ge.
"_Quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem, cum populus ei et in eum
omne suum imperium et potestatem conferat_," says Ulpian[w].
"_Imperator solus et conditor et interpres legis existimatur_," says
the code[x]. And again, "_sacrilegii instar est rescripto principis
obviare_[y]." And indeed it is one of the characteristic marks of
English liberty, that our common law depends upon custom; which
carries this internal evidence of freedom along with it, that it
probably was introduced by the voluntary consent of the people.

[Footnote u: _Ff._ 1. 3. 32.]

[Footnote w: _Ff._ 1. 4. 1.]

[Footnote x: _C._ 1. 14. 12.]

[Footnote y: _C._ 1. 23. 5.]

II. THE second branch of the unwritten laws of England are particular
customs, or laws which affect only the inhabitants of particular
districts.

THESE particular customs, or some of them, are without doubt the
remains of that multitude of local customs before mentioned, out of
which the common law, as it now stands, was collected at first by king
Alfred, and afterwards by king Edgar and Edward the confessor: each
district mutually sacrificing some of it's own special usages, in
order that the whole kingdom might enjoy the benefit of one uniform
and universal system of laws. But, for reasons that have been now long
forgotten, particular counties, cities, towns, manors, and lordships,
were very early indulged with the privilege of abiding by their own
customs, in contradistinction to the rest of the nation at large:
which privilege is confirmed to them by several acts of parliament[z].

[Footnote z: Mag. Cart. c. 9.--1 Edw. III. st. 2. c. 9.--14 Edw. III.
st. 1. c. 1.--and 2 Hen. IV. c. 1.]

SUCH is the custom of gavelkind in Kent and some other parts of the
kingdom (though perhaps it was also general till the Norman conquest)
which ordains, among other things, that not the eldest son only of the
father shall succeed to his inheritance, but all the sons alike: and
that, though the ancestor be attainted and hanged, yet the heir shall
succeed to his estate, without any escheat to the lord.--Such is the
custom that prevails in divers antient boroughs, and therefore called
borough-english, that the youngest son shall inherit the estate, in
preference to all his elder brothers.--Such is the custom in other
boroughs that a widow shall be intitled, for her dower, to all her
husband's lands; whereas at the common law she shall be endowed of one
third part only.--Such also are