Written laws were modified and controlled by customs of which no trace can be discovered until after the lapse of centuries, although those usages must have been in constant vigor during the long interval of silence." 1 Palgrave's Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, 58-9.
Spooner highlights that unwritten customs influenced written laws, which may not be evident until much later in history.
Share
More from Lysander Spooner
They are every day committing errors, which would be crimes, but for their ignorance of the law.
Why should they not have such an administration of justice as they desire, and can understand?
Proud from victory, and with their swords in their hands, would they surrender their liberties to a private man?
In nearly or quite all the States of the United States the juries are illegal, for one or the other of the same reasons that make the juries in England illegal.