a very comprehensive term, denoting the manners, ceremonies and fashions of a people, which having turned into a habit, and passed into use, obtains the force of laws; in which sense it implies such usages, as, though voluntary at first, are yet, by practice, become necessary.

Custom is hence, both by lawyers and civilians, defined lex non scripta, a law, or right, not written, established by long usage, and the consent of our ancestors: in which sense it stands opposed to the lex scripta, or the written law.