142 CASE OF THE POST-NATI OF SCOTLAND. 



of life natural ; liberty, which every beast or bird 

 seeketh and affecteth naturally ; the society of man 

 and wife, whereof dower is the reward natural. It 

 is well, doth the law favour liberty so highly, as a 

 man shall enfranchise his bondman when he thinketh 

 not of it, by granting to him lands or goods ; and is 

 the reason of it &quot; quia natura omnes homines erant 

 &quot; liberi ;&quot; and that servitude or villenage doth cross 

 and abridge the law of nature ? And doth not the 

 self-same reason hold in the present case ? For, my 

 lords, by the law of nature all men in the world are 

 naturalized one towards another ; they were all 

 made of one lump of earth, of one breath of God ; 

 they had the same common parents : nay, at the first 

 they were, as the Scripture sheweth, &quot; unius labii,&quot; of 

 one language, until the curse ; which curse, thanks 

 be to God, our present case is exempted from. 

 It was civil and national laws that brought in these 

 words, and differences, of &quot; civis&quot; and &quot; exterus,&quot; 

 alien and native. And therefore because they tend 

 to abridge the law of nature, the law favoureth not 

 them, but takes them strictly ; even as our law- 

 hath an excellent rule, That customs of towns and 

 boroughs shall be taken and construed strictly and 

 precisely, because they do abridge and derogate from 

 the law of the land. So by the same reason, all na 

 tional laws whatsoever are to be taken strictly and 

 hardly in any point wherein they abridge and dero 

 gate from the law of nature. Whereupon I conclude 

 that your lordships cannot judge the law for the 

 other side, except the case be &quot; luce clarius.&quot; And 



