I have read, my Lord, to distinguish, and have been ever taught to know, that the Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench is the great and first expounder of the laws of this Realm; great and first in dignity and in office; in your Lordship’s person, great and first professedly in capacity also. Of these laws then, my Lord, I have apprehended that there are but two kinds, however sub-divided into sorts or species: the unwritten, or common law, of which judicial decisions are the evidence: or the written or statute law, otherwise called acts of parliament. Now, my Lord, so far as this case is referable to either of these establishments, so far it lies before the Court, and falls under the cognizance of your Lordship. This is the source of enquiry leading to your judgment and determination; and all without the circle of this, I conceive to be inapposite and eccentric. The first question then, that would seem to arise on this position, is, What is the common law of the land respecting the case in issue, _considered as a case of slavery_? It was said, I remember, by one of the counsel, that the present state of slavery among Negroes was totally different from the ancient condition of villenage; that it was a new species of slavery utterly unknown to the common law of England.[2] In this opinion I readily coincide, and agree with the learned gentleman. The next question is, What do acts of parliament say on this head? I believe it must be said for them, that they are, _enactively_, if I may be allowed the expression, silent. If this be so, then the conclusion will operate in the nature of a plea to the jurisdiction of your Lordship’s Court. If the case be unknown to the common law, and acts of parliament are silent thereupon, what basis must your Lordship’s judgment take? Where there is no law, there can be no remedy. If the common law be defective, it is the business of acts of parliament to supply the defects: but until those defects are supplied, _sub judice lis est_, and the matter must remain undetermined. Your Lordship may however tell me, that, where positive law is wanting, whereupon to ground the decisions of a Court, recourse may be had to the maxims and principles of law, to the spirit of the constitution. The result of this, my Lord, at best, is but matter of opinion; besides, cases founded on the self-same principles will often have very different determinations, according to the difference of circumstances, and the alteration or change of times. Thus, if it had even been an original maxim of the common law, that slavery was incompatible with the frame and constitution of this country, yet it does not therefore follow, that occasions have not since arisen to combat with this principle, and to justify particular conclusions differing from these general premises. For instance, my Lord, the impressing of seamen, is an idea as heterogeneous to the nature and essence of this government,