[46] "The word DAY is understood of the NATURAL DAY, or of the time during which the sun affords us his light, and of the CIVIL DAY, or the space of twenty-four hours. When it is used in a convention to point out a space of time, the subject itself manifestly shews that the parties mean the civil day, or the term of twenty-four hours."—Vattel, b. ii. ch. xvii. sect. 280.
[47] "It is a fundamental rule of construction, that penal statutes shall be construed strictly, and remedial statutes shall be construed liberally. It was one of the laws of the twelve tables of Rome, that whenever there was a question between liberty and slavery, the presumption should be on the side of liberty. This excellent principle our law has adopted in the construction of penal statutes: for whenever any ambiguity arises in a statute introducing a new penalty or punishment, the decision shall be on the side of lenity and mercy; or in favour of natural right and liberty: or, in other words, the decision shall be according to the strict letter in favour of the subject. And though the judges in such cases may frequently raise and solve difficulties contrary to the intention or the legislature, yet no further inconvenience can result, than that the law remains as it was before the statute, and it is more consonant to principles of liberty, that the judge should acquit whom the legislator intended to punish, than that he should punish whom the legislator intended to discharge with impunity. But remedial statutes must be construed according to the spirit: for in giving relief against fraud, or in the furtherance and extension of natural right and justice, the judge may safely go even beyond that which existed in the minds of those who framed the law."—Christian's Notes on Blackst. Comm. Introd. p. 87.
[48] The case of a promise made on the supposition of a posthumous child's dying, instanced by our author in this place, bears so near a resemblance to that of a father's bequeathing his property to another, believing his son to be dead, that it is omitted in this chapter having been already given under the head of erroneous promises in the xi. chapter and 6th section of this book.—(Translator.)
[49] "The variety of human transactions cannot be comprised within general rules. Occasional decrees therefore become requisite; which vary with each variation of circumstances, for the measure of what is indefinite must be indefinite itself, like the leaden ruler in the Lesbian architecture, which changes its own shape according to that of the stones to which it is applied. It is manifest, therefore, that equity is a species of justice, and contrasted with another species to which it is preferable. A man of equity is he who deliberately and habitually exercises this virtue; who prefers it in all his dealings to the rigour of justice; and who, even when the law is on his side, will not avail himself of this advantage to treat others injuriously or unhandsomely."—Aristot. Eth. b. v. ch. x.
[50] Owing to circumstances there may be a variation in the conduct, and yet no change in the principles of a state. This must frequently happen in the commercial regulations between different countries, who are obliged to vary their means to secure the unity of their end. Or if in a treaty between two nations, it is declared there shall be PERPETUAL amity, and a subsequent declaration of war by one of the parties pronounces such amicable relations to be at an end, here there is no variation in PRINCIPLE but in CIRCUMSTANCES, which render such a dissolution of the amity, that was originally intended to be perpetual, necessary to the welfare and preservation of that power, the sole object of all treaties.
[51] To illustrate the nature of GENERAL AND PARTICULAR cases, the following example is taken from the Puffendorf:—"One law forbids us to appear in public with arms on holidays: another law commands us to turn out under arms and repair to our posts, as soon as we hear the sound of the alarm bell. The alarm is rung on a holiday. In such case we must obey the latter of the two laws, which creates an exception to the former."—Jur. Gent, lib. v. c. xii. sect. 23.
[52] "The deputies sent to the assembly of the states of a kingdom, or a commonwealth are not public ministers like ambassadors, as they are not sent to foreign powers; but they are public persons, and, in that respect, are possessed of every exemption and immunity, that are necessary to the discharge of their functions."—Vatt. b. iv. ch. vii. sect. 109. Of this nature are the privileges enjoyed by the representatives of the British people, and denominated the PRIVILEGES OF PARLIAMENT.
[53] Nothing forms a more striking contrast between ancient and modern war, then the personal animosities, which seemed to operate upon the combatants in the former, and the public and national objects, WITHOUT ANY PERSONAL CONCERN, upon which the latter are undertaken. Peruse any ancient historian, or the battles in Homer and Virgil, WHICH THOUGH FICTIONS, DESCRIBE THE MANNERS OF THE AGE, and you see combatants engaged, on whom the laws of nature and of nations seem to have lost their force. Read the accounts of modern warfare and you find hostilities commenced, not from private animosity, but from some great and national object, in the prosecution of which the feelings of the individuals appointed to conduct them are not the only springs of action.
[54] Sections XVI and XVII of the original, relating only to the refutation of certain abstruse opinions, are omitted in the translation.—(Translator.)
[55] Section V of the original is omitted in the translation.—Translator.