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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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We ought not to encourage vexatious prosecutions, which tend to throw corporations into confusion.
If we give an opinion, we can't give a judgment: you can't come here for an opinion to us.
A fiction of law shall never be contradicted so as to defeat the end for which it was invented, but for every other purpose it may be contradicted.
The Court would not endure that a mere form or fiction of law, introduced for the sake of justice, should work a wrong, contrary to the real truth and substance of the thing.
The Judges are totally independent of the ministers that may happen to be, and of the King himself.
The privilege of executors is too great already. They ought to be properly informed when they bring actions.
We must judge upon the case as stated. If it is mis-stated, you must apply to amend it.
A trader is trusted upon his character and visible commerce: that credit enables him to acquire wealth. If by secret liens a few might swallow up all, it would greatly damp that credit.
Property in land is capital; property in the funds is income without capital; property in mortgage is both capital and income.
I am a great friend to the action for money had and received: it is a very beneficial action, and founded on principles of eternal justice.
Give your judgments, but give no reasons.
Men lend their money to traders upon mortgages or consignments of goods, because they suspect their circumstances, and will not run the risque of their general credit.
If a man accepts an office of trust and confidence, concerning the public, especially when it is attended with profit, he is answerable to the King for his execution of that office.
What is determined upon solemn argument establishes the law, and makes a precedent for future cases : which is not the case of questions agreed by consent of parties, or never litigated.
So many affidavits, so studiously and artfully penned, to be safely sworn in one sense and read in another, are an aggravation.
Rules of property ought to be generally known, and not to be left upon loose notes, which rather serve to confound principles, than to confirm them.
You need not cite cases: 'Tis a principle.
To be sure, it is a very important case, though very imperfectly reported in the printed cases, which make an impossibility, by making the senior Judge speak first.
This mere obiter opinion ought not to weigh against the settled direct authority of the cases which have been deliberately and upon argument determined the other way.
The principle of public policy is this: ex dolo malo non oritur actio. No Court will lend its aid to a man who founds his cause of action upon an immoral or illegal act.
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