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Before I conclude, it may perhaps be expected, that I lay before you a short and general account of the method I propose to follow, in endeavouring to execute the trust you have been pleased to repose in my hands. And in these solemn lectures, which are ordained to be read at the entrance of every term (more perhaps to do public honour to this laudable institution, than for the private instruction of individuals P) I presume it will best answer the intent of our benefactor and the expectation of this learned body, if I attempt to illustrate at times such detached titles of the law, as are the most easy to be understood, and most capable of historical or critical ornament. But in reading the complete course, which is annually consigned to my care, a more regular method will be necessary; and, till a better is proposed, I [35] shall take the liberty to follow the same that I have already submitted to the public. To fill up and finish that outline with propriety and correctness, and to render the whole intelligible to the uninformed minds of beginners (whom we are too apt to suppose 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 describe, rather what I conceive an academical expounder of the laws should do, than what I have ever known to be done.

He should consider his course as a general map of the law [ncte, 9 page 63], marking out the shape of the country, its connections and boundaries, its greater divisions and principal cities: it is not his business to describe minutely the subordinate limits, or to fix the longitude and latitude of every inconsiderable hamlet. His attenp See Lowth's Oratio Crewiana, p. 365.

and

The analysis of the laws of England, first published, A. D. 175 exhibiting the order and principal divisions of the ensuing Com mentaries; which were originally submitted to the university in a private course of lectures, A. D. 1753.

tion should 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 Justinian has observed the tender understanding of the student be loaded at the first with a multitude and variety of matter, it will either occasion him to desert his studies, or will carry him heavily through them, with much labour, delay, and despondence. These originals should be traced to their fountains, as well as our distance will permit; to the customs of the Britons and Germans, as recorded by Cæsar and Tacitus; to the codes of the northern nations on the continent, and more especially to those 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 his fol- [36] lowers; 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 should be weighed and compared with the precepts of the law of nature, and the practice of other countries; should be explained by reasons, illustrated by examples, and confirmed by undoubted authorities; their history should be deduced, their changes and revolutions observed, and it should be shewn 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 students of all ranks and professions; and yet it must be confessed that the study of

r Incipientibus nobis exponere jura populi Romani, ita videntur tradi posse commodissime, si primo levi ac simplici via singula tradantur: alioqui, si statim ab initio rudem adhuc et infirmum animum studiosi multitudine ac varietate rerum oneravimus, duorum alterum, aut desertorem studiorum efficiemus, aut cum magno labore, sæpe etiam cum diffidentia (quæ plerumque juvenes avertit) serius ad id perducemus, ad quod, leviore via ductus, sine magno labore, et sine ulla diffidentia maturius perduci potuisset. Inst. I. 1. 2.

s of parliaments. 57.

1 BLACKST.-4.

the laws is not merely a matter of amusement; for, as a very judicious writert has observed upon a similar occasion, the learner "will be considerably disappointed, if he looks for entertainment without the expence of attention." An attention, however, not greater than is usually bestowed in mastering the rudiments of other sciences, or sometimes in pursuing a favourite recreation or exercise. And this attention is not equally necessary to be exerted by every student upon every occasion. Some branches of the law, as the formal process of civil suits, and the subtle distinctions incident to landed property, which are the most difficult to be thoroughly understood, are the least worth the pains of understanding, except to such gentlemen as intend to pursue the profession. To others I may venture to apply, with a slight alteration, the words of sir John Fortescue," when first his royal pupil determines to engage in this study. "It will not be necessary for a gentleman, as such, to examine with a close application the critical niceties of the law. It will fully be sufficient, and he may well enough be denominated a lawyer, if under the instruction of a master he traces up the principles and grounds of the [37] law, even to their original elements. Therefore in a very short period, and with very little labour, he may be sufficiently informed in the laws of his country, if he will but apply his mind in good earnest to receive and apprehend them. For, though such knowlege as is necessary for a judge is hardly to be acquired by the lucubrations of twenty years, yet, with a genius of tolerable perspicacity, that knowlege which is fit for a person of birth or condition may be learned in a single year, without neglecting his other improvements."3

t Dr. Taylor's pref. to Elem. of civil law.

u De laud. Leg. c. 8.

3 In the previous editions the Latin text of Fortescue, from which the quotation above is freely translated, is given: first omitted in the third edition, and this reference substituted for it.

To the few therefore (the very few I am persuaded), that entertain such unworthy notions of an university, as to suppose it intended for mere dissipation of thought; to such as mean only to while away the aukward interval from childhood to twenty-one, between the restraints of the school and the licentiousness of politer life, in a calm middle state of mental and of moral inactivity; to these Mr. Viner gives no invitation to an entertainment which they never can relish. But to the long and illustrious train of noble and ingenuous youth, who are not more distinguished among us by their birth and possessions, than by the regularity of their conduct and their thirst after useful knowlege, to these our benefactor has consecrated the fruits of a long and laborious life, worn out in the duties of his calling; and will joyfully reflect (if such reflexions can be now the employment of his thoughts) that he could not more effectually have benefited posterity, or contributed to the service of the public, than by founding an institution which may instruct the rising generation in the wisdom of our civil polity, and inform them with a desire to be still better acquainted with the laws and constitution of their country.*

NOTES OF THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

(1) This liberty, page 6.

Blackstone refers here to Montesquieu's famous eulogy upon the English constitution, which begins: "There is one nation in the world which makes political liberty the direct object of its constitution. We are about to examine the principles on which it is founded. If these are correct, liberty will be seen there as in a mirror."

But the definition of liberty which immediately follows in our text, though taken from the institutes of

*Cited 1 Ohio St. 655.

Justinian, is hardly of such liberty as Montesquieu had in mind. Even Bracton, six centuries ago, could see its defects. He says that by this definition even slaves are free, since they have the power of doing whatever the laws permit; and he intimates that the true meaning of the definition can be understood only by disregarding all human laws, and confining our attention to the law of nature. (Lib. 2, ch. 6, par. 2, fol. 4 b.) That is, if I understand him correctly, that liberty consists in being limited only by that supreme law which is the expression of abstract right.

As to Blackstone's definition of civil liberty, see note to Book 1, ch. 1, post, p. 353.

(2) In the universities, page 17.

Mediaeval teaching of English law. Although Blackstone himself has italicized this reference to the teaching of common law in the universities, it must be said that the statement rests on a very slight foundation. Selden's words are "in monasteriis, academiis, antistitum clariorum familiis, collegiis alibique" (ad Fletam, p. 518), and his only proofs are passages from various chronicles mentioning several ecclesiastics and laymen as well versed in the laws of the country. Even these are all subsequent to the conquest. The value of his statement as to Anglo-Saxon times may be inferred from his opinion that then "in the schools as well as in the courts," law was studied in the form of decided cases, reported as in the later year books. Savigny (followed by others) has supposed that Roman law may have been taught in the schools then commonly kept in bishop's houses and monasteries. (R. R. im Mittel alter, vol. 4, p. 468.) The only evidence that he gives of such study in England is a passage of three lines from Alcuin's poem "on the bishops and saints of the church of York," in which describing the school there, after speaking of the students of grammar and rhet

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