I think the old, sound, and honest maxim that "you shall not do evil that good may come," is applicable in law as well as in morals. - Sir Alexander Cockburn, 12th Baronet

A Judge cannot set himself above the law which he has to administer, or make or mould it to suit the exigencies of a particular occasion.

Although the decisions of the American Courts are of course not binding on us, yet the sound and enlightened views of American lawyers in the administration and development of the law—a law, except so far as altered by statutory enactment, derived from a common source with our own—entitle their decisions to the utmost respect and confidence on our part.

I readily admit that the law which requires presumption or custom to be carried back for a period of nearly 700 years, is a bad and mischievous law, and one which is discreditable to us as a civilised and enlightened people, but such is the law; and while it so continues, I consider myself, in administering it, as bound to administer it as I find it; nor do I feel myself warranted in undermining or frittering it away by subtle fictions or artificial presumptions inconsistent with truth and fact.