. 6. 17. 

 in body my father, or my child, except I make such an j*9 j*^ 5 ^ 

 obligation, I shall avoid this duresse, as well as if the 18 jj. e. 21.&quot; 

 duresse had been to mine own person : and yet if a man 15 Ed. 4. i. 

 menace me, by taking away or destruction of my goods, 

 this is no good duresse to plead : and the reason is, because 39 H. 6. 91. 

 the law can make me reparation of that loss, and so it?Ed. 4. 21. 

 cannot of the other. 



So if a man under the years of twenty-one contract for Perk. 4. 

 the nursing of his lawful child, this contract is good, and D - ca P- 28 - 

 shall not be avoided by infancy, no more than if he had 

 contracted for his own aliments or erudition. 



REGULA XIX. 



Non impedit clausula derogatoria, quo minus ab eadem 



potestate res dissolvantur, a quibus constiluuntur. 

 ACTS which are in their natures revocable, cannot by 

 strength of words be fixed or perpetuated ; yet men have 

 put in use two means to bind themselves from changing or 

 dissolving that which they have set down, whereof one 

 is clausula derogatoria, the other interpositio juramenti, 

 whereof the former is only pertinent to this present purpose. 



This clausula derogatoria is by the common practical 

 term called clausula non obstante, de futuro esse, the one 

 weakening and disannulling any matter past to the con 

 trary, the other any matter to come ; and this latter is that 

 only whereof we speak. 



The clausula de non obstante de futuro, the law judgeth 

 to be idle and of no force, because it doth deprive men of 

 that which of all other things is most incident to human 

 condition, and that is alteration or repentance. 



