courfe of life, and by the practice of fuch rules as the expeperience of ages has eftablifhed, endeavour to preferve • health of body, and foundness of mind, until we arrive at the • boundaries which Providence (unless we are our own enemies) feems to have nearly marked out for our refpective conftitutions. And then let us chearfully submit to have the curtain drawn for a little while between our friends and us; and be ready and willing to enter into that happy state for which we were originally intended, and where we fhall be fecure from the approach of age and infirmities,'

K

A Difcourfe on the Study of the Law; being an introductory Leeture, read in the public fchools, October 25, 1758. By William Blackftone, Efq; D. C. L. Barrifler at Law, and Vinerian Profeffor of the Laws of England in the University of Oxford. Published by direction of the Vice Chancellor, Heads of Houfes, and Proctors. 4to. 1s. Oxford, printed and fold by Rivington in Londen.

THE

HE rude and indigested state, in which the materials of legal knowlege have been long fuffered to lie, has rendered the study of the law fo tedious and intricate, that many ftudents, of more than ordinary talents, have been disgusted at their first fetting out.

A youth of lively genius and liberal learning, cannot fail to meet with difcouragement, from the confufion and perplexity which every where obstructs his firft entrance upon this science; and unless he has the advantage of fome peculiar affiftance, to facilitate his progrefs, the difficulties he is obliged to encounter, frequently determine him to desert his hopeless pursuit.

It has been obfervable, on the contrary, that many laborious drones, of flender imagination, and confined erudition, have fucceeded in this ftudy, to admiration; and have attained by patience, what they could not acquire by genius. Their incapacity, however, in point of polite literature, and their deficiency in every branch of fcience out of their own circle, has given birth to thofe reproaches, with which Bolingbroke and others, have ftigmatized the profeffion of the Law.

To remove fuch difgraceful imputations, to render the ftudy of the Law pleasant and acceffible, and to make jurisprudence and literature go hand in hand, the worthy Mr. Viner (of whom it is fufficient to fay, that he was the Author of the Abridgment)

Abridgment) made a liberal devife to the Chancellor, Mafter, and Scholars of the University of Oxford, whom he appointed his executors, for the eftablishing a Profefforship of Common Law in the faid Univerfity, for the benefit of young students: and has directed folemn lectures to be read for that purpose by the Profeffor, as often as the convocation should think proper.

In execution of this will, the Convocation have appointed the Author of this Difcourfe, to the Profefforfhip: an appointment which does honour to their difcernment, fince this treatise, and his excellent Analysis of the Law, (which is an amplification and improvement of Lord Hale's) are of themselves, fufficient to determine him to be well qualified for fo important a charge.

In the difcourfe before us, the learned and ingenious Author firft makes a genteel acknowlegement of the honour conferred upon him, and expreffes a modeft diffidence of his own abilities to execute the arduous tafk. After this fhort introduction, he takes occafion_to cenfure the fhameful neglect, with which the gentlemen of England have treated the laws and conftitution of their own country.

He then proceeds to demonftrate the utility of fome general acquaintance with the municipal Law of the land, by pointing out its particular ufes in all confiderable fituations of life. In the next place, he offers fome conjectures with regard to the caufes of neglecting this useful ftudy; and concludes with subjoining a few reflections on the peculiar propriety of reviving it in our own Universities.

In handling these points, our Author gives abundant proofs of his knowlege and understanding; and though it is not ufual for us to take extracts from pieces of this fmall extent, yet we cannot refift the pleasure of transcribing the following pertinent obfervations.

Having fet forth the utility of jurifprudence to gentlemen of fortune, with refpect to their private concerns, he next examines the ufe of it with respect to public confiderations. Such, he obferves, are liable, in confequence of their property, to ferve upon juries; in which capacity fome legal fkill is requifite. Of fuch likewife the commiffion of the peace is filled; in which office, as he justly remarks, the power of adminiftring legal and effectual justice, must include the knowlege.

Yet further;' fays he, moft gentlemen of confiderable property, at fome period or other in their lives, are ambitious of reprefenting their country in parliament: and those who are ambitious of receiving fo high a truft, would also do well

to confider its nature and importance. They are not thus honourably diftinguifhed from the reft of their fellow-fubjects, merely that they may privilege their perfons, their eftates, or their domeftics; that they may lift under party banners; may grant or with-hold fupplies; may vote with or vote againit a popular or unpopular adminiftration; but upon confiderations far more interefting and important. They are the guardians of the English conftitution; the makers, repealers, and interpreters of the English laws; delegated to watch, to check, and to avert every dangerous innovation; to propose, to adopt, and to cherish any folid and well weighed improvement; bound by every tie of nature, of honour, and of religion, to tranfmit that conftitution, and thofe laws, to their pofterity, amended if poffible, at least without any derogation. And how unbecoming muft it appear in a member of the Legiflature, to vote for a new law, who is utterly ignorant of the old! what kind of interpretation can he be enabled to give, who is a ftranger to the text upon which he comments!

Indeed it is really amazing, that there fhould be no other ftate of life, no other occupation, art, or fcience, in which • fome method of inftruction is not looked upon as requifite, except only the fcience of legiflation, the nobleft and moft difficult of any. Apprenticefhips are held neceffary to almoft every art, commercial or mechanical: a long course of reading and study muft form the Divine, the Phyfician, and the practical Profeflor of the Laws: but every man of fuperior fortune thinks himself born a Legiflator. Yet Tully was of a different opinion: "It is neceflary," fays he, "for a Senator to be thoroughly acquainted with the conftution; and this he declares is a knowlege of the most extensive nature; "a matter of fcience, of diligence, of reflection; without "which no Senator can poffibly be fit for his office."

From proving the expedience of legal knowlege in the Commoners of this kingdom, he proceeds to fhew how much more ellential it is in the Peerage.

What is faid of our gentlemen in general, and the propriety of their application to the ftudy of the laws of their country, will hold equally ftrong, or ftill ftronger, with regard to the nobility of this realm, except only in the article of erving upon juries. But, inftead of this, they have several peculiar provinces of far greater confequence and concern; being not only by birth hereditary counfellors of the crown, and judges upon their honour of the lives of their brotherpeers, but alfo arbiters of the property of all their fellowfubjects, and that in the laft refrt. In this their judicial ca pacity a

pacity, they are bound to decide the nicest and most critical points of law; to examine and correct fuch errors as have efcaped the most experienced fages of the profeffion, the Lordkeeper and the judges of the courts at Weftminster. Their ⚫ fentence is final, decifive, irrevocable: no appeal, no correc⚫tion, not even a review can be had: ¡and to their determination, whatever it be, the inferior courts of justice must con<form; otherwife, the rule of property would no longer be • uniform and steady.

Should a Judge, in the moft fubordinate jurifdiction, be deficient in the knowlege of the law, it would reflect infinite contempt upon himfelf, and difgrace upon those who employ him. And yet the confequence of his ignorance, is comparatively very trifling and fmall: his judgment may be examinBut how much ed, and his errors rectified by other courts.

more ferious and affecting is the cafe of a fuperior Judge, if, without any fkill in the laws, he will boldly venture to decide a queftion, upon which the welfare and subfiftence of whole families may depend! where the chance of his judging right or wrong is barely equal; and where, if he chances to judge wrong, he does an injury of the moft alarming nature, an injury without poffibility of redrefs!

Yet, vaft as this truth is, it can no where be fo properly repofed, as in the noble hands where our excellent conftitu<tion has placed it: and therefore placed it, because, from the independence of their fortune, and the dignity of their ftation, they are prefumed to employ that leifure which is the confequence of both, in attaining a more extensive knowlege of the laws, than perfons of inferior rank: and because the founders of our polity relied upon that delicacy of fentiment, fo peculiar to noble birth; which, as on the one hand, it will prevent either intereft or affection from interfering in queftions of right, fo, on the other, it will bind a Peer in honour, an obligation which the law esteems equal to another's oath, to be mafter of thofe points upon which it is his birthright to decide.'

It is needlefs for us to add any comment on these reflections. The fpirit and propriety of them will be felt and acknowleged by every intelligent Reader. Indeed the whole discourse abounds with folid knowlege, and judicious obfervations: and we hope, that the learned Author's future academical lectures will, from time to time, be made public, for the benefit of fuch as have no opportunity of giving personal attendance.

N. B. Those who purchase the third edition of the Analysis of the Laws, published this month, will find this discourse prefixed, by way of introduction, to that excellent book.

Seasonable

R--á

Seafonable thoughts offered to the confideration of the judges of his majesty's courts at Westminster, and all thofe who are, or intend to be, profeffors of the Law. By a Gentleman of the Middle Temple. 8vo. 15. Wilkie.

OTHING can be more repugnant to the nature of a free conftitution, than the vague and uncertain ftate of legal determinations. A great oracle of the law has justly obferved Mifera fervitus eft, ubi jus eft VAGUM aut INCOGNITUM. Every attempt therefore to eftablish a greater uniformity of decifion, has an unquestionable title to publick approbation and encouragement.

The Author of the pamphlet before us obferves, that great care hath been taken in all nations to preserve and publifh, ⚫ from time to time, the moft remarkable judgments and refolutions of the higher judges, to ferve not only as a directory in the like cafes themselves, according to the rule Ubi eadem • ratio, ibi idem jus; and to lawyers who have occafion to plead before them, but also as a pattern to judges who act in a lower <sphere, under the controul and direction of fuperior courts, to copy after in their proceedings, and lead them in the paths of • judgment.'.

As inftances of the care which has been taken in this refpect, the Writer gives a fhort account of the most material collections which have been made in foreign countries, particularly in the civil law: he likewife enumerates the feveral reports of adjudged cafes in England, both in common law and chancery, according to the order of their publication.

Having expatiated on the great utility and advantage attending an accurate report of adjudications, he fuggefts the following method of attaining this defirable end.

The great ufe,' fays he, therefore, of reporting and making publick the determinations of the judges, in matters of moment, being evident from the practice of other nations, from the authority of two great oracles of our own law, and from common ferrie and reafon; it were to be wifhed that applications were made to the judges of his majefty's courts at Westminster, on the neceffity of having their judgments and refolutions accurately taken and published for the publick be"nefit; and that a perfon properly qualified fhould attend each court for that purpofe; at leaft that fuch an application were made to the court of king's bench; the subject being more immediately interefted and concerned in the proceedings of that court than in thofe of any other; fince it is the fupreme

' court