356 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [BOOK VI1L 



tions, but such also as prohibit and restrain things future, 

 which are necessarily connected with things past : so, if any 

 law should prohibit certain artificers the sale of their wares 

 in future, this law, though it speaks for hereafter, yet 

 operates upon times past, though such artificers had then no 

 other lawful means of subsisting. 



LI. All declaratory laws, though they make no mention of 

 time past, yet are, by the very declaration itself, entirely to 

 regard past matters ; for the interpretation does not begin 

 with the declaration, but, as it were, is made contemporary 

 with the law itself. And therefore declaratory laws should 

 not be enacted, except in cases where the law may be retro- 

 spected with justice. And so much for the uncertainty ol 

 laws, where the law is extant. We proceed to the other 

 part, where the laws, though extant, are perplexed and 

 obscure. 



Obscurity of laws. 



LII. The obscurity of laws has four sources ; viz., 1. An 

 accumulation of laws, especially if mixed with such as are 

 obsolete. 2. An ambiguous description, or want of clear and 

 distinct delivery. 3. A neglect or failure in instituting the 

 method of interpreting justice. 4. And lastly, a clashing and 

 uncertainty of judgments. 



Excessive accumulation of laws. 



LTII. The prophet says, &quot;It shall rain snares upon them :&quot;* 

 but there are no worse snares than the snares of laws, espe 

 cially the penal, which, growing excessive in number, and 

 useless through time, prove not a lantern, but nets to the feet. 



LIV. There are two ways in use of making new statutes; 

 the one confirms and strengthens the former statutes in the 

 like cases, at the same time adding or altering some parti 

 culars ; the other abrogates and cancels all that was enacted 

 before, and instead thereof, substitutes a new uniform law. 

 And the latter method is the best : for in the former the 

 decrees become complicate and perplexed, and though the 

 business be performed, yet the body of laws in the mean 

 time becomes corrupt ; but in the latter, greater diligence 

 must be used when the law itself comes to be weighed anew, 

 and what was before enacted to be reconsidered antecedent 



PaaL x. 7. 





