Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/77

§. 2. 5.&ensp;, latly, the mot univeral and effectual way of dicovering the true meaning of a law, when the words are dubious, is by conidering the reaon and pirit of it; or the caue which moved the legilator to enact it. For when this reaon ceaes, the law itelf ought likewie to ceae with it. An intance of this is given in a cae put by Cicero, or whoever was the author of the rhetorical treatie incribed to Herennius. There was a law, that thoe who in a torm forook the hip hould forfeit all property therein; and the hip and lading hould belong entirely to thoe who taid in it. In a dangerous tempet all the mariners forook the hip, except only one ick paenger, who by reaon of his dieae was unable to get out and ecape. By chance the hip came afe to port. The ick man kept poeion and claimed the benefit of the law. Now here all the learned agree, that the ick man is not within the reaon of the law; for the reaon of making it was, to give encouragement to uch as hould venture their lives to ave the veel: but this is a merit, which he could never pretend to, who neither taid in the hip upon that account, nor contributed any thing to it’s preervation. this method of interpreting laws, by the reaon of them, aries what we call equity; which is thus defined by Grotius, “the correction of that, wherein the law (by reaon of it’s univerality) is deficient.” For ince in laws all caes cannot be foreeen or expreed, it is neceary, that when the general decrees of the law come to be applied to particular caes, there hould be omewhere a power veted of defining thoe circumtances, which (had they been foreeen) the legilator himelf would have expreed. And thee are the caes, which, according to Grotius, “.” thus depending, eentially, upon the particular circumtances of each individual cae, there can be no etablihed rules