Sparks Commentary

“The objects of the laws of England are so very numerous and extensive, that, in order to consider them with any tolerable ease and perspic...

“Of crimes injurious to the persons of private subjects, the most principal and important is the offence of taking away that life , which is...

“All regal governments must be either hereditary or elective : and, as I believe there is no instance wherein the crown of England has ever ...

“I proceed in the next place to consider the general nature of punishments : which are evils or inconveniences consequent upon crimes and m...

Note: Sir William Blackstone was writing in the  eighteenth century . But in the quotations given from him in this particular blog post, he ...

“There is nothing which so generally strikes the imagination, and engages the affections of mankind, as the right of property ; or that so...

“[The Congress shall have the power] To declare war, grant  letters of marque and reprisal , and make rules concerning captures on land an...

In 1481 or 1482,  Sir Thomas de Littleton  wrote a then-famous work called “A Treatise on Tenures.” More than a century later,  Sir Edward...

“The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfei...

“And these [rights] may be reduced to three principal or primary articles ; the right of personal security , the right of personal liberty...

“In the three preceding articles we have taken a short view of the principal absolute rights which appertain to every Englishman. But in v...

“The coining of money is in all states the act of the sovereign power; for the reason just mentioned, that it's value may be known on...

“The supreme executive power of these kingdoms is vested by our laws in a single person, the king or queen : for it matters not to which...

“The office of president is treated with levity and intimated to be a machine calculated for state pageantry. Suffer me to view the comma...

“It will be the business of this chapter to consider the British parliament ; in which the legislative power, and (of course) the supreme ...

“... in the main the constitution of parliament , as it now stands, was marked out so long ago as the seventeenth year of king John, A. D....

“The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may r...

Note: There is a difference between the old and new styles of calendar , which will become relevant to our discussion. Some Wikipedia ar...