JB/028/163/002

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14)

Common Law. Particular Customs. Rules

those sage instructors parents, who are incessantly recommending
it to their children young people to be prudent. [So far, so good]
This is mighty well: but what imprudence, that is the
question. This however is what is commonly called
giving good advice. With like justice may this of
our Author's be called giving good instruction. Thus
much however we understand from him, that it is
not every custom (although it be possessed of though endued with the six
other requisites) that superior Judges have thought fit
to legalize. This is something, by way of warning to us to look out. [A rare thing, this same legal and artificial
reason!]

Thus much being all that is to be made of the rule,
let us see whether we can make any more of the
example. "Upon which account", continues our Author,
"a custom may be good, though the particular reason
"of it cannot be assigned; for it sufficeth, if no good
"legal reason can be assigned against it. Thus a custom
"in a parish, that no man shall put his beasts
"into the common till the 3d of October, would be
"good; and yet it would be hard to shew the reason
"why that day in particular is fixed upon rather than
"the day before or after. But a custom that no cattle
"shall be put in till the Lord of the Manor has
"first put in his, is unreasonable, and therefore bad: "for peradventure the Lord will never put in his; and
"then the tenants will lose all their profits".

What our Author has given here as a custom, is in
fact not itself a custom, but [a condition] a limitation [annexed to] the exercise observance

Identifier: | JB/028/163/002 "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	163	Info in main headings field	common law particular customs - rules
Image	002	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	4
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	b13 / e14 / b15 / e16
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	[[watermarks::[monogram] [britannia symbol]]]
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	9428
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