CUSI OMS, or USAGES (consuetu dines), are either general or local. The first kind consist of those usages which have prevailed throughout England from time immemorial : their origin is un known, but having been recognized by judicial decision,* they form that common law, or lex non scripts, which is the foundation of English Law. To like immemorial usage is to be ascribed the existence of such parts of the Roman and canon laws, as from the earliest times have formed the rule in the king's eccle siastical, military, and admiralty tribu nals, and also in the courts of the two English universities. These laws of foreign origin subsist however only as inferior branches of the customary law, subject to control by the superior temporal courts, and to a strict adherence to the rules of construction observed by these courts in the interpretation of statute law.
These general customs of the real which form the common law, properly called, alone warrant the existence an jurisdiction of the king's superior con ; and can only be drawn into questio there. These general customs, as ori-' ginally methodized by the Saxon kings, and in some cases modified in the early Norman reigns, supplied those funda mental rules by which, in cases not oth wise regulated by statute, the law of i heritance, the interpretation of acts, of parliament, and most of the remedies Viz civil and criminal injuries are regulayed. Numerous axioms essential to the sAcii nistration of justice have no other 11;t'nding force than antient and uninterrupted usage, which has obtained the ,I force of law by the recognition of thle courts. [COMMON Lsw.] t Among these general customs, are those rules which prevail among the particular bodies of men to which they relate ; merchants, innkeepers, carriers, owners of lands adjoining the sea-coast, &c. &c., as well as the inhabitants of particular counties or boroughs, in the.particular instances of gavellund and Borough Eng fish. That custom called the law of the road, by which riders and drivers are expected to keep the left hand, as well as that respecting servants hired at yearly wages, by which either master or servant may determine the contract at a month's warning, or on paying a month's wages, have been recognized by the courts from time to time as parts of the common law.
These, like the rest, originated in general convenience, and being gradually drawn more into notice by frequent recurrence, have been finally sanctioned by judicial authority. For the principle of imme morial customs may be extended to things and circumstances which arise at the present times. Thus a custom from time immemorial that all officers of a court of justice shall be exempt from serving other offices includes offices created within the time of legal memory, but cannot be enlarged beyond the extent to which the use has been carried ; for that, and not the reason of the thing, determines the courts in declaring what the law is in such cases. Yet, though thejudges in such a case as this declare the law to be what they do declare it, they do in fact make a new rule of law ; they legislate by analogy to the rule that subsists.
The customs by which the king's superior courts of Westminster Hall regu late their administration of justice, are termed their practice. These rules are founded on antient usage, and, in respect of their universality, form a part of the common law without its being necessary to allege custom or prescription to warrant them.
Where a custom is already part of the common law, the superior courts take notice of its existence as such, without requiring it to be stated in the written pleadings. Thus each of these tribunals , takes notice of its own customs or practice as well as of that the rest ; whereas the practice of inferior courts, as well as local customs, extending to certain persons or districts only, being therefore different from and contrary to the common law, must, with the exception of gavelkind and Borough English, be set forth with due precision.