To what then are attached
the rights and powers they held while in the form of men? A generation
may bind itself as long as its majority continues in life; when that
has disappeared, another majority is in place, holds all the rights
and powers their predecessors once held, and may change their laws and
institutions to suit themselves. Nothing then is unchangeable but the
inherent and unalienable rights of man.
I was glad to find in your book a formal contradiction, at length, of
the judiciary usurpation of legislative powers; for such the judges have
usurped in their repeated decisions, that Christianity is a part of
the common law. The proof of the contrary, which you have adduced,
is incontrovertible; to wit, that the common law existed while the
Anglo-Saxons were yet Pagans, at a time when they had never yet heard
the name of Christ pronounced, or knew that such a character had ever
existed. But it may amuse you, to show when, and by what means,
they stole this law in upon us. In a case of _quare impedit_ in the
Year-book, 34. H. 6. folio 38. (anno 1458,) a question was made, how far
the ecclesiastical law was to be respected in a common law court. And
Prisot, Chief Justice, gives his opinion in these words. '_A tiel leis
qu'ils de seint eglise ont enancien scripture, covient a nous a donner
credence; car ceo common ley stir quels touts manners leis sont fondes.
Et auxy, Sir, nous sumus obliges de conustre lour ley de saint eglise:
et semblablement ils sont obliges de conustre nostre ley.
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