Note 28 — A DISCOURSE concerning the LAWS and GOVERNMENT of ENGLAND.
Reading edition
Hale, hist. of the com. law, ch. vii. It has been sometimes insisted upon, that much improvement was brought to England by the canon and civil laws. I cannot, however, but imagine, that these laws, have, on the whole, been rather attended with disadvantage. For tyrannical maxims do not suit a limited government. They may have assisted, indeed, the invention, and extended the views of some lawyers; but they have filled the heads of more with illiberal prejudices.