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¬Crimes, in the same manner, must be defined by positive laws, or known through ancient customs which, by the force of decisions, have become equally positive ; as otherwise no man could know what course he might justly pursue, or deliver himself from any snares which might be spread in his path. In this most important branch of jurisprudence, the good sense of the Armatan nation may be said to be summed up. ¬To the definition of crimes, whether created by a written code or evidenced by the records of antiquity, they adhered with the most scru- pulous strictness; they suffered no ambiguities to prevail, and when their own security was more emphatically at stake, in the enactments of treasons against the state, there was even a curiosity in their precision ; stung with the utmost jealousy of fixed magistrates, though it was impossible with wisdom to abrogate or abridge their authorities, they repeatedly recast those tremendous statutes, reprobating their extension by constructive judgments, and al- ways bringing them back, with the recorded -disgi*ace ¬
