Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-04-02

introduced on any reasons, moral or polite;
but only POSITIVE LAW, which preserves il
loTce long after the reasons, occasion, an
time iis,if from whence it was created,
erased from the memory Iii so odious thu
nothing can be suffered to support it bat 20,
TIVE LAW
Positive law, then, can so establish eve
Slavery, that even courts must treat it as lie
gal.
Ihe same doctrine shines out in oil the CO
ses, either on this side the ocean or in Eng
land, in which the slave trade has been brough
in question. Certainty here would be a cas-
In which, It anywhere, a Judge would u.s.
the power, il he had it, TO treat bad laws a
void. Sill, no Judge, whatever his Trivatt
opinions, has usurped the right 10 %overrull
the law of nations, which holds that trade Il
be lawful. Sir VIM. Scott, one Of the high
est, II not highest authority among recent Eng
Ilsh Judges IN his department, holds the fol
lowing language, in IA case where the ques
ton Of that trade was before him, and ir
which he decided that the slave trade was moi
a crime by the law of nations
~ must remember that in discussing this
question, | must consider it net according to
any pirate mural opprehcnSions of my own,
Of | entertained them ever so Sincerely BIT
as II LAW considers it. 4 y An act
must be LEGALLY criminal, because neither
this court or any other can carry its private
apptehensions, independent of law, into its
public judgments, on the quality Of actions.
1t must conform TO the judgment Of the law
upon that subject, it cannot attribute criminal
lty to an act where the law impntes nome
1t must look TO the legal standard of morality
on a question Of this nature."-2 Dodson,
Adm. Rep. 217.
Chief Justice Marshall says, in a similar
case
THAT it (rhe slave lrade) is contrary to
the law Of nature, will scarcely be denied.
= i = Whatever might be the answer
u a morailSt TO this question, a jurist must
seek its LEGAL solution in those principles of
ctlon which are sanctioned by the usages,
he national acts, and the general assent of
he world. Of which he considers himself a
art. y A jurist could not say that
practice thus supported was illegal."-An-
eIope 10, Wheaton Ct.
See also Lord Mansfield l.. r. r. 3I3;
Judge Story |. Gall. &c; Judges Best and
,. d. & \. 353; C. /. Herle temp.
3. Dwarris 613; Lord Harwick, Dwar-
IS 1855; G.. J. Shaw in the Med Case
5 Pick. Rep. 1913.
| know that there are n few early cases.
nd a few rash assertions of Lord Coke, pIau-
perhaps in a Government like the Eng
sh, where, as there exists no written Con-
it might possibly be argued that the
onrts had a right TO bring all laws 10 the test
I those great principles of common sense
nd common justice, which form the only
ling that can be called a foundation for Bri-
sh law. But here we have a specific, def
limited, urihtn Constitution. 1t con-
'ins ALL the principles which the people,
ne nation, have agreed SHALL form the foun-
alton of our national law. The only test,
therefore, to which our courts have any right
o submit the action of the Legislature is, to
lsk, is it Constitutional If so, it is legally
on them-no matter how unjust or
low unreasonable it is. Such is the Frame
work OF Government under which we live.
But OF even this assertion of Coke, Lord
Jhancellor E~llesmere, his contemporary, has
emarked that it is,
"a paradox which derogateth much from
he wisdom and power of Parliament, that
when the three estates, King, Lords, and
Commons, have spent their labor in making
law, three Judg es on a bench, shall destroy
Ind PROSTATE their pains, advancing the rca-
son OF a particular court above the Judgment
Of all the realm. Besides, more temperately
did that reverend Chief Justice I~Ierle, temp.
Ill. deliver his opinion, cited by Coke,
8 X. llS. when he said SOM acts of Parlia-
meni are made against law and right, which
THEY THAT MADE HEN, perceiving, would
not put them into execution, for it is maois
congrum (nore proper) that acts Of Parlia-
ment should be corrected by the same pen
that drew them, than be dashed to pieces by
Of a few Judsos."-Quoted by Dwaf-
ris, 613.
And further still, Lord Coke qualities the
language he had used when he else
holds:
Ihat Judges are not to be encouraged to
1lrect their Conduct by the crooked cord of
but by the golden metwand of the
aw; that IS, not TO construe statutes by equal
ty, but to collect The sense of the Legislature
~ a sound Interpretation of its languag ac-
to reason and grammatical correct
ness, and to be controlled by the COMMON
LAw''-Dwarris on Statutes, p. 6l5, 7O3.
DHarris, a learned and distinguished wri-
IN his late able work on Statutes sums
up the matter thus:
The general and received doctrine GER
talnly is, that an act of Parliament. of which
the terms arc explicit and the meaning plain,
cannot be questioned, or its authority control.
led in any Court of JUSTICE" and "where the
meaning is plain to regard consequences IN
me Interpretation would be assuming lepisla-
tive authority"
For Judges to mould statutes according n
their sense of right, would suppose the Lee.
~islature, s
$40 have abdicated its functions and dol.
egated ITS power and duties to the Judres.m
PIP. GAG, 720, 755.
10 detaIn the reader one moment longer
with the example Of another nation, le, us add
that the French law, generally considered
much more loose on this point Of judicial du.
ty, is substantially the same with what we
have been quoting. 1t allows the Bench 10
consult equity and use its individual discre.
tion only on those points where THE LAW IS
SILENT.
"Si l'on maTdue de loi il fault consuItsr