t aside or changed by
legislative action. The common law is therefore always slowly changing
like the ocean and is never at rest.

The common law forms much the largest part of the great body of law
under which we live. This book is a collection chiefly of common law
principles; a few statutes are interwoven here and there to complete
the subjects presented.

The distinction also between civil and criminal law requires
explanation. Nearly all criminal law is founded on statutes, in other
words the statutes, state and federal, define nearly all legal crimes
known to society. It is therefore true that the field of crime is not
fixed, is in truth always changing. Thus formerly if a man bought
goods on credit of another on the statement that he was worth fifty
thousand dollars and the seller afterward learned that he was not
worth fifty cents, the seller could sue the buyer to recover the value
of the goods and for any additional loss, but could do no more. Many,
perhaps all the states, now declare by statute that such an act is a
crime, and the offender can be prosecuted by the state and fined or
imprisoned or both. And the wrongdoer may still be sued in a civil
action for the loss to the seller as before.

All crimes are prosecuted by the officers of the state chosen or
appointed for that purpose. Again, as in the case mentioned, the
wrongful act has a double aspect. An individual who has been wronged
may proceed against the wrongdoer to recover his loss; the state also
has been wronged and may also proceed against him. A good illustration
is a bank defaulter. The bank may proceed through a court of law to
recover the money lost by him, or from those who have promised to make
the bank good should he wrongfully take anything; the state may also
proceed against him as a criminal for breaking a statute that forbids
him from doing such a thing. Furthermore, should the bank, as often
happens, agree to accept a sum from the defaulter and not trouble him
further, the agreement would be no bar to an action by the state
against him.

The terms law and equity are frequently used in the law books and
require explanation. Formerly there was no such term as equity in the
common law. It came to be used as a supplement to the law to indicate
ways of doing things unknown to the law, which ought to be done. Thus
if a man threatened to fill up your well because it stood, as he
claimed, on his land, you had no preventive remedy at law.