LAWS. 



down ; directory, whereby the subject of 

 a state is instructed and enjoined to ob- 

 serve those rights, and to abstain from the 

 commission of those wrongs ; remedial, 

 whereby a method is pointed out to re- 

 cover a man's private rights or redress 

 his private wrongs ; vindicatory, which 

 imposes the sanction, whereby it is signi. 

 fied what evil or penalty shall be incurred 

 by such as commit any public wrongs, 

 and transgress or neglect any duty. 



Laws are arbitrary or positive, and na- 

 tural ; the last of which are essentially 

 just and good, and bind every where and 

 in all places where they are observed ; 

 arbitrary laws are either concerning such 

 matter as is in itself morally indifferent, in 

 which case both the law and the matter, 

 and subject of it, are likewise indifferent, 

 or concerning the natural law itself, and 

 the regulating thereof; and all arbitrary 

 laws are founded in convenience, and de- 

 pend upon the authority of the legislative 

 power which appoints and makes them, 

 and are for maintaining public order ; 

 those which are natural laws are from 

 God ; but those which are arbitrary, 

 are properly human and positive institu- 

 tions. 



The laws of any country began, when 

 there first began to be a state in the 

 land ; and we may consider the world as 

 one universal society, and then that law 

 by which nations were governed, is called 

 jus gentium; if we consider the world as 

 made up of particular nations, the law 

 which regulates the public order and 

 right of them, is termed jus publicum; and 

 that law which determines the private 

 rights of men, is called jus civile. 



No law can oblige a people without 

 their consent; this consent is either verbis 

 orfactzs, i. e. it is expressed by writing, or 

 implied by deeds and actions ; and where 

 a law is grounded on an implied assent, 

 rebus etfactis, it is either common law or 

 custom ; if it is universal, it is common 

 law; and if particular to this or that place, 

 then it is custom. 



The law in this land hath been varia- 

 ble ; the Roman laws were in use ancient- 

 ly in Britain, when the Romans had seve- 

 ral colonies here, eacli of which was go- 

 verned by the Roman laws : afterwards 

 we had the laws called Merchenlage, 

 We.st Saxonlage, and Danelage ; all re- 

 duced into a body, and made one by King 

 Edward the Confessor. 



At present the laws of England are di- 

 vided into three parts : 1. The common 

 law, which is the most ancient and gene- 

 ral law of the realm, and common to the 



whole kingdom; being appropriate there- 

 to, and having no dependence upon any 

 foreign law whatsoever. 



2 Statutes, or acts of parliament, made 

 and passed by the King, Lords, and 

 Commons, in Parliament; being a reserve 

 for the government to provide against 

 new mischiefs arising through the cor- 

 ruption of the times. And by this the 

 common law is amended where defective, 

 for the suppression of public evils ; 

 though where the common law and sta- 

 tute law concur or interfere, the common 

 law shall be preferred. 



3. Particular customs. These must be 

 particular, for a general custom is part of 

 the common law of the land. 



Blackstone divides the municipal law of 

 England into two kinds, lex non scripta, 

 the unwritten or common law; and the 

 lex scripta, the written, that is, the statute 

 law. 



The lex non scripta, or unwritten law, 

 includes not only general customs, or 

 the common law, properly so called ; 

 but also the particular customs of certain 

 parts of the kingdom ; and likewise 

 those particular laws, that are by custom 

 observed only in certain courts and juris- 

 dictions. 



There is another division of our laws, 

 more large and particular; as into the 

 prerogative or crown law, the law and 

 custom of parliament, the common law, 

 the statute law, reasonable customs, the 

 law of arms, war, and chivalry, ecclesias- 

 tical or canon law, civil law, in certain 

 courts and cases, forest law, the law of 

 marque and reprisal, the law of mer- 

 chants, the law and privilege of the stan- 

 naries, &c. But this large division may 

 be reduced to the common division ; and 

 all is founded on the law of nature and 

 reason, and the revealed law of God, as 

 all other laws ought to be. 



The law of nature is that which God, 

 at man's creation, infused into him, for his 

 preservation and direction ; and this is lex 

 sterna, and may not be changed ; and no 

 laws shall be made or kept, that are ex- 

 pressly against the law of God, written in 

 his scripture ; as to forbid what he com- 

 mandeth. 



All laws derive their force a lege nature; 

 and those which do not, are accounted as 

 no laws. No law will make a construc- 

 tion to do wrong ; and there are some 

 things which the law favours, and some 

 it dislikes ; it favoureth those things 

 that come from the order of nature. Also 

 our law hath much more respect to life, 

 liberty, freehold, inheritance, matters of 



