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¬Strong intellectual powers of this highly gifted race of men, and in nothing more than in the dexterous mode of liberalising their decisions, by the equitable aids of a distinct court, a thing utterly unknown in any other country of their world. ¬I have already observed, that the jurisdictions and forms of their tribunals were derived from the most ancient customs ; that their whole law was remarkable for its precision ; and that the liberty and property of the nation were deeply involved in the preservation of that stubborn strictness. — It is obvious that such a code could not be safely engrafted on. — It might have been hazardous in the extreme to obliterate the very characteristic of so admirable a system, by making it necessary for judges to supply, by constructive judgments, any defects which ap- peared in the application of very ancient rules to the complicated concerns of a great empire, extending, or rather originating an enriching commerce, which gives an infinite variety to the ¬l trans- ¬
