Burnet observes in his Life of Hale, that a person who should read the compositions upon the subject of divinity, which that Judge wrote, would imagine that the study of theology had occupied most of his time and thoughts. Fortescue informs us, in a subsequent part of this treatise, how much the reading of the Scriptures was blended with that of Law, in the Inns of Court: it is not therefore surprizing if instances are found in the early law books and reports, in which a zeal for theological learning has betrayed the cultivators of it into occasional deviations from sound judgment, and violations of correct taste. Examples of this nature occur in the treatise called the Mirror, in which the Saxons are called throughout the people of God, and a comparison is made between their history and that of the Jews. In the resemblance which is traced in Plowden between a fine in the common pleas and the patriarch Noah. In a multitude of illustrations from Scripture adopted by Sir E. Coke in his writings, especially in the third Institute, not the least singular, of which are the reasons he assigns for the several parts of the judgment in high treason, (3 Inst. 229, Hobbes's works 638. Plowden 354. Popham 43.)-Not less remarkable is the strong tincture which the minds of our ancient lawyers imbibed from the Aristotelian philosophy: Sir John Dodderidge who died a Justice of the King's Bench, A. D. 1628, in a treatise called "The English Lawyer" expounds the law of England according to the doctrines of the schoolmen, treating each subject with reference to its material, formal, efficient and final cause: A commission of sewers is viewed in the same fourfold light by Sir E. Coke in his reports, and he considers the creation of a corporation as taking place conformably to Aristotle's notions respecting the origin of bodies in nature: The great deference paid by lawyers to the authority of that philosopher is very apparent from Plowden's observations, at the conclusion of his report of the case of Eyston and Studd; and the impressions which the jurisprudence of the country has received from this circumstance are still very discernible, (Keighley's Case, 10 Rep. Case of Sutton's Hospital, 10 Rep. and see Noy's Maxims under the Heads Logic and Philosophy.It is also observable, that the writings of the civilians had a material influence in forming the opinions of the legal profession in this country. The law of England in its infancy, stood greatly in need of being improved, and enriched, from the ample treasures to be found in the code of a highly civilized and enlightened people. We learn from Selden, that till the time of Edward the third, the doctrines of the civil law produced a sensible effect upon the judicial opinions, delivered in our courts of justice, (Selden Diss. ad Fletam.) The quantity of materials of which Bracton has availed himself from the stores of the imperial jurisprudence, has, in the opinion of some persons, diminished his credit for fidelity, as a writer upon

English

English law, (Plowden's Comm. 357, and marginal references, ibid. See the question examined in Reeve's History of the Law. Henry III.) Our ancestors were quicksighted in discerning the inexpediency of the imperial constitutions, whenever they militated against the rights of a free people; yet in other respects the step was not an immediate one, from looking up to authorities which justly merited their reverence, and which were their only guides in the complicated science of jurisprudence, to the scrutiny of them by the light of an unprejudiced reason.

The reader will perhaps be of opinion, that the few first chapters of this work, although they contain but a small portion of legal or constitutional information, may nevertheless be read with profit, as exhibiting an interesting example of the cast of thought which characterizes the ancient lawyers of this country, and the nature of the studies which principally engaged their attention.

CHAP. II.

WHEN the Prince heard this, looking very intently at the old knight, he replied, I know, good Chancellor, that the book of Deuteronomy is a part of the Holy Scriptures, that the laws and ceremonies contained therein are of divine institution and promulgated by Moses; upon which account the reading of them is matter for a pious and devout contemplation but the Law, to the study and understanding whereof you now invite me, is merely human, derived from human authority, and respects this world : wherefore, though Moses obliged the kings of Israel to the reading of the Deuteronomical law, it does not thence reasonably follow, that by the same rule he invites all other kings to do the like as to the laws of their respective dominions: the reason of the study of the one, and of the other, is not strictly the same.

CHAP. III.

Chancellor. I OBSERVE, most excellent Prince, from your reply, with what care and attention you weigh the nature of my advice, which encourages me very much, not only to explain more clearly, but to enter somewhat deeper into the matters I have begun and proposed to you; be pleased to know then, that not only the Deuteronomical, but also all human laws are sacred; the definition of a law being thus, "It is an holy sanction, commanding whatever is honest, and forbidding the contrary"." And that must needs be holy, which

a The definition in the text is taken from the civil law, and is cited by Coke from Bracton. Blackstone has made it the subject of a copious commentary. It has been objected to by Hobbes, on the ground, that it supposes a statute, enacted by the soverign power of a nation, may be unjust: this objection savours of Hobbes's peculiar philosophical notions, but perhaps it may be urged against the definition, that a law would not cease to be one, on account of its violating the rules of moral justice. Blackstone's opinions in that part of his work, in which he treats of the nature of law in general, are animadverted on with great ability by Mr. Bentham in his "Fragment on Government." Hobbes's own definition of a law, is the following: "The command of him or them, that have sovereign power, given to those that be his or their subjects, publickly and plainly declaring what every one of them may do, and what they must forbear to do." (Dialogue between a Lawyer and a Philosopher.) The same writer points out a distinction between the terms jus and lex, which Coke uses promiscuously, but of which the different import is explained by Grotius, (De jure Belli ac Pacis, lib.i.ch. 1.) Other definitions of a law have acquired considerable celebrity, being those which are given by Demosthenes, Cicero, Montesquieu and Hooker. The subject has suggested some very ingenious philological speculations. (Diversions of Purley, Vol. II. p. 7 and 8, on the words right, just, law.)

is so in its definition. The law or right is also defined "to be that, which is the art of what is good and equal;" or, the law considered as a science or profession, may aptly be defined in the same manner. Whence we, who are the ministerial officers, who sit and preside in the Courts of Justice, are therefore not improperly called, Sacerdotes, (Priests"). The import of the latin word (Sacerdos) being one who gives or teaches holy things; and such are all laws which are solemnly enacted and promulgated, though made by men seeing the Apostle says, (Rom. xiii. 1.) that all power is from GOD. Laws which are made by men, (who for this very end and purpose receive their power from GOD) may also be affirmed to be made by GoD, as saith the author of a book, going under the name of Auctor Causarum, whatsoever the second cause doth, that doth the first cause, but in a more excellent manner. Wherefore king Jehoshaphat says to his judges, (2 Chron. xix. 6.) "Take heed what you do, for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the judgment:" whereby you are instructed, that to study the laws, though of human institution, is in effect to study the laws of GOD; which therefore cannot but afford a pious and devout entertainment. But neither was it out of devotion only (as you rightly judge) that Moses commanded the kings of Israel to read the book of Deuteronomy rather than any other part of the Pentateuch, since all of them abound in matter for a devout and holy contemplation; to meditate on which is the part of every good man the true reason of this command is, that in the book of Deuteronomy, the laws, whereby the

↳ Gravina adduces this appellation, which the Roman lawyers gave themselves, among other instances, to shew that the imperial law bears many traces of being supplied from the tenets and notions of the ancient schools of philosophy: The Stoics called themselves the priests of virtue. (Gravina de Jurisconsultorum Philosophia.)