Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon quotes - page 3

Though in a state of society some must have greater luxuries and comforts than others, yet all should have the necessaries of life; and if the poor cannot exist, in vain may the rich look for happiness or prosperity. The legislature is never so well employed as when they look to the interests of those who are at a distance from them in the ranks of society. It is their duty to do so: religion calls for it; humanity calls for it; and if there are hearts who are not awake to either of those feelings, their own interests would dictate it. (Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon)
Those regulations that are adapted to the common race of men are the best. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
The wishes of every human man are, that guilt may not be fixed upon any man; but I confess I am one of those who have not the weakness-which weakness, a Judge at least, and a jury, must get rid of, before they fit themselves to fill the respective stations which they are to fill in the administration of the justice of the country- I say, therefore, I am not one of those who wish under false compassion, inconsistent with the administration of criminal justice, that a person on whom guilt is fairly fixed, should escape the punishment which the law annexes to his guilt. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
I should be extremely sorry to find that in a fictitious proceeding, instituted for the more easy attaining of justice, different rules were to obtain in the different Courts. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
Justice requires that a party should be duly summoned and fully heard before he is condemned. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
Proceedings at law are sufficiently expensive. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
There is no magic in words. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
Whatever might have been my opinion, had this been a new case, I must hold myself bound by decided cases. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
I have often thought since that there is sound sense in what was once said by the late Lord C. J. Eyre, that the sooner a bad precedent was gotten rid of, the better. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
I do not know how far I ought to sit here and suffer a gentleman at the bar to bring forward parts of the Bible in this way. It is for you, gentlemen of the jury, to say whether you wish to hear them read. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
The liberty of the press has always been, and has justly been, a favourite topic with Englishmen. They have looked at it with jealousy whenever it has been invaded; and though a licenser was put over the press, and was suffered to exist for some years after the coming of William, and after the revolution, yet the reluctant spirit of English liberty called for a repeal of that law; and from that time to this it has not been shackled and limited more than it ought to be. (Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon)
There are cases where examinations are admitted, namely, before the coroner, and before magistrates in cases of felony. That appears to me to go rather in support of the general rule than in destruction of it. Every exception that can be accounted for is so much a confirmation of the rule that it has become a maxim, Exceptio probat regulam. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
Precedent goes in support of justice. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
The common law, though not to be found in the written records of the realm, yet has been long well known. It is coeval with civilised society itself, and was formed from time to time by the wisdom of man. Good sense did not come with the Conquest, or at any other one time, but grew and increased from time to time with the wisdom of mankind. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
No stops are ever inserted in Acts of Parliament, or in deeds; but the Courts of law, in construing them, must read them with such stops as will give effect to the whole. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
In many cases a party undertakes to prove a custom from the time of legal memory, the reign of Richard the Second; but that proof is generally established by evidence of acts done at a much later period, and frequently no evidence is given beyond the present century. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
The popish religion is now unknown to the law of this country. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
It is sometimes difficult to get rid of first impressions. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
It is our duty to take care that persons in pursuing their own particular interests do not transgress those laws which were made for the benefit of the whole community. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
It is of great importance that the laws by which the contracts of so numerous and so useful a body of men as the sailors are supposed to be guided, should not be overturned. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
The power of free discussion is the right of every subject of this country. It is a right to the fair exercise of which we are indebted more than to any other that was ever claimed by Englishmen. All the blessings we at present enjoy might be ascribed to it. (Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon)
The situation the Lord Mayor holds is the first officer of the first city in the world in point of commerce and riches, and everything that can constitute the magnificence of a city. He is a judicial officer, and a municipal officer too, and from these combined characters there are duties incumbent upon him, which by all the ties that can bind a man to the discharge of duty, he is bound to discharge. It stands at the head of his duties, next after protecting the religion which binds us to God, to govern that civil policy which binds government together, and prevents us from being a state of anarchy and confusion. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
Many people there are in this kingdom who never see a Gazette to the day of their deaths, and very mischievous would be the consequences if they were bound by a notice inserted in it. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
A Court of equity can mould interests differently from a Court of law; and can give relief in cases where a Court of law cannot. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
Really I wish I was more acquainted than I am, with the course of criminal jurisdiction-if the question had never been decided, I should have extreme doubts upon it, and those extreme doubts which I should have would lead me in a criminal case to do otherwise than I should do in a civil case-in every civil case [I speak in the hearing of a great many professional gentlemen] wherever I have serious doubts, I follow the doctrine which I have collected to be laid down by Lord Hardwicke; I receive the evidence, giving the jury the best instruction I can upon the effect of it; and I do it in the case of civil proceedings, without running the risk of doing any hurt, because if I receive it improperly, a season will come when the Court can correct my error. View quote
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon