STATUTKS, construction of, comprehends the following rules : 1. In the construc tion of remedial statutes, there are three points which require consideration, viz. the old law, the mischief, and the remedy; that is, how the common law stood at the making of the act ; what the mischief was, for which the common law did not provide ; and what remedy the parliament bath provided to cure this mischief. And it is the business of the judge so to con strue the act, as to suppress the mischief and advance the remedy. An instance may be specified in the restraining sta tute of 13 Elizabeth, c. 10. By the com mon law, ecclesiastical corporations might let as long leases as they thought proper; the mischief was, that they let long and unreasonable leases, to the impoverish. went of their successors: the remedy ap plied by the statute was, the making void all leases by ecclesiastical bodies for longer terms than three lives, or twenty one years. In the construction of this statute, it is held, that leases, though for a longer term, if made by a bishop, are not void during the bishop's continuance in his see ; or, if made by a dean and chapter, they are not void during the continuance of the dean : for the act was made for the benefit and protection of the successor. The mischief is, there. fore, sufficiently suppressed, by vacating them after the determination of the in terest of the grantors; but the leases, during their continuance, being not with. in the mischief, are not within the re medy. 2. A statute, which treats of things or persons of an inferior rank, cannot, by any general words, be ex tended to those of a superior. Thus, a statute treating of" deans, prebendaries, parsons, vicars, and others having spiritu al promotion," is held not to extend to bishops, though they have spiritual pro motion, deans being the highest persons named, and bishops being of a still higher order. 3. Penal statutes must be con strued strictly. Thus, by the statute 14 George if. c. 6, stealing sheep, or other cattle, was made felony, by benefit of clergy : but, or other cattle, being consi dered as too loose an expression for cre ating a capital offence, the act was held to extend to nothing but mere sheep. In the next sessions it was therefore found necessary to make another statute, 15 George II. c. 34, extending the former
to bulls, cows, oxen, steers, bullocks, heifers, calves, and lambs, by name. 4. Statutes against frauds are to be liberally and beneficially expounded. 5. One part of a statute must be so construed by ano ther, that the whole may (if possible) stand : " ut res magis valeat, quam per eat." As, if land be vested in the king and his heirs by act of parliament, saving the right of A ; and A has at that time a lease of it for three years ; here A shall hold it for his term of three years, and afterward it shall go to the king. 6. A parliament vests land in the king and his heirs, saving the right of all persons whomsoever, or vests the land of A in the king, saving the right of A, in either of these cases the saving is totally repug nant to the body of the statute, and (if good) would render the statute of no effect or operation ; and therefore the saving is void, and the land vests abso lutely in the king. 7. Where the com mon law and a statute differ, the com mon law gives place to the statute ; and an old statute gives place to a new one : and this upon a general principle of uni versal law, that " leges posteriores priores contraries abrogant ;" consonant to which it was laid down by a law of the Twelve Tables at Rome, that " quod populus pos. tumum jussit, id jus ratum esto." This is to be understood only when the latter statute is couched in negative terms, or where its matter is so clearly repugnant, that it necessarily implies a negative. But if both acts be merely affirmative, and the substance such that both may stand together, here the latter does not repeal the former, but they shall both have a concurrent efficacy. 8. If a sta tute, that repeals another, is itself after. wards repealed, the first statute is hereby revived, without any formal words for that purpose. 9. Acts of parliament, de rogatory from the power of subsequent parliaments, bind not. 10. Acts of par liament, that are impossible to be per formed, are of no validity ; and if out of them arise collaterally any absurd conse quences, manifestly contradictory to com. mon reason, they are, with regard to those collateral consequences, void. See Blackstone's Commentaries.