Reading Notes: Blackstone, Ch. 3

"Our laws, said Lord Bacon, are mixed as our language: and as our language is so much the richer, the laws are the more complete." (p. 48)

"The only method of proving that this or that maxim is a rule of the common law, is by showing that it has been always the custom to observe it." (p. 51)

"Three points to consider in the construction of all remedial statutes; the old law; the mischeif; and the remedy" (p. 64)

"There are also courts of equity established for the benefit of the subject, to detect latent frauds and concealments, which the process of the courts of law is not adapted to reach; to enforce the execution of such matters of trust and confidence, as are binding in conscience, though not cognizable in a court of law; to deliver from such dangers as are owing to misfortune or oversight; and to give a more specific relief, and more adapted to the circumstances of the case, than can always be obtained by the generality of the rules of the positive or common law." (p. 67)