The importance of looking to the common law for light in the interpretation of statutes and constitutions cannot be better stated than as stated by Chief Justice Shaw in the case of Com. vs. Chapman, 13 Met. (Mass.), 68. "To a very great extent the unwritten law constitutes the basis of our jurisprudence, and furnishes the rules by which public and private rights are established and secured, the social relation of all persons regulated, their rights, duties and obligations

2 Smith vs. People, 25 111., 9, 15; Thompson vs. Reynolds, 73 111., 11; Con vs. Newell, 7 Mass., 245; 6 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law, 290.

3 Williams vs. State, 18 Ga., 356; determined, and all violations of duty redressed and punished. Without its aid, the written law, embracing the constitution and statute law, would constitute but a lame, partial, and impracticable system. Even in many states where statutes have been made in respect to particular subjects, they could not be carried into effect, and must remain a dead letter, without the aid of the common law. In cases of murder and manslaughter, the statute declares the punishment; but what acts shall constitute murder, what manslaughter, or what justifiable or excusable homicide, are left to be decided by the rules and principles of the common law. So if an act is made criminal, but no mode of prosecution is directed, or no punishment provided, the common law furnishes its ready aid, prescribing the mode of prosecution by indictment, the common law punishment of fine and imprisonment.5

State vs. Young, 55 Kan., 349;

Leggerwood vs. State, 134 Ind.,

81. 4 6 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law, 290.