text:  We ask with deep anxiety what will be the consequences of thus lightly esteeming such authority?--of impugning the stability of the legal fabric by asserting one-half of its materials to consist merely of "law taken for granted?"[23]--and consequently not the product of experience and wisdom and to be got rid of with comparative indifference in spite of the deliberate and solemn judgment of an overwhelming majority of the existing judicial authorities of the land