Quote#Wisdom
We are not to issue process here as instruments or conduit-pipes, but…
Quote byJohn Holt · 1642–1710
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Lucy v. Bishop of St. David's (1702), 7 Mod. 59..
English (original)
We are not to issue process here as instruments or conduit-pipes, but judicially as Judges: and it will not be an objection to say, that we may award process at all hazards, and let the party grieved come after and plead to it; for we shall never grant an ill-writ, that the party may avoid it in pleading.
— John Holt
More from John Holt
We cannot alter the law, we are bound by our oaths to proceed according to the law as it is at present.
We cannot make a law, we must go according to the law. That must be our rule and direction.
My judgment ought to be given for the plaintiff: but my brothers are all of another opinion, and so I submit to it. The defendant must have his judgment.
An universal custom is a law, and I know no distinction between lex mercatoria and consuetudo mercaborum.
I am far from being such a Judge as shall lay any intolerable yoke upon any one's neck.
No counsel in the world that understand themselves, can argue anything against what has been often settled and always practised.