fined. This liberty, rightly understood, consists in the power (2) of doing whatever the laws permit (c); which is only to be effected by a general conformity of all orders and degrees to those equitable rules of action by which the meanest individual is protected from the insults and oppression of the greatest. As therefore every subject is interested in Liberty dethe preservation of the laws, it is incumbent upon every man to be acquainted with those at least with which he is immediately concerned; lest he incur the censure, as well as inconvenience, of living in society without knowing the obligations which it lays him under. And thus much may suffice for persons of inferior condition, who have [*7 ] neither time nor capacity to enlarge their views beyond that contracted sphere in which they are appointed to move. But those, on whom nature and fortune have bestowed more abilities and greater leisure, cannot be so easily excused. These advantages are given them, not for the benefit of themselves only, but also of the public: and yet they cannot, in any scene of life, discharge properly their duty either to the public or themselves, without some degree of knowledge in the laws. To evince this the more clearly, it may not be amiss to descend to a few particulars. Let us therefore begin with our gentlemen of independent estates and fortune, the most useful as well as considerable body of men in the nation; whom even to (c) Facultas ejus, quod cuique facere libet, nisi quid vi, aut jure prohibetur. Inst. 1. 3. 1.-[That natural power which every one has to do at The use of this study to gentlemen of estate and fortune, and as to descents. (2) See the Editor's reasons for his disapprobation of this definition of liberty in the note to p. 126.-Cн. Difficult is a correct definition of liberty, if applied to any state of social man: For the instant he is social, he ceases to be free. The text, Also as to wills suppose ignorant in this branch of learning is treated by Mr. Locke (d) as a strange absurdity. It is their landed property, with its long and voluminous train of descents. and conveyances, settlements, entails, and incumbrances, that forms the most intricate and most extensive object of legal knowledge. The thorough comprehension of these, in all their minute distinctions, is perhaps too laborious a task for any but a lawyer by profession: yet still the understanding of a few leading principles, relating to estates and conveyancing, may form some check and guard upon a gentleman's inferior agents, and preserve him at least from very gross and notorious imposition. Again, the policy of all laws has made some forms and testaments. necessary in the wording of last wills and testaments, and more with regard to their attestation. An ignorance in these must always be of dangerous consequence, to such as by choice or necessity compile their own testaments without any technical assistance. Those who have attended the courts of justice are the best witnesses of the confusion and distresses that are hereby occasioned in families; and of the difficulties that arise in discerning the true meaning of the testator, or sometimes in discovering [*8] any meaning at all: so that in the end his estate *may often be vested quite contrary to these his enigmatical intentions, because perhaps he has omitted one or two formal words, which are necessary to ascertain the sense with indisputable legal precision, or has executed his will in the presence of fewer witnesses than the law requires. But to proceed from private concerns to those of a more public consideration. All gentlemen of fortune are, in consequence of their property, liable to be called upon to establish the rights, to estimate the injuries, to weigh the accusations, and sometimes to dispose of the lives of their (d) Education, Sec. 187. fellow-subjects, by serving upon juries. In this situation Jurymen. they have frequently a right to decide, and that upon their oaths, questions of nice importance, in the solution of which some legal skill is requisite; especially where the law and the fact, as it often happens, are intimately blended together. And the general incapacity, even of our best juries, to do this with any tolerable propriety, has greatly debased their authority; and has unavoidably thrown more power into the hands of the judges, to direct, control, and even reverse their verdicts, than perhaps the constitution intended (3). the peace. But it is not as a juror only that the English gentleman As justices of is called upon to determine questions of right, and distribute justice to his fellow-subjects: it is principally with this order of men that the commission of the peace is filled. And here a very ample field is opened for a gentleman to exert his talents, by maintaining good order in his neighbourhood; by punishing the dissolute and idle; by protecting the peaceable and industrious; and, above all, by healing petty differences and preventing vexatious prosecutions. But, in order to attain these desirable ends, it is necessary that the magistrate should understand his business; and have not only the will, but the power also, (under which must be included the knowledge,) of administering legal and effectual justice. Else, when he has mistaken his authority, through passion, through ignorance, or absurdity, he will be the object of contempt [*9 ] from his inferiors, and of censure from those to whom he is accountable for his conduct. (3) In criminal cases, the province of the jury is not merely to find the commission of the facts necessary to constitute the crime. The true meaning of the verdict “guilty” is, “let him be punished;" that is to say, "fined," "let him pay," or "let him not be punished" or "fined." A strange per version of terms has made the word As members of the legislature. Yet farther; most gentlemen of considerable property, at some period or other in their lives, are ambitious of Dr. and St.308. representing their country in parliament: and those, who are ambitious of receiving so high a trust, would also do well to remember its nature and importance. They are not thus honourably distinguished from the rest of their fellow-subjects, merely that they may privilege their persons, their estates, or their domestics (4); that they may list under party banners; may grant or withhold supplies; may vote with or vote against a popular or unpopular administration; but upon considerations far more interesting and important. They are the guardians of the English constitution; 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 solid and well-weighed improvement; bound by every tie of nature, of honour, and of religion, to transmit that constitution and those laws to their posterity, amended if possible, at least without any derogation. And how unbecoming must it appear in a member of the legislature 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 stranger to the text upon which he comments! Methodical in struction in legislation yet wanting. Indeed it is perfectly amazing that there should be no other state of life, no other occupation, art, or science, in which some method of instruction is not looked upon as requisite, except only the science of legislation, the noblest and most difficult of any (5). Apprenticeships are held necessary to almost every art, commercial or mechanical; a long course of reading and (4) The privilege of parliament in which a government may confer upon no wise attaches to domestics. a people, or a people experience at the hand of government, seems not yet to have been calculated. Data are (5) Legislation is yet very imperfectly understood. The sum of good study must form the divine, the physician, and the practical professor of the laws: but every man of superior fortune thinks himself born a legislator. Yet Tully was of a different opinion; "it is necessary," says [*10 ] he (e), "for a senator to be thoroughly acquainted with the constitution; and this, he declares, is a knowledge of the most extensive nature; a matter of science, of diligence, of reflection; without which no senator can possibly be fit for his office." The mischiefs that have arisen to the public from inconsiderate alterations in our laws, are too obvious to be called in question; and how far they have been owing to the defective education of our senators, is a point well worthy the public attention. The common law of England has fared like other venerable edifices of antiquity, which rash and unexperienced workmen have ventured to new-dress and refine, with all the rage of modern improvement. Hence frequently its symmetry has been destroyed, its proportions distorted, and its majestic simplicity exchanged, for specious embellishments and fantastic novelties. For, to say the truth, almost all the perplexed questions, almost all the niceties, intricacies, and delays, (which have sometimes disgraced the English, as well as other courts of justice,) owe their original not to the common law itself, but to innovations that have been made in it by acts of parliament, "overladen (as Sir (e) De Legg. 3. 18. Est senatori necessarium nosse rempublicam; idque late patet:-genus hoc omne scientiae, diligentiae memoriae est; sine quo Mischiefs from alteration in the laws by unedu cated senators. not wanting, principles suggest themselves, and experiments are numerous; still legislation is, as yet, only nominally a science. The most that can be effected is but approximation to a sort of perfection, which changes its quality, fitness, and attributes, even |