346 A PROPOSAL FOR AMENDING 



his laws should be written. Customs are laws 

 written in living tables, and some traditions the 

 Church doth not disauthorise. In all sciences they 

 are the soundest, that keep close to particulars ; and, 

 sure I am, there are more doubts that rise upon our 

 statutes, which are a text law, than upon the com 

 mon law, which is no text law. But, howsoever that 

 question be determined, I dare not advise to cast the 

 law into a new mold. The work, which I propound, 

 tendeth to pruning and grafting the law, and not to 

 plowing up and planting it again ; for such a remove 

 I should hold indeed for a perilous innovation. 



Obj. V. It will turn the judges, counsellors of 

 law, and students &amp;lt;?f law to school again, and make 

 them to seek what \hey shall hold and advise for 

 law ; and it will impose a new charge upon all 

 lawyers to furnish themselves with new books of law. 



Resp. For the former of these, touching the new 

 labour, it is true it would follow, if the law were new 

 molded into a text law ; for then men must be new 

 to begin, and that is one of the reasons for which I 

 disallow that course. 



But in the way that I shall now propound, the 

 entire body and substance of law shall remain, only 

 discharged of idle and unprofitable or hurtful matter ; 

 and illustrated by order and other helps, towards 

 the better understanding of it and judgment there 

 upon. 



For the latter, touching the new charge, it is not 

 worthy the speaking of in a matter of so high 

 importance ; it might have been used of the new 



