Quote#Time
These laws must be construed according to the intention of them: and…
Quote byJohn Eardley Wilmot · 1709–1792
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Rex v. Inhabitants of Burton-Bradstock (1765), Burrow (Settlement Cases), 536..
English (original)
These laws must be construed according to the intention of them: and the circumstances of things at the time of enacting them ought to be taken into consideration.
— John Eardley Wilmot
More from John Eardley Wilmot
The time makes no difference in the reason of the thing.
It is the principle of the common law, that an officer ought not to take money for doing his duty.
Nothing could be of worse consequence, than that an officer of the Court should combine with a criminal to frustrate the sentence of the Court.
If once we go upon niceties of construction, we shall not know where to stop. For one nicety is made a foundation for another; and that other for a third; and so on, without end.
There is no merit in a settlement: it depends upon positive law.
It is a strange, wild jurisdiction, where the jurors are judges both of law and fact, and ignorant country fellows2 are to determine the nicest points of law.