The use of cases is to establish principles; if the cases decide different from the principles, I must follow the principles, not the decisions.
No stops are ever inserted in Acts of Parliament, or in deeds; but the Courts of law, in construing them, must read them with such stops as will give effect to the whole.
The popish religion is now unknown to the law of this country.
It is of infinite importance to the public that the acts of magistrates should not only be substantially good, but also that they should be decorous.
The practice of the Court forms the law of the Court.
It is a maxim in our law that a plaintiff must shew that he stands on a fair ground when he calls on a Court of justice to administer relief to him.
The legislature have anxiously provided for those most useful and deserving body of men, the seamen and marines of this country.
It is of great importance that the laws by which the contracts of so numerous and so useful a body of men as the sailors are supposed to be guided, should not be overturned.
It is sometimes difficult to get rid of first impressions.
A Court of equity can mould interests differently from a Court of law; and can give relief in cases where a Court of law cannot.
Those regulations that are adapted to the common race of men are the best.
If people with the very best intentions carry on prosecutions that are oppressive, the end may not always perhaps sanctify the means.
A conviction is in the nature of a verdict and judgment, and therefore it must be precise and certain.
I take it that the judgment is an essential point in every conviction, let the punishment be fixed or not.
I should be extremely sorry to find that in a fictitious proceeding, instituted for the more easy attaining of justice, different rules were to obtain in the different Courts.
A plaintiff who comes into a Court of justice must show that he is in a condition to maintain his action.
Precedent goes in support of justice.
Notwithstanding all the care and anxiety of the persons who frame Acts of Parliament to guard against every event, it frequently turns out that certain cases were not foreseen.
We ought not to decide hastily against the words of an Act of Parliament.
Proceedings at law are sufficiently expensive.