vol,  ii, — 59


exception  of  i  very  few  instances  of  arbitrary,  or  rather  ohsolt-i
rules,  which  are  every  day  becoming  still  fewer,  nothing  thai  is
not  reasonable  is  good  law-  And  hence  we  venture  the  addi-
tional assertion  that  no  written  law  ever  approaches  to  perfec-
tion, either  in  respect  of  theoretical  beauty,  or  practical  fitness,
until  it  has  been  reduced  to  the  form  of  unwritten  or  common
law— until  the  refractory  and  inflexible  matter  of  the  original
statute,  if  we  may  so  express  it,  has  been  melted  down  and
moulded  into  a  more  convenient  shape,  by  the  plastic  hands  of
the  commentator  or  the  judge.
