JB/028/131/001

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1)

Common Law. Division of it into Customs and Maxims.

We are now to attend our Author to a passage where in which he
assumes a character very new and strange to him:
in which after having been so long the tranquil copyist
and profound admirer indiscriminate panegyrist he [makes a sudden change] takes a sudden turn, and
becomes all at once the critic censor of his predecessors. This
new character as evil destiny will have it, sits on
him but awkwardly. [This eccentric attempt, as evil destiny
will have it, succeeds but ill with him}. But
let us hear his words.

"Some", he tells us, "have divided the Common Law into
"two principal grounds or foundations: 1. Established Customs;
"such as that, where there are three brothers, the
"eldest brother shall be heir to the second, and not the in exclusion of the
"youngest: and 2. Established rules and maxims; as that
"the thing can do no wrong, that no man shall be
'bound to accuse himself', and the like". Thus far our
Author. Those who thus divided the Common Law assuredly see
their way through it but dimly. But our Author
speaks the word, and all is darkness. "These", say he
"I take to be one and the same thing." The proof of it he
gives of their this identity is, his finding means some how
or other to get [them] the words Custom and Maxim into one and the same sentence.
"For" continues he, "the authority of these maxims rests entirely
"upon general reception and usage; and the only method
"of proving, that this or that maxim is a rule of

Identifier: | JB/028/131/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 28.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering	not numbered
Box	028	Main Headings	comment on the commentaries
Folio number	131	Info in main headings field	common law division of it into customs and maxims
Image	001	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	4
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	b1 / e2 / b3 / e4
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	[[watermarks::[monogram] [britannia emblem]]]
Marginals	jeremy bentham	Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	9396
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