Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1st ed, 1768, vol III).djvu/13



T the opening of thee commentaries municipal law was in general defined to be, "a rule of civil conduct, precribed by the upreme power in a tate, commanding what is right, and prohibiting what is wrong ." From hence therefore it followed, that the primary objects of the law are the etablihment of rights, and the prohibition of wrongs. And this occaioned the distribution of thee collections into two general heads; under the former of which we have already conidered the rights that were defined and etablihed, and under the latter are now to confider the wrongs that are forbidden and redreed, by the laws of England. Rh