JB/028/142/003

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15)

Common Law. Judicial Decisions.

"And", concludes our Author for the present, "it hath been
"an ancient observation in the Laws of England, that
"whenever a standing rule of Law, of which the reason
"perhaps could not be remember'd or discerned, hath
"been wantonly[a] broken in upon by statutes or new resolutions,
"the wisdom of the rule hath in the end appeared
"from the inconveniences that have followed the innovation."

This much to serve for an Irrefragable plea for obstinacy:
and to confirm that malady which is weak minds and
cold hearts bosoms the accumulated influence of interests and
envy and timidity, and ignorance in is but too apt to
propagate,⊞ ⊞ a malady for which no fixed certain name has yet been found by our pathologists, but which might perhaps be termed, the hydrophobia of innovation.

The curious parts of circumstances in the passage, and that which justifies
this censure is that Statutes are in this respect put
upon a footing with resolutions, as if it had the
same effect whether a doctrine of Law were overthrown
by a new resolution a resolution that the will of a Judge
or by a Statute, the will of an acknowledged Legislator.
"The doctrine of the law then", continues our Author,
"is this: that precedents and rules are must be follow'd unless
"flatly absurd or unjust: for though their reason be
not obvious at first view, yet we owe such a deference to
instances ☞ Here insert Inserenda p.2. No 2.

NOTE.

[a] Those That "wanton" proceedings in matter of Law are apt to be may be productive
of "inconvenience", is what there needed not a Professor
from Oxford to have told us. But this word wantonly
seems to have been a ... of our Author's. Having

Identifier: | JB/028/142/003 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 28.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	028	Main Headings	comment on the commentaries
Folio number	142	Info in main headings field	common law judicial decisions
Image	003	Titles	note continued / text resumed / note / note
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	4
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	b13 / e14 / b15 / e16
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	[[watermarks::[monogram] [britannia emblem]]]
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	9407
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