Law

"A judgment for too little, is as bad as a judgment for too much."

"An overspeaking Judge is a no well-timed cymbal. It is no grace to a Judge first to find that which he might have heard in due time from the Bar, or to show quickness of conceit in cutting off evidence or counsel too short, or to prevent (anticipate) information by questions, though pertinent."

"I always said, I will be my client's advocate, not his agent. To hire himself to any particular course, is a position in which no member of the profession ought to place himself."

"I cannot allow that the counsel is the agent of the party."

"I wish to uphold counsel in the exercise of their discretion."

"It is the duty of all Courts to keep counsel to the points before them."

"A grosser perversion of English justice it is impossible to imagine, and I should indeed be sorry if, under any circumstances, it could be proved to be English law."

"Allegans contraria non est audiendus (Jenk. Cent. 16): "He is not to be heard who alleges things contradictory to each other." This elementary rule of logic expresses, in technical language, the saying that a man shall not be permitted to "blow hot and cold" with reference to the same transaction, or insist, at different times, on the truth of each of two conflicting allegations, according to the promptings of his private interest. Says the Satyr, if you have gotten a trick of blowing hot and cold out of the same mouth, I've e'en done with ye."

"It seems to me that the argument of the defendant's counsel blows hot and cold at the same time."

"Don't you foist in a proposition which is not allowed."

"First settle what the case is, before you argue it."

"When counsel addresses an argument on the ground of natural justice to a Court of law, he addresses it to the wrong tribunal. It may be a good argument for inducing the legislature to alter the law; but in a Court of law all that we can deal with is the law of the land as we find it."

"A man's rights are to be determined by the Court, not by his attorney or counsel. It is for want of remembering this that foolish people object to lawyers that they will advocate a case against their own opinions. A client is entitled to say to his counsel, I want your advocacy, not your judgment; I prefer that of the Court."

"I remember Lord Eldon saying to counsel, " You have told us how far the cases have gone, will you now tell us where they are to stop?" I think it is now time that we should say where the cases are to stop."

"You need not cite cases: 'Tis a principle."

"You need not cite cases that are familiar."

"No man has a higher sense of the importance of the rights and privileges of counsel in discharge of their arduous and important duties, and I should regret if they had not that privilege, not for their sake only, but for the sake of the whole community."

"The Court is greatly obliged to the gentlemen of the Bar who have spoke on the subject; and by whose care and abilities so much has been effected, that the rule of decision will be reduced to a very easy compass. I cannot omit to express particular happiness in seeing young men, just called to the Bar, have been able so much to profit by their reading."

"It is expected you should do your best for those you are assigned for, as it is expected in any other case, that you do your duty for your client."

"Absurdum est affirjnare (re judicata) eredendum esse non judici: It is absurd to say, after judgment, that any one else than the Judge should be hearkened to."

"And let not the counsel at the bar chop with the Judge, nor wind himself into the handling of the cause anew, after the Judge hath declared his sentence."

"A counsel's position is one of the utmost difficulty. He is not to speak of that which he knows; he is not called upon to consider whether the facts with which he is dealing are true or false. What he has to do, is to argue as best he can, without degrading himself, in order to maintain the proposition which will carry with it either the protection or the remedy which he desires for his client. If amidst the difficulties of his position he were to be called upon during the heat of his argument to consider whether what he says is true or false, whether what he says is relevant or irrelevant, he would have his mind so embarrassed that he could not do the duty which he is called upon to perform. For, more than a Judge, infinitely more than a witness, he wants protection on the ground of benefit to the public. The rule of law is that what is said in the course of the administration of the law is privileged; and the reason of that rule covers a counsel even more than a Judge or a witness."

"Counsel are frequently induced, and they are justified in taking the most favourable view of their clients' case; and it is not fair to pass over any piece of evidence they find difficult to deal with, provided they cite, fairly and correctly, those parts of the evidence they comment upon."

"There is usually a decency about counsel which prevents them from pressing that to a conclusion which can never be concluded."

"The point now before us is a settled case, and therefore there is no need to enter into arguments about it."

"Consider a little how you treat the Court; the objection hath been solemnly taken in this Court, argued and adjudged by this Court, and now you come to arraign that judgment that was then given."

"It has been always the practice heretofore, that when the Court have delivered their opinion, the counsel should sit down and not dispute it any further."

"It is fit they should speak what they can for the advantage of their client."

"It is impossible the cause can go on, unless the gentlemen at the bar will a little understand one another, and by mutual forbearance, assist one another; you are a little too apt to break out, and I think there has been a little inclination sometimes to observe more upon that than the occasion calls for."

"In a common case, it is the usual course for the counsel to take the memorandums in his hand, for the cross-examination."

"If any whimsical notions are put into you, by some enthusiastic counsel, the Court is not to take notice of their crotchets."

"No counsel in the world that understand themselves, can argue anything against what has been often settled and always practised."

"A gentleman at the Bar."

"A gentleman of Lincoln's-inn."

"The house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence, as for his repose."

"The rule that every man's house is his castle, when applied to arrests on legal process, has been carried as far as political justice will warrant; and perhaps farther than the scale of reason and sound policy this will warrant. In the case of life, as we have before hinted generally,—but in the case of life more particularly,—this privilege, and the maxim which supports it, will admit of no extension. It must be confined to breaking the outer door, or window, for the protection of the family, and security from without; and it belongs to those whose domicile it is; for it is not the sanctuary of a stranger. And when a man escapes from the arrest, he is not privileged by his house."

"Though it is not always of necessity, nor perhaps here, to go upon the original foundation of a right of law, yet I will beg leave to observe, when we apply the maxim, that every man's house is his castle, we mean not to persuade the inhabiter of a poor hut, that it is provided with draw-bridges or portcullises, but only that it is under such sufficient protection as may provide for his security in a more pleasant, or perhaps, a better way—that it is fortified by the law."

"By the laws of England, every invasion of private property, be it ever so minute, is a trespass. No man can set his foot upon my ground without my licence, but he is liable to an action, though the damage be nothing."

"For a man's house is his castle, Et domut sua cuique tutissimum refugium."

"Whenever a person has any authority by law to do any particular act, and he abuses that authority, he makes himself a trespasser ab initio."

"To us the judgments of Courts in the United States are merely what our decisions have been to them. To us they are merely the opinions of eminent and learned men on a question of law, which is common to them and to us. Eminent Judges have given their opinion one way, and other eminent Judges have given their opinion another way."

"I have no power to follow the authorities cited to me from the United States if by so doing I were to contravene the law of England."

"I have often protested against the citation of American authorities."

"I also have been struck by the waste of time occasioned by the growing practice of citing American authorities."

"Decisions in the American Courts are entitled to great respect, but are not binding here; and there are many circumstances affecting questions arising between the laws of different States which may or may not be applicable to questions arising here."

"Arguments from the American statute are not of much force, because Englishmen are not bound to know it."

"We should treat with great respect the opinion of eminent American lawyers on points which arise before us, but the practice, which seems to be increasing, of quoting American decisions as authorities, in the same way as if they were decisions of our own Courts, is wrong. Among other things it involves an inquiry, which often is not an easy one, whether the law of America on the subject in which the point arises is the same as our own."

"Unless Parliament has conferred upon the Court that power in language which is unmistakable, the Court is not to assume that Parliament intended to do that which so seriously affect foreigners who are not resident here, and might give offence to foreign Governments. Unless Parliament has used such plain terms as show that they really intended us to do that, we ought not to do it."

"It is every day's practice with us to decide cases which turn upon the laws of foreign countries, or the laws administered in Courts of peculiar jurisdiction in this country. Of this we have no judicial knowledge; but we acquire the necessary knowledge by evidence."

"To learn what the laws of a country are, is not the work of a day even in pacific times, and to persons accustomed to legal enquiries."