May beat a pathway out to wealth and fame.”
Those who wish to follow successfully the law as a profession must remain students to the last, and the leading truths and time-honoured legal principles, as defined by the maxims hereafter contained, will ever serve alike as safe landmarks, and sheet anchors, in times of doubt and uncertainty.
Since the publication of the First Edition, the number of maxims (very properly defined as the condensed good sense of nations) has been considerably enlarged, but the student will find the more important ones prefixed by an asterisk, and these may with advantage be memorized.
Walsall, 1913.
A COLLECTION OF LATIN MAXIMS AND PHRASES.
* 1. A verbis legis non recedendum est. The words of the law must not be departed from.
Acts of Parliament must be interpreted strictly according to the express letters of their respective clauses. Although in certain cases an equitable construction can be placed on the words, yet this principle is confined within certain limits; and a judge cannot, in favour of a presumable intention, depart from such words when, for anything that appears, the wording may correspond with the design of the legislature. (See Steph. Comm.)
* 2. Accessorium non ducit sed sequitur suum principale. The accessory does not lead but follows its principal.
The grant of a reversion will also include a rent incident thereto—so heir-looms follow the inheritance.
3. Accusare nemo se debet, nisi coram Deo. No one is in duty bound to accuse himself unless before God.