[159] A British writer, giving an account of the Somerset case, says of this maxim, that "it has found its way into use as a classical expression, and, as no one has been able to find it in any Latin author, it is supposed to have been of Lord Mansfield's own coining." (Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, July 31, 1852, N. S. Vol. XVIII. p. 71: _Slaves in Britain_.) This is a mistake. The precise phrase will be found in Ward's "Simple Cobler of Aggawamm in America," written in 1615, and first printed in 1647,--"It is lesse to say, _Statuatur veritas, ruat Regnum_, than _Fiat justitia, ruat Coelum_" (p. 14); but its origin, in substance, if not in form, is earlier. There is little doubt that it does not occur in any Latin author. Its Latinity is good, and might belong to the classical period. The latter clause, _ruat coelum_, has classical authority, as in the passage of Terence, showing that it was a common saying in his time, "Quid si redeo ad illos _qui aiunt_, Quid si nunc _coelum ruat_?" (Heauton., Act. IV. sc. 3.) The idea is also Roman. On the European continent, and especially in Germany, the maxim has another form, which is common,--_Fiat justitia, pereat mundus_. Binder, in his _Novus Thesaurus Adagiorum Latinorum_, (Stuttgart, 1861,) cites it in this form as _Regula Juris_, explained as "a designation for the maxims, taken from the _Corpus Juris_ and the works of the different ancient civilians, which have become proverbial." In the same authority is the hexameter verse, _Fiat justitia, pereat licet integer orbis_, from Johannis Leibi _Studentica_ (Coburg, 1627). In England the maxim was current in other forms. As early as February 26, 1624-5, in a letter to the English ambassador at Holland, alluding to "the business of Amboyne," we meet _Fiat justitia et ruat mundus_. (Birch's Court and Times of James I., Vol. II. p. 500.) In a speech in the House of Commons, December 22, 1640, against the judges who pronounced in favor of ship-money, an orator says: "If ever any nation might justifiably, we certainly may now, now most properly, most seasonably, cry out, and cry aloud, _Vel sacra regnet justitia vel ruat coelum_." And he concludes with a motion, "That a special committee may be appointed to examine the whole carriage of that extrajudicial judgment, ... and, upon report thereof, to draw up a charge against the guilty; and then _Lex currat, fiat justitia_. (Parl. Hist., 2d ed., London, 1763, Vol. IX. p. 192.) In the answer of the Duke of Richmond (January 31, 1641-2) to the charge of the Commons, it is said: "_Magna est veritas et prevalebit_. I wish it may do so in what concerns me. _Regnet justitia et ruat coelum._" (Parl. Hist., Vol. X. p. 254. Also, Howell's State Trials, Vol. IV. col. 116.) The first clause