576 
L A W. 
that delicacy of fentiment, fo peculiar to noble birth; 
which, as on the one hand it will prevent either intereft 
or affection from interfering in quefiions of right, fo on 
the other, it will bind a peer in honour, an obligation 
which the law efteems equal to another’s oath, to be maf- 
terof thofe points upon which it is his birthright to decide. 
The Roman pandects will furnifli us with a piece of 
hiftory not inapplicable to this point. Servius Sulpicius, 
a gentleman of 'the patrician order, and a celebrated ora¬ 
tor, had occafion to take the opinion of Quintus Mutius 
Sctevola, the oracle of the Roman law 5 but, for want of 
fome knowledge in that fcience, could not fo much as un¬ 
derhand even the technical terms which his friend was 
obliged to make ufe of. Upon which Mutius Scxvola 
could not forbear to upbraid him with this memorable 
reproof-; “That it was a fliame for a patrician, a noble¬ 
man, and an orator of caufes, to be ignorant of that law 
in which he was fo peculiarly concerned.” This reproach 
made fo deep an impreffion on Sulpicius, that he imme¬ 
diately applied himfelf to the liudy of the law, wherein 
be arrived to fuch a proficiency, that he left behind him 
about a hundred and eighty volumes of his own compi¬ 
ling upon the fubjefit; and became, in the opinion of Ci¬ 
cero, a more complete lawyer than even Mutius Scxvola 
himfelf. 
The inference which arifes from this ftory is this, that 
ignorance of the laws of the land hath ever been efteemed 
dilhoncurable, in thofe who are entrufied by their coun¬ 
try to maintain, to adminilier, and to amend, them. 
Nor will fome degree of legal knowdedge be found fu- 
perfluous to perfons of inferior rank, efpecially thofe 
of the learned profefilons. The clergy in particu¬ 
lar, befides the common obligations they are under in 
proportion to their rank and fortune, have alfo abundant 
reafon, coniidered merely as clergymen, to be acquainted 
with many branches of the law, which arealmoft peculiar 
and appropriated to themfelves alone. Such are the laws 
relating to advowfons, inRitutions, and inductions ; to 
fimony and fimoniacal contracts ; to uniformity, refidence, 
and pluralities ; to tithes and other ecclefiaftical dues ; to 
marriages (more efpecially of late), and to a variety of 
other fubjeCts, which are configned to the care of their 
■order by the provifions of particular flatutes. To under- 
Rand tliefe aright, to difcern what is warranted or enjoin¬ 
ed, and what is forbidden, by law, demands a fort of le¬ 
gal apprehenfion ; wdtich is no otherwife to be acquired 
than by ufe, and a familiar acquaintance with legal writers. 
The feveral periods under which the Rate of our legal 
polity may be ltudied are the following : 1. From the ear- 
lieft times to the Norman conqueft. 2. From the Nor¬ 
man conqueft to the reign of king Edward I. 3. From 
thence to the reformation. 4. From the reformation to 
the reltoration of king Charles II. 5. From thence to the 
revolution in 1688. 6. From the revolution to the prefent 
time. 
t. With regard to the ancient Britons, the aborigines 
of our iflands, fo little is handed down to us concern¬ 
ing them with any tolerable certainty, that inquiries here 
muff be very fruitlefs and defective. However, from Cte- 
far’s account of the tenets and difcipline of the ancient 
Druids in Gaul, in whom centered all the learning of thefe 
weltern parts, and who were, as he tells us, fent over to 
Britain, (i. e. to the ifland of Mona or Anglefey,) to be 
inRruCted; we may coiled a few points, which bear a 
great affinity and refemblance to fome of the modern doc¬ 
trines of our Englilh law. Particularly, the very notion 
itfelf of an oral unwritten law, delivered from age to age, 
by cuRom and tradition merely, feems derived from the 
practice of the Druids, who never committed any of their 
inRrudions to writing; poffibly for want of letters; fince 
it is remarkable, that in all the antiquities, unqueRionably 
Britilh, which the induRryof the moderns has difcovered, 
there is not in any of them the leaR trace of any charac¬ 
ter or letter to be found. The partible quality alfo of 
lands, by the cuRom of gavelkind, which ltill obtains in 
many parts of Eti^and, and did univerfally over Wales 
till the reign of Henry VIII. is undoubtedly of Britifli 
original. So likewife is the ancient divifion of the goods 
of an inteRate between his widow and children, or next 
of kin ; which has fince been revived by the Ratute 
of dtftrib.utio.ns. And the cuftom, which had continued 
from Csefir’s time until altered by Rat. 30 Geo. III. 
c. 48. of burning a woman guilty of the crime of petit 
treafon by killing her huRiaiid. 
The great variety of nations, that fucceftively broke in 
upon and deRroyed both the Britifli inhabitants and con- 
Ritution, the Romans, the Picls, and, after them, the va¬ 
rious clans of Saxons and Danes, muft neceffarily have 
caufed great confufion and uncertainty in the laws and 
antiquities of the kingdom ; as they were very foon in¬ 
corporated and blended together, and therefore, we may 
fuppofe, mutually communicated to each other their re- 
fpeftive ufliges, in regard to the rights of property and 
the puniihment of crimes. So that it is morally impofil- 
ble to trace out, with any degree of accuracy, when the 
feveral mutations of the common law were made, or what 
was the refpedlive original of thofe feveral cuRoms we at 
prefent ufe, by any analyzation or refolution of them to 
their firR and component principles. We can feldom 
pronounce, that this cuRom was derived from the Bri¬ 
tons, that was left behind by the Romans; this was a ne- 
ceflary precaution againlt the Picls, that was introduced 
by the Saxons, difcontinued by the Danes, but afterwards 
reflored by the Normans. 
Wherever this can be done, it is matter of great curio- 
ftty, and fome ufe ; but this can very rarely be the cafe; 
not only from the reafon above-mentioned, but alfo from 
many others. FirR, from the nature of traditional laws 
in general; which, being accommodated to the exigencies 
of the times, fuft’er by degrees infenfible variations in 
praftice ; fo that, though upon comparifon we plainly 
difcern the alteration of the law from what it was five 
hundred years ago, yet it is impoffible to define the pre- 
cife period in wdiich that alteration accrued, any more 
than we can difcern the changes of the bed of a river, 
which varies its (liores by continual decreafes and alluvions. 
Secondly, this becomes impracticable from the antiquity 
of the kingdom and its government; which alone, though 
it had been difturbed by no foreign invafions, would make 
it impoffible to fearch out the origin of its laws ; unlefs 
we had as authentic monuments thereof as the Jews had by 
the hand of Mofes. Thirdly, this uncertainty of the true 
origin of particular cufioms muff alfo in part have arifen 
from the means whereby Chrifiianity was propagated 
among our Saxon ancefiors in this ifland, by learned fo¬ 
reigners brought over from Rome and other countries; 
who undoubtedly imported with them many of their own 
national cuffoms ; and probably prevailed upon the Rate 
to abrogate fuch ufages as were inconfiRent with our holy 
religion, and to introduce many others that were more 
conformable thereto. And this perhaps may have partly 
been the caufe, that we find not only fome rules of the 
mofaical, but alfo of the imperial and pontifical, laws, 
blended and adopted into our own fyfiem. 
A farther reafon may alfo be given for the great variety, 
and of courfe the uncertain original, of our ancient efia- 
blilhed cuRoms ; even after the Saxon government was 
firmly eflabliflied in this ifland : viz. the fubdiviflon of 
the kingdom into an heptarchy, confiding of feven inde¬ 
pendent kingdoms, peopled and governed by diflerent 
clans and colonies. This muR neceffarily create an infi¬ 
nite diverfity of laws; even though all thofe colonies, of 
Jutes, Angles, Anglo-Saxons, and the like, originally 
jfprang from the fame mother-country, the great northern 
hive; which poured forth its warlike progeny, and 
fwarmed all over Europe, in the fixth and leventh centu¬ 
ries. This multiplicity of laws will neceffarily be the 
cafe in fome degree, where any kingdom is cantoned out 
into provincial eltabliffiments ; and not under one com¬ 
mon difpenfation of laws, though under the fame fove- 
reign 
