Commentaries on the Laws of England: In Four Books ; with an Analysis of the Work, Volume 1

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S. Sweet, 1836
 

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Page 210 - That king James the Second, having endeavoured to subvert the Constitution of the Kingdom, by breaking the original Contract between king and people, and, by the advice of Jesuits, and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental Laws, and having withdrawn himself out of the Kingdom, has abdicated the Government, and that the Throne is thereby become vacant.
Page 439 - By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband...
Page 412 - That the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of parliament, is against law.
Page 157 - It hath sovereign and uncontrollable authority in the making, confirming, enlarging, restraining, abrogating, repealing, reviving, and expounding of laws, concerning matters of all possible denominations, ecclesiastical, or temporal, civil, military, maritime, or criminal ; this being the place where that absolute despotic power, which must in all governments reside somewhere, is intrusted by the constitution of these kingdoms.
Page 234 - And whereas the laws of England are the birthright of the people thereof, and all the kings and queens who shall ascend the throne of this realm ought to administer the government of the same according to the said laws, and all their officers and ministers ought to serve them respectively according to the same...
Page 41 - Commentaries, remarks, that this law of Nature being coeval with mankind and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times; no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this, and such of them as are valid derive all their force and all their validity and all their authority, mediately and immediately, from this original...
Page 235 - Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the laws of God, the true profession of the gospel, and the protestant reformed religion established by law ? And will you preserve unto the bishops and clergy of this realm, and to the churches committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges as by law do or shall appertain unto them, or any of them? — King or queen. All this I promise to do.
Page 60 - that whoever drew blood in the streets should be punished with the utmost severity,' did not extend to the surgeon who opened the vein of a person that fell down in the street in a fit.
Page 67 - This unwritten, or common law, is properly distinguishable into three kinds: 1. General customs; which are the universal rule of the whole kingdom, and form the common law, in its stricter and more usual signification. 2. Particular customs; which for the most part affect only the inhabitants of particular districts. 3. Certain particular laws ; which by custom are adopted and used by some particular courts, of pretty general and extensive jurisdiction.
Page 58 - Municipal law, thus understood, is properly defined to be "a rule of civil conduct prescribed by the supreme power in a state, commanding what is right, and prohibiting what is wrong.

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