374 L A W. 
performed are of no validity; and, if there arife out of 
them collaterally any abfurd confequences, rnanifeftly con- 
tradiftory to common reafon, they are, with regard to 
thofe collateral confequences, void. We lay down the 
rule with thefe reftriftions; though we know it is gene¬ 
rally laid down more largely, that arts of parliament con¬ 
trary to reafon are void. But, if the parliament will po- 
fitively enaft a thing to be done which is unreafonable, 
we know of no power that can controul it; and the ex¬ 
amples ufually alleged in fupport of this fenfe of the rule 
do none of them prove, that, where the main objeft of a 
ftatute is unreafonable, the judges are at liberty to reject 
it; for that were to fet the judicial power above that of 
the legiflature, which would be fubverfive of all govern¬ 
ment. But, where fome collateral matter arifes out of 
the general words, and happens to be unreafonable ; there 
the judges are in decency to conclude that this confe- 
quence was not forefeen by the parliament, and therefore 
they are at liberty to expound the ftatute by equity, and 
only quoad hoc difregard it. Thus, if an aft of parliament 
gives a man power to try all caufes that arife within his 
manor of Dale ; yet, if a caufe fhould arife in which he 
himfelf is party, the aft is conftrued not to extend to 
that, becaufe it is unreafonable that any man fhould de¬ 
termine his own quarrel. But, if we could conceive it 
poffible for the parliament to enact, that he fhould try as 
well his own caufes as thofe of other perfons, there is no 
court that has power to defeat the intent of the legifla¬ 
ture, when couched in fuch evident and exprefs words as 
leave no doubt whether it was the intent of the legiflature 
or not. 
Thefe are the feveral grounds of the laws of England; 
over and above which, equity is alfo frequently called in 
to aflil't, to moderate, and to explain, them. What equity 
is, and how impoflible in its very efl'ence to be reduced to 
ftated rules, hath been fliown above. It may be fuffi- 
cient, therefore, to add in this place, that, befides the libe¬ 
rality of fentiment with which our common-law judges 
interpret afts of parliament, and fuch rules of the unwrit¬ 
ten law' as are not of a pofitive kind, there are alfo courts 
of equity eftablifhed for the benefit of the fubjeft, to de- 
teft latent frauds and concealments, which the procefs of 
the courts of law is not adapted to reach ; to enforce the 
execution of fuch matters of truft and confidence, as are 
binding in confcience, though not cognizable in a court 
of law ; to deliver from fuch dangers as are owing to mif- 
fortune or overfight; and to give a more fpecific relief, 
and more adapted to the circumftances of the cafe, than 
can always be obtained by the generality of the rules of 
the pofitive or common law. This is the bufinefs of the 
courts of equity, which however are only converfant in 
matters of property ; for the freedom of our conftitution 
will not permit, that in criminal cafes a power fhould be 
lodged in any judge to conftrue the law otherwife than 
according to the letter. This caution, while it admirably 
protefts the public liberty, can never bear hard upon in¬ 
dividuals. A man cannot fuffer more punifhment than 
the law affigns, but he may fuffer lefs. The laws cannot 
be ffrained by partiality to inflift a penalty beyond what 
■the letter will warrant; but, in cafes where the letter in¬ 
duces any apparent hardfhip, the crown has the power to 
pardon. 
Of the Study of the Law of England, as to its Rife, Progrefs, 
and Prefent State. 
The fcience of the laws and conftitution of our own 
country is a fpecies of knowledge, in which the gentle¬ 
men of England, as Blackftone obferves, have been more 
deficient than thofe of all Europe befides. In mofr of the 
nations on the continent, where the civil or imperial law, 
under different modifications, is clofely interwoven with 
the municipal laws of the land, no gentleman, or at leaf!: 
no fcholar, thinks his education is completed, till he has at¬ 
tended a courfe or two of leftures both upon the Inftitutes 
of juffinian and the local constitutions of his native foil, 
under the very eminent profeflors that abound in their 
feveral univerfities. And, in the northern parts of our 
own ifland, where alfo the municipal laws are frequently 
connefted with the civil, it is difficult to meet with a 
perfon of liberal education, who is deftitute of a compe¬ 
tent knowledge in that fcience, which is to be the guar¬ 
dian of his natural rights, and the rule of his civil conduft. 
Nor have the imperial laws been totally neglefted even 
in the Englifb nation. A general acquaintance with their 
decifions has ever been defervedly confidered as no fmall 
accomplishment of a gentleman; and a fafhion has pre¬ 
vailed of tranfporting the growing hopes of this ifland to 
foreign univerfities, in Swiflerland, Germany, and Hol¬ 
land ; which, though infinitely inferior to our own in 
every other consideration, have been looked upon as bet¬ 
ter nurferies of the civil or (which is nearly the fame) of 
their own municipal law. In the mean time, it has been 
the peculiar lot of our admirable fyftem of laws to be neg¬ 
lefted, and even unknown, by all but one praftical pro- 
feffion; though built upon the founded foundations, and 
approved by the experience of ages. 
Far from derogating from the ftudy of the civil law, 
confidered apart from any binding authority, as a collec¬ 
tion of written reafon, we ought to be thoroughly per- 
fuaded of the general excellence of its rules, the ufual 
equity of its decifions, and its ufe as well as ornament to 
the fcholar, the divine, the ftatefman, and even the com¬ 
mon lawyer. But we muff not carry our veneration fo 
far as to facrifice our Alfred and Edward to the manes of 
Theodofius and Juffinian: we muff not prefer the edift: 
of the pretor, or the refeript of the Roman emperor, to 
our own immemorial cuftoms, or the fanftions of an Eng- 
lifli parliament; unlefs we can alfo prefer the defpotic 
monarchy of Rome and Byzantium, for whofe meridians 
the former were calculated, to the free conftitution of Bri¬ 
tain, which the latter are adapted to perpetuate. 
Without detrafting, therefore, from the real merit which 
abounds in the imperial law, it may with good reafon be 
afferted, that, if an Englishman muff be ignorant of either 
the one or the other, he had better be a ftranger to the 
Roman than the Englifli inftitutions. For it may well 
be thought an undeniable pofition, that a competent 
knowledge of the laws of that fociety in which we live 
is the proper accomplishment of every gentleman and fcho¬ 
lar ; an highly-ufeful and perhaps efleptial part of libe¬ 
ral and polite education. And in this we are warranted 
by the example of ancient Rome ; where, as Cicero informs 
us, the very boys were obliged to learn the Twelve Tables 
by heart, as a carmen necejfarium, or indifpenfable leflbn, to 
imprint on their tender minds an early knowledge of the 
laws and conftitutions of their country. 
To demonftrate the utility of fome acquaintance with 
the laws of the land, let us only reflect a moment on the 
Angular frame and polity of that land which is governed 
by this fyffem of laws. A land, perhaps the only one in 
the univerfe, in which political or civil liberty is the very 
end and fcope of the conftitution. This liberty, rightly 
underftood, confifts in the power of doing whatever the 
laws permit; which is only to be eftefted by a general 
conformity of all orders and degrees to thofe equitable 
rules of aftion, by which the meaneft individual is pro¬ 
tected from the infults and oppreffion of the greateft. As 
therefore every fubject is interefted in the prefervation of 
the laws, it is incumbent upon every man to be acquaint¬ 
ed with thofe at lead with which he is immediately con¬ 
cerned, left he incur the cenfure, as well as inconve¬ 
nience, of living in fociety without knowing the obliga¬ 
tions which it lays him under. And thus much may fuf- 
fice for perfons of" inferior condition, who have neither 
time nor capacity to enlarge their views beyond that con- 
trafted fphere in which they are appointed to move. But 
thofe, on whom nature and fortune have beftowed more 
abilities and greater leifure, cannot be fo eafily excufed. 
Thefe advantages are given them, not for the benefit of 
theniielves only, but alfo of the public ; and yet they Can¬ 
not* 
