If

thus educated to the bar, in fubfervience to attorneys and folicitors", will find he has begun at the wrong end. practice be the whole he is taught, practice must also be the whole he will ever know: if he be uninftructed in the elements and first principles upon which the rule of practice is founded, the leaft variation from eftablifhed precedents will totally distract and bewilder him: ita lex fcripta eft is the utmost his knowlege will arrive at: he must never aspire to form, and feldom expect to comprehend, any arguments drawn a priori, from the fpirit of the laws and the natural foundations of juftice.

NOR is this all; for (as few perfons of birth, or fortune, or even of scholastic education, will submit to the drudgery of fervitude and the manual labour of copying the trash of an office) fhould this infatuation prevail to any confiderable degree, we must rarely expect to fee a gentleman of diftinction or learning at the bar. And what the confequence may be, to have the interpretation and enforcement of the laws (which include the entire difpofal of our properties, liberties, and lives) fall wholly into the hands of obfcure or illiterate men, is matter of very public concern (5).

See Kennet's Life of Somner. p. 67.

• Ff. 40. 9. 12.

(5) The learning, which of late years has diftinguished the bar, leaves little reafon to apprehend that fuch will speedily be the degraded itate of the laws of England. Our author's labours and example have contributed in no inconfiderable degree to refcue the profeffion from the reproaches of Lord Bolingbroke, whose fentiments upon the education of a barrifter, correfpond fo fully with thofe of the learned judge, that they deserve to be annexed to this elegant differtation on the ftudy of the law.

"I might inftance (fays he) in other profeffions, the obligation men lie under of applying to certain parts of history; and I can hardly forbear doing it in that of the law, in it's nature the noblest and moft beneficial to mankind, in it's abufe and debasement the moft fordid and the moft pernicious. A lawyer now is nothing. more, I fpeak of ninety-nine in a hundred at leaft, to ufe fome of Tully's words, nifi leguleius quidem cautus, et acutus præco a&tionum,

THE inconveniences here pointed out can never be effectually prevented, but by making academical education a previous step to the profeffion of the common law, and at the fame time making the rudiments of the law a part of academical education. For fciences are of a fociable difpofition, and flourish best in the neighbourhood of each other: nor is there any branch of learning, but may be helped and improved by affiftances drawn from other arts. If therefore the student in our laws hath formed both his fentiments and style, by perufal and imitation of the pureft claffical writers, among whom the hiftorians and orators will best deserve his regard; if he can reafon with precifion, and feparate argument from fallacy, by the clear fimple rules of pure unfophifticated logic; if he can fix his attention, and fteadily pursue truth through any the most intricate deduction, by the use of mathematical demonftrations; if he has enlarged his conceptions of nature and art, by a view of the feveral branches of genuine, experimental philofophy; if he

cantor formularum, auceps fyllabarum. But there have been lawyers. that were orators, philofophers, hiftorians: there have been Bacons and Clarendons. There will be none fuch any more, till in fome better age true ambition, or the love of fame, prevails over avarice; and till men find leifure and encouragement to prepare themfelves for the exercife of this profeffion, by climbing up to the vantage ground, fo my Lord Bacon calls it, of fcience, inftead of grovelling all their lives below, in a mean but gainful application to a the little arts of chicane. Till this happen, the profeffion of the law will scarce deferve to be ranked among the learned profeffions; and whenever it happens, one of the vantage grounds to which men muft climb is metaphyfical, and the other, hiftorical knowledge.

"They must pry into the fecret receffes of the human heart, and become well acquainted with the whole moral world, that they may discover the abstract reafon of all laws; and they must trace the laws of particular ftates, especially of their own, from the first rough sketches, to the more perfect draughts; from the firft caufes of occafions that produced them, through all the effects, good and bad, that they produced." (Stud. of Hift. p. 353. quarto edition.)

has impreffed on his mind the found maxims of the law of nature, the best and most authentic' foundation of human laws; if, laftly, he has contemplated thofe maxims reduced to a practical fyftem in the laws of imperial Rome; if he has done this or any part of it, (though all may be easily done under as able inftructors as ever graced any feats of learning,) a ftudent thus qualified may enter upon the study of the law with incredible advantage and reputation. And [34] if, at the conclufion, or during the acquifition of thefe accomplishments, he will afford himself here a year or two's farther leifure, to lay the foundation of his future labours in a folid fcientifical method, without thirfling too early to attend that practice which it is impoffible he should rightly comprehend, he will afterwards proceed with the greatest eafe, and will unfold the most intricate points with an intuitive rapidity and clearness.

I SHALL not infift upon fuch motives as might be drawn from principles of occonomy, and are applicable to particu lars only: I reafon upon more general topics. And therefore to the qualities of the head, which I have just enumerated, I cannot but add thofe of the heart; affectionate loyalty to the king, a zeal for liberty and the conftitution, a fense of real honour, and well grounded principles of religion; as neceflary to form a truly valuable English lawyer, a Hyde, a Hale, or a Talbot. And, whatever the ignorance of fome, or unkindness of others, may have heretofore untruly fuggefted, experience will warrant us to affirm, that these endowments of loyalty and public fpirit, of honour and religion, are no where to be found in more high perfection than in the two univerfities of this kingdom.

BEFORE I Conclude, it may perhaps be expected, that I lay before you a fhort and general account of the method I propofe to follow, in endeavouring to execute the trust you have been pleafed to repofe in my hands. And in these folemn lectures, which are ordained to be read at the entrance of every term, (more perhaps to do public honour to this laud

able

able inftitution, than for the private inftruction of individuals,) I prefume it will beft anfwer the intent of our benefactor and the expectation of this learned body, if I attempt to illuftrate at times fuch detached titles of the law, as are the most easy to be understood, and moft capable of historical or critical ornament. But in reading the complete courfe, which is annually configned to my care, a more regular method will be neceffary; and, till a better is proposed, I fhall take the liberty to follow the fame that I have already [35] fubmitted to the public. To fill up and finish that outline with propriety and correctnefs, and to render the whole intelligible to the uninformed minds of beginners, (whom we are too apt to fuppofe acquainted with terms and ideas, which they never had opportunity to learn,) this must be my ardent endeavour, though by no means my promise, to accomplish. You will permit me however very briefly to defcribe, rather what I conceive an academical expounder of the laws fhould do, than what I have ever known to be done.

HE fhould confider his courfe as a general map of the law, marking out the shape of the country, it's connexions and boundaries, it's greater divifions and principal cities: it is not his bufinefs to defcribe minutely the fubordinate limits, or to fix the longitude and latitude of every inconfiderable hamlet. His attention fhould be engaged, like that of the readers in Fortescue's inns of chancery," in tracing out the "originals and as it were the elements of the law." For if, as Juftinian has obferved, the tender understanding of

The analysis of the laws of Eng. land, first published, A. D. 1756, and exhibiting the order and principal divifions of the enfuing COMMENTARIES; which were originally fubmitted to the university in a private course of lectures, A. D. 1753

P See Lowth's Oratio Creaviana, modiffime, fi primo levi ac fimplici via P. 365. fingula tradantur: alioqui, fi ftatim ab initio rudem adbuc et infirmum animum ftudiofi multitudine ac varietate rerum oneravimus, duorum alterum, aut defertorem Audiorum efficiemus, aut cum magno labore, faepe etiam cum diffidentia (quae plerumque juvenes avertit) ferius ed id perducemus, ad quod, leviore via du&us, fine magno labore, et fine ulla diffidentia maturius perduci potuiffet. Inft. I. 1. 2. P 3

Incipientibus nobis exponere jura populi Romani, ita videntur tradi poffe com

the

the ftudent be loaded at the firft with a multitude and variety of matter, it will either occafion him to defert his ftudies, or will carry him heavily through them, with much labour, delay, and defpondence. Thefe originals fhould be traced to their fountains, as well as our distance will permit; to the cuftoms of the Britons, and Germans, as recorded by Caefar and Tacitus; to the codes of the northern nations on the continent, and more especially to thofe of our own Saxon princes; to the rules of the Roman law either left here in the days of Papinian, or imported by Vacarius and [36] his followers; but above all, to that inexhaustible reservoir of

legal antiquities and learning, the feodal law, or, as Spelmans has entitled it, the law of nations in our western orb. These primary rules and fundamental principles fhould be weighed and compared with the precepts of the law of nature, and the practice of other countries; fhould be explained by reafons, illuftrated by examples, and confirmed by undoubted authorities; their history fhould be deduced, their changes and revolutions obferved, and it fhould be fhewn how far they are connected with, or have at any time been affected by, the civil transactions of the kingdom.

A PLAN of this nature, if executed with care and ability, cannot fail of administering a most useful and rational entertainment to ftudents of all ranks and profeffions; and yet it must be confeffed that the ftudy of the laws is not merely a matter of amufement; for, as a very judicious writer has obferved upon a fimilar occafion, the learner" will be con

fiderably difappointed, if he looks for entertainment with"out the expence of attention." An attention, however, not greater than is ufually bestowed in mastering the rudiments of other sciences, or fometimes in pursuing a favourite recreation or exercife. And this attention is not equally neceffary to be exerted by every ftudent upon every occafion. Some branches of the law, as the formal procefs of civil suits, and the subtle distinctions incident to landed proDr Taylor's pref. to Elem. of civil law. perty,

Of parliaments. 57.