Therefore the only question is,
Whether, _upon principles of reason, justice, and convenience_, this
witness be admissible? Cases in law depend upon the _occasions_ which
gave rise to them. All occasions do not arise at once: now a particular
species of Indians appears; hereafter another species of Indians may
arise. A statute can seldom take in all cases. Therefore the Common Law,
that works itself pure by rules drawn from the fountain of justice, is
for this reason superior to an act of Parliament."[55]
From the period of this great judgment to the trial of Warren Hastings,
Esquire, the law has gone on continually working itself pure (to use
Lord Mansfield's expression) by rules drawn from the fountain of
justice. "General rules," said the same person, when he sat upon the
bench, "are wisely established for attaining justice with ease,
certainty, and dispatch; but the great end of them being _to do
justice_, the Court will see that it be really obtained. The courts have
been more liberal of late years in their determinations, and have more
endeavored to attend to the _real justice_ of the case than formerly."
On another occasion, of a proposition for setting aside a verdict, he
said, "This seems to be the true way to come at justice, and what we
therefore ought to do; for the true text is, _Boni judicis est ampliare
justitiam_ (not _jurisdictionem_, as has been often cited).
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