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William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield Quotes
1705–1793 Scotland
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, SL, PC (2 March 1705 – 20 March 1793), better known as Lord Mansfield, was a British barrister, politician and judge noted for his reform of English law. He served as a Member of Parliament for Boroughbridge, where he was noted for his "great powers of eloquence" and described as "beyond comparison the best speaker" in the House of Commons.
Scotland Judges Politicians Also known as: Lord Mansfield
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A mere evasion, colour, disguise and device to evade the law.
No country ever takes notice of the revenue laws of another.
By the rule of law, the King neither receives or pays costs.
There are a thousand things might have been a justification.
The rule is "that whilst all is in paper, you may amend."
Don't you foist in a proposition which is not allowed.
The jury cannot find evidence : they must find facts.
Convenience is the basis of mercantile law.
We cannot try the merits upon affidavit.
It shall not be in the power of any man, by his election, to vary the rights of two other contending parties.
Compassing the death of the King is a legal conclusion from facts. So it is, almost, as to every other offence.
Never trust any note cited, when not consonant with the general principles of law, justice, and equity. It must be wrong.
Tut, man, decide promptly, but never give any reasons for your decisions. Your decisions may be right, but your reasons are sure to be wrong.
We cannot pardon. We are to say what we take the law to be: if we do not speak our real opinions, we prevaricate with God and our own consciences.
True liberty can exist only when justice is equally administered to all.
Anciently, the Courts of justice did sit on Sundays.
Swann v. Broome (1764)
Whatever is contrary, bonos mores est decorum, the principles of our law prohibit, and the King's Court, as the general censor and guardian of the public manners, is bound to restrain and punish.
Jones v. Randall (1774)
The Court will always incline to lean against niceties in matters of variance. But where it is in the description of a statute or record, it is fatal.
The last end that can happen to any man, never comes too soon, if he falls in support of the law and liberty of his country: for liberty is synonymous to law and government.
Rex v. Wilkes (1769)
Discretion, when applied to a Court of justice, means sound discretion guided by law. It must be governed by rule, not by humour: it must not be arbitrary, vague, and fanciful, but legal and regular.
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