342 A PROPOSAL FOR AMENDING 



5. That the ignorant lawyer shroudeth his igno 

 rance of law, in that doubts are so frequent and 

 many. 



6. That men s assurances of their lands and 

 estates by patents, deeds, wills, are often subject to 

 question, and hollow ; and many the like inconve- 

 niencies. 



It is a good rule and direction, for that all laws, 

 &quot; secundum majus et minus,&quot; do participate of un 

 certainties, that followeth: Mark, whether the doubts 

 that arise, are only in cases not of ordinary expe 

 rience ; or which happen every day. If in the first 

 only, impute it to the frailty of man s foresight, that 

 cannot reach by law to all cases ; but, if in the 

 latter, be assured there is a fault in the law. Of 

 this I say no more, but that, to give every man his 

 due, had it not been for Sir Edward Coke s Reports, 

 (which though they may have errors, and some 

 peremptory and extrajudicial resolutions more than 

 are warranted ; yet they contain infinite good deci 

 sions, and rulings over of cases,) the law, by this 

 time, had been almost like a ship without ballast ; 

 for that the cases of modern experience are fled 

 from those that are adjudged and ruled in former 

 time. 



But the necessity of this work is yet greater in 

 the statute law. For first, there are a number of 

 ensnaring penal laws, which lie upon the subject ; 

 and if in bad times they should be awaked and put 

 in execution, would grind them to powder. 



There is a learned civilian that expoundeth the 



