The  long  enjoyment  of  tolls  lays  a  foundation  for  a
good  consideration  in  respect  of  them.*

"  Where  a  record  is  produced  to  prove  a  custom,  and
"  there  is  no  direct  issue  on  the  custom,  the  constant
"  practice  is,"  said  Lord  Abinger,  C.B.,°  "  to  give  some
"  evidence  to  show  that  the  custom  was  really  in  question,
"  otherwise  a  verdict  in  indebitatus  assumpsit  would  prove
"  nothing."

"  It  is  well  known,"  said  Best,  0.  J.,  "that  many  toUs
"  are  good  under  a  custom  of  which  a  good  grant  could
"  not  be  made  at  the  present  time.  A  custom  which  is
"  proved  to  have  existed  immemorially  will  be  good  if  it
"be  of  such  a  nature  that  it  is  possible  it  can  have  had
"  a  good  beginning.  Although  it  be  such  as  to  confer
"  what  the  king  cannot  now  grant,  yet  if  it  be  not  con-
"  trary  to  reason  it  may  be  supported ;  for  it  might  have
"  had  its  commencement  from  an  Act  of  the  legislature.
"  Custom  is  a  local  law  which  supersedes  the  general  law,
"  and  if  the  law  gives  us  the  maxim,  '  Consueto  ex  certa
"  causa  rationabili  privat  commimem  legem,'  the  custom  on
"  which  the  plaintiff  rests  his  claim  appears  to  us  to  be
"  reasonable  and  convenient,  even  to  those  who  resist  its

'  Grunning,  p.  27.  *  'Woolrych,    p.    305  ;  Mayor  of

"  Jenkins  y. Harvey,!  G-ale.Exch.  Exeter  v.  Warren,  5  Q.  B.  773;  S.
23.  C,  Dav.  &  M.  524.
3  lb.  ;   1   Gale,   45i   (Exch.) ;   5  =  Zatjbiirn  v.  Crisp,  4  JM.  &  W.
Tyr.  187.  320,  325.
