xims of the Roman Law covered all questions of connivance
so completely that there was no need of devising any new rules in
relation thereto; and no new rules were devised.

With respect to the Canon Law we are enabled to speak positively; for
the whole of the Canon Law is found in the _Corpus Juris Canonici_; and
the _Corpus Juris Canonici_ nowhere attempts to define connivance, and
nowhere lays down any rule by which to determine whether any particular
act, or series of acts, amounts to connivance. When a Canonist had to
grapple with any question of connivance of new impression, he sought,
and never sought but found, ample guidance in the Old and New Testaments
and in the Roman Civil Law. Perhaps the learned judges who promulgated
this disparagement of the Canon Law have given as little attention to it
as John Adams gave to it before he disparaged it in his treatise on the
Feudal Law. There is a remark in one of Fielding's novels which perhaps
applies here, that, "generally speaking, a man will write better for
having some knowledge of what he is writing about;" or words to that
effect. The notes penned by Mr. Adams, in his private copy of his
treatise, warrant the inference that, after that treatise was printed,
he acquired a better understanding of the Canon Law than he had when he
wrote it. _Verbum sapienti._

In the _Corpus Juris Canonici_ we find at the end of the decretals a
collection of ancient maxims, of general application, culled chiefly
from the Roman Law, and promulgated by Pope Boniface VIII. One of these
maxims touches this case, and is the one first quoted in this article;
and, singular to say, it has been twice quoted with approval by the very
court which has put forth this disparagement of the Canon Law.--2
Pickering, 72; 119 Mass., 515.

In the same opinion, the court says, "Marriage and divorce here have
always been regulated wholly by statute." So far as it relates to
divorce, this statement betrays a lack of information touching the
divorce legislation of Massachusetts, as a Colony, as a Province and as
a Commonwealth, which is simply amazing. It would be much nearer the
truth to say that divorce here has always been regulated wholly by the
common or unwritten law. Prior to 1658 not a word of Statute Law was
enacted touching divorce in the Old Bay Colony, and not a word of
Statute Law touching divorce was ever at any time enacted in Plymouth
Colony. It is understood, however, that the Court of