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REGULE.

1. In jure non remota causa, sed proxima spectatur.

2. Non potest adduci exceptio ejusdem rei, cujus petitur dissolutio.

3. Verba fortius accipiuntur contra proferentem.

4. Quod sub certa forma concessum vel reservatum est, non trahitur ad valorem vel compensationem.

5. Necessitas inducit privilegium quoad jura privata.

6. Corporalis injuria non recipit æstimationem de futuro.

7. Excusat aut extenuat delictum in capitalibus, quod non operatur idem in civilibus.

8. Estimatio præteriti delicti ex post facto nunquam crescit.

9. Quod remedio destituitur ipsa re valet, si culpa absit.

10. Verba generalia restringuntur ad habilitatem rei vel personæ, 11. Jura sanguinis nullo jure civili dirimi possunt.

12. Receditur a placitis juris potius quam injuriæ et delicta maneant impunita.

13. Non accipi debent verba in demonstrationem falsam, quæ competunt in limitationem veram.

14. Licet dispositio de interesse futuro sit inutilis, tamen potest fieri declaratio præcedens quæ sortiatur effectum interveniente

novo actu.

15. In criminalibus sufficit generalis malitia intentionis cum facto paris gradus.

16. Mandata licita recipiunt strictam interpretationem, sed illicita latam et extensam.

17. De fide et officio judicis non recipitur quæstio, sed de scientia, sive error sit juris sive facti.

18. Persona conjuncta æquiparatur interesse proprio.

19. Non impedit clausula derogatoria quominus ab eadem potestate res dissolvantur a quibus1 constituuntur.

1 So, I believe, in all the MSS. and editions, and therefore the slip is probably of Bacon's pen.

20. Actus inceptus cujus perfectio pendet ex voluntate partium revocari potest; si autem pendet ex voluntate tertiæ personæ, vel ex contingenti, revocari non potest.

21. Clausula vel dispositio inutilis per præsumptionem remotam vel causam ex post facto non fulcitur.

22. Non videtur consensum retinuisse, si quis ex præscripto minantis aliquid immutavit.

23. Licita bene miscentur, formula nisi juris obstet.

24 Præsentia corporis tollit errorem nominis, et veritas nominis tollit errorem demonstrationis.

25. Ambiguitas verborum latens verificatione suppletur; nam quod ex facto oritur ambiguum verificatione facti tollitur.

THE

MAXIMS OF THE LAW.

REGULA I.

In jure non remota causa, sed proxima spectatur.

Ir were infinite for the law to judge the causes of causes, and their impulsions one of another: therefore it contenteth itself with the immediate cause; and judgeth of acts by that, without looking to any further degree.

Dy. f. 1, 2.

As if an annuity be granted pro consilio impenso et impenden- 6H.8. do, and the grantee commit treason, whereby he is imprisoned, so that the grantor cannot have access unto him for his counsel; yet, nevertheless, the annuity is not determined by this nonfeasance. Yet it was the grantee's act and default to commit the treason, whereby the imprisonment grew: but the law looketh not so far, but excuseth him, because the not giving counsel was compulsory and not voluntary, in regard of the imprisonment.

cause

et seq.

2 H. 4. f. 5. p..

18.

So if a parson make a lease, and be deprived, or resign, the Litt. secs. 643. successor shall avoid the lease: and yet the of deprivation, and more strongly of a resignation, moved from the party him- 25.8. f. 2. self: but the law regardeth not that; because the admission of the new incumbent is the act of the ordinary.1

3.

pl. 3.

2 So if I be seised of an advowson in gross, and a usurpa- 5 H. 7. f. 35. tion be had against me, and at the next avoidance I usurp arere, I shall be remitted: and yet the presentation, which is the act remote, is mine own act; but the admission of my clerk, whereby the inheritance is reduced to me, is the act of the ordinary.

1 The Cambridge MS. states the law as to deprivation only; adding: “But of a resignation it is otherwise; for that is merely the act of the party."

2 Omitted in Camb. MS.

Y +

Dy. f. 1.

12 H. 4. f. 23.

pl. 6.

Winnington's case, 2 Co. 59.

ter.]

So if I covenant with I. S. a stranger, in consideration of natural love to my son, to stand seised to the use of the said I. S. to the intent he shall enfeoff my son; by this no use ariseth to I. S. because the law doth respect that there is no immediate consideration between me and I. S.

'So if I be bound to enter into a statute before the mayor of the staple at such a day for the security of a hundred pounds, and the obligee, before the day, accept of me a lease of a house in satisfaction; this is no plea in debt upon my obligation: and yet the end of that statute was but security of money; but because the entering into this statute itself, which is the immediate act whereto I am bound, is a corporal act which lieth not in satisfaction, therefore the law taketh no consideration that the remote intent was for money.

So if I make a feoffment in fee upon condition that the feoffee 2[37 El. Ches- shall enfeoff over, and the feoffee be disseised, and a descent cast, and then the feoffee bind himself in a statute, which statute is discharged before the recovery of the land: this is no breach of the condition, because the land was never liable to the statute; and the possibility that it should be liable upon the recovery the law doth not respect.

See Blackstone Com.

So if I enfeoff two upon condition to enfeoff, and one of them take a wife; the condition is not broken: and yet there is a remote possibility that the joint-tenant may die, and then the feme is intitled to dower.

So if a man purchase land in fee-simple, and die without Book 2. c.14. issue: in the first degree the law respecteth dignity of sex, and not proximity; and therefore the remote heir on the part of the father shall have it before the near heir on the part of the mother: but in any degree paramount the first the law respecteth it not; and therefore the near heir by the grandmother on the part of the father shall have it before the remote heir of the grandfather on the part of the father.

[37 Eliz. Dacre's case, obiter.]

This rule faileth in covinous acts, which though they be conveyed through many degrees and reaches, yet the law taketh heed to the corrupt beginning, and counteth all as one entire act.

As if a feoffiment be made of lands held by knight's service to

1 Omitted in Camb. MS.

2 This marginal reference must have been made, I think, while the case stood as a judgment of the court at Chester, and before it was brought before the Queen's Bench,

[Cattelyn and

others in

Stoel's case.]

I. S. upon condition that he within a certain time shall enfeoff I. D. which feoffment to I. D. shall be to the use of the wife of the first feoffor for her jointure, &c.; this feoffment is within the statute of 32 H. VIII. nam dolus circuitu non purgatur. In like manner this rule holdeth not in criminal acts, except they have a full interruption; because when the intention is matter of substance and that which the law doth principally behold, there the first motive will be principally regarded, and not the last impulsion. As if I. S. of malice prepense discharge a pistol at I. D. and miss him, whereupon he throws down his pistol and flies, and I. D. pursueth him to kill him, whereupon he turneth and killeth I. D. with a dagger; if the law should consider the last impulsive cause, it should say that it was in his own defence: but the law is otherwise, for it is but a pursuance and extention of the first murderous intent. But if I. S. had 44 Ed. 3. f. 44. fallen down, his dagger drawn, and I. D. had fallen by haste upon his dagger, there I. D. had been felo de se, and I. S. should go quit.

Also you may not confound the act with the execution of the act; nor the entire act with the last part, or the consummation of the act.

pl. 55.

[21 Eliz.]

Dy. f. 4, 5.

For if a disseisor enter into religion, the immediate cause is Lit. sec. 410. from the party, though the descent be cast by act in law: but the law doth but execute the act which the party procureth; and therefore the descent shall not bind. Et è converso; If a lease for years be made rendering rent, and the lessee make a feoffment of part, and the lessor enter; the immediate cause is from the law in respect of the forfeiture, though the entry be the act of the party but that is but the pursuance and putting in execution of the title which the law giveth; and therefore the rent or condition shall be apportioned.

3 So in the binding of a right by a descent, you are to consider the whole time from the disseisin to the descent cast; and if at all times the person be not privileged, the descent binds.

And therefore, if a feme covert be disseised, and the baron 9 H.7.24. Dy.f.143, 144. dieth, and she taketh a new husband, and then the descent is

1 Omitted in Camb. MS.

The Camb. MS. has: "the act itself with the execution only of the act, and so the cause of the act with the cause of the execution of the act, and by that means make the immediate cause a remote cause."

3 The remaining cases under this rule are omitted in the Camb. MS. They would not have illustrated the rule as there enunciated, and given in the preceding note.

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