Diary of John Adams, volume 1
1760-11-14
The Title is “The History of the Common Law of England.” The Frontispiece, I cannot comprehend. It is this. Ἰσχυρον ὁ ΝÓ
ΜΟΣ έσ
His great Distribution of the Laws of England is into Leges scriptae and Leges non scriptae. The first are Acts of Parliament which are originally reduced to writing before they are enacted, or receive any binding Power, every such Law being in the first Instance, formally drawn up in Writing, and made as it were a Tripartite Indenture, between the King, the Lords and Commons.
The Leges non scriptae, altho there may be some Monument or Memorial of them in Writing (as there is of all of them) yet all of them have not their original in Writing, but have obtained their Force by immemorial Usage or Custom.
Transcribed by JA from the titlepage of The History and Analysis of the Common Law of England, London, 1713
Ἰσχυρὸν ὁ νόμος έστ𐎯ν, ἤν ἄρχοντ᾽ ἔχῃ.
which he translates,—The law is powerful if it have an executor” (JA, Works
, 2:101). The Stephani, or Estiennes, were 16th-century printers and lexicographers; see
Catalogue of JA’s Library
, p. 86. Hale’s titlepage motto is evidently a distorted version of this “proverb.”