til^'i^' (Unrupll IGam i>rI|ool IGibtata Cornell University Library KD 432.S65 A history of education '«>'*';« ^"iS^^ Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924017870720 A HISTORY EDUCATION ENGLISH BAR; WITH SUGGESTIONS ^ufiittts anir iarti)otrs of Stutrg. BY PHILIP ANSTIE JMJTH, M.A., Camb. ; LL.B., LoND. ; OP THE INNER TEMPIE, BAREISTER-AT-LAW. LONDON : BUTTERWORTHS, 7, FLEET STREET, HatD IPubltslgets to t$e (Queen's most eitellent latest;). HODGES, SMITH AND CO., GBAFTON STBEET, DUBLIN. 186*. LONDON: PRINTED BY C. ROWORTH AND SONS, BELL YARD, TEMPLE BAR. PREFACE A FEW words will sufficiently express the object of the following work, which originated with the pre- paration of two papers, read some time since before the Juridical Society. It has been the design of the writer to give, within a moderate compass, an ac- count of what has hitherto been done for the Educa- tion of the Bar; and at the same time to arrange, in a form available for students, selected opinions and plans of some among their more eminent pre- decessors, together with information which may serve to connect these with the altered circumstances of the present day, and discussions of a few of the principal questions relating to professional instruc- tion and practice. He now leaves to the judgment of others what he has written, in the hope that it may be thought useful to students, and of some interest to persons who, though not directly engaged in legal educa- tion, attach value to its progress and efficiency. June 25th, I860. CONTENTS. PART I. ANCIENT LEGAL EDUCATION IN THE INNS OF COURT. CHAPTER I. EABLY HISTORT OF THE INNS. Ancient Law Schools in London — Writ of Henry III. relating to them — Sir E. Coke's allusion to this Writ— Sir W. Blackstone's view of it — Evidence with respect to the times at which the Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery were appropriated to the use of Law- yers—Direction to John de Metingham and others in the reign of Edward I. to provide a body of practitioners for the Court of Common Bench — Account of the Inns of Court and Chancery in the time of Henry VI., by Sir John Fortescue — Sir Thomas More at New Inn and Lincoln's lun — Coke's account of the Inns of Court and Chancery Pcige 1 CHAPTER II. STUDENTS. Admittances at the Middle Temple — Members of the Inns required to occupy chambers — Order of seniority in them — Clerks Commons and Masters Commons — Junior Students exempted from Library Moots at Gray's Inn— Order of legal Exercises — Clerks Commons' Exercise in the Vacation at the Inner Temple — Mean Vacation Moots at the Middle Temple — Discussions among the Students, in parties of three — Exercises in Inns of Chancery — Standing required for a Call to the Bar — Other qualifications required . . Page 9 a2 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. REGULATIONS AS TO DRESS AND DISCIPLINE. Prohibition of light colours in dress— Censure on beards at Lincoln's Inn, and its repeal — Rules as to dress beyond the walls of the Inns — Dress at meals and exercises— Rules against wearing wea- pons—Punishments at the Middle Temple ; at Gray's Inn— Injunc- tion as to respect to the Readers and Benchers — Religious Services at the Temple — Divinity Lectures at Lincoln's Inn . Page 15 CHAPTER IV. BARRISTERS, AND READERS IN THE INNS OF CHANCERY. Mode of admission to the Bar —Exercises required after the Call — Moots — Exercise at the Inner Temple in the Library, followed by one in the Hall— Bench Table Cases, at the Inner Temple — Bar- risters interdicted from practice for some time after the Call — Readers for Inns of Chanceiy — Manner of selecting them for the Inns connected with the Inner Temple — Exercises at the Inns of Chancery — Part taken by Barristers at the times of Reading at the Inns of Court— Cupboard-men at the Middle Temple . Page 20 CHAPTER V. READERS IN THE INNS OF COURT. Appointment of Readers at the Middle Temple — Auntients' Table feasts when the Judges and Serjeants were entertained— Parts to be taken by the Readers at the Moots — The Reading ; legal exer- cises and feasts connected with it— Lord Bacon's remarks on the characters of Readings, in his own on the Statute of Uses— Dis- cussion of cases after dinner-Duration of Readings— Complaints and directions in reference to them, in Queen Elizabeth's reign- Conclusion of the Reading — Admission of the Reader to the Bench Page^l CONTENTS. Vll CHAPTER VI. BENCHERS. Powers and privileges of Benchers — Benchers' parliaments at the Middle Temple — Treasurers— Liability to take part in the legal exercises, after promotion to the Bench — System of rotation among the Benchers of the Middle Temple with respect to Moots— Cross- table ancients at Gray's Inn — Associates — Double Readers — Mode in which a Serjeant took leave of the Inn of Court to which he belonged — Bemarks on the ancient System . . . Page 36 PART II. SELF-EDUCATION FOR THE ENGLISH BAR, CHIEFLY WITH REFERENCE TO THE PERIOD SINCE THE ANCIENT SYSTEM FELL INTO DISUSE. Decay of the ancient system in the seventeenth Century — North's account of Lord Guilford, and his statement of the want of regular professional instructioa at the time when his book on the Study of the Laws was written Page 42 CHAPTER I. GENERAL STUDIES. Attention given by Sir Matthew Hale to Mathematics, Natural Phi- losophy and Medical Sciencte--^ Value of such pursuits with reference to the subjects, and of well-cbosen literary studies with reference to the principles, of professional practice— Instances of attention to poetry, and of more general literary studies : the Hon, Charles Yorke, Lord Somers, Sir W. Jones, Lord Hardwicke, Lord Lough- borongh, Lord Erskine, Sir Samuel Romilly— Instances of studies connected -with religions and ecclesiastical subjects : Sir M. Hale, Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER I.— continued. Lord King, Sir M. Foster— Metaphysics— Remarks of Francis Horner— Distinctions drawn by Lord Bacon, as to knowledge con- cerning the mind— Uses of Mental Philosophy— Supposed defects of Metaphysics— Advantages of study of the mental faculties, with a view to their training, and (in the case of a Barrister) with a view to the nature of some legal questions— Moral Philosophy- Relation of Ethics to Law and to professional practice— Sir James Mackintosh's Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philo- sophy Pageii CHAPTER II. HISTORY. Instances among Lawyers of historical studies : Hale, Yorke, Eo- milly — Historical undertakings and projects of Sir William Jones — Lord Bacon's Analysis of Civil History; memorials, perfect histories and antiquities ; chronicles, lives and narrations — Sir W. Jones's account of the lessons of history — Uses of historical studies generally, and in the particular case of a law student — English History in relation to English Law , . . Page 63 CHAPTER III. LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE AND FOREIGN LAW. Lord Bacon's remark as to a deficiency in writers on law His own account of requisites in a legislator— An acquaintance with the arguments which have led to reforms may assist the practice of the law as amended — Sir J. Mackintosh's description of the Law of Nature and Nations — Commendation of the Study of Foreisn Law, by Sir William Jone^— Instances of attention given to it bv Sir M. Hale — Sir W. Jones's own example — Mr. Reeves's ac- count of the connection of Roman with English Law — Roman Law studied by Sir M. Hale and Chief Justice Wilmot . . Page 76 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER IV. ENGLISH LAW. The older directions as to legal study not useless to a modern Stu- dent— Sir Matthew Hale's— Roger North's— Chief Justice Reeves' — Suggestions from a MS. Treatise of the last Century— Advice of Mr. Watkins- Extract from Lord Eldon's Letter to a Chancery Student— Mr. Warren's Work on Law Studies— Works on Plead- ing and Practice recommended by him — Legislative changes since his hook was written— The Common Law Procedure Acts of 1852 and 1854 — The Bill of 1860— Fresh editions and works— Evi- dence: legislation and books relating to it— Mercantile Law — Books recommended by Mr. Warren — Statutory changes— Other branches of the Law— The Law of Real Property — Equity : Books relating to it — Changes in Chancery Procedure — Criminal Law: Books recommended by Mr. Warren— Some of the characteristics of modern legislation on the subject — References to some other books and Acts — Suggestions with respect to Statutes and Trea- tises-Sketch of a Plan for the study of English Law at the present day PoffeSQ CHAPTER V. ON EDUCATION FOK PUBLIC SPEAKING. Sir M. Hale's objections to oratory at the Bar — Characteristics of his own language — Occasion for attention to style, even if appeals to feeling were excluded — Reason for the admission of such appeals in advocacy in some cases — Reference to advocacy in Criminal trials ; and in the trial of Civil Actions — Whether, and in what man- ner, ability in public speaking can be acquired — Letters of Sir W. Jones to Lord Althorpe and Mr. Wilmot — Letters of Chief Justice Wilmot to his son, in reference to the study of the Greek and Roman Orators, and to correctness of English style — Example of Lord Mansfield ; his attention to the Greek and Roman Orators — Example of Lord Erskine ; his knowledge of old English Authors —Example of Sir Samuel Romilly ; his study both of Latin and English Literature — His other methods of improving his style as a writer and speaker — Letter of Lord Brougham — Stress laid by him on the study of Greek Oratory — Reasons for deliberate preparation for public speaking, with reference to the present course of prac- tice at the Bar — Debating Societies — Study of the examples of good writing and speaking— Extract relating to characteristics proper for different parts of a speech Page 117 s. b CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. ON METHODS OF SELF-EDUCATION. Commonplacing — Remarks of North— Advice of Sir M. Hale Anecdote as to his own Common Place Book— Advantages of atten- tion to more than a single work on any particular subject Im- portance of understanding the reasons of rules, as well as the rules themselves; and the relation of minor rules to the mam principles with which they are connected — Method suggested for assisting the comprehension and remembrance of Law — ^Varieties in the form of notes from books — companionship in study — Ex- ample of Rolle and his associates ; and of Sir Samuel Eomilly and Mr. Baynes — North's commendation of social study — Lord Bacon's account of the intellectual advantages of friendship , Page 135 CHAPTER VII. ON THE MORAL DUTIES AND DIFFICULTIES OF AN ENGLISH BARRISTER. Danger to character connected with the circumstances of the legal profession — The question as to the limits to an Advocate's sup- port of his client — The full discharge of an Advocate's duty does not involve, or allow, misrepresentation, either of the client's case or his antagonist's — Difference between the duties of a Judge and of an Advocate, in reference to truth — Effects of opposite habits in advocacy— Example of Sii- Blatthew Hale : His view of Christian du ty in a secular occupation Page 146 CHAPTER VIII. ON PRIVATE TUITION. Modern practice of education in the chambers of a Barrister, Con- veyancer, or Special Pleader— Case of Lord Somers— Practice of attendance in Solicitors' Offices— Nature of instruction according to the modern method— Preston on Abstracts, and Mitford's Chan- cery Pleading, connected with instructions to Pupils— Evidence of Sir F. Kelly before the Inns of Court Commission— Mr. Warren's schemes for the distribution of time— Value of the modern method for insU-uction in the details of practice -Difficulties attaching to it as a means of instruction in principles —Lectures— Lectures with Classes and Examinations Page 157 CONTENTS. XI PART III. SYSTEMATIC LEGAL EDUCATION IN THE INNS OF COURT IN MODERN TIMES. CHAPTER I. ATTEMPTS IN SOME OF THE FOUR INNS SEPARATELY. Legal instruction at the Universities — Occasion of Blackstone's Com- mentaries — Attempts in the Inns of Court— Sir James Mackintosh's Lectures at Lincoln's Inn — Lectures instituted at the Inner Temple — Report of Committee at the Middle Temple, and establishment of Readerships — Committee of the House of Commons— Lectures at all the four Inns — Mr. Lewis's Lectures at Gray's Inn — Other me- thods of Education in use at Gray's Inn . . . Page 166 CHAPTER II. THE PRESENT SYSTEM. Establishment of a joint system in 1852— Council of Legal Education — Readerships — Three Educational Terms — Qualifications for a Call to the Bar— Honours — Notes of some subjects and books mentioned in the Prospectuses of Readers — Constitutional Law and Legal History — Equity— The Law of Real Property— Jurisprudence and the Civil Law— Common Law .... Page 174 CHAPTER III. PROPOSED ALTERATIONS. The Inns of Court Inquiry Commission (1854). Report— Compulsory Examinations recommended — Establishment of a Leo-al University, with Law Degrees, recommended — Scheme for the University Page 187 XU CONTENTS. Committee of the Inns of Court (1859). Resolutions adopted — Compulsory Examinations and Examinations for Honours recommended — Proposed machinery . Pcige 189 Notices of the points of difference and agreement in the two plans 191 Encouraging, but unsettled, condition of Legal Education — Ques- tions still undetermined — Instruction by Lectures — Compulsory Examinations— Occasion for assistance by the senior members of the Inns — Individual students, if able and energetic, have already great opportunities of improvement ; but the enforcement of tests of proficiency is desirable with a view to the Profession generally — Public importance of the state of the Bar . . . .192 A HISTORY ©bucation for tf)e IBnglist 58ar. PART I. ANCIENT LEGAL EDUCATION IN THE INNS OF COURT. Chapter I. EARLY HISTORY OF THE INNS. " Antiquities or remnants of history " are, according to Lord Bacon, " tanguam tabula naufragii," being collected when men " out of monuments, names, words, proverbs, traditions, "private records and evidences, fragments of stories, passages of books that concern not story and the like, do save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time." And in such a class of " imperfect histories," he tells us, " I do assign no deficience, for they are tanguam imperfect^ mista, and therefore any deficience in them is but their nature " (a). The Antiquities of Legal Education may shelter themselves behind this apology for a " deficience " by which their value is certainly lessened. Indeed there is in this case a scarcity even in the classes of remains which have been enumerated as furnishing the antiquarian with materials for his work. Not much help is offered either by monuments, names, words, proverbs, traditions, or " fragments of stories." Some detached and fragmentary records however of the (a) Advancement of Learning, p. 126. S. B EARLY HISTORY OP THE INNS. old system exist, and it is hoped that they can be so put together as to present a more complete view of the labnc than has been familiar to modern lawyers ; and that some- thing may be done towards inducing a higher opinion of its extent, compactness and adaptation for its proper pur- poses than has been latterly entertained. It is natural that the mist which veils any system built up in remote periods should hang most densely about its foundations ; and an attempt to ascertain exactly the time from which each of the Inns of Court has been established as a seat of legal education has little prospect of success. Sir Edward Coke, in the preface to the second part of his Institutes, has these words : — " After the making of Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta, divers learned men in the laws — that I may use the words of the record — kept schools of the law in the city of London, and taught such as resorted to them the laws of the realm, taking their foundation of Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta, which, as you have heard " (referring to the earlier part of his preface), "the king by ill-advice sought to impeach." He then quotes the writ of King Henry III., in the nineteenth year of his reign, by which he commanded the mayor and sheriffs of London to cause proclamation to be made throughout it, that no one who kept schools of the laws in the same city should thenceforth teach them there; and that if there should be any one keeping schools of this kind they were without delay to make him to cease. " But this writ," he says, " took no better effect than it deserved ; for, evil counsel being removed from the king, he in the next year ... did by his charter under his Great Seal confirm both Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta, he being then twenty-nine years old." Sir Edward Coke seems, therefore, to consider the writ above mentioned as intended to attack the memory of Magna Charta and the Charter of the Forest, by silencing EARLY HISTORY OF THE INNS. 3 in an arbitrary and summary manner, legal teachers who based upon those documents instructions in the laws of England. A different object, however, has been attributed to this writ. Sir William Blackstone treats it as intended, by the suppression of unauthorized teachers, to sanction a new legal university arising on the Westminster side of the city, and which was ultimately constituted of the several Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery. It may be doubted whether the opinion that the lawyers were so early collected together will bear examination. Of Lincoln's Inn, Dugdale mentions a tradition, as still current amongst the ancients, that the professors of the law were brought in to settle in that place by Henry, Earl of Lincoln, " about the beginning of King Edward II.'s time." This was rather more than seventy years after the nineteenth of Henry III. There is an account of Gray's Inn (formerly the property of the Lords Gray, of Wilton), as having been held by lease from them by students of the law in the time of King Edward III. And Dugdale gives a traditionary account that the Temple, having passed to the Knights Hospitallers in the reign of Edward III., came to the lawyers by demise from them. Some further evidence may be found in some of the notices of the Inns of Chancery attached to the Inns of Court (6). (6) As to the application to legal purposes of the Inns of Chancery- attached to the Temples, there is evidence of it, as to Lyon's Inn, as far back as in Henry the Fifth's reign, and, as to Clement's Inn, as the 19th year of Edward IV. ; and, in the latter case, with words implying that it was then an Inn of old standing ; but this was more than 200 years after the 19th of Henry I II. Dugdale mentions a record of a demise of Clifford's Inn to the lawyers in the 18th of Edward III. And there is a notice of Thavies' Inn, also, as inhabited by apprentices at law in that reign. It seems that the steward's account of Furnival's Inn extended as far back as Henry IV., and that Staple Inn may be dated as far back at leasr as Henry V., and Barnard's Inn as Henry VI. The earliest of these three reigns, however, was more than 160 years after the 19th of Henry III. New Inn appears to have been occupied by a migration of lawyers from St. George's Inn. What the antic[uity of this last was, the writer does not know. b2 4 EAELY HISTORY OF THE INNS. From what has. been mentioned, it seems reasonable to doubt whether, at the time when Henry III.'s writ was put forth, any legal university existed. And the doubt is strengthened by the alleged fact that Edward I., in the twentieth year of his reign, commanded John de Metingham (then Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas), and his companions, to provide a fixed number of the best qualified attornies and apprentices, who were thenceforth to follow the Court, and have the privilege of alone con- ducting business there. The number of one hundred and forty was suggested as sufiicient, but the justices were to have a discretion with respect to this point (c). After such a body had been selected and constituted, they would be likely to provide for the training of their successors ; and this may perhaps be about the starting point of syste- matic legal education. Not much however is known about the Inns of Court and Chancery till the time of Henry VI., whose Chancellor, Fortescue, has left us, in his little panegyric upon the laws of England, a sketch of the inns as they then existed. From thence it appears that there was a place for the study of the laws, situated in a suburb of the city near the King's Court, and that on every day of pleading the Court was frequented by the students ; that in this place of study there were ten lesser inns (and sometimes more), called Inns of Chancery, to each of which belonged a hundred students at least, and to some more, though they were not always in residence at the same time. Most of these students were young, learning the first principles of law, and, as they advanced in learning and grew to riper years, they were admitted into the larger inns, called Inns of Court. These larger inns were four in number, having (c) Reeves's History of English Law, vol. 2, p. 284; Herbert's Inns of Court, p. 167. See the original quoted in Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales p. I4'l. ' EARLY HISTOBY OF THE INNS. 5 two hundred students a-piece, or nearly so. Fortescue then mentions how costly it was to live at them, especially for those who had their own servants, as most had ; and how, in consequence, these inns were chiefly filled with gentlemen by birth. In the larger and the lesser inns, not only law, but also lighter accomplishments were cultivated — singing among the number. There too, in the intervals of their study of the laws, they appear to have given time largely to the study of the Scriptures, and of chronicles ; and the sons of persons of quality were placed there for the sake of general education, though their fathers did not design them to live in the practice of the profession. The Chancellor, towards the end of his account, gives a highly coloured picture of the internal order of the legal societies, a description which, however, may be taken to indicate that these communities were really, in those more turbulent times, notable as examples of good government. "There," he says, "is scarce ever heard sedition, wrang- ling or complaining; and yet offenders smart under no further punishment than separation from the fellowship of their own society ; because they have a greater terror of this punishment than is the fear of other criminals for prisons and chains; for he who has been once expelled from one of these societies is never received by any of the others ; so that there there is an unbroken quiet, and they all live together like a company of friends." Of the course of study he does not give an account, but . states that " neither in Orleans, where the canon as well as the civil laws are learnt, and whither scholars are gathered from many countries, nor at Anjou, or in Caen, or other French university, except Paris alone, are there so many students past the age of infancy as in this place of training, although all who are learning there are Englishmen born." Passins: over the long- interval from Sir John Fortescue's time to that of Queen Elizabeth, we find Sir Edward Coke EARLY HISTORY OF THE INNS. (in the preface to the third part of the Reports) giving a fuller and very laudatory account of the inns. In this interval, how^ever, one at least of their occupants deserves a particular notice, — Sir Thomas More, who, after his education at Oxford, " was then for the studie of the lawe of the realme put to an Inn of Chauncerie, called New Inn. He verie well prospered for his time, and from thence was admitted to Lincolne's Inne with verie small allowance, continuing theare his studie, untill he was made and accounted a worthie utter barrister. After this, to his great commendacion, he read for a good space a publique lecture of St. Augustine de civitate Dei in the churche of St. Lawrence, in the Ould Jurie, whereunto theare resorted Doctor Grosyn, an excellent cunninge man, and all the chiefe learned of the cittie of London." So says Sir Thomas's son-in-law. Roper. Sir James Mackintosh, speak- ing of these lectures, describes their subject by adding to the title of St. Augustine's work, " that is, on the Divine government of the moral world." He tells us afterwards, on the authority of one of More's descendants, that he "did not so much discuss ' the points of divinity as the pre- cepts of moral philosophy and history, wherewith these books are replenished.'" From Roper we learn that he was " made Reader of Furnifolds Inne, so remayninge by the space of three yeres and more." To return to Sir Edward Coke's account, we learn from it that as there were in the universities different degrees, "as generall Sophisters, Bachellors, Masters, Doctors," it was somewhat so too in the legal profession. He begins with " Mootemen (which are those that argue reader's cases in houses of Chauncerie, both in termes and graund vaca- tions)," of whom, after about eight years' study, utter- barristers were chosen ; and of these, readers in the Inns of Chancery. We are next told that " of utter-barristers, after they have beene of that degree twelve yeares at EARLY HISTORY OF THE INNS. 7 the least, are chosen benchers, or auncients, of which one that is of the puisne sort reades yearely in summer vacation, and is called a single reader ; and one of the auncients that have formerly read, reades in Lent vacation, and is called a double reader ; and commonly it is between his first and second reading about nine or tenne yeares." The King chose from among them, it seems, his attorney and sohcitor-general, his attorney of the court of wards and liveries, and attorney of the Duchy. From that order too arose the Serjeants (of whom some became King's Serjeants), and " the honorable and reverend judges and sages of the law." An account of the inns and their members follows, which varies in respect of numbers from Fortescue's statement, but has a general agreement with it. " For the young student, which most commonly commeth from one of the universities, for his entrance or beginning were first instituted and erected eight houses of Chaun- cerie, to learne there the elements of the law : that is to say, ClifForde's Inne, Lyon's Inne, Clement's Inne, Barnard's Inne, Staple Inne, Furnival's Inne, Davis' Inne, and New Inne ; and each of these houses consists of fortie, or thereabouts. For the readers, utter-barristers, mootemen, and inferior students, are foure famous and renowned coUedges or houses of court, called the Inner Temple, to which the first three houses of Chauncerie appertaine ; Graie's Inne, to which the next two belong ; Lincolne's Inne, which enjoyeth the last two, saving one; and the Middle Temple, which hath onely the last. Each of the houses of court consist of readers above twentie, of utter-barristers above thrise so many, of young gentlemen about the number of eight or nine score, who there spend their time in study of law, and in commendable exercises fit for gentlemen ; the judges of the law and Serjeants, being commonly above the number of twentie, are equally distinguished into two higher and more eminent houses, EARIiY HISTORY OF THE INNS. called Serjeant's Inne. All these are not farre distant one from another, and altogether doe make the most famous liniversitie for profession of law onely, or of any one humane science, that is in the world, and advaunceth itselfe above all others, quantum inter viburna cupressus. In which houses of Court and Chauncery, the readings and other exercises of the lawes therein continually used are most excellent and behoovefuU for attaining to the knowledge of these lawes ; and of these things this tast shall suflBce, for they would require, if they should be treated of, a treatise of itselfe. Of the antiquitie of these houses, and how they have been changed from one place to another, I may say as one said of auncient cities : PerpauccB antiqucB civitates. authores suos norunt." An attempt will now be made (chiefly by the help of extracts from regulations by the Benchers, and some other materials collected in Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales), to trace the progress of a member of one of the Inns, describ- ing the different exercises, and the successive stages of advancement, which belonged to the ancient system. ( 9 ) Chapter II. STUDENTS. The details of a student's life varied with the Inn of Court to which he belonged; but there was a general resem- blance. At the Middle Temple he might be either generally or specially admitted ; and there was a difference both in the payment to be made and in the rules as to attend- ance. If the admittance were general he was bound to continue in commons two years' vacations, with a fine of twenty shillings at least for every failure ; but this was not the case if he were specially admitted. There were at some of the Inns privileges in favour of those who were members of one of the Inns of Chancery belonging to the particular Inn of Court. When the student had been admitted into the society at the Middle Temple, he was admissible to a chamber for residence, if he could purchase from some of the society or from the house. And at one time this was made matter of regidation ; for we are told, that, in the thirty-eighth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, " it was agreed by all the judges, by the assent of the Benchers of the four Innes of Court, that hereafter none shall be admitted into Innes of Court till he may have a chamber within the house, and in the mean- time to be of some Inne of Chancery" (a). And an earlier order in the same reign is mentioned that no more should be admitted than the chambers of the houses would receive, (a) Dugdale, 316. 10 STUDENTS. " after two to a chamber." For the student was not to li»re alone. Benchers only were allowed in some of those ancient times the privilege of chambers to themselves. Between the two occupants there was a rule of seniority independent of their standing in the Inn. " If there be any one chamber, consisting of two parts, and the one part exceeds the other in value, and he who hath the best part sells the same, yet the purchaser shall enter into the worst part, for it is a certain rule that the auntient in the chamber, viz., he who was therein first admitted, without respect to their antiquity in the house, hath his choice of either part" (i). There were two classes of students, clerks-commons and masters-commons (c). The term Inner Barristers was also applied at the Inner Temple to some or all of the students. The clerks-commons had advantages by a lower rate of expenses, but were expected to render some services. It is said of the Inner Temple that "The gentlemen of the clerks-commons did in former times daily serve up the first mess from the dresser to the bench table by use and custome, and likewise their own meat"((i). Similar or greater services appear to have been expected of the men of the third table at Gray's Inn. From the rank of clerks- commons there was an easy admission to that of masters- commons, but the student was liable, at the Inner Temple, to be returned for performance of exercise to the former class, "rather than the clerks-commons exercise should fail." It would seem as if the students were not at their first entrance obliged to take part in the legal exercises. In a (6) Dugdale, 202. (c) Clerks-commons are mentioned in reference to tlie Inner and Middle Temples ; but the writer is not sure that this distinction was used, or so expressed, at the other inns. (rf) Dugdale, 158. STUDENTS. 1 1 passage relating to the Middle Temple, their tasks are described as coming after two or three years» And at Gray's Inn there was a regulation as to library moots, that if it should come to any of the students' turns to perform that exercise before they were of three years' standing, such student might " tender a cap and a penny the day before in the hall to the ancient mootman in commons, desiring him to be of his councell to perform it for him ; and such mootman thereupon is to undertake, and perform the exer- cise, or be amerst the clyents amerciament" (e). It would be of some interest to know how these first three years were employed, whether during them attendance on the public disputations was usual, and how far the young lawyer's progress was assisted by any regular instruction or guidance. In the passage as to the Middle Temple last referred to, the first-mentioned of the students' exercises is to recite the pleadings of such barristers as moot in the Term time ; the next, to moot in the vacations. " When the clerks-commons' exercise in the vacation beginneth," it is said as to the Inner Temple, " the abbot, or antientest of them, comes up to the barr table at the end of dinner ; and acquainteth them that the gentlemen of the clerks-commons have a case to put their masterships ; and after, during the whole exercise of that vacation, upon Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, there are clerks common cases to be argued. The gentleman that is to bring it in, as soon as the tables in the hall be covered, and salt-cellers set upon the clerks- commons' table, and that the horn hath blown to dinner, he that is to put the case layeth a case fair written in paper upon the salt, giving thereby notice of the case to be argued after dinner ; which case so laid upon the salt if any one gentleman of the house do take up and read, he, by order of the house, is to be suspended commons, and to be amerc'd" (/). (e) Dugdale, 289. (/) Dugdale, 158. 12 STUDENTS. At the Middle Temple, "after the term ended, and after the two grand vacations ended," there were mean vacation moots, or chapel moots ; in which the students argued in Law French before the barristers. And in Gray's Inn, in the term time, on days not used for mooting (and not either holiday or half-holiday), the barristers were to keep bolts and the students to put cases. A fuller notice of the method pursued in moots may be seen in some of the later pages; as it seems, in some respects, to belong more fitly to an account of the barristers. Besides the exercises already referred to, reciting the pleadings for barristers when they mooted in the Term time, and (at one or more of the inns) putting cases on intervening days, and mooting before barristers in the vacations, there was, at the Middle Temple, another kind of practice among the students themselves. After dinner and supper (it seems) they sat together in parties of three, and one of them put forth some doubtful legal question, on which the others reasoned in English and at last the propounder stated his own view of the matter, "also shewing unto them the judgment or better opinion of his boke, where he had the same question" [g) ; and this plan is represented as observed every day through the year, except festival days. And it was not in the Inns of Court only that the students' training was carried on. Sir Edward Coke describes " mootemen " as " those that argue readers' cases in houses of Chauncerie, both in termes and graund vacations;" and in an account before cited, after mention of students having to moot in the vacations, it is said, " and shortly after, perform their exercise of mooting abroad, in the Inns of Chancery" (A). Both students and barristers had to take part in this practice, as will appear by and by. The time which, by the ancient regulations, was to elapse before a student was called to the bar, was longer than at (g) Dugdale, 195. (i) Dugdale, 202. STUDENTS. 13 present. Sir Edward Coke speaks of " eight yeares studie or thereabouts." So an account of the Inner Temple speaks of "about eight years," and eight are mentioned in a direc- tion for the government of the Middle Temple and in the ancient standing orders at Gray's Inn. In other instances, seven and six years occur as to the last-mentioned house ; and an alternative is put in one case — of either seven years continuance in commons in that society, or two years in an Inn of Chancery, and five years there. But mere time was not the only qualification which the ancient orders and rules required. Master-commoners, when they had " for the space of about eight years com- mendably performed exercises in the terms, readings and vacations, and according to the orders of the house," were called (we are told) " to the barr table for their sufficiency and merit" (i). By a general order for the Inns of Court and Chancery, students were to have "used the exercises of the house, as in arguing of cases, putting at bolts, and keeping of the moots and exercises there, three years at the least, before they be called " {k). Some regulations at Gray's Inn are more specific; one of them requiring that none should be eligible unless he had mooted twice in several grand vacations, and twice at least in every Inn of Chancery ; and another, that six grand moots should have been performed, and six moots in the library ; while the requisites in another case are six grand moots abroad, and six petty moots in the Hbrary, and that six bolt cases should have been put. Another obligation of the students at the Middle Temple was of a different kind ; for we are told (in Henry the Eighth's time) that " all they that are fellows of the house, except at the time of their admittance they be dispensed withall, or for their lernyng be promotyd and made utter (J) Dugdale, 162 (Inner Temple). (*) Dugdale, 314. 14 STUDENTS, baristers, are compelled to exercise all such roomes and offices as they shall be called unto, at such time as they kepe a solempne Christmass, upon such paynes as are by old custome used to be assessed for the refusal! of occupy- ing of such offices" (/). (0 Dugdale, 194.. ( 15 ) Chapter III, REGULATIONS AS TO DRESS AND DISCIPLINE. A SURPRISING number of the regulations in the Inns of Court relate to the subject of dress ; and this, although in the old account of the Middle Temple it was declared that there " they had no order for their apparell ; but every man may go as him listeth, so that his apparell pretend no lightness or wantonnesse in the wearer; for, even as his apparell doth show him to be, even so shall he be esteemed among them "(a). The rules indeed were, to a great extent, prohibitory : beyond the requirements of the cap and gown, there is not much dictation of peculiar dress. But as to what was not to be worn, there were many in- junctions. The following is particularly definite: — "That none of the companions, except knights or benchers, from the last day of September next, wear in their doublets or hoses any light colours, except scarlet and crimsons ; or wear any upper velvet cap, or any scarf; or wings ia their gowns, white jerkyns, buskins or velvet shooes, double cuffs on their shirts, feathers or ribbens on their caps" — an order to be enforced by a fine of 3s. Ad. for the first offence, and expulsion for the second (5). It is noticeable, however, that this kind of interference in matters of dress was in part at any rate not peculiar to these societies, but was connected with the more general usages of the times. (a) Dugdale, 197. (6) Dugdale, 310, 311. 16 BEGULATIONS AS TO DRESS AND DISCIPLINE. Particular attention was directed to beards, and they fell under heavy censure. At Lincoln's Inn, in Queen Elizabeth's reign, it was ordered, that no fellow of the house should wear any beard above a fortnight's growth, and any one who transgressed the rule was for the first offence to forfeit 3s. Ad., for the second, 6s. 8d., and the third time to be banished the house. " But the fashion at that time of wearing beards grew then so predominant, as that the very next year following, at a councel held in this house, upon the 27th of November, it was agreed and ordered, that all orders before that time made, touching beards, should be void and repealed" (c). It appears to have been part of the business of the chief butler at the Middle Temple in Dugdale's time to inform the Bench of such as wore " hats, bootes, long hayr, or the like, (for the which he is commonly out of the young gentlemen's favour)" (d). The rules of the Inns extended beyond their own walls. Inner Templars (by a regulation in 42 Eliz.) were not to go " in cloaks, hats, bootes and spurrs into the city, but when they ride out of the town" (e). And at Gray's Inn it was required, " that no gentleman of this society do go in the city, or suburbs, or to walk in the fields, otherwise than in his gown, according to the antient usage of the gentlemen of the Inns of Court" (/). In the time of Philip and Mary there was a general rule, applicable to all the four inns, against wearing study gowns into the city, any further than Fleet Bridge, Holborn Bridge, or to the Savoy (^r). Other directions related expressly to costume within the Inns at times of meals or exercises. One of these in James ■(c) Dugdale, 244. (/) Dugdale, 283. (d) Dugdale,]98. (g) Dugdale, 311. (c) Dngdale, 148. REGULATIONS AS TO DRESS AND DISCIPLINE. 17 the First's time may be cited, which gives a reason as well as a rule. " For that an outward decency in apparel is an ornament to all societies, and containeth young men within the bounds of civility and order : it is ordered, that no gentleman of any house of Court or Chancery shall come into their several halls with cloaks, boots, spurs, swords or daggers" (h). There was a curious rule for all the Inns in the reign of Philip and Mary, prohibiting the wearing while in commons of Spanish cloak, sword and buckler, or rapier ; or gowns and hats ; or gowns girded with a dagger on the back ; and lastly (as to such points as these) may be mentioned a regulation under penalties, in Queen Elizabeth's reign, that none should wear any sword or buckler, or cause any to be borne after him into the town. With respect to the punishments by which the discipline of the Inns was enforced, the old account of the Middle Temple in Henry the Eighth's reign thus speaks : — "There is among them no certaine punishment for offences ; but such offences and misdemeanors as are committed, are punished by the judgment of the elders or benchers, who punish the offender, either by payment of money, or by putting him forth of commens; which is, that he shall take no meate nor drynke among the fellowship, until! the elders list to revoke their judgment (i)." One of the later paragraphs in the account states that " if any of the fellow- ship be indebted to the house, other for his diet, other for any other duty of the house, he shall be openly in the hall proclaymed; and whosoever will pay it for him, shall enjoy and have his lodging and chamber that is so in- debted '\k). In the ancient standing orders at Gray's Inn it appeare that there in all cases of wilful contempt by any fellow (h) Dugdale, 318. (i) Dugdale, 196. (ft) Dugdale, 197. s. c 18 REGULATIONS AS TO DKESS AND DISCIPLINE. of the society against the orders of the house, and of opposition to execution of the penalties, the punish- ments were, as the case should require, amerciament, skreening his name, coming in with congees, loss of chamber, prosecution by pension writ, prosecution by warrant from the judges, suit upon his bond, expulsion. The following injunction is taken from orders agreed upon by consent of the readers and benchers of the four houses, and said to have proceeded first from " his majesties especial care and commandment," and to have been after recommended " by the grave direction and advice of all the judges." " Lastly, for that all government is strenglbned or slackned by the observing or neglecting of the reverence and respect which is to be used toward the governours of the same : therefore it is required, that due reverence and respect be had by the younger sort of gentlemen to the readers, benchers, and antients of every house" (/). Both in the reigns of Philip and Mary and of EHzabeth, there were rules respecting attendance on religious services. In the Inner Temple in the reign of Philip and Mary it Was ordered that all fellows of that house, " being in com- mons, should from time to time, come to the church to hear divine service : viz. mass, matens, evensongs, &c. as before that time had been used"(M). And in 42 Eliz., that all the gentlemen fellows of that society should repair to the church and hear divine service and sermons at the usual days and times, unless hindered by sickness or some other reasonable cause. Regulations were also made to oblige the members of the Inns to receive the communion — a measure of dictation happily unfamiliar to present times. Provision was specially made for religious teaching. (0 Dugdale, 318. („,) Dugdale, 148. REGULATIONS AS TO DEESS AND DISCIPLINE. 19 Dugdale mentions an order in Lincoln's Inn, in Queen Elizabeth's reign, that there should be " two learned men, chosen out of the University of Oxford, and two others out of that of Cambridge, to read each of them quarterly a divinity lectm-e in the chapell here, twice every week, and to preach upon the Sunday, and at such other times as there should be a Communion appointed ; for the first half year they of Oxford to begin, and then for the other those of Cambridge "(m). (n) Dugdale, 245. c2 ( 20 ) Chapter IV. BAHEISTERS AND HEADERS IN THE INNS OF CHANCERY. The mode of admission to the bar was remarkably free from ceremonial, and resembled the practice still in use (a). When a student was called to the bar, he had much work still before him. Of the Inner Temple it is said that a barrister newly called was to attend the six next long vaca- tions the exercise of the house, viz. in Lent and summer; and was thereupon for those three years called a vacation barrister. In Lincoln's Inn, it was ordered in Queen Elizabeth's reign, that none who was called to the upper bar was to continue utter- barrister, unless he should, by the space of three years after, exercise ordinary mootings, and other ordinary exercises of learning, both in court and Chancery, as the bench should allow. Mooting (which has been before noticed in reference to students) formed one of the most characteristic of the barrister's tasks. In the Middle Temple, every utter-bar- rister within the house in the Term time had (we are told) (a) It is said, in reference to the Middle Temple, in Dugdale's time, that " there is no ceremony used in the calling of any to the bar, more than that their election is, at the end of the Parliament, declared by the High Trea- surer to the rest of the baristera, who are then called to be informed what the Bench hath concluded on in that meeting. Their names are then entred by the Under Treasurer. The next day, immediately before dinner, they are called to the cupboard [ where the Treasurer of the House, with some of the benchers assisting him, cause the parlies called, or elected, to take the Oath of Supremacy, the one after the other ; which being done all is ended, and they remain utter baristers." BARRISTERS AND READERS IN INNS OF CHANCERY. 21 to perform two several assignments of moots, each assign- ment consisting of three or four moots or exercises (6). These exercises were performed after supper. The case was to be " framed with apt and proper pleadings" by the two barristers who were to perform the assignment ; and, after the pleadings had been recited by two students, one of whom spoke for the plaintiff and the other for the defendant, the case was put and argued by the barristers in law French, and afterwards by one of the readers elect and two benchers in English. The cage appears to have been agreed on by the barristers, and to have consisted usually of two questions (c). A description is given of an exercise at the Inner Temple in the library, followed by one in the hall {d). It is said that " the puisne barrister, after the case brought in, repeats the (i) Tn Henry the Eighth's time moots appear to have been held daily in the grand vacations, '' except Sonday, Saturday, or some feste of ix les- sons." Tuesdays and Thursdays are mentioned, in a later account, as the nights for mooting in the term time. In Gray's Inn there was an order, in Queen Elizabeth's time, that in Hilary and Midsummer Terms moots should be kept three days in every week, viz., Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, if none of those days were holiday, and if so, then the next fol- lowing. In the same Inn, and in the same reign, it was directed that the assignment of utter barristers for mooting in the hall in term time should be according to anciency, and a table should be made containing the names of all utter barristers so arranged, and be set up in the library. (c) In the interval between the Term next preceding the reading, and the week before the reader took his place, he was on Tuesday and Thursday nights to see the exercises of the house performed and to assist at them. They are said to have been moots of the same nature as the other, but to have dif- fered in the persons, the cases being argued by gentlemen under the bar while two barristers with the reader elect seem to have presided. The " meane vacation motes" or " Chapell motes," which were held " after the term ended and after the two grand vacations ended," and in which the barristers' part was conducted in English, seem to have been these or some- what similar exercises. At Gray's Inn, in term time, " Bolts " were to be kept on those days (except holydays and half-holydays) when there were no moots. Every utter barrister in Commons was to forfeit, for every bolt lost, Ss. id. (d) This seems to have been in the vacations. 22 BARHISTERS AND READERS IN INNS OF CHANCERY. pleading verbatim, and takes as many exceptions to the in- sufficiency of the pleading as he can; and all this extempore. "The second barrister answers those exceptions taken by the first ; and takes as many more exceptions as he can ; and then argues the points in law, contrary to the first bar- rister's argument. " The third barrister is to repeat all the exceptions taken by both the puisne barristers ; and those which he con- ceives to be good in law he allows, and disallows of the contrary. Then, if he find any more exceptions than were formerly moved, he shows those exceptions, and then argues the points in law, as he takes the law to be in his own opinion. Immediately after the argument ended in the library, as afore, the barristers repair to their table in the hall, and sit there according to their antiquity : to whom the inner bar, and those that brought in the case, resort ; and there the most material exceptions spoken of in the library are again toucht : and if any material exception were admitted (e) by the barristers in the hbrary, then it maybe moved there; and there the gentleman that brought in the case may make answer to the exceptions that were taken, and maintain the pleading to be good in law, not- withstanding those exceptions, if he can "(_/"). There was another exercise, at the Inner Temple, of cases, called bench table cases, brought in at certain days in the term time by a barrister, and argued by four of the puisne benchers, unless the treasurer or the senior bencher present chose to overrule the case, or take it up. And on the eve next before the reading began, there was a case brought in after supper by the ancientest utter-barrister in commons, which the readers and benchers were to argue, if they would. The utter-barrister vacationers had the government of the (e) Sic, qu. " omitted." (/) Dugdale, p. 159. BARRISTERS AND READERS IN INNS OP CHANCERY. 23 house in vacation times (probably the meane vacations), at the Inner Temple, if the treasurer and benchers were absent. Students, when called to the bar, were anciently inter- dicted from practice for some time afterwards. In 1635, it was ordered at the Middle Temple, " that no young bar- rister presume to take upon him to practise, in any of the Courts at Westminster, before he have been full three years at the ban- at the least" ( g). An account of a different date mentions two years, and that, in the meantime, the newly-called barristers were to continue their mooting in the Inns of Chancery. And by an order at Gray's Inn, in Queen Elizabeth's time, none was to " come to any barr at Westminster, to plead, nor set his name to any parle," unless he had been allowed as a barrister for five years, and had continued for that time in exercise of learning; or had read for two years in an Inn of Chancery. Readers from the Middle Temple, at New Inn, are stated to have been commonly of about eight or nine years' standing at the bar. Readers for Inns of Chancery, from the Inner Temple, are mentioned to have been chosen thus. The previous reader, near the time of reading, delivered to the bench at dinner the names of six barristers that had not yet read : of these the benchers chose three, and of the three the Inn of Chancery chose one (A). As to the mode of conducting exercises, the case (of the reader's own framing) was first (at New Inn) argued by two members of the Inn of Chancery, and afterwards by two from the Inns of Court, one of whom was commonly of the bar, and the other under the bar. The puisne (who began) maintained what side he pleased, the next argued against him, and the rest took the conclusion which came to their (g) Dugdale, 192. (h) To Lyon's Inn all the six names were sent, it seems. 24 BARRISTERS AND READERS IN INNS OF CHANCERY. turn. Lastly, the reader himself argued the case, giving his opinion of what he thought the law really was (i). Exercises at the Inns of Chancery were held in Terms and Grand Vacations. How considerable the reader's tasks were may be judged from an order for Lincoln's Inn, in Queen Elizabeth's time, that the " Readers in Chancery should thenceforth keep their Summer and Lent readings by the space of three weeks in each vacation, and each of them perform three grand mootes, with their pleadings, two lectures for every of their cases, and also read in each of those weeks, and in the Term time that they should hold two petty mootes in each week, as also in each week of the Term read two lectures at the least, and leave the same written in paper in the house accord- ingly, as in former times had heen used and accustomed" (A). The readings in the Inns of Court themselves furnished further exercises to the barristers in the disputations which (i) This account relates to readers from the Middle Temple. (A) Dugdale, 243. So too in Gray's Inn, in the same reign, " there was an Order made that the Readers of Chancery should as well keep their readings as their Mootes, according to the Ancient Orders therein used; soil, for the Term time to read the Tuesday and the Thursday, and to keep the Mootes on the Wed- nesday and Friday, and in the Reading times their grand Mootes according to the ancient customs, upon pain of the loss of every Moot or Reading v\s. viud. to be paid unto this House by the Reader for the time being." (Dugdale, 274.) Ancient standing orders at Gray's Inn required that no reader in Inns of Chancery should read by deputy, unless the person. deputed were allowed by the Bench the term before; and that readers in Inns of Chancery should hold their readings as long as the readings in Gray's Inn were held. And of the Inner Temple it is mentioned that, although the reader at the first week's or fortnight's end should end his readings, yet there was exercise in the house or abroad, by readers, or vacationers, until the end of the whole reading month, as if the reading had continued, and that, if there was no reading at all in the house, yet the readers of Inns of Chancery and gentle- men of the Inner Bar were to hold the grand moots so long as any other reader of any of the three other Inns of Court should continue his reading, except in time of mortality. BAHEISTERS AND READERS IN INNS OF CHANCERY. 25 formed a part of the plan. At the Inner Temple, accord- ing to an account of that Inn, the reader, if the barrister who was to argue the case desired it, was to read every reading day his two first cases twice. These were founded upon divisions made by him in reference to the statute which he had chosen as his subject. The first day, the senior barrister in commons was to take the reader's case and argue it. The readers of the Inns of Chancery and vacation barristers were in succession to do the like in the morning every reading day, and the senior bencher or judge present might put the barrister appointed to argue to any other of the reader's cases, after whom the judges and benchers argued according to their standing, the puisne bencher beginning. This was to be done extempore, pro and con. ; and, lastly, the reader was to answer the objec- tions made against his conclusion, and to show what he thought the law to be ; and so that morning's reading ended. After the first morning's reading, the reader delivered his paper of cases for that morning to the puisne vacation barrister, who was to argue one of them, which he liked best, after dinner, at the end of the bench table, and the puisne barrister and the other barristers attending the read- ing resorted together " to break the case, and open the points " to him. After dinner he argued the case, and after him the benchers who were present argued pro and con., and the reader concluded the discussion with his own view of the matter. And so it seems the exercise was continued every reading day. From the above account it would seem that the vacation barristers took part in these exercises ; but at the Middle Temple they appear to have been the business of the senior barristers in commons. The old description of that Inn in Henry the Eighth's time represents the reader's opinions to have been discussed by such of the barristers as 26 BARRISTERS AND READERS IN INNS OF CHANCERY. were "of long continuance ;" and a later account makes such tasks belong to a particular class, called cupboard- men. " The next step whereunto a barrister of this society ascends, is to the cupboard, whereof there are four, who, in the reading times, argue in turnes the readers case," the puisne being the one to commence. These four cupboard-men used, it seems, to be the four "antientest" barristers of the house, who, by reason of their standing, were to be the two next readers ; and this whether they intended to be readers or not. But by an after order those only were qualified to be cupboard-men who were going to read when their turn came. The benchers also appear to have had power to pass over any whom they thought not fit, and elect others next in seniority (?), (/) The elections are said to have been at the meeting of the Bench par- liament; the four cupboard-men for the next Lent Reading being chosen in the last parliament of Hilary Term, and those for the next summer reading in the last parliament of Trinity Term. The course of morning and after- noon exercises appears at the Middle Temple to have been held three days in the week, viz. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, until the end of the reading. And it seems that cupboard-men argued in the morning and one of them in the afternoon. ( 27 ) Chapter V. READERS IN THE INNS OF COURT. At length came the post of reader to the Inn of Court itself, a position of considerable consequence and of considerable cost. A full notice is given by Dugdale of the office of reader at the Middle Temple, from which the following account is taken. The time of arriving at this degree is described as within two years after the first admittance to the cup- board. The readers were chosen by the Bench in Par- liament yearly, upon the Friday before the feast of All Saints, when the two readers for the year following were elected. Although they were usually, it seems, the two senior cupboard- men, yet the bench had a discretion about it, for if, " upon due consideration of the estate, learn- ing, quality, and cariage " of a cupboard-man, he was not thought worthy to be reader, another might be substituted for him. The two persons nominated were the next day at dinner called to the bench table, where thenceforward they took their commons, and were to bestow upon the benchers and ancient barristers a proportion of wine for their first welcome. Those who were put by their readings removed from the bar-table to one on the other side of the hall, called the auntients table, where they also gave " a garnish of wine " for their welcome, and thenceforth were freed from moots and exercises, and from the ceremony of walking the old measures about the hall. It is said to have been no disgrace for a man to be so removed; for, by reason of the great cost of readings, men of learning and competent 28 HEADERS IN THE INNS OF COURT. practice, as well as others of less learning but great estates, sometimes refused to read. The two readers newly chosen had to attend at the next feast-day of All Saints (on which day the judges and Ser- jeants who had belonged to the Inn were feasted, and came in their scarlet robes), and to meet the judges and Serjeants at the lower end of the hall and conduct them upwards. The ancient reader had a white staff, the other a white rod, and ushered in the meat, following next after the music. One of the readers elect received each dish from the gentlemen under the bar (who at these feasts brought the meat to table), and placed it on the table ; the other attended on the judges. " And during the feast, they both with solemn curtesies welcome both the judges and Ser- jeants" (a). When the feast had been concluded, they had to attend the judges and Serjeants out of the hall, which was set in order, and again to usher them into it and con- duct them to their places. Afterwards, the ancient with the staff stood at the upper end of the bar table, and the other with the rod was at the cupboard in the middle of the hall, opposite to the judges ; and, music being begun, he called twice the master of the revels. At the second call, the reader with the white staff advanced, and began to lead the measures, followed by the barristers and students in order ; and when one measure was ended, the reader at the cup- board called for another. When the last measure was danced, singing followed ; and afterwards a sufficient number of barristers and students, taken by the reader with the white rod into the buttery, returned, the barristers having towels with wafers in them ; and the students, wooden bowls filled with " Ipocras." These were presented with formalities to the judges, and they afterwards were ushered down the hall to the court gate by the readers elect, who there took leave. (a) Dugdale, p. 204. HEADERS IN THE INNS OP COURl'. 29 The judges and Serjeants were entertained at the two feasts of All Saints and Candlemas; the expense being shared among the gentlemen of the house then in the city. Next, as to the readers' duties in respect to the exercises of learning. Reference has before been made to the moots in term time. At these, one of the newly-elected readers was among those who sat as judges ; the two taking the place alternately until the end of Hilary term, soon after which came the Lent reading, which had to be undertaken by the senior, who afterwards only took his turn as other benchers. So that in Easter and Trinity terms the other reader had to sit at every moot, till his own reading was past. Besides these exercises, it appertained to the reader, by the .ancient custom of the house, to remain in commons from the end of the term next preceding his reading until the week before he took his place as reader, and during that time to see the exercises of the house performed and to assist at them, as has been before noticed. Afterwards came the special exercise of the reader — his reading; which was either ia Lent or in summer. The reader absented himself from commons, it seems, for a week, and seldom came abroad ; that his entrance might be with the more state. He made his appearance at the church on the Sunday afternoon next before hrs reading, and, on the next morning, chose one of the students as his sub-lecturer, to whom he delivered his bag of books and papers, and then repaired to the parliament house to breakfast. Afterwards he went into the hall, where the society expected him, and, after taking the oaths of supremacy and allegiance, took his place toward the lower end of the bench-table, where the sub-lecturer first read over the statute, or that branch of it which had been chosen for reading. The reader began " with a grave speech, excusing his own weakness,, with desire of their favorable censures ; and concluding with the reasons 30 READERS IN THE INNS OF COURT. wherefore he made choice of that statute" {h). Then he delivered unto them his divisions made upon the statute, which were more or fewer as he pleased, and put ten or twelve cases upon his first division. One of these cases the cupboard-men and benchers discussed (as before men- tioned) ; and sometimes judges or Serjeants, who had be- longed to the society, came to argue the reader's case, and at such times came in their purple robes and scarlet hoods, and were placed on a form opposite to the benchers, with their backs to the readers. The arguments being ended, the reader entertained the company with a great feast at his own table ; with one extra dish to every mess throughout the hall. After dinner, when the cloth was taken away, the sub-lecturer came to him with his bag of books, and then one of the cupboard- men repeated another of his cases, and argued it against him, and the reader argued in favour of his own view. This being the course on the Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the weeks of the reading, the intermediate days were spent in feasting and entertaining as guests lords and other eminent persons, the reader however taking pre- cedence, whatever were the degree of the guests. The ex- • penses of the readers were great on these occasions ; some spent, it is said, above 6001. in two days less than a fort- night. Some outlay in feasting strangers to the society appears to have been expected from them (c). In the last week of the reading, a great feast was provided for the (4) Dugdale, 206. (e) An order of the Bench in the reign of Philip and Mary directed every summer reader to spend 15 bucks in the Hall during the time of reading ; but another order in the same reign required that this should not be ex- ceeded. Dugdale, however, who wrote at a later time, speaks of there being few summer readers who, in half the time that readings formerly lasted, spent so little as three score bucks, besides red deer. Some, he says, had spent four score, some an hundred ; and one brace of bucks, he says, was commonly bestowed on New Inn to feast the students there, and the neigh- bouring parishes to tlie Temple also shared in the reader's bounty. There READERS IN THE INNS OF COUKT. 31 entertainment of foreign ambassadors, earls, lords and men of eminent quality. The expense of this was imposed on four members of the Inn (two of them barristers and two under the bar), called stewards of the feast (cf). Some indications both of the nature of ancient readings, and of tendencies to degeneracy to which they were liable, may be seen in the following passage from Lord Bacon's Reading on the Statute of Uses. He says, that his " mean- ing is to revive and recontinue the ancient form of reading, which you may see in Mr. Frowickes, upon the preroga- tive, and all other readings of ancient time, being of less ostentation and more fruit than the manner lately accus- tomed ; for the use then was substantially to expound the statutes by grounds and diversities; as you shall find the reading still to run upon case of like law, and contrary law ; whereof the one includes the learning of a ground, the other the learning of a difference ; and not to stir concise and subtle doubts, or to contrive a multitude of tedious and intricate cases, whereof all, saving one, are buried, and the greater part of that one case, which is taken, is commonly are notices of some contribution towards the reader's cost however. Of Lincoln's Inn Dugdale says, " That the readers here have antiently had some allowance for Wine spent in the times of their Readings, there are divers memorials in the Accompts of this House ; viz. of xiiii^ at the Sum- mer Reading, and viiii. at the Reading in Lent." (p. 248.) And again (of the same Inn), " For Bucks brought in during the time of Reading, the House alloweth towards the Reward for each, His. iiiid. the rest is at the Reader's own charge. So also doth the House allow Pepper and Flower for baking of all the Venison, which shall be spent in the Hall ; but not for what is spent at the Reader's own Table." (lb.) In Gray's Inn also there were allowances made. By one order the reader was to have allowance of one hogshead of wine, and was to have allowance and commons for eight persons every moot during his reading. And by later orders it appears that he also had some allowance in respect of venison. (d) It was perhaps of a feast corresponding with this that Dugdale wrote (in reference to the Inner Temple), " After supper on that night the Ste- ward's Drinking is, the auncientest Utter-Banister in Commons is to put one of the Reader's cases to the Reader, in the presence of the Reader's guests: and this Case is seldorae argued by the Utter-Barrister, but the Reader makes a House-speech, and takes up the case." (p. 161.) 32 BEADEES IN THE INNS OF COURT. nothing to the matter in hand ; but my labour shall be in the ancient course, to open the law upon doubts, and not to open doubts upon this law.'' Dugdale mentions as an instance of the reader's trouble and charge, the fact that in the term time the case was orderly kept every day after dinner, as well among the benchers, as the utter-barristers and students; but it does not appear in what manner this was a task to the reader. The exercise is described to have been thus : — One of the benchers in turn (beginning generally with the puisne) put a short case, consisting of two or three difficult legal questions of his own invention. This was put from mess to mess through the table, and they argued it by three in a company, the framer of the case being the last; but the rest arguing according to their standing, beginning at the puisne. The like was done by a case put by one of the utter-barristers, which ran through the whole table, and was argued in like companies (e). The student's share in a similar exercise at the Middle Temple is referred to at an earlier page (,f). The reading continued (it seems) formerly for a month ; afterwards, for three weeks; later again, for no more than a fortnight, beginning commonly on Monday and ending on the next Friday week. The evils, as well as the sup- posed occasion, of shortening the time of reading, are set forth in the preamble to some directions in Queen Eliza- beth's reign, which were intended to effect a reform. "Whereas the readings of houses of Court have time out of mind been continued in every Lent, and every August (c') In Lincoln's Inn an order was made in Edward VI.'s reign, that every Puisne, at every mess at dinner, should put a short case of one point argu- mentable, and to be argued throughout by all that should sit at the same mess; and a somewhat similar direction was given in Queen Elizabeth's reign. Perhaps this custom is referred to when it is said that in the Inner Tem- ple all the Bench Table and the auntientest mess of the utter Barr must battle every meal. (/) Ante, p. 12. READERS IN THE INNS OF COURT. 33 yearly, by the space of three weeks at the least, till of late, that divers readers have made an end of their reading in shorter time, and have read fewer readings then by the ancient orders of the same houses they ought ; to the great hindrance of learning, not only in the said houses of Court, but also in houses of Chancery, by reason that the exercises of mootes, very profitable for students, are by occasion thereof cut off, almost the one-half or more. The excessive and sumptuous charges of which readings, brought in of late time contrary to the antient usage, have been and are (as it is thought) the chief or great occasion of the same ; which (if it should be permitted) would be almost an utter overthrow to the learning and study of the law, and, con- sequently, an intolerable mischief to the commonwealth of this realm. The two Chief Justices and Chief Baron, and all the residue of the Justices of both benches, and the Barons of the Exchequer, well perceiving that these late examples of short and few readings are so dangerous, as they are not longer to be suffered, have thought it very necessary that the same readings and charges of the readers shall be from thenceforth used as followeth : — First, That all single readers, in every of the said houses of Court, shall continue every of their readings by the whole space of three weeks, or till Friday in the third week, after the beginning of every such reading, at the least. And that there shall be as many readings in every of the said three weeks, as by the antient orders of the same houses have been accustomed ; and if there shall be any cause allowed by the benchers of the said houses for fewer reJ3ings, there shall be, notwith- standing any such cause, three readings in every of the said three weeks at the least, any order to be taken to the con- trary notwithstanding. And to the intent that the charges of the same readings may not be over great or burdensome to the same readers, it is ordered and thought meet by the s. D 34 READERS IN THE INNS OF COURT. said justices and barons, that no such readers shall allow any greater diet in the hall of any such house, either in wine or meat, than was allowed usually before the first year of the Queen's Majesties reign that now is, viz., An. 1559" (/). There were some other directions; and a ratification of the orders, apparently by the benchers of Lincoln's Inn. On the concluding day of the reading, the reader, after breakfast, came to the cupboard with his assistants and cupboard-men, and there made " a grave and short speech," " tending to the excuse of his weakness, with desire of pardon for his errors committed" {g). It was answered by the senior bencher present, extolling the reader's bounty and learning, and thanking him. Afterwards he took his usual place ; and on his putting his cases upon the division of that day, two of the cupboard-men argued one of them, and a third desired to know the reader's opinion thereon the next term. Upon which the reader arose, without making any argument at all, took leave of the society, and retired to prepare for his journey home. The young stu- dents and many others used to accompany him for that day's journey, escorting him out of the town in state, and at night gave him a great supper at his inn, at their own expense, and the next morning parted company. At the first parliament of the next term, after the dis- patch of other business, the new reader was sent for to come to the benchers. One of his assistants (commonly the previous reader), being called on to give an account of the reading, made an oration, declaring the great learning and expense of the reader, the statute upon which he had read, and his divisions upon it, and further commending him. The reader's reply tended to the praise of his assist- ants and cupboard-men, and the good conduct of the stu- (/) Dugdale, p. 247. (g) Dugdale, p. 207. READERS IN THE INNS OF COURT. 35 dents, with thanks for the consideration with which he had been treated. Afterwards he was welcomed to the bench by the high-treasurer, and they sat down together to supper, and then the reader was a confirmed bencher, and had a voice in after parliaments. For the two next readings he was usually (at the Middle Temple) chosen one of the assistants (A). The practice seems to have been otherwise at Gray's Inn. (A) " But note, that before the new Reader is thus called into the Par- liament House, the Bench receiveth particular information of his carriage and proceedings during the time of his reading ; and if they find him guilty of any great fault, they set a good fine upon his Head, or make such Orders against him, as they think fitting." (Dugdale, p. 208.) 1)2 ( 36 ) Chapter VI. BENCHERS. The readers and benchers formed the governing body of the Inn. Tbey had power in their parhaments to make orders which should bind the rest; and, at the bench table, to inflict punishment on those who transgressed their orders, either by fine, forfeiture of chambers, putting out of commons, or expulsion from the house. In ancient times they only (as has been noticed) were allowed to have each a chamber to himself. They had choice of chambers that fell void, and paid no fine for admittance. A bencher's son also was admissible to the house, or to chambers, without payment. Some of these privileges were given them by separate orders. They had also distinctions of pre-audi- ence, as coQipared with ordinary barristers, before the Master of the Rolls, and sat with Serjeants and King's and Queen's Counsel at the Rolls Chapel. The times of meet- ing for the benchers' parliament at the Middle Temple were three in Michaelmas Term, and two in each of the other terms. Those benchers who had been readers (a) met in their parliament chamber, and took their places according to seniority. The treasurer for the time being sat at the table bareheaded, and read such petitions and proposed such matters as were thought convenient for the better government of the house. The under-treasurer stood by as attendant, and had to see to the entry of such orders as the (o) Some persons who were past their Readings were yet afterwards " by reason of their gravity and learning" received to the Bench Table. They were, by an Order in Queen Elizabeth's reign, to be accounted Benchers, and were to sit at moots as other Benchers, but not to have any voice or place in Parliament or in ordering matters of the House. At Gray's Inn there seem to have been Benchers who had not read. BENCHERS. 37 bench agreed on. In case of difference a majority was to decide, the opinion of the junior being taken first. At the parliament on the last Friday of each term, the bar- risters in commons were to be called in by the under-trea- surer, to have notice given to them of all new made laws and orders, or alterations of old ones. To this attendance they were bound by the orders of the house, and barristers who absented themselves were to forfeit 3s. Ad. (b) This was called a parliament of attendance. The treasurer at the Middle Temple was chosen yearly at the first parliament in Michaelmas Term. He had to receive and disburse the fines and revenues of the house, and was its supreme officer, who was called upon by the judges, formerly members of the society, to see things which were amiss amended. He admitted members to the society, and had authority to remit fines at such times, and to compound and mitigate forfeitures, house duties, rents of tenants, and other matters concerning the society. In ancient times one person had continued in the office for two or three years; but by an order in 39 Elizabeth it was made annual. The benchers themselves were for some time after their promotion still to assist in the exercises of the house ; and at the Middle Temple there seems, with respect to the moots, to have been a regular system of rotation, the benchers being divided into two classes, the upper consist- ing of the senior, the lower of the junior members of the order. The puisnes of each rank argued together at the first moot, and so afterwards the others in their turns. At Gray's Inn there was a " cross-table," " being a table only for the ancients which could not conveniently have place at the upper table"(c). In the ancient standing orders and constitutions there is reference to the cross-table ancients, as having, with the barristers, (one of the former class and two of the latter acting together,) to take part in the cases assigned and Bolt cases. (6) Dugdale, p. 201. (c) Dugdale, p. 278. 38 BENCHERS. In Lincoln's Inn, in Edward IV.'s reign, an order was made requiring benchers to observe six vacations within three years after their admission to the bench. There was another class of persons, called associates, who had seats at the bench table by reason of some eminent place or office, as Masters of the Requests and Masters of the Chancery. The associates had no voice in parliament, or government over the house; but on the other hand were more free. They came to the hall in hats, while the benchers came in caps ; they were not obliged to keep the case after dinner, or to sit at moots. The term associate appears, however, also to have been applicable to those persons received to the bench table after being past their time of reading, who were to sit at moots as the other benchers. Anciently the reader had in his turn to read again, being then called double reader, the custom being to choose but one single reader in a year, who read in summer, a double reader being appointed for the reading in Lent ; and in those days, according to Dugdale's account, men came to be single readers at fifteen or sixteen years standing in the house, and read double about seven years afterwards. But there seems to have been difficulty in maintaining this plan. To a requisition in 1594 that no single reader should be admitted to read in Lent, but that that reading should be always supplied by a double reader, unless in cases to be authorized in a manner specially expressed, there was a reply from Lincoln's Inn, that " we will endeavour to move and persuade such of the benchers of our house as are in course to read their double reading to perform the same ; yet it seemeth very difficult to effect, for that they suppose that their double reading is rather a hindrance than furth- rance in their proceeding, besides their charge"(d). It seems that, at the Middle Temple, if any one received a Serjeant's writ, either in Hilary Term, returnable in (_d) Dugdale, p. 315. BENCHERS. 39 Easter Term, or in Trinity Term, returnable in Michaelmas Term, and a reading time occurred between the receipt and return of the writ, he was to read in that intermediate vacation, and this whether he had or had not read before. "And albeit he hath before been a double reader, yet that excuseth him not " (e). When there was a general call of Serjeants by writ, returnable as before mentioned, the puisne of them was to read. If a reader had been nomi- nated, and afterwards a Serjeant's writ was received by another person, the serjeant was to read the first week of the reading, and the reader elect the second. Thus, according to Dugdale, a liability to take part in the legal exercises of that Inn attached to its members, even when they were just about to be promoted and to bid it farewell. This leave-taking itself was not without some ceremony. Previously to it, the serjeant elect had place at the upper end of the bench table, and, notwithstanding his writ, is said to have continued a bencher and in commons until the day of his receiving the coif. On that morning, " all the benchers, barristers, and students of this society meet in the hall," and the treasurer makes to him a "grave and learned speech; and, in the conclusion thereof, presents him (as from the whole society) with a purse, and ten pounds therein. Which done, the elect serjeant makes a congratulatory oration ; which sum of money is raised by a collection from every one of the society, viz., 3s. 4c?. a-piece. But note, that the last moot night, before the creation of these Serjeants, all the elect Serjeants sit at the moot on a form, not on the bench, and there argue the case " (/). On the whole, the system which has been described has suffered some injustice from the ideas which people are apt to form of it. Considered with reference to its purpose — instruction in the common law - the means employed appear not ill suited to their object. Long habituation, both to the subject matters discussed and to the ex parte handling (e) Dugdale, p. 211. (/) Dugdale, p. 211, 40 BENCHERS. which they met with in the various exercises conducted in the Inns of Chancery and Inns of Court, tended to saturate the legal minds of those days in a remarkable degree with the learning of their profession. And there seem traces of skill in the complicated mechanism by which their very various abilities and acquirements were brought to bear upon the subjects discussed. Benchers, readers, readers of the Inns of Chancery, barristers, and students, working together in exercises which so resembled one another as to assist expertness by continual practice, and yet had enough variety to give some of the relief of change, brought the qualifications of their different ages to assist one another : and while the distinctions of ranks were maintained, the abilities of the subordinate classes had scope in more independent exercises than those of mere pupils. The students had to argue as well as to learn; the utter- barristers had to preside as well as to argue. There were also advantages arising from the gregarious and sociable, though somewhat formal, life maintained by the dinners and suppers in Hall ,• for these gave occasion for a more friendly and pleasant companionship than the exercises of learning supplied, and may have sometimes strengthened the attachment of the students to those who governed them, to one another, and to the study itself. It scarcely seems fanciful to attribute some of the relish with which Sir Edward Coke discourses of law to the long life passed by him among such influences. And even the scenes and usages which amuse us in description would perhaps have appeared to have less of the ludicrous, and more that is impi-essive, if we had been eye-witnesses of them. They were the growth of ages whose costumes and manners were unlike our own, and we are scarcely fair judges whether their obsolete ceremonials and formal etiquette were in fact in such disadvantageous contrast with modern manners as we are naturally ready to believe. While, however, within its own range, the old system of BENCHERS. 41 education had real merits, it will scarcely be doubted that it was too much limited to English law, and that its restricted character may have contributed to its failure, when a wider range of knowledge and curiosity had become prevalent. What classes of studies are best suited to develope and furnish the mind of an English lawyer, accustoming him at once to enlarged and practical views, is a further and an interesting inquiry. It belongs, however, rather to the discussion of legal education in a later age. ( 42 ) Part II. SELF-EDUCATION FOR THE ENGLISH BAR, CHIEFLY WITH REFERENCE TO THE PERIOD SINCE THE AN- CIENT SYSTEM FELL INTO DISUSE. An inquiry as to the plans of self-education among modern lawyers, in contrast with the collegiate education of a former age, may not improperly begin with the middle part of the seventeenth century. For about that time we find references to parts of the old system as still extant, and yet see indications of the neglect of system which prevailed afterwards. Lord Keeper Guilford, according to his brother and biographer Roger North, " used constantly the commons in the hall at noons and nights, and fell into the way of putting cases (as they call it), which much improved him ; and he was very good at it, being of a ready appre- hension, a nice distinguisher, and prompt speaker. He used to say that no man could be a good lawyer that was not a put-case" (a). Roger North himself, however, commences his little discourse on the study of the laws by declaring that " Of all the professions in the world, that pretend to book learning, none is so destitute of institution as that of the common law." And from his time down- ward, students in the Inns of Court appear to have been for a long while left to the guidance of their own intelli- gence, with the help of private tuition, and of such published works as from time to time appeared, without the authority of any recognized board of instructors. A change from (o) North's Lives, Vol. I., pp. 19, 20. SELF- EDUCATION FOK THE ENGLISH BAR, ETC, 43 this state of things has arisen with the regular estabhsh- ment of law lectures and classes, and periodical examina- tions ; but this plan, as connected and continuous, is of comparatively recent date. During the period, not very far from 200 years, in which an allowed independence was customary, some of the most eminent of our judges and lawyers have grown up ; and it is scarcely an idle curiosity that would search for the schemes of study which they may have adopted or formed, in the belief that these would furnish hints of which modern students might make good use. Their plans and studies not only varied much from one another, but related to matters of entirely different kinds ; and it may be convenient to arrange these notices of them rather with reference to the subjects studied, and the methods pursued, than to the lawyers whose examples are cited. It may serve for the purpose to inquire, first, what classes of general studies have been in favour with men who have excelled in the legal profession ; to advert next more particularly to history ; and afterwards to notice, successively, some studies of a legal character, but distinct from English law ; some courses which have been used or advised for the study of English Law itself; the attention which has been given to composition and to public speaking as specific subjects of education ; and further, some methods, more or less artificial, which tend to assist a student's pro- gress, and give to legal pursuits a freshness in which they are apt to be deficient. ( 44 ) Chapter I. GENERAL STUDIES. In discussing those pursuits of eminent lawyers ■which do not stand immediately related to their profession, there is some danger of adverting to matters which are, or may be thought, too remote from the legal qualifications and success of such men. But in this part of the subject it will be something done if it be merely shown that among those who have been confessedly and deservedly eminent as advocates, lawyers, or judges, some at least have been remarkable also for mental acquirements of other kinds. There are persons who consider these things antagonistic to one another, and the soundness of their opinion may be brought to the test furnished by the cases of men who have combined them. One thing may be noticed at the outset, that the large number of wranglers raised to the bench, since the mathematical tripos at Cambridge was established, leads to a natural inference tltat high mathematical studies are auxiliary to success in legal pursuits. It is intended here, however, to dwell not so much upon those studies whose excellence lies in strengthening the mental faculties, and inducing habits of severe application, as upon those which, while they exercise the understanding, furnish the memory with materials likely to be more or less directly of service in professional life. In the case of Sir Matthew Hale, we have an instance of both kinds of study ; and Bishop Burnet's account of his habits gives interesting illustrations of some points at which a knowledge of scientific subjects may assist a practising barrister. " He GENERAL STUDIES. 45 looked on readiness in arithmetic as a thing which might be useful to him in his own employment ; and acquired it to such a degree, that he would often on a sudden, and afterwards on the bench, resolve very hard questions which had puzzled the best accountants about town. He rested not here, but studied the algebra, both speciosa and numerosa, and went through all the other mathematical sciences, and made a great collection of very excellent instruments, sparing no cost to have them as exact as art could make them. He was also very conversant in philo- sophical learning, and in all the curious experiments and rare discoveries of this age, and had the new books written on those subjects sent him from all parts, which he both read and examined so critically, that if the principles and hypotheses which he took first up did any way prepossess him; yet those who have differed most from him have acknowledged, that in what he has written concerning the Torricellian experiment, and of the rarefaction and con- densation of the air, he shows as great an exactness, and as much subtlety in the reasoning he builds on them, as those principles to which he adhered could bear. But, indeed, it will seem scarcely credible that a man so much employed, and of so severe a temper of mind, could find leisure to read, observe, and write so much of these subjects as he did. He called them his diversions, for he often said, when he was weary with the study of law or divinity, he used to recreate himself with philosophy or the mathematics. To these he added great skill in physic, anatomy, and chirur- gery. And he used to say no man could be absolutely a master in any profession without having some skill in other sciences ; for besides the satisfaction he had in the know- ledge of these things, he made use of them often in his employments. In some examinations he would put such questions to physicians or chirurgeons, that they have pro- fessed the College of Physicians could not do it more 46 GENERAL STUDIES. exactly, by which he discovered great judgment as well as much knowledge in these things." Such habits may be thought almost more important at the present time than in that of Lord Hale. The applica- tions of practical science to the improvement of mechanism have been numerous and varied, and a general familiarity with the nature of inventions, with the terms of art and the processes employed in manufactures, is likely to find oppor- tunities for use in our day, as Lord Hale's knowledge of surgery did in his. Actions relating to patent rights may furnish obvious employment for such knowledge, while dis- cussions of the measure of damages, as affected by the value of goods or skilled labour, or by the nature of in- juries to manufactured articles, may also give occasion for its use not much less directly. And some acquaintance with such subjects may prove of advantage when the apparent character of the suit would hardly make it pro- bable. Whenever technical evidence occurs and is relevant, counsel would be standing on vantage-ground if a witness, speaking on matters connected with his own calling, felt that his questioner understood its practice, and could both assist to render its methods intelligible, and detect evasions sheltering themselves behind unfamiliar language. Both the instances, moreover, to which Bishop Burnet refers have gained rather than lost in importance in the progress of society. A thorough knowledge of accounts (including within this term the systems of tradesmen, mer- chants, bankers, and accountants) has an added value from the subsequent growth (if it may not indeed be called the subsequent birth) of commercial law in England, and from the great increase of commercial transactions. Again, with respect to medical science, physicians and surgeons would probably consider a large, if not the larger, part of their knowledge and its nomenclature to date in discovery or (a) Burnet's Life of Sir M. Hale, pp. 14—16. GENERAL STUDIES. 47 introduction later than the seventeenth century, and this is a matter as to which there is a double use in a counsel's being not wholly ignorant of the sciences in question. He has to deal with evidence which not only makes technical terms sometimes almost unavoidable, but also, by the rules of our law, is frequently of the nature of opinion, and the witness and his examiner are not always agreed as to when an opinion is a sufficient and final answer, and when it may be followed up by a searching exaction of its reasons. Some judgment and candour are requisite here to guide the examiner aright, but even judgment and candour may be perplexed if their possessor feels that the evidence is expressed in what is to him a foreign tongue. And even putting aside the direct application of scientific knowledge to the particular case, a large measure of such study is in itself a great qualification for forensic practice, because the habits of reasoning which apply to one branch of practical science are often adapted to facilitate a ready understanding of another, on somewhat the same principle on which a legal judgment is not to be presumed from the mere possession of good general common sense. In cases where scientific attainments reach to an extraordinary height, their value will, perhaps, be most readily acknow- ledged. Would any one doubt that Lord Bacon's scrutiny of natural objects rendered him the fitter to understand and sift the merits of technical questions in a court of law ? Important, however, as is a knowledge of scientific terms, facts, and processes, these furnish rather the sub- jects to which an advocate's faculties are to be applied, than the axioms and rules, and governing principles, under whose influence those faculties are to be exercised. It may not be very fanciful to make a threefold divi- sion of the different qualifications proper to such a pro- fession, a classification which, though not exhaustive of those qualifications, will include some of the most impor- 48 GENERAL STUDIES. tant. Independently of directly professional learning, a barrister needs vigorous intellectual powers ; an acquaint- ance with the subject matters of litigation, and the terms used in relation to them ; and he needs besides to be familiar with the varied considerations which should assist him to perceive the real moral character of involved human actions, and either modify or else deepen his indignation or sympathy as the real merits of complicated disputes may require. Now for the development and exercise of the reasoning powers mathematical training may be unequalled in value ; an acquaintance with the subject matter of litiga- tion may be sought in part by investigating the practical arts and sciences, but whence is to be gained the third and most important attribute of the advocate — the ready insight into, and strong sense of, the right and wrong of disputed claims, as they shift their ground, and change their form and colour, in the vicissitudes and varying light and shade of oral evidence ? Doubtless the greatest and best preparative for this is personal character, a spirit •which seems instinctively attracted to what is noble and virtuous, and inflamed with a just abhorrence of what is base and evil. But it is submitted that in this direction also there may be a real education gained by study, cul- tured taste, familiarity with the varieties, and especially with the best specimens, of human nature ; an acquaintance with the history of mankind, not only as individuals, but in the various associations in which men have been grouped ; and a loving study of the speculations and sentiments of persons eminent both for their powers and their goodness. These would be likely to discipline the moral faculties, while severer scientific pursuits disciphned the reason. It is not all one whether a man in early or middle life should take his rules and habits of judgment from the experience of a narrow sphere and the polemics of newspapers, or should get them in part from the great thoughts and words GENERAL STUDIES. 49 of those who in different ages have been illustrious for pro- found reflection and noble lives. If this be so, then the study of what some persons might be disposed to set aside as mere amusement under the head of general literature, poetry, philosophy, general history, biography, and many writings of a more miscellaneous class, may be a material part of a lawyer's education. An observation of what has been the fact as to some among the more eminent English counsel will perhaps be thought to support this view. There is, however, some difficulty in adducing instances in point, if studies directly connected with prose compo- sition and oratory, or with history, which deserve sepa- rate mention, be for the time kept out of view. Poetry, philosophy and miscellaneous literature, in the shape of the Greek and Latin classics, are to some extent pre- sumed and pass unnoticed in a school and college educa- tion, and they may be the subjects of a good deal of atten- tion in a more modern form, without there being much record of the time bestowed upon them. But some noticeable instances may be mentioned. As to poetry, in several cases eminent lawyers have written as well as studied it, and their verses have been such as to indicate not so much the outbursts of natural genius, as the cultiva- tion of a tasteful art. Lord Somers was the author of translations from Ovid ; Sir William Jones published a volume of poems, consisting chiefly of translations from the Asiatic languages, with two prose dissertations annexed ; Sir Samuel Romilly practised versification in his early life, though he speaks with satisfaction of his relinquishment of the attempt ; and Mr. Justice Blackstone's farewell to his Muse gives some evidence that he was addicted to rhyming, and sufficient proof that he excelled in the com- position of verses as well as prose. But what is rather insisted on is the lare:e extent to which men of eminence in the profession of the law, have addicted themselves s. E 60 GENERAL STUDIES, to classical and general literature. If Lord Bacon be put aside from the list as too exceptional a case for the illustra- tion of a rule ; if Lord Talbot, Lord Camden and others be rejected because their classical studies may be supposed not more remarkable than those of their contemporaries at Oxford and Cambridge, still there remain two classes,— the one of men who in form or degree departed signally from the ranks of average students at college ; the other, of those who have distinguished themselves by their love of literary pursuits, without the assistance of English universities. In the first class may be mentioned Lord Chancellor Charles Yorke, one of the supposed authors of the Athe- nian Letters ; and Lord Somers, whom Lord Campbell re- presents as having returned to Oxford in his twenty-fourth year, and resided there for some time, and as having become " a ripe and good scholar as well as lawyer, and, regard being had to his acquaintance with modern lan- guages and literature, perhaps the most accomplished man that ever rose to high eminence in the profession of the law in England " (h) : Sir William Jones, whose literary attain- ments were, in their extent and variety, quite beyond the ordinary cases of academical scholars, may be mentioned as another example. To the second class may be referred Lord Hardwicke, whose early acquaintance with Latin while still an articled clerk may be presumed from the enthusiastic letter in that language addressed to him by his former schoolmaster, and who seems to have been stirred to an emulation of Addfson when pursuing his path to the bar under the auspices of Chief Justice Parker. Wedder- burn again, Lord Loughborough, devoted himself, we are told, sedulously to classics, political science and modern belles lettres. Lord Campbell describes Lord Erskine as, while a midshipman, picking up some new volume at every port he visited; and says of him, when in the army at (6) Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors. — Lord Somers. GENERAL ST0DIES. 61 Minorca, that " laboriously and systematically he went through a course of English literature." He represents him as especially a " student of Milton, Shakespeare, Dryden and Pope." But perhaps a still more striking case is that of Sir Samuel Romilly. We learn from himself that in early life he read, without system or object, such books as fell in his way, such as his father's library afforded, and such as several circulating libraries to which he subscribed in suc- cession could supply. Ancient history, English poetry and works of criticism were favourite subjects ; but poetry began to predominate over them all. He applied himself to the study of Latin, and mentions that in the course of three or four years he had read every prose writer of the ages of pure Latinity, except those who have merely treated of technical subjects, such as Varro, Columella and Celsus. He had gone three times through the whole of Livy, Sallust and Tacitus ; had read ail Cicero, with the exception, he believed, only of his Academic Questions and his treatises De Finibus and De Divinatione. He had studied the most celebrated of his orations, his Laelius, his Cato Major, his treatise De Oratore and his letters, and had translated a great part of them. Terence, Virgil, Horace, Ovid and Juvenal he had read again and again. Renouncing the hope of reading the Greek writers in the original, he yet went, he writes, through the most con- siderable of the Greek historians, orators and philosophers, in the Latin versions which generally accompany the original text. Travels he mentions as having been among his favourite subjects ; and, as he seldom read either travels or history without maps before him, he had acquired a tolerable stock of geographical knowledge. He had read too a good deal of natural history, and had attended several courses of lectures on natural philosophy. To this may be e2 52 GENERAL STUDIES. added such a pleasure in pictures, and attention to them, that he tells us that he knew the peculiar style of almost every master. There are instances deserving notice of judges who have given special attention to the study of theology. Sir M. Hale was among these, and some of his religious writings of a practical kind are of great value for the weight of their arguments and the vigour of the thoughts they ex- press, as well as for their piety. Lord King, a chancellor whose character deserved more than common respect, appears also to have been particularly addicted to the study of theology. He was educated at the university of Leyden, and gave attention to the other studies of the place, but " theology," says Lord Campbell, " was still his favourite pursuit." He appears to have published " An Enquiry into the Constitution and Discipline of the Pri- mitive Church" (c). His monument at Ockham states (among other things) that " to an exact and complete knowledge in all parts and history of the law," he " added the most extensive learning, theological and civil" {d). The fact that he was nephew, and as it were a favourite pupil, of John Locke may be taken as an indication that his studies were not hkely to be routine or thoughtless. Another instance is to be found in the case of Sir M. Foster, justly eminent for his elucidation of the principles of English criminal law. In 1720 he pubhshed, it appears, a letter of advice to Protestant Dissenters, and in 1735 an Examination of the Scheme of Church-power laid down in the Codex Juris Ecclesiastici AngHcani, &c. of which it is said that it " engaged the publick atten- tion very much, and in a short time went through several editions." There is another class of studies which Englishmen (c) Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors.— Lord King. (d) lb. ^ GENERAL STUDIES. 53 were some time since disposed to slight, but which may well claim the consideration of a legal student who wishes to be thoroughly disciplined and furnished for his work. Francis Horner refers to a passage in Lord Bolingbroke's letters, as asserting that metaphysics and history are the vantage-grounds which a lawyer must seize, if he means to make a science of his profession. History has met with some considerable acceptance, but metaphysics have perhaps scarcely fared as well, and there is some difficulty in gathering illustrations of attention to them. Horner himself furnishes one example, and in an early plan of his future studies he maintains the value of such pursuits. " As for metaphysics ; it is only on a complete and scientific knowledge of the principles of human nature and the theory o( morals, that the path is laid towards the elements of legislative science : and it is from the stores of practical morality, accumulated as they have been by the sages of ancient and modern times, that the practical lawyer, who aims at eloquence in his pleadings, should seek those simple and direct appeals to the under- standing and to the heart, which are at once the most commendable and the most effectual persuasives" (c). In this passage its writer touches on both mental and moral philosophy. The two studies, however, are dis- tinguishable, not only in themselves, but in some of the considerations that are applicable to them. Lord Bacon, in the Advancement of Learning, makes the " division, that human philosophy, which respecteth the faculties of the mind of man, hath two parts, rational and moral "(/). The former, he tells us, " is of all knowledges, to the most wits, the least delightful, and seemeth but a net of subtlety and (e) Memoirs of Horner, i. 51, 52. (/) He treats this philosophy concerning the faculties of the mind as but one of two branches of a larger stem, the divisions of which he mentions at an earlier page. " For Human Knowledge which concerns the Mind, it hath two parts, the one that inquireth of the substance or nature of the soul or mind ; the other that inquireth of the faculties or functions thereof." 54 GENERAL STUDIES, spinosity;" but says, afterwards, that, "to speak truly of things as they are in worth, ' rational knowledges ' are the keys of all other arts ; for as Aristotle saith, aptly and elegantly, * That the hand is the instrument of instruments, and the mind is the form of forms ;' so these be truly said to be the art of arts ; neither do they only direct, but like- wise confirm and strengthen : even as the habit of shooting doth not only enable to shoot a nearer shoot, but also to draw a stronger bow." The general uses of such studies with a view to mental training furnish one argument which may be used in their favour. Horner says of metaphysics, though using the term rather broadly and generally (for he had been speak- ing of inquiries concerning the nature of probable evidence), that he found them " a most improving exercise ; fixing the powers of attention, and sharpening those of appre" hension"(^). This passage belongs to an early period of his life, and should hardly be taken as expressing a matured estimate of the principal value of such pursuits. Perhaps while they are of use in exercising attention and apprehen- sion, they may be thought by some to have a more characteristic aptitude for developing the power of nice discrimination. Lord Bacon, in his Essay on Studies, writes of mathematics and the works of the schoolmen, " If a man's wits be wandering, let him study the mathe- matics ; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again ; if his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the school- men, for they are ' cymini sectores ;' " and although the scholastic philosophy was not occupied with quite the same topics as are now often referred to by the term metaphysics, they may be thought to have a resemblance at this point. Besides the advantage above mentioned, there is often (though not always) associated with metaphysical studies the aid which they give incidentally to skill in argument, (^gj Memoirs of Horner, i. 91. GENERAL STUDIES. 53 For they furnish occasion for earnest verbal discussion, and seem to have a natural tendency to foster and exercise this habit. The recollection of Plato's Dialogues may serve to show the adaptation of such subjects to such treatment. And there is enough resemblance between the qualifica- tions required for conducting a conversational argument and those needed for the examination of witnesses, to make experience and skill in the former available for use in the latter. In both alike there is occasioij for peculiar quick- ness in the seizure of new matter, versatility in taking up fresh positions to meet a changed attitude of attack or defence, command of mind and temper, readiness in reply, and a terse, discriminating style of speaking. One supposed objection to metaphysics is its alleged unfruitfulness— that it leads to no valuable results. But a scientific study of the faculties of the human mind may be applied to assist the culture of those faculties (/«). Will not a man enter with better prospects upon the cultivation of those four " arts intellectual," of which Lord Bacon tells us — " art of inquiry or invention ; art of examination or judgment ; art of custody or memory ; and art of elocu- tion or tradition " — if he has endeavoured to understand to some extent the nature of the mental processes which are at work when he is inquiring, discriminating and remember- ing, and when he is expressing his thoughts ? But a different class of objections is also arrayed (ft) " Intellectual science investigates the laws and relations of the pro- cesses of simple intellect, as perception, memory, imagination, and judg- ment; and the proper cultivation and regulation of these is the object of the practical art of intellectual education He who follows certain arts or practical rules, without a knowledge of the science on which they are founded, is the mere artizan or empiric ; he cannot advance beyond the precise-rules which are given him, or provide for new occurrences and unforeseen difficul- ties. In regard to science again, when the relations are assumed hastily, or without a sufficiently extensive observation of facts, the process constitutes false science, or false induction ; and when practical rules are founded upon such conclusions, they lead to error and disappointment in the result which is expected." — Abercrpmbie on the Intellectual Powers. Preliminary Obser- vations. 56 GENERAL STUDIES. against metaphysical studies, which charges them not so much with a want of results, as with the untrustworthy character of the results which they furnish, and with their blemishes when considered as mental exercises. Thus, Horner's tutor remarks that his pupil had been led to think "too highly of those metaphysical speculations which abound in terms to which we annex no distinct ideas, and which often require the admission of principles that are either unintelligible or incapable of proof." The last fault is expressed in a striking manner by Mr. Hallam, when he says of the reasonings of the schoolmen, that as they " commonly rest on disputable postulates, the accu- racy they affect is of no sort of value" (i). But when meta- physical inquiries are withdrawn from general " theories upon the nature of things," and Htnited to the ex- amination of the faculties and habits of the human mind, there may be something said in answer to the charges above noticed. For although there is diflBculty in finding apt words, significant, clear and definite, and attain- ing even approximate correctness in the data from which inductions are to be made, since the mental philosopher, when making observations on the minds of other men, has to judge of the " internal operations by external phe- nomena," yet facts may be collected which exhibit these phenomena "in various individuals, and under a variety of circumstances," and the general results may make a suffi- cient approach towards certainty to render their adoption as bases of action reasonable. And the investigation of such results, combined with a thoughtful attention to the internal mental processes of which the student is con- scious, may be fairly recommended as of help to clear his views and give shape to his plans for his own mental training. But for a law student who intends to practise in the Common Law Courts, metaphysical studies have a further (i) Literature of Europe, vol. i., p. 19. GENERAL STUDIES. 57 use. The right conduct of an examination, and the pro- priety of comments made on the evidence, involve in some cases correct ideas as to the mental action or condition indicated by the facts stated, as well as attention to those facts themselves. Thus, in criminal law, an external act is not criminal unless there is a criminal intention, " Actus non fadt reum nisi mens sit rea." And in civil cases, the object present to the mind of the parties, or one of them, at the time of a transaction, may be a material ingre- dient, with respect to its legal consequences. Whether when goods are transferred from one person to another, this is done with the intention to change the ownership ; whether when a small portion of a large quantity of goods is transferred, it is regarded by the seller and purchaser as a part delivery or only as the delivery of a sample ; whether when money is paid to a creditor by one who owes him two separate debts, the payment is intended and under- stood to be applied to either of them specially, are instances of this sort. Again, in questions of agency, where there is no express declaration of it, an inquiry may occur whether a person has the means of knowing that he is dealing with an agent and not with a principal. In a variety of cases, acts done without due caution, or in a negligent manner, are the subjects of actions ; and, on the other hand, it may sometimes be an available defence that the plaintiff by ordinary care on his own part might have avoided the con- sequence of the defendant's misdoing. In the contracts which the law calls bailments, where goods are transferred to the custody of some one else than the owner, different rules prevail in the various species of contracts classed under that head, with respect to the degrees of negligence which will make the bailee civilly responsible. We read of slight, ordinary and gross negligence; and, again (as a test in one of these cases), of the bailee's obligation to take the same care of the'goods as he would of his own. 58 GENERAL STUDIES. Now in inquiries and arguments on such matters, there Is occasion for discriminative estimates as to the probable extent of a man's attention, memory and judgment, as con- jectured both from the general capacities and habits of men, and also from the peculiarities of the individual. But these faculties — attention, memory and judgment — are some of those with which mental philosophy has to do ; and an understanding familiarized with inquiries as to what has been observed in relation to them, their varying de- grees, the influences and habits that strengthen or enfeeble them, has, cceteris paribus, an advantage in considering the actual cases which come before him. Such studies furnish no substitute for that ordinary good sense and practical experience which a healthy mind may improve or acquire in the transactions of hfe ; but it is with these as with other studies ; it is a mistake either to despise them, or to rely entirely on them. To " make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar," and they " give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience." " Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them ; for they teach not their own use ; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.'' Moial philosophy, which forms a natural companion to mental philosophy, may be thought even more obviously connected with the business of an advocate. For while it is one function of ethics to discuss questions of right and vf rong, the vindication of rights and the redress of wrongs occupy a large part of the province of law. And, although what is morally right is not, to its fullest extent, enforced by law, — and the law passes over much that is wrong, — yet in the case of the rights and wrongs with which it is conver- sant, its rules are affected by, if not grounded on, the moral character of actions. With whatever imperfections and deviations, the maintenance of what is morally just may be GENERAL STUDIES. 59 considered as its general object ; and some specific forms of moral wrong — violence, fraud, breach of engagements, are in certain cases, though not in all, the subjects of punish- ment or compensation. It is true that courts are guided by legal rules and not by rules of ethics ; but at points where statutory and judicial authorities are silent or irre- concilably conflicting, the appeal is not unfrequently to moral arguments. These topics intervene to affect the measure of damages when they are not relevant to the dry legal question for which party a jury is to find ; and when a judge has for the first time to determine a matter which no earher cases govern, he may well be urged to let the general right and wrong of the claims at issue influence his decision. If we look to masterpieces of forensic eloquence, in Curran's orErskine's speeches, or to the eloquence of the bench in the judgments of Lord Mansfield and Sir William Grant, we shall not find the moral aspects of suits entirely excluded from attention. And, if from these examples we descend to the ordinary present course of business in courts, such topics will be found to have place in it still. Is it not well, then, that men who feel the necessity of express preparation for the legal part of their duties, should make some preparation likewise for these perhaps not less important occasions? They are often treated too Hghtly, as if the every-day experience of life were enough to guide not only the mind of a by-stander or a juryman, but of the advocate also, whose business it is so to comprehend the several subjects with which he has to deal as to enlighten and direct other opinions than his own. It is scarcely to be supposed that doubts on such matters would be always sulBciently solved by the instinct of a sound conscience. The application of rules is often a matter of difficulty even to a healthy mind. Conflicting claims, and the set-offs of mutual faults and neglects, may weave such an entangle- ment as it is hard to ynravel. Riiles of duty may seem to 60 GENERAL STUDIES. be Opposed where it is not easy at first sight to be sure which is the paramount rule. It is suggested that in such instances an intelligent previous study of moral philosophy may be of some use. It may have in part forestalled the difficulty, by presenting to the mind, in connection with general rules of duty, exceptional and qualifying cases, and by leading to consideration of the manner in which these can be reconciled with the maintenance of the rules them- selves in their authority. It may have led to the habit of tracing both classes to the principles which appear to be their foundations, and thus offer an escape from the diffi- culties which beset a mind that does not look beyond the mere form and letter of the precept. If rightly and wisely pursued, it may have enlarged and cleared the student's view of the beauty, majesty and practical value of virtue, of the harmony and mutual connection of its laws, and of the importance which they acquire individually from this dependence on one another, and thus prepared him to handle such subjects with more of a just freedom and a firmer grasp than belong to men to whose sight they include little but barren conventionalities, employed for the pur- poses of an argument, with no hearty acknowledgment of their worth. It may be added that a generous and thoughtful study of ethics, especially with the increased light of Christianity, should have some useful influence on an advocate's own character, and, by tending to refine and elevate this, give him assistance for judging of his duties rightly, and dis- charging them well. If there be not many accessible instances of a careful study of ethics by law students, there is, at any rate, one contribution to ethical literature from the hand of a lawyer, in an advanced period of his life, which can be recommended as particularly interesting, and as sup- plying light to guide to further researches — Sir James GENERAL STUDIES. 61 Mackintosh's Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy. Dr. (afterwards Sir Henry) Holland, in a letter referring to this work, says of Sir James Mackintosh, that he "makes himself the historian of the science, by being chronologically the critic of all the great writers, who have enlarged, illustrated, or adorned it. After a general retrospect of the ancient and the scholastic ethics, he dis- tributes his survey of the science in modern times into two sections, which are themselves little more than heads for the names contained under each. In the first of these, entitled ' Controversies concerning the Moral Faculties and Social Affections,' we have the names of Hobbes, Cum- berland, Cudworth, Clarke, Shaftesbury, Bossuet, Fenelon, Leibnitz, Malebranche and Edwards. In the second we find those of Butler, Hutchinson, Berkeley, Hume, Smith, Price, Hartley, Tucker, Paley, Bentham, Stewart and Brown ; while a consideration of the ethical doctrines of Kant and the German school is reserved to the close of the disserta- tion." Dr. Holland afterwards mentions, as one of the objects which Sir James Mackintosh had before him in this work, " the exposition of his own views of the truth, on questions of moral science. In part he has blended these with the sketches he successively gives of the writings and opinions of the most eminent ethical authors : but the last section of the work, under the title of general remarks, con- tains an eloquent summary and vindication of his own judg- ment on the great inquiries which the subject involves. The main points of question here," says Dr. Holland, "obviously are, the existence of a moral faculty as a constituent part of the nature of man ; and, secondly, the inquiry as to the best and most universal criterion of morality in human action " (k). That legal and ethical studies are naturally associated may be further inferred from the cases in which writers on (k) Life of Mackintosh, vol. 2. 62 GENERAL STUDIES. moral philosophy have included legal topics within their plans, and thovse in which writers on jurisprudence or legis- lation have discussed theories of morals (J). The sources of law are indeed blended both with morality and religion ; and a man, who, neglecting those " fountains of justice, whence all civil laws are derived but as streams," gives all his attention to the "tinctures and tastes " which they take from " the soils through which they run," is but ill qualified to apply them to their true uses. A wise and sound study of ethics does not bring with it as a consequence an unseasonable introduction of such topics in cases where the true appeal is to rules of law, but it may attemper the application of those rules, and, wherever its more direct presence is appropriate, infuse fresh life and dignity into legal proceedings ; for the law is cut off from the arteries which supply its very life-blood when it is wholly severed from its means of connection with moral influences and motives. (!) Paley, in his Moral Philosophy, and Whewell, in his Elements of Morality including Polity, furnish instances of the first class ; Austin, in the Province of Jurisprudence Determined, and Bentham, in his Introdaction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, of the second. ( 63 ) Chapter II. HISTORY. Some instances may now be given of attention to history, which Lord Bolingbroke coupled with metaphysics as the basis for a scientific study of law (a). Beginning with Lord Hale, we find that his biographer attributes to him " great searches into ancient history, and particularly into the roughest and least delightful part of it, chronology." The Hon. Charles Yorke, was (as has been mentioned) one of the reputed authors of the Athenian Letters. Ancient history was much read by Sir Samuel Romilly in early life. Sir William Jones appears only to have allowed place to historical studies among the multitude of others which engaged his attention, but he did allow them some space. About a year after his entry at the Temple, he says in a letter, " I shall apply to the study of eloquence, to poetry, history and philosophy." Among his works is " A Prefatory Discourse to an Essay on the History of the Turks," which, containing much bibhographical matter, indicates it as his plan to trace out, in the form of an essay, the great outlines only of the Turkish history, leaving (according to his own modest expression) " all its minuter parts to be coloured by some abler pencil, and perhaps the most interesting of them to be filled up by my rough crayon, as some future occasion, or greater leisure, may invite me." A memorandum, said by his (a) " Men must trace," he says, " the laws of particular states, especi- ally of their own, from the first rough sketches to the more perfect draughts; from the first causes or occasions that produced them, through all the effects, good and bad, that they produced." 64 HISTORY. biographer to have been written during his voyage to India, refers, among objects for inquiry during his residence in Asia, to the history of the ancient world, and mentions, among works which he thought of composing, the history of the American war, on the model of Thucydides and Polybius. In the extraordinary " Andrometer" which in- dicates his ideas (when about the age of thirty) of in- tellectual aims suited to a long life-time, historical subjects repeatedly occur ; " history of his own country," " history and law," " historical studies continued," " historical works," forming some among the very numerous items in that remarkable catalogue. Besides instances of historical study which may have some power to stimulate by the force of example, there have been valuable contributions by lawyers to the student's resources, in the shape of surveys of the field of historical knowledge. In the Advancement of Learning, Lord Bacon analyses civil history into several divisions and sub-divisions. It is, according to his classification, " of three kinds, not unfitly to be compared with the three kinds of pictures or images : for of pictures or images, we see, some are un- finished, some are perfect, and some are defaced. So of his- tories we may find three kinds, memorials, perfect histories and antiquities; for memorials are history unfinished, or the first or rough draughts of history ; and antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time." After explaining the character of memorials and antiquities, and remark- ing on their incompleteness as being but natural, he goes on to denounce epitomes as " those that have fretted and corroded the sound bodies of many excellent his- tories, and wrought them into base and unprofitable dregs." " History, which may be called just and per- fect history, is " (he says) " of three kinds, according HISTORY. 65 to the object which it propoundeth, or pretendeth to re- pvfesfint : fot it eithet representeth a time, or a person, or an action. The first we call chronicles, the second lives, and the third narrations of relations. Of these, although the first be the toost complete and absolute kind of history, and hath most estimation and glory, yet the secotid ex- celleth it in profit and use, and the third in verity and sincerity. For history of times representeth the magni- tude of actions, and the public faces and deportments of persons, and passeth over in silence the smaller passages and motions of men and matters But lives, if they be well written, propounding to themselves a person to repre- sent, in whom actions, both greater and smaller, public and private, have a commixture, must of necessity contain a more true, native and lively representation. So again, narrations and relations of actions, as the War of Pelo- ponnesus, the Expedition of Cyrus Minor, the Conspiracy of Catiline, cannot but be more purely and exactly true, than histories of times, because they may choose an argument comprehensible within the notice and instructions of the writer; whereas he that undertaketh the story of a time, especially of any length, cannot but meet with many blanks and spaces, which he must be forced to fill up out of his own wit and conjecture." He afterwards treats further of these several classes — history of times, lives, and narratives and relations of particular actions. For the fuller discussion of them the reader is referred to the original work. The following passage gives an interesting view of Sir W. Jones's ideas as to the value and results of historical study,— coloured indeed by an Englishman's partiality for the institutions of his country. It occurs in his 10th dis- course to the Asiatic Society, "in 1793, little more than a year before his death." " The practical use of history, in affording particular examples of civil and miUtary wis- 66 HISTORY. dom, has been greatly exaggerated ; but principles of action may certainly be collected from it : and even the narrative of wars and revolutions may serve as a lesson to nations, and an admonition to sovereigns. A desire, in- deed, of knowing past events, while the future cannot be known, (and a view of the present gives often more pain than delight,) seems natural to the human mind : and a happy propensity would it be, if every reader of history would open his eyes to some very important corollaries which flow from the whole extent of it. He could not but remark the constant effect of despotism in benumbing and debasing all those faculties which distinguish men from the herd that grazes ; and to that cause he would impute the decided inferiority of most Asiatic nations, ancient and modern, to those in Europe, who are blest with happier governments: he would see the Arabs rising to glory, while they adhered to the free maxims of their bold ancestors, and sinking to misery from the moment when those maxims were abandoned. On the other hand, he would observe with regret, that such republican govern- ments as tend to promote virtue and happiness cannot in their nature be permanent, but are generally succeeded by oligarchies, which no good man would wish to be durable. He would then, like the King of Lydia, remember Solon, the wisest, bravest and most accomplished of men, who asserts, in four nervous lines, that ' as hail and snow, which mar the labours of husbandmen, proceed from elevated clouds, and as the destructive thunderbolt follows the brilliant flash, thus is a free state ruined by men exalted in power and splendid in wealth, while the people, from gross ignorance, choose rather to become the slaves of one tyrant, that they may escape from the domination of many, than to preserve themselves from tyranny of any kind by their union and their virtues.' Since, therefore, no unmixed form of government could both preserve per- HISTORY. 67 manence and enjoy it, and since changes, even from the worst to the best, are always attended with much tem- porary mischief, he would fix on our British constitution (I mean our public law, not the actual state of things in any given period,) as the best form ever established, though we can only make distant approaches to its theoretical perfection." i. How far, after all, it may be questioned, does history deserve to attract a student's especial attention? A large part of it is occupied with the details of wars, another part with the intrigues of statesmen ; it abounds with evidence of the development and effects of the evil qualities of human character, with records of tyranny and oppression, and of the efforts of unjust ambition : it is be- sides, to a great extent, uncertain and wanting in exactness ; we can scarcely be sure how much is really true in the narratives which we read, for even when the writer is tolerably free from the bias of prejudice, and not ready to sacrifice truth to brilliancy, yet he is liable to error and cannot obtain entirely trustworthy and complete materials. Allowing this and more also, there are yet reasons that may be urged on behalf of such studies. However cautious a reader should be in the reliance which he places on particular narratives, yet surely he may attain to a general knowledge of ages, and countries, and races, of the main characteristics. of epochs, of some at least of the tendencies of great national events, such as discoveries, struggles, and victories ; and this knowledge may be suffi- ciently correct to form a basis for opinions in some prin- cipal departments of public morals. He may gather from it a deeper sense of national duties, a stronger impression of the connection between the tributary streams of habits, opinions, and practices (which may seem singly of small account), and the swollen tide of national feeling which sometimes sweeps before it not only statesmen but even monarchs, if its force is violently repressed. He may f2 68 HISTORY. learn how the explosive materials of public convulsions are alowly accumulated, how the seeds of order and happiness are slowly sown, and gather a more serious and earnest patriotism from such lessons. There is indeed danger to a rash and unsteady mind, or to one which is particularly defective in a humble sense of the small range of human knowledge, or in the reverence which is rather a moral than an intellectual quality, lest in the bewildering maze of events, in which causes and effects are so complicated that it is impossible fully to trace them, doubts should arise or be fostered of the Providential government of the world, and it should seem as if men were carried along upon the stream of time in purposeless eddies, not referable to the arrange- ments of Divine wisdom, and confounding the feeble endeavours of human virtue and skill. But a patient and docile mind, sensible in any due measure of the evil of con- ceit and presumption, may hope to find in the same studies contrary influences; to reinforce, amidst the records of human disasters, its own sensibility to awe ; to gain, in those cases where moral evil can be seen to stand connected with national distresses, an increased impression of its malignity ; and, where whole communities as well as indi- viduals have given bright examples of difficult virtue, to feel the glow of generous admiration ; and, even where it may pause in utter perplexity amidst entangled transac- tions, or stop confounded at some mysterious reversal of its anticipations, it may yet learn in humility a lesson of its own short range of vision, and, falling back on its earlier evidence of God's wisdom and goodness, find its faith (although, perhaps, almost stunned for a time) grow stronger through the trial. If " it is not good to look too long upon these turning wheels of vicissitude, lest we become giddy "(i), yet we may apply to Divine providence in human affairs the words of the same writer in reference (6) Bacon's Essays, " Of Vicissitude of Things." HISTORY. 69 to the natural world, " I had rather believe all the fables in the legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind "(c). There is something not profitless as a mental exercise in the very variety and complexity, as well as importance, of the human interests, motives, and actions with which history has to do. The anatomy, even though much of it be morbid anatomy, which an able historian's dissecting knife illustrates, is not Wanting in instruction to a mind pre- pared for it, though indeed it behoves an unskilled pupil to beware how he chooses a teacher, and to what extent he submits himself to his guidance. Lord Ba<;on, in his account of the several effects of studies, says that " His- tories make men vfise"{d); and at any rate many persons Would allow that a knowledge of history is among the things which particularly contribute to make a thoroughly accomplished and educated mart. If in some degree the trite saying as to " the proper study of mankind " be true, history may well form a large branch of it, for the develop- ment of man, even as an individual^ cannot be understood without a reference to those various institutions of social, municipal and national life in which men have been gathered together. And a true student of history brings within his attention the commercial, agricultural, financial and literary condition and changes of a people, as well as their foreign relations and their internal political progress or decay. Besides' this, if history be taken to include biography, — and well-written history, though not biographical, may supply individual porti'aite, — there will be opportunities of studying the characters of men who not only have been of (c) Bacon's Essays, " Of Atheism." (d) Perhaps Lord Bacon included in this some branches of knowledge which are often accounted parts of natural science, for in the " Treatise on the Advancement of I/earning " he says, " History is natural, civil, eccle- siastical, and literary ;" but even then it would include ordinary history. 70 HISTORY. great capacity, but by their circumstances have had their powers developed and exercised. Such examples, where moral greatness has characterised them, are among the chief stimulants to virtue and hope. It may be added that not only the subjects, but the writers, of history are sometimes particularly fitted to instruct. The engaging mixture of shrewdness arid sim- plicity with an amiable character in Herodotus ; the poli- tical intelligence of Thucydides j — in our own days and country, the combination of spirit and mental activity with Christian earnestness in Arnold; the reflectiveness and the occasional dashes of poetical feeling in Hallam; the tone of Mackintosh, who could reckon among the parts of the object at which he aimed, " most of all, to strengthen the moral sentiments by the exercise of them on all the personages conspicuous in history," are likely to influence a reader's mind, unless it be very dull and unsusceptible. And whatever may have been in past times the claims of history, it has now accumulated advantages. " We may be said to stand at the confluence of the greatest number of streams of knowledge flowing from the most distant sources that ever met at one point" (e). And the energies of explorers, scholars, powerful writers and adventurous publishers have combined with the extended use and con- venience of public and circulating libraries to facilitate access to the stores which exist. What has been said has not been applicable exclusively to any one class of students. But there are reasons which make history a study particularly useful to barristers. They have occasion, in a remarkable degree, for that general culture and replenishment of mind to which history ministers. The comparatively petty nature of the interests ' (e) Mackintosh's " Discourse on the Study of the Law of Nature and Nations." HISTORY. 71 which they frequently have to maintain or defend may find some corrective in the larger class of ideas with which historical study is occupied. It is their business to under- stand and interpret human character and motives, and it is a dangerous incident of their calling that they are liable to acquire tendencies to ready and gross misconstruction, to the imputation, undeservedly, of base intentions ; or, on the other hand, to the lavish commendation of persons very unworthy of it. May not history, rightly studied, tend both to develope the power of discrimination, and to make men more jealous over themselves against the reckless em- ployment of praise or blame ? There is another reason which makes history particularly a study for a lawyer, A comprehensive knowledge of the laws of a country requires some knowledge of its forms of government, and not only these, but the ordinary municipal laws themselves, have in part grown up with changes of time and circumstances. If, then, there be value for the lawyer in an acquaintance with the laws of other countries, an acquaintance with their history also is not out of place for him. For an English law student, the history of his own country has particular claims. Something, and much indeed, might be urged for its superior interest in itself, apart from the circumstances of the scholar. It has been represented as " standing alone as the history of the pro- gress of a great people towards liberty during six cen- turies " (/). Ours has been pecuharly a nation whose history is that of law and order ; not uninterruptedly indeed — not without strong conflicts of counter currents, checking for a time, and sometimes diverting, the onward flow of the stream of improvement ; but even then we may suppose that, in some cases, its waters gathered volume and weight from the obstacles that retarded them, and in (/) Advertisement of Sir James Mackintosh's " History of England," 72 HISTORY. others flowed scarcely less freely in their proper channel for temporary wanderings in a different course. Such a history is one particularly fitted for a lawyer's study. Where the wills of absolute sovereigns frequently interrupt with their own schemes the course of legislation, it is natural to ex- pect a disorderly series of enactments ; but what legislative history can be expected to be fruitful in useful learning, if not that of a nation which has clung to and upheld the fabric of its constitution and laws, rebuilding such parts as have been shattered by occasional violence, and carrying up to greater height the incomplete portions of the structure, yet from time to time improving the building with an independent judgment and strong hand, where either advancing knowledge has exposed radical defects in the scheme, or the circumstances have been so changed as to require a general idea, ^till retained, to be exhibited under a fresh outward form ? Englishmen, moreover, will be ready to believe that their own history is not remarkably defective in animating examples of individual ability, energy and virtue, while certainly there are many instances, also, which may teach a lesson of warning. Again, if, in reference to foreign states, it be true that a knowledge of their general history is to be considered as auxiliary to a knowledge of their laws, the same thing may be urged in this case with further force ; for as an English lawyer needs to be most fully familiar with those laws which he is to assist in administering, so he may be naturally invited to seek a more thorough acquaintance with their growth, and to trace with particulp.r attention the course of their roots, running in amongst the mate- rials which successive ages have deposited on the original foundations at once of the national and legal history. Some branches of English law have a tolerably obvious relation to past times : the law of real property stands con- nected with feudalism, and ecclesiastical laws with eccle- HISTORY. 73 siastical history. The present state of criminal law will, to say the least, be better understood, and its principles better applied, by help of some acquaintance with its early and later stages ; its ancient severity, with the expedients adopted to temper it ; the modern endeavours to render it more humane ; and the various changes which have marked its condition in the last thirty years. Perhaps, too, at points where it would scarcely be expected, a liberal acquaintance with English history might assist the efficiency of a practising barrister, desirous to present the less as well as the more obvious phases of the conflicting claims which he has to advocate; for the ideas which have gone to establish our legal rules of relative rights between landlord and tenant, master and servant, bailor and bailee, creditor and debtor, the laws relating to patents and copyrights, the combined freedom of the press and penalties on libel, the view taken of personal injuries, and the limits and modes of their redress, are more or less remotely associated with the political history of the nation, and the progress and causes of public opinion. The growth, comparatively modem, of comm.ercial law, which now occupies so large a part of the time of our tribunals, has been blended with the growth of commercial enterprise itself^ with the foundation and progress of colonies, and with questions of the foreign as well as internal relations of the kingdom. In our own more than in some other countries, its general and its legal history are associated. A proper knowledge of the latter could scarcely consist with a blank ignorance of the former, and a liberal minded student would hardly be. inclined to set narrow limits to his estimate of the amoujat of it which might be useful to him. In what has, been said, direct reference to constitutional law has rather been avoided. In recent times political agita- tion has been comparatively infrequent, and a profes,- sional lawyer might be thought to be travelling unneces- 74 HISTORY. sarily, beyond the range of his probable duties if he be- stowed much time upon such topics. There have been, however, indications, if not of coming struggles, at least of a disposition in some quarters to arouse them, and whenever such struggles come it will be not unim- portant for the public that there should be men at once profoundly versed in the constitutional learning which it is not the work of a few days to acquire, and able in point of energy, eloquence, and moral courage, to enunciate and maintain whichever of the great principles of our national constitution, perhaps long unchallenged and almost for- gotten, may be suddenly, in ignorance or bitterness, attacked. Some of the weapons for such a contest lie stored in the magazine of history, and when they are wanted they had need not be covered with rust, or be wielded by hands unaccustomed to them. At such times the example of Lord Somers is not without force, who was eminent in constitutional learning and the author of important writings on such subjects, while yet com- paratively a junior in his profession. Tiie following pas- sage, with the authorship of which his name is, though uncertainly, connected, is of some interest, whoever may have been the writer. " The preservation of every government depends upon an exact adherence unto its principles, and the essential principle of the English monarchy being that well proportioned distribution of powers whereby the law doth at once provide for the greatness of the king and the safety of the people, the government can subsist no longer than whilst the monarch, enjoying the power which the law gives him, is enabled to perform the part which it allows him, and the people are duly protected in their rights and liberties" (jr). Sir William Jones, long after, in a letter to a friend, gives a playful illustration of the same view, which,, even amidst (g) Lord Campbell's " Lives of the Chancellors." — Lord Somers. HISTORY. 75 its lightness, brings out his own strength of feeling on the subject. " When I reflect on our own constitution, I seem, as it were, to contemplate a game of chess, a recreation in which we both delight. For we have a king, whose dig- nity we strenuously defend, but whose power is very limited ; the knights, and rooks, and other pieces, have some kind of resemblance to the orders of nobility, who are employed in war and in the management of public affairs: but the principal strength is in the pawns, or people; if these are firmly united, they are sure of victory, — but if divided and separated, the battle is lost. The motions of all, as in the game of chess, are regulated by fixed laws. Lastly, when I consider myself, I seem like a spectator contemplating for his mere amusement the two parties at the game : but, if it ever should be my lot to be concerned in the administration of affairs, I will renounce gain and popularity, and pursue one object, and one only, — to pre- serve our beautiful constitution inviolate." ( 76 ) Chapter III, LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE AND FOREIGN LAW, Lord Bacon mentions it as a deficiency in his time, " that all those which have written of laws have written either as philosophers, or as lawyers, and none as statesmen. As for the philosophers, they make imaginary laws for imaginary commonwealths, and their discourses are as the stars, which give little light, because they are so high. . For the lawyers, they write according to the states where they live, what is received law, and not what ought to be law ; for the wisdom of a law-maker is one, and of a lawyer is another," But since Lord Bacon's time the defect which he re- marked has been in part supplied ; as may be seen by attending 'to the suggestive hints which he soon after throws out. He observes, that "the wisdom of a law- maker consisteth not only in a platform of justice, but in the application thereof; taking into consideration by what means laws may be made certain, and what are the causes and remedies of the doubtfulness and uncertainty of law ; by what means laws may be made apt and easy to be executed, and what are the impediments and remedies in the execution of laws ; what influence laws touching private right of meum and tuum have into the public state, and how they may be made apt and agreeable ; how laws are to be framed and delivered, whether in texts or in acts, brief or large, with preambles or without; how they are to be pruned and reformed from time to time, and what is the best means to keep them from being too vast in volumes LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE AND FOREIGN LAW. 77 or too full of multiplicity or crossness ; how they are to be expounded, when upon causes emergent, and judicially dis- cussed ; and when upon responses and conferences touching general points or questions ; how they are to be pressed, rigorously or tenderly ; how they are to be mitigated by equity and good conscience, and whether discretion and strict law are to be mingled in the same courts, or kept apart in several courts ; again, how the practice, profession and erudition of law is to be censured and governed ; and many other points touching the administration, and, as I may term it, animation of laws." Various materials which are of use towards supplying some of these defects have been produced since Lord Bacon's time. They are hardly to be met with in a connected form, but they lie scattered in blue books containing minutes of evidence before com- missions and the reports of commissioners, and in other documents of a less official character, belonging to the several classes of speeches, lectures, pamphlets, and the transactions of various societies. It is a benefit incident to the difficulty of legal reforms, that, inasmuch as their propriety and importance have to be shown, their advocates must produce evidence in their favour, and this evidence is in part accessible afterwards for the instruction of those who would learn the occasion for the past changes, A barrister will be all the better qualified for practice according to our amended criminal law, if he has read some of the speeches of Romilly, urging the need for the amendments. Some of the philosophical writings upon the general principles of law, apart from the modifying circumstances belonging to particular states, are among the subjects which may cliaim a law student's attention. These principles form, indeed, a part of the province of moral philosophy, and might have been mentioned in connection with it; but they admit of distinct consideration, since a new element is in- 78 LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE AND POREIGN LAW. troduced in the discussion of moral rules, when, they are treated with reference to their fitness to be made subjects of human legislation. This class of studies is one the limits of which may be widely extended if time and incli- nation allow : for it stretches in one direction into questions concerning the internal government and politics of states, and in another into the region of international law. At the outset of the study it may be a desirable plan to consider it historically, gaining some information as to the succession of writers on the philosophy of law generally, and the views of it which they have presented. Lerminier's "In- troduction Generale a I'Histoire du Droit," and Sir James Mackintosh's " Discourse on the Study of the Law of Nature and Nations," might furnish early materials for such an inquiry. The general subject upon which such authors have treated may be gathered from the following passage in Sir James Mackintosh's " Discourse." " The science which teaches the rights and duties of men and of states has, in modern times, been called the Law of Nature and Nations. Under this comprehensive title are included the rules of morality, as they prescribe the conduct of private men towards each other in all the various relations of human life ; as they regulate both the obedience of citizens to the laws, and the authority of the magistrate in framing laws and administering government; as they modify the inter- course of independent commonwealths in peace, and pre- scribe limits to their hostility in war. This important science comprehends only that part of private ethics which is capable of being reduced to fixed and general rules. It considers only those general principles of jurisprudence and politics which the wisdom of the lawgiver adapts to the peculiar situation of his own country, and which the skill of the statesman applies to the more fluctuating and infinitely varying circumstances which affect its immediate welfare LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE AND T?OREIGN LAW. 79 and safety." Such a description may itself serve as a com- mendation of the interest of the subject, while it sufficiently indicates its appropriateness as one among the auxiliary studies of a lawyer. With abstract views, a priori, of the great general principles of law, the student may combine views gathered from a contemplation of laws which have been in use in different states. Such generalisations may be considered analogous to the philosophy of history, as distinct from history itself. Montesquieu's " Spirit of Laws" may perhaps be given as an example of this class. But a thoughtful and independent student will scarcely be content to receive merely another man's conclusions on such a subject y some investigations of his own as to the facts from which the general inferences have been drawn may reasonably be made. And for this kind of study both arguments and example may be found, " There is no branch of learning," says Sir William Jones, in his pre- fatory discourse to his translation of the speeches of Isseus, " from which a student of the law may receive a more rational pleasure, or which seems more likely to prevent his being disgusted with the dry elements of a very com- plicated science, than the history of the rules and ordinances by which nations, eminent for wisdom and illustrious in arts, have regulated their civil polity : nor is this the only fruit that he may expect to reap from a general knowledge of foreign laws both ancient and modern ; for, whilst he indulges the liberal curiosity of a scholar in examining the customs and institutions of men, whose works have yielded him the highest delight, and whose actions have raised his admiration, he will feel the satisfaction of a patriot in observing the preference due in most instances to the laws of his own country above those of all other states ; or, if his just prospects in life give him hopes of becoming a leo-islator, he may collect many useful hints, for the im- provement even of that fabrick which his ancestors have 80 LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE AND FOREIGN LAW. erected with infinite exertions of virtue and genius, but which, Hke all human systems, will ever advance nearer to perfection and ever fall short of it. In the course of his inquiries he will constantly observe a striking uniformity among all nations, whatever seas or mountains may separate them, or how many ages soever may have elapsed between the periods of their existence, in those great and funda- mental principles, which, being clearly deduced from natural reason, are equally diffused over all mankind, and are not subject to alteration by any change of place or time ; nor will he fail to remark as striking a diversity in those laws, which, proceeding merely from positive institution, are consequently as various as the wills and fancies of those who enact them : such, among a thousand, are the rules by which the possessions of a person deceased, whether solid and permanent, or incorporeal and fluctuating, are transmitted to his heirs or successors, and which could never have been so capriciously diversified, if they had been founded on pure reason, instead of being left to the discretion of every society, for whose convenience they are calculated." " Sir Matthew Hale," he goes on to say, " to whose learning and diligence the present age is no less indebted than his contemporaries were to his wisdom and virtue, seems to have approved the study which I recommend." In the early pages of the " History of the Pleas of the . Crown," reference is made by Sir M. Hale, not only to the Mosaic law, but to laws of the Greeks, Romans and Saxons ; and in the small work entitled " The History of the Common Law," there are two chapters, the fourth, " touching the original of the common law of England," and the sixth, " concerning the parity or similitude of the laws of England and Normandy and the reasons thereof," which give an interesting idea of his enlarged view of the subject. In the latter chapter he sets about to inquire. LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE AND FOREIGN LAW. 81 1st, How long the kingdom of England and dutchy of Normandy stood in conjunction under one governor; 2nd, What evidence we have touching the laws of Nor- mandy, and of their agreement with ours ; 3rd, Wherein consists that parity or disparity of the English and Norman laws; 4th, What might be reasonably judged to be the reason and foundation of that likeness. Such a treatment of this subject is of the more weight when the work of a man whose eminence is not only great and acknowledged, but is peculiarly that of a thorough lawyer. A student hesitating between a disposition to adopt a liberal theory of the scope of legal education and the apprehension of its incompatibility with success in practical details, may give some weight to the authority of such examples, and may do so advantageously, if at the same time he ponders well to what an extent Sir Matthew Hale carried his studies and researches as to the subject of his own immediate business — English Law. Of Sir William Jones (whose character as a practical lawyer, perhaps, scarcely receives justice in consequence of his celebrity as an accomplished scholar and his withdrawal from the ranks of his profession at between nine and ten years' standing) his biographer says, " His researches and studies were not confined to any one branch of jurispru- dence, but embraced the whole in its fullest extent. He compared the doctrines and principles of ancient legis- lators with the later improvements in the science of law; he collated the various codes of the different states of Europe, and collected professional knowledge wherever it was to be found" (a). This account receives some confirmation from a passage in one of his letters, in which, after referring to his ne- cessary studies, his practice at the bar, and the duty of giving opinions on legal cases submitted by clients, he (o) Memoir, i. p. 242. 82 LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE AND FOREIGN LAW. adds, " However, I read the Grecian orators again and again, and have translated into English the most useful orations of Isaeus." This work has been already men- tioned. In such studies it will be natural for the student to advert to the " two exemplar states of the world for arms, learning, moral virtue, policy and laws, — the state of Grsecia and the state of Rome ;" the latter of which, indeed, is not unlikely to occupy a disproportionate part of his time. For the former. Sir William Jones's translation and prefatory discourse may be of use to him ; and further materials are now accessible in various forms, since he can either content himself with such knowledge as is to be found in historical works, with occasional reference to the large recent dictionary of classical antiquities, or pursue the subject further in works more expressly devoted to it. As to the administration of law, with respect to the con- stitution and power oT tribunals, there would be a consider- able variety to be observed in modern Europe ; and although the prevalence of the civil law, and a general resemblance in the influence exerted by the feudal system, tended to give a degree of uniformity to the municipal rules of dif- ferent countries, yet there were distinctions in the early usages of the tribes which peopled them, attributable to times anterior to the Roman supremacy; and it might repay some labour to endeavour to trace in what par- ticulars these distinctions expressed themselves in such customary laws of provincial districts as survived the adoption of general national systems (6). Another task of (6) "Look, again, into the examples of foreign countries, and take that next us, of France, and there you shall find that they have this distribu- tion, ' pais du droit escrit,' and ' pais du droit coustumier.' For Gascoine, Languedoc, Provence, Dauphiny, are countries governed by the letter, or text of the civil law : but the Isle of France, Tourain, Berry, Anjou, and the rest, and, most of all, Brittany and Normandy, are governed by customs, which amount to a municipal law, and use thecivillaw but only for grounds, and to decide new and rare cases ; ..." From Sir Francis Bacon's speech, concerning the Union of Laws. LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE AND FOREIGN LAW. 83 interest might be to trace the extent and forms in which the teaching of Christianity has, in different countries, availed to modify the rules of heathen Rome, in cases dis- tinct from what could be properly treated as matters eccle- siastical ; and again, in what instances a spirit of national freedom has affected the civil law's tendency to despotic doctrines, and how far this is observable in private law relating merely to individual citizens. There are, besides, two main subjects of inquiry for an Englishman in this part of his studies — the Code Napoleon and the laws of the United States ; and it is no light matter that, in respect to America, he may have guides so accom- plished as Chancellor Kent and Mr. Justice Story. But next to the laws of his own country, the Roman civil law has probably the best title to his attention. English legal history includes the story of a struggle be- tween the lay adherents of the national laws and the eccle- siastics who favoured that of Rome(c). And although the independence of English law has been established, it received influences in its early stages from the doctrines of the system whose authority it rejects. Some of those doctrines may have been built into its own fabric ; while others were less distinctly and completely adopted, contri* buting to its growth (to change the metaphor) more as the materials or elements of the soil are sucked into the young tree and assimilated with itself. Mr. Reeves remarks that the civil and canon law, " besides exciting an emulation in the professors of the common law to cultivate their own municipal customs, afforded from their treasures ample means of doing it. Much was borrowed from thenCe, and ingrafted on the original stock of the common law. But the manner in which this was done is very remarkable. (c) Blackstone, writing of this dispute, says, " that it was kept on foot till the reign of Edward I., when the laws of England, under the new discd'- pline introduced by that skilful commander, obtained a complete and per- manent victory." — Commentaries, vol. 4, p. 422. g2 84 LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE AND FOREIGN LAW. Though our writs and records are in the language in which the Roman and pontifical jurisprudence were written and taught, there is not in either the least mark of imitation ; the style of them is peculiarly their own. The use made of the civil and canon law was much nobler than that of borrowing their language. To enlarge the plan and scope of our municipal customs ; to settle them upon principle ; to improve the course of our proceeding ; to give con- sistency, uniformity, and elegance to the whole ; these were the objects the lawyers of those days had in view : and to further them, they scrupled not to make a free use of those more refined systems. Many of the maxims of the civil law were transplanted into ours; its rules were referred to as parts of our own customs ; and arguments grounded upon the principles of that jurisprudence were attended to as a sort of authority. This," he adds, " was more parti- cularly so in what related to personal property;" mentioning the law of descent, and some judicial proceedings as seeming to be borrowed from the canonical jurispru- dence (rf). A student then who is desirous of tracing English law intelligently to its sources may find an in- ducement to the study of the civil law in the fact that it has thus contributed to the formation of our own. And, where its rules differ from those in force here, he may assist his memory, as well as his understanding, of the latter by comparing them with the former, for such a com- parison is fitted to give interest to the subject, and so to imprint on the mind more clearly what- is learnt. But a further plea may be found for the study of the civil law in its intrinsic merits. Burnet says of Sir Matthew Hale, " He set himself much to the study of the Roman Law, and though he liked the way of judicature in England by juries much better than that of the civil law, where so much was trusted to the judge, yet he often said, that the (d) Reeves's " History of the English Law," vol. 2, pp. 53, Si. LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE AND FOREIGN LAW. 85 true grounds and reasons of law were so well delivered in the Digests, that a man could never understand law as a science so well as by seeking it there, and therefore lamented much that it was so little studied in England." The authority of Chief Justice Wilmot may also be called in aid. He was (it is said in a memoir by his son) not only accomplished in the laws of his own country, but was also well -versed in the civil law, which he studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and frequently affirmed that he had derived great advantage from it in the course of his profession. The "honest prejudice," as Sir William Jones terms it, entertained by Englishmen against the decisions of the old Roman lawyers, is not wholly groundless or un- reasonable ; but it is to be defended to a great extent by reference to constitutional questions, and does not supply a cause for refusing attention to the civil law learning on points unconnected with government and politics. " What is good sense in one age must be good sense, all circum- stances remaining, in another;" and there is something in the force and orderliness which seem parts of the idea of Roman character, when combined with the systematic erudition of the jurisconsults, which may especially attract us to inquire what solutions such men found for legal questions. But the qualification above noticed " all circumstances remaining" is to be borne in mind. Lord Bacon says, in the Advancement of Learning, of the laws of England, that " they cannot but excel the civil laws in fitness for the government ; for the civil law was ' non hos quasitum munus in usus ; it was not made for the countries which it governeth :" and this observation may be sometimes ap- propriately recollected both in studying the adopted civil law of continental countries, and in considering in any particular case whether the Roman or the English rule be the best practically here. ( 86 ) Chapter IV. ENGLISH LAW. Although general literature, general and constitutional history, and the ancient and modem laws of foreign countries, furnish the materials of valuable studies, and are fit to occupy the attention of a law student, they will not be substitutes for a knowledge of English law ; and it is highly important that a man who aims at acquiring such various stores of learning should not allow it to be justly said of him that his deficiency is greatest just at that point where his preparation should be especially painstaking and thorough. But according to what plan should English law be studied 1 What authors should be perused, and in what order ? If the plans recommended by the Readers, who are now officially qualified to give directions on this subject, be for the present set aside as distinct subjects of inquiry, it may be worth while to examine a little what hints have been given in former times by men whose advice comes to us accredited either by their professional rank or success, or by their having given particular attention to the sub- ject under consideration. It may be convenient to take some of these suggestions in chronological order. There are advantages in noticing how successive writers have varied in their proposed plans, and speculating on the gradual transfer of attention from the books which were once recommended to those of a later date. It may be questioned whether all the old law books which are neg- lected by modern students, deserve to be so treated ; for ENGLISH LA-W. 87 although they cannot be trusted as the only guides, inas- much as they do not incorporate with their teaching the recent changes ; yet it may freshen the view taken of such of the old law as is still in force to note it in its earlier form, impressed with the vigour, or at any rate with the quaintness, of its ancient teachers. And a sensible student may learn to apply by analogy, even where he will not copy, the methods of the older lawyers, and perhaps, in doing so, catch, to his benefit, some of the spirit with which they regarded legal study. It is a reason, also, for looking into the former sources of legal learning, that the law, as a whole, has not been newly manufactured, but has grown to be what it now is; and its present condition will be the better understood by observing representations which were made of it in various earlier stages of its growth. This may render the present law not only more thoroughly, but more quickly, intelligible, so that there will be less additional expenditure of time than may perhaps be thought, through that which is given to half-obsolete volumes ; especially as the student may hope to acquire a remarkable readiness in detecting what part of an old author will be worth his attention, and what may be passed over at once. An account of some of the older schemes of study may be commenced with that furnished by Sir M. Hale, in the Preface to RoUe's Abridgment (a). He enforces the im- (o) The following accounts of two more ancient writers are taken from the Notes and Illustrations to Roger North's Discourse, pp. 47, 48. The earliest treatise on the study of the law appears to be Fulbeck's Preparative : "A Direction or Preparative to the Study of the Law, wherein is shewed what things ought to be observed and used of them that are addicted to the Study of the Law, and what on the contrary part ought to be eschewed and avoided." " It appears from the epistle to the reader, that this tract was written in the year 1599, at a period when the library of a lawyer was con- fined to a moderate compass. The Year Books, Dyer and Plowden are the only Reports mentioned by Fulbeek. Many valuable hints may be gathered from this little volume, which displays much aeuteness and good sense." 88 ENGLISH LAW. portance of method in order to retaining what is read, and gives an outUne of a course to be pursued by a student. " First," he says, " it is convenient to spend about two or three years in the diligent reading of Littleton, Perkins, Doctor and Student, Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium, and especially my Lord Coke's Commentaries, and possibly his Reports ; this will tit him for exercise, and enable him to improve himself by conversation and discourse with others, and enable him profitably to attend the Courts of Westmin- ster. After two or three years so spent, let him get him a large common-place book, divide it into alphabetical titles, which be may easily gather up, by observing the titles of Brook's Abridgment, and some tables of law books, and possibly (as shall be shown) this book now pubhshed," viz., Rolle's Abridgment, " may be the basis of his com- mon-place book. Afterwards it might be fit to begin to read the Year Books ; and because many of the elder Year Books are filled with law not so much now in use, he may single out, for his ordinary constant reading, such as are most useful ; as the last part of E. 3, the Book of Assizes, the second part of H. 6, E. 4, H. 7, and so come down in order and succession of time to the latter law, viz.. Plow- den, Dyer, Coke's Reports the second time, and those other Reports lately printed. As he reads, it is fit to compare case with case, and to compare the pleadings of cases with " The character of Fulheck, given by another writer on the same subject, is, that he leans too much on the civil law ; and where he touches on the common, he shows rather the matter than the method of study." (Preface to Phillips's Directions for the Study of the Law.) " In 1631, appeared The English Lawyer, describing a Method for the Managing the Lawes of this Land, and expressing the test Qualities requisite in the Student, Pratizer, Judges and Fathers of the same. Written by the Reverend and Learned Sir John Doderidge, Knt., one of the Justices of the King's Bench, lately deceased. As a manual of advice to the student, little is to be gathered from this work, which is chiefly occupied with an attempt to reduce certain portions of the laws into a logical arrangement. The first and second sections treat of the natural faculties and acquired qualities necessary for the student of the law." ENGLISH LAW. «» the Books of Entries, especially Rastell's, which is the best, especially in relation to the Year Books" (6). Other advice (of less authority) is to be found in Roger North's " Discourse on the Study of the Laws" (c). " A student," he says, "begins with books that are institutionary, and of them, in the first place, Littleton, the text of which is accounted law, and no other book hath that authority" {d). (Littleton, according to North, does not need a commen- tator.) After he has noticed Perkins's " Profitable Book," he digresses to argue in favour of attention to Law- French, on grounds not wholly applicable now, and re- commends, as fit for reference, and to be " looked into at times," the Terms of the Law. For a somewhat later stage he advises the student to have more than a single book on hand, and that there should be some as subsidiary to lighten the labour of the more difficult. For such an use he mentions a work on Old Tenures, Doctor and Student, and Fortescue De Laudibus Legum AnglicB, together with some accounts of ancient law, in Latin, by Mr. Selden. For more serious reading, after Littleton, he advises Plowden's Commen- taries, and, to be taken along with these, at intervals, Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium, Crompton's Jurisdiction of Courts, and Staunford's Pleas of the Crown, with the book at the end, De Prerogativa Regis, and Manwood's Forest Law. But with the treatises there should be some- thing in the nature of precedents. " It is useful," he says, (6) Preface to Rolle's Abridgment, reprinted in the Collectanea Juridioa, vol. 1, p. 277. (c) Of another work — " Studii legalis Ratio, or Directions for the Study of the Law, by W. Phillips, London, 1675,— the editor of North's Dis- course says, there "is not much original matter in this volume, the most useful parts of which are compiled from Lord Coke, Sir John Doddridge and other writers." He speaks of it afterwards as in many respects valua- ble ! but says that it " has now (about 1824) become rather scarce." Pp. 48, 49. (d) North's Discourse, p. 10. 90 ENGLISH liA-W, " to have near at hand the Regist.rum Brevium, because many processes are there not in the Natura, and no infor- mation or description can be so well to explain a process as the form itself, and for the same reason it is good to have within reach some of the books of entries, as Rastal, Coke, &c. ; for if you would understand what counts, bars, pleas, replications, demurrers, and joining issues, and the like are, there you may read the form of them, which speaks all that is to be known of them." As to the Year Books, he does not recommend an attempt to master them in mass, as being an undertaking too studious for the age, and, indeed, as not suitable to so early a period of study; but that, after Plowden, the student should take in hand the Year Book, called Hen. 7th, which, he says, " is accounted the most explicit in expres- sion and matter, and very many of the chief law matters now evidently known, were considered, debated, and re- solved there; and it gives an idea of the manner of practice and expression of the law in that time, and enables a student to read the other books of the annals, or to un- derstand them, if he has occasion to consult or peruse any cases referred to there." Together with this, he recommends some of Lord Coke's institutionary pieces, as his Pleas of the Crown, Jurisdiction of Courts, and Comments upon Magna Charta and the Old Statutes. And when this is done, the student is advised to enter upon some of the more modern Reports, used to be recommended : " Leonard's, Hobart's, Moor and Palmer's, not forgetting Crook. But I shall soon," he says, " have too many ; so we stop after one or two of them, and then look back, where we find two books which must not be omitted, that is, Thelwall and Dyer ; the former has matters concerning the old law of Franchises and Iters, not found in any other book ; and the latter is a sans ■peer for conciseness and profound judgment. Dyer is a book that will bear a ENGLISH LAW. 91 second reading in course, after most of the other books of Reports are despatched, and the latter reading shall be with more profit incomparably than the former. When we are got thus far, then it will be time to take in hand my Lord Coke's Reports ; these will not come so well, be- fore a good foundation is laid out of the older books ; this is a considerable branch, and therefore -should be carefully and attentively treated, because the reputation of Coke, and the wonderful and specious formality of his Meports, have given them an authority in the law superior to most others; ... ."(e). Of Sir Matthew Hale's scheme, Sir Thomas Reeve, who was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the reign of George II., writes that it was the best extant. He him- self gives some advice to a nephew, and bids him begin with a cursory reading of Wood's Institutes, with an intent to understand only the general divisions of the law, and obtain the precise ideas used in it, and, as a further means for un- derstanding legal expressions, recommends the Termes de la Ley and Jacob's Dictionary (with a caution, however, against too much reliance on the latter), and gives directions as to some further help for the understanding of Wood's Chapter of Conveyances. Afterwards, he desires the student to "read Littleton's Tenures, without notes, consider it well, and abridge such part of it as the other books inform you is law at this day. Thus armed, venture upon Coke's Comment or Institute upon Littleton's Tenures, which be- ing well understood the whole is conquered, and without which a common sound lawyer can never be made." He gives advice as to the manner of mastering Coke, and re- commends after it a second careful review of Wood's In- stitutes, with an intent to digest the several heads of the Jaw for the use of memory; and a perusal of the more useful statutes at large, in the order in which Wood quotes (e) North's Diseow&e, pp. 21, 22, 92 ENGLISH LAW. them, and an examination of the Reports for the proof of his opinion. He refers to the Preface to RoUe, among books to be brought in for variety during the second stage of study, " as Doctor and Student, Noy's Maxims, Curson's Office of Executors, Hale's History of the Common Law, principally; with Finch's Law, and Rolle's Abridgment, in the preface; in which last you will find the best scheme for studying the law now extant. It will about this time, and not much sooner, be proper to give diligent attendance on the Courts at Westminster, and to begin orderly reading the several Reports, which must be read and common-placed in such manner as (by the expe- rience which by this time you will have of the nature of the study), you will be best able to advise yourself." In these three schemes (Roger North's, Lord Hale's and Chief Justice Reeve's) there is enough agreement to add to the weight of each. One of the most striking variations is in North's censure of •' Coke upon Littleton," on the ground, which certainly seems reasonable, that a ready- made comment on another work is a bad kind of book for instruction. " The subject matter is extract of contro- versial law, which a student ought to gather for himself; for he will never thoroughly understand it, at least not re- tain it in his mind, when it is of another's gathering. No one ever learnt a language by reading of a Dictionary; so no man can be a lawyer by reading Indexes, Abridgments, and Common-places such as this upon Littleton is." Not- withstanding these objections, however, the fact is unmis- takeable that lawyers of former times set a surpassing value upon Coke upon Littleton. There are not only Sir Thomas Reeve's opinion, and Sir Matthew Hale's ex- pression " especially my Lord Coke's Commentaries ; " the eulogies and practice of other lawyers might be cited to the same purpose. There is a statement of Mr. Butler's, that he had never yet met with a person thoroughly con- ENGLISH LAW. 93 versant in the law of real property who did not think with him — that he was the best lawyer, and would succeed best in his profession, who best understood Coke upon Littleton. Some advice of Lord Eldon's on this subject is men- tioned at a later page, and those who are familiar with the current opinion of good lawyers half-a-century since will perhaps bear witness to an esteem of the Commentary which many persons would now think extravagant. Perhaps the chief value of Sir Thomas Reeve's advice lies not in the books, but in the general method which he recommends; he sums it up thus: — "My whole scheme, without naming many books, is no more than this : — "First, Obtain precise ideas of the terms and general meaning of the law. " Secondly, Learn the general reason whereupon the law is founded. " Thirdly, From some authentic system collect the great leading points of the law in their natural order, as the first heads and divisions of your future inquiry. " Fourthly, Collect the several particular points, and range them under their generals, as they occur, and as you find you can best digest them. "And whereas law must be considered in a twofold respect : — " I . As a rule of action ; " IL As the art of procuring redress, when this rule is violated; the study in each of them maybe easily regulated by the foregoing method ; and the books so recommended will so carry on the joint work, that with this course, so finished, the student may pursue each branch of either to its utmost extent, or return to his centre of general know- ledge without confusion, which is the only way of rendering things easy for the memory" (/). From these suggestions we turn to some which were (/) Collectanea Juridica, Vol. I. p. 81. 94 ENGLISH LAW. framed towards the close of the last century. Blackstone's " Commentaries" are recommended for the commencement of the study of our own laws ; and afterwards Dr. Sulli- van's " Lectures on the Feudal and English Laws," Hale's " History of the Common Law," Reeves's " History of the English Law" (carried at that time only as far, as the com- mencement of Queen Elizabeth's reign), and Sir Martin Wright's Treatise on Tenures. With such preparation the student is advised to read carefully Littleton's Tenures, and afterwards enter on Coke's Commentary ; and the notes of Messrs. Hargrave and Butler are referred to as pointing out the alterations in the law, and adding much valuable matter. After Coke upon Littleton, " which," it is said, " to read and to common-place will occupy several months," is to follow a reperusal of Blackstone's Com- mentaries, read carefully, together with all the authorities. Then are suggested some of the older law books, — Lord Coke's second Institute, containing an exposition of many ancient and important statutes ; and his fourth Insti- tute, concerning the jurisdiction of courts; Plowden's " Commentaries," Lord Bacon's Elements of Common Law, and his Reading on the Statute of Uses, Noy's Maxims, "Doctor and Student," and Shepherd's "Touch- stone." Among the more modern additions to the course are Fearne's Treatise on Contingent Remainders, and Gil- bert's " Law of Evidence." The latest editions are recom- mended. The student is directed to BuUer's Introduction to the Law of Nisi Prius, as a preliminary step to a series of Reports, " and then, beginning with the latest, let him select for his reading the Reports of Durnford and East, Henry Blackstone, Douglas, Cowper, Burrow, Wilson, Salkeld, Croke, Coke and Dyer. These will be sufficient for law ; and for equity let him read Vesey, jun.. Brown, Peere WiUiams, Vesey and Atkyns." For Crown law Lord Coke's third Institute, Hale's Pleas of the Crown, ENGLISH LAW. 95 and the Treatises of Hawkins and Foster on Crown Law, are pointed out. At a later point in the same suggestions the following remarks occur: — "As nothing can be more important to a lawyer than the knowledge of principles, so the attention of the student should be bent to their acquisition and retention. They are generally short and clear, and when well understood are easily applied. They form a master-key to the profession, and he who is able to manage them well will have an evident superiority over those whose memories may be better stored with cases, but who have been remiss in noting the principles they illustrate, or on which they were determined. " On the whole," it is added, " let it be observed that whatever is undertaken should be performed, not hastily or superficially, but gradually and completely. In the careful observation of this rule much labour will ultimately be saved, and much vexation eventually avoided." Reference is afterwards made to the acquisition of a knowledge of actual business in the office of some eminent special pleader, and to the merits and abuses of the science of pleading. Next may be noticed some remarks on the study of con- veyancing, published about the beginning of the present century, at the commencement of the first volume of " Elements of Conveyancing." The selection of works recommended (some of which belong to the general study of English law), is not remarkable as very distinct from those mentioned by other writers, but there are useful accounts of the contents of the books specified, and it would be worth the while of a student who met with this volume to consult it on this account. Mr. Watkins, in his introduction to the " Principles of Conveyancing" (in which, if there is too indiscriminate in- vective, there is also some really forcible writing), has given a sketch of the legal education which he recommends. He 96 ENGLISH LAW. advises the student to begin with a general outline : he may- fill it up at his leisure, as he may find himself prepared for the undertaking : to confine himself at first strictly to prin- ciples ; and when he meets with technical terms, to be con- tent with a mere explanation, and not pursue the subject of that term any further, as it will only withdraw his attention from that which he meant to pursue .... His general books may be Finche's Law, Blackstone's Commentaries, Wynne's Eunomus, Hale's Common Law, Reeves's History, Sullivan's Lectures, Dalrymple on Feudal Property, Little- ton (without the Commentary), the Freehold part of Gilbert's Tenures, select Notes to the late editions of Co. Litt.,Touchstone and Fonblanque on Equity, with Francis's Maxims. " Having gained a general view of the law, and being taught to divide his subject, he may pursue it as far as his inclination may lead him. He may go up to Puffen- dorf or Grotius, or down to a volume of Reports, or the fleeting publications of the day." In a later part of the Introduction, Mr. Watkins refers to the work itself (his " Principles of Conveyancing"), to which the Introduction is prefixed. Lord Eldon, in a letter of advice to a Chancery student, recommends him to " find time to read ' Coke on Littleton' again and again. If it be toil and labour to you, and it will be so, think as I do, when I am climbing up to Swyer or to Westhill, that the world will be before you when the toil is over ; for so the law will be if you make yourself complete master of that book. At present, lawyers are made good cheap, by learning law from Blackstone, and less elegant compilers ; depend upon it, men so bred will never be lawyers (though they may be barristers), what- ever they call themselves. I read Coke on Littleton through, when I was the other day out of oflSce ; and when I was a student I abridged it. To a Chancery man the knowledge to be obtained from it is peculiarly useful in ENGLISH LAW. 97 the matter of titles. If you promise me to read this, and tell me when you have begun upon it, I shall venture to hope that, at my recommendation, you will attack about half-a-dozen other very crabbed books, which our West- minster Hall lawyers never look at. Westminster Hall has its loungers as well as Bond Street." It would of course be unreasonable, when considering such commendations of ancient law-books, to neglect the facts, that the last of these eulogies is now comparatively old, and particularly that the period since they were written has been remarkable for extensive changes in the law. Notwithstanding these changes, however, there is some- thing to be learnt from such advisers still. On this part of the subject may be lastly mentioned the recommendations with respect to books in Mr. Warren's work on " Law Studies," the second edition of which was published in 1845. Besides treating largely of the branches of education which are less distinctly professional, and adverting to some legal books in the course of chapters on " Different Departments of the Legal Profession," and on the practical study of the common law, he has devoted a chapter expressly to an " Outline of a Course of Law Reading, principally designed for the Common Law Stu- dent." The reader is referred to this work itself for the advice given by its author ; but an account will be inserted here of the general nature of the course recommended, to- gether with notices of some of the points at which the legal legislation of the fifteen subsequent years, and the publica- tion of fresh works or editions, have modified the appro- priateness of Mr. Warren's plan to the circumstances of a student at the present day. The first two subjects suggested are pleading and prac- tice ; and, with a view to both, Serjeant Stephen's treatise on the " Principles of Pleading " is recommended, — the first part as forming an introduction to practice, the second to s. H 98 ENGLISH LAW. pleading. For a further view of the elements of practice, Mr. Smith's work on an Action at Law is mentioned. After- wards, references are given to more extended works on practice and pleading, — Archbold's Practice, edited by Mr. Thomas Chitty; Tidd's Practice, Supplements and New Practice ; Chitty on Pleading ; and the earlier au- thorities, Comyn's Digest, and Saunders's Reports; the value of the last being enhanced by the annotations of Serjeant Williams, and of the later editors, Mr. Justice Patteson, and Mr. (now Mr. Justice) Williams. Mr. Warren guards the student as to the effect of changes on the authority of some of the older among these works. But, with respect to the period since 1845, change seems almost too weak a word. Common law procedure has been, in a manner, re-cast, by the two Acts of 1852 and 1854, toge- ther with the Practice and Pleading Rules of 1853. By the Act of 1852, the stress laid on distinct forms of action was lightened (_/) ; new provisions are made as to the joinder of parties and joinder of causes of ac- tion ( g) ; and opportunities are given for the trial both of questions of fact and questions of law without plead- ings (h). A succession of clauses in the same act intro- duced rules relating to pleading ; the insertion in pleadings of some usual allegations is prohibited {i), and objections which could only have been raised by way of special de- murrer are rendered unavailing (A) ; provision is made for giving greater freedom from the operation of technical rules, and directing the course of judicial proceedings more simply to the substantial questions at issue {I) ; there are also enact- ments as to the obligation on the two parties respectively of referring specifically, or only generally, to the matters men- tioned by them (jw) ; and other sections deal with the admis- sibility of pleading several matters together(H), and of raising (/) 15 & 16 Vict. c. 76, ss. 3, 7*. (k) Sect 51. ig) Sects. 34—41. (?) Sects. 50, 52, 74. {h) Sects. 42-48. (m) Sects. 55, 56, 57. (0 Sect. 49. («) Sects. 81—86. ENGLISH LAW. 99 concurrently questions of fact and of law (o). A large part of the statute is occupied with provisions as to the action of ejectment (p) ; and other sections with the subject of abate- ment of actions {q) ; while one gives to judges extensive powers to amend proceedings (r). Among the Pleading Rules of 1853, which took the place of former Rules, atten- tion may be drawn to the clauses relating to the legal effect of particular answers to the plaintiff's declaration, and to those which require that matters in confession and avoid- ance should be specially pleaded (s). The Act of 1854 has introduced further and important changes, — some of them lowering or removing fences which separated the domains of law and equity. In some of the early sections provision is made for the trial of questions of fact by a judge or judges without jury (t) ; and for the summary disposal, or the reference to arbitration, of matters of account (m). Several sections are occupied with the subject of evi- dence (x). In the later part of the statute provisions are made for procuring the discovery of documents (y), for the use of written interrogatories (2;), for the introduction of a new writ of mandamus, commanding the defendant to fulfil any duty in the fulfilment of which the plaintiff is person- ally interested (a) ; and of a writ of injunction against the repetition or continuance of an injury which has been the subject of an action, or the committal of a like injury, arising out of the same contract, or relating to the same property or right (5). Lastly, as to this act, may be men- tioned the introduction, in actions at law, of pleas and repli- cations founded on equitable grounds (c). There has been recently a bill before Parliament of a proposed additional Common Law Procedure Act, which, (0) Sect. 80. («) Sects. 3—10. (p) Sects. 168—221. (.x) Sects. 22—31. Iq) Sects. 135-142. (y) Sect. 50. (r) Sect. 222. («) Sect. 51. (s) See the 6th, 10th, 15th, 16th, (a) Sects. 68—74'. 19th, and 20th, and the 8th, 12th, (6) Sects. 79—82. and 17th rules. (c) Sects. 83, 85, 86. (t) 17 & 18 Vict. c. 125, s. 1. H 2 100 ENGLISH LAW. if carried unaltered, would have introduced important ex- tensions of equitable jurisdiction in the Common Law Courts. Their power to grant injunctions would have been extended by some of its provisions to cases where action- able injuries are only threatened {d). They would have been empowered to grant to defendants in actions conditional relief when this might have been obtained in the Court of Chancery (e)j while by another section it was made unlawful for defendants to seek in Chancery for relief obtainable in the court in which the action had been brought, unless it had been refused in that court on the ground that the matter could not be dealt with by a court of common law, so as to do justice between the parties (/). But the bill has met with strong opposition. And, although the advantage of finally determining litigated questions without recourse to different kinds of tribunals, scarcely admits of dispute, yet the distinct machinery, and the distinct kind of learning which accompany the English system of Equity, present difficulties in the way of an attempt to carry out a plan for that object; apart from the further difficulty of securing agreement, in reference to such a plan, among persons naturally influenced by the conflicting associations of dif- ferent modes of practice. Several of the books noticed by Mr. Warren, in refer- ence to Pleading and Practice, have been republished, or will shortly be so. Serjeant Stephen's Treatise on Plead- ing is about to be edited by Mr. James Stephen and Mr. Pinder ; Chitty on Pleading is also about to be re-edited ; and Smith's Action at Law, and Chitty's Arch- bold's Practice, have been edited by Mr. Prentice. The Common Law Procedure Acts of 1852 and 1854, with the Practice and Pleading Rules, are obtainable in dif- ferent forms; and the student has fresh advantages for the early study of common law proceedings in their altered condition, in Mr. Broom's " Commentaries on the (rf) Sect. 1. (c) Sect. 10. (/) Sect. 30. ENGLISH LAW. 101 Common Law," which may form an introduction to the subject generally. After Pleading and Practice, the subject of evidence is referred to. Here again important changes have oc- curred since 1845. An act to amend the Law of Evi- dence, in 1851 (i), together with another which followed it in 1853 (ft), introduced the practice of admitting the testimony of parties to suits, and of their husbands and wives, and made regulations as to the proof of documents in some cases. The Common Law Procedure Act of 1854 also contains (as has been noticed) several enactments on the Law of Evidence. Fresh works on this subject have appeared : the first volume of Starkie on Evidence, re-edited; & treatise by Mr. John Pitt Taylor j and another by Mr. Best, which last deals especially with principles, and is in this respect adapted to the wants of a student. There is also another modern work by Mr. Ed- mund Powell. From Pleading, Practice, and Evidence, Mr. Warren turns to the general body of the law, with which their machinery is conversant. Under the head of Mercantile Law he adverts early to the subject of Contracts, and mentions the Treatise of Pothier, translated by Sir W. D. Evans; that of Mr. Joseph Chitty, jun., on Contracts not under Seal, and those of Mr. Justice Story on Bail- ment, Agency, Bills of Exchange, Promissory Notes, and Partnership. He also mentions works by English authors on Bills of Exchange, and Partnership ; and refers to Smith's Compendium of Mercantile Law as the best English Treatise on that subject generally. Among other books specified are Abbott on Shipping, and Paik on Insurance. Later editions of some of these works have been since published, and the student has now valuable help for commencing the study of the law of contracts, in some lectures of the late Mr. John William Smith. (0 14 & 15 Vict, c. 99. (/<■) 16 & 17 Vict. c. 83. 102 ENGLISH LAW. The law, as to some parts of the various subjects recently noticed, has undergone considerable changes. An Act of Parliament in 1854 has modified, with respect to traffic on railways and canals, the previous law of carriers (I), which has an important place in that of Bailments. The limits of personal liability in the members of Joint Stock Com- panies, as well as the general management of those com- panies, and the modes of winding up their affairs, have been affected by successive statutes (m). The Merchant Shipping Act of 1854 enacted (among many others) fresh rules as to the registered ownership, the sale and the mortgage of ships (w), the claims of seamen for wages (o), and the extent of the liability of owners for inju- ]ies to other persons occasioned in the .course of voyages (p). The Mercantile Law Amendment Act of 1856 com- prehended a variety of detached subjects. It protected lona fide purchasers of goods, without notice, from writs against their vendors, where the purchase was prior to the actual seizure or attachment of the goods {q), provided for the specific delivery- of goods (instead of damages merely), in actions for breach of contract to deliver (r), made regu- lations with respect to guarantees (s), and as to the limita- tion of actions on accounts between merchants, and dis- allowed some claims for exemption from the limits laid down for ordinary cases U). The same Act contained a clause in reference to the acceptance of bills of exchange (m), while a statute of the year before had given fresh facilities to creditors suing on bills or on promissory notes (a;). Among other subjects of a miscellaneous kind, on which there has {I) 17 & 18 Vict. t. 31. A work on the Law of Carriers has been brought out since this Act by Mr. E. Powell. (m) See especially the Acts of 1856 and 1857 ; 19 & 20 Vict. c. 47 ; 20 & 21 Vict, o, 14 i 20 & 21 Vict. u. 49 ; and 20 & 21 Vict. c. 78. (n) 17 & 18 Vict. u. 104, ss. 37, 38, 39, 43, 55—57, 66—83. (o) Sects. 183— 190. {p) Sects. 504— 506. (j) 19 & 20 Vict c. 97,s.l. (r) Sect. 2. {s) Sects. 3, 4, 5. («) Sects. 9, JO, 11, 12. (k) Sect. 6. {x) 18 & 19 Vict. c. 67, ENGLISH LAW. 103 been legislation since 1845, may be mentioned the law of patents (y), of copyright of designs (s), and as to bills of sale (a), bills of lading (b), usury (c), and agricultural tenants' fixtures (d). The Lav? of Bankruptcy and Insolvency, which Mr. Warren notices as being in an unsettled state when he wrote, is just at the present time the subject of parlia- mentary consideration ; and if the bill now under discussion be passed, its provisions may form the central point for the student's attention in respect to those subjects. There has been, liowever, intermediate legislation in reference to them. Since 1845, Selwyn's Nisi Prius (to the llth edition of which Mr. Warren refers as just published), has been again re-edited, and so has Roscoe's Nisi Prius Evi- dence. The subject of Real Property Law had been treated of in a previous chapter. Mr. Williams's Principles of the Law of Real Property, which is mentioned with high commendation in the work now under discussion, has reached further editions, and still keeps its value for the student; and it has been followed by a similar work on Personal Property, which was at that time expected. Many of the books which Mr. Warren points out (e), (re- {y) 15 & 16 Vict. c. 83. (x) 13 & 14 Vict. c. 104. (a) 17 & 18 Vict. c. 36. (6) 18 & 19 Vict. c. 111. (c) 17 & 18 Vict u. 90. (d) 14 & 15 Vict. c. 25. (e) He recommends the student to commence his study of the law of Real Property with one of the accounts of the feudal system mentioned in an earlier part of his work, giving the preference to that in Blackstone's second volume, or Butler's note to Co. Litt. Then he proposes Wright's Tenures and Mr.Williams's Principles of the Law of Real Property as an introduction to a complete course of reading, to consist, perhaps, of Burton's Compen- dium; Blackstone's second volume; Sanders on Uses and Trusts; Jarman on Wills; Shepherd's Touchstone, by Preston; Preston on Estates and Abstracts; Sugden on Powers, and on Vendors and Purchasers ; Coote ox Powell on Mortgages ; Fearne on Contingent Remainders ; Cruise's Digest, Bacon's Abridgment, and Coke upon Littleton. 104 ENGLISH LAW. edited ia some cases,) will still have to be studied. The extensive changes which had taken place before 1845 have been followed by others, although, as to this branch of law, the earlier were perhaps the greater. These included the alterations in the Law of "Wills, and Dower, and Descent; and the important Act for the Abolition of Fines and Reco- veries. The succession of statutes which varied the modes of conveying real property, may be said to have been closed by the act on that subject in 1845; and the same year included the statute to render the assignment of satis- fied terms unnecessary. Some of the former acts (e. g., those relating to wills, and to fines and recoveries) have been followed by fresh ones to supplement their provisions ; and there has also been repeated legislation with respect to trustees, and for removing some of the embarrassments which beset purchasers of landed property. An important act, touching both these matters, as well as some others, was carried during the last year(/). But past changes may perhaps be thrown into the shade by future ones, as it is still uncertain whether the requisites to a transfer of land will not be remodelled by the introduction of a new system with respect to the establishment of titles. It may be observed, that the student may find Mr. Josiah W. Smith's " Compendium of the Law of Real and Personal Property " a useful and comprehensive addition to his library. For the study of Equity, Mr. Warren recommends three works. Story's Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence, Spence on the Jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery, and Lord Redesdale on Pleading in Equity. All of these works are still, it is believed, to be recommended, but there will be much occasion for attending to the changes intro- duced in Chancery Procedure, which also has been the subject of repeated Acts of Parliament. In 1 850 (by the (/) 22 & 23 Vict, u. 35. ENGLISH LAW. 105 13 & 14 Vict. c. 35), power was given to persons interested to state special cases for the opinion of the Court {g) ; and provision was made for taking account, on the application of executors or administrators, of debts and liabilities affect- ing the estate, so as to avoid the delay and expense of suits to administer (Ji). In the next year, the Court of Appeal in Chancery, consisting of the Lord Chancellor and the Lords Justices, was established and regulated (z). By the Act of 1850, some matters which had been left to the juris- diction of Masters in Chancery had been allowed, and others had been required, to be determined by equity judges (A). And in 1852, provision was made by the 15 & 16 Vict. c. 80, for the gradual abolition of the office of Masters in Chancery, with a tiansfer of business formerly transacted by them to the Master of the Rolls and the Vice-Chancellors (/). By the same act, regulations were made for the appointment of conveyancing counsel to the Court. To the same year belongs the Act to amend the Practice and Course of Proceeding in the Court of Chan- cery. This regulated the mode of commencing suits, as to the form and service of bills of complaint, and the use of interrogatories, and prescribed the manner in which defendants were to answer (w). The system of taking evidence was reconstituted; and a plan for the use both of oral and written testimony introduced; an alternative being in some cases allowed as to the use of- the one or the other (n). Provisions were also made with respect to the joinder of parties (o), and the abatement of (g) Sect. 1, &c. (A) Sect. 19, &c. (j) 14 & IS Vict. c. 83. (/f) 13 & 14 Vict. .;. 35, ss. 26, 27. (0 By an Act in 1854, further powers were given for /acilitating the despatch of business depending before Masters in Chancery during their continuance in office (17 & 18 Vict. t. 100). (m) 15 & 16 Vict. i;. 86, ss. 1—14. (re) Sects. 28—41. (o) Sects. 42, 49. 106 ENGLISH liAW. suits ip). By another important section it was enacted, that it should not be lawful to direct a case to be stated for the opinion of a Court of Common Law, but the Court of Chancery was to have power to determine questions of law preliminary to the equitable question at issue (q) ; and, by the succeeding one, in cases where, according to pre- vious practice, equitable relief was deferred until a legal title or right had been estabhshed in a proceeding at law, the Court of Chancery may itself determine such title or right (r). Roberts on Principles of Equity ; a Manual of Equity Jurisprudence, by Josiah W. Smith; and Hunter's Suit in Equity, may be mentioned as recent books con- veying elementary information on that branch of juris- prudence. For the purpose of gaining an acquaintance with cri- minal law, the particularly careful study of Starkie's Treatise on Criminal Pleading is recommended by Mr. Warren, who mentions also the first volume of Chitty on Criminal Law, and Paley on Convictions; and, as the best general treatise, Russell on Crimes and Mis- demeanours. The student is advised to familiarize himself with portions (selected by a tutor or friend) of Hale's, Hawkins's and East's Pleas of the Crown, and Sir M. Foster's Discourses on Crown Law. The poor law was in so unsettled a condition, that there was difficulty in recommending any text-book on the subject. Some twenty statutes or more, affecting criminal law, ap- pear to have been passed since 1845. Some of these relate to particular offences (s); others give, or regulate, further powers for summary conviction by magistrates (<) ; others, (p) 15 & 16 Vict. c. 86, s. 52. (y) Sect. 61. (r) Sect. 62. (s) c.g.9 & 10 Vict. c. 25. (f) 18 & 19 Vict. u. 126, and 20 & 21 Vict. i;. 43. ENGLISH LAW. 107 again, relate to the proceedings of magistrates before, and in, committing prisoners for trial (li) ; and some are directed to the punishment and reformation of juvenile offenders as a particular class (a:). But there are besides enactments, to which attention may be specially drawn, the effect of which is to amend the technical rigidity of criminal procedure, and in so doing to remove much of the importance which belonged to the rules of criminal pleading (y). While the law, in its letter, was unmercifully severe, subtlety in evading it by nice objections was looked upon favourably ; but, when punishments were mitigated, the use of such re- finements was taken away, and a wholesome power of amending formal errors has now been given. On the whole, with a view to the present state of things, a stu- dent's text-books for practice had better be recent ones, but he may resort with advantage to the old writers for the principles of criminal law, as distinct from the rules of procedure. At a later point Mr. Warren mentions a series of de- tached subjects as deserving attention, but refers to books in the case of some of them only. Some of these subjects have been affected by subsequent statutes, (e. g., the action of ejectment by the Common Law Procedure Act of 1852,) but the student will be, to a great extent, guarded from error in respect to them if he applies Mr. Warren's re- ferences to Selwyn's Nisi Prius and Roscoe's Evidence to the latest editions of those works. Occasion, however, may here be taken to refer to the publication of some lec- tures on the law of Landlord and Tenant, by the late Mr. J. W. Smith, whose reputation of itself is sufficient to entitle them to attention ; and of a work on Private Inter- national Law, by Mr. Westlake. It may be added, that the (m) 11 & 12 Vict. u. 42. (x) 10 & 11 Vict. i;. 82, and 17 & 18 Vict, c.86. (/) 14 & IS Vict. c. 100, 108 ENGLISH LAW. books to which Mr. Warren refers on the subject of colonial and foreign law, are Burge's Commentaries, Mr. Jus- tice Story's Conflict of Laws, and Macqueen on the Appellate Jurisdiction of the House of Lords and Privy Council ; and that among those of a more general cha- racter are Smith's well-known " Leading Cases" (the idea of which has since been followed in White and Tudor's Leading Cases in Equity, and Tudor's Conveyancing Cases); Comyn's Digest, and Bacon's and Viner's Abridg- ments. The hasty notices before given of recent statutory legis- lation shall be closed with a mention of the important Acts of Parliament which have respectively changed the administration of the law of probate {z) and of divorce (a), and constituted the present jurisdiction of the county courts (b). Before an outline of a course of study for a student in the present day is suggested, some remarks of a more general nature may be made. The first shall be one con- nected with the study of modern statutes. It is obvious that some familiarity with these must be sought, and scarcely less so that their number and bulk are enough to daunt even a diligent man. The writer would propose a simple expedient for methodizing and assisting such re- searches. Let the student fix on some period sufficiently distant (say twenty or thirty years ago), and selected as the commencement of an important series of legislation, and, taking (in the " Law Journal" or elsewhere) complete lists of the public general statutes from that time to the present, write out for himself the numbers and titles of all the acts which he supposes to have effected material («) 20 & 21 Vict. c. 77, ami 21 & 22 Vict. c. 95. (a) 20 & 21 Vict. c. 85, and 21 & 22 Vict. c. 108. (6) 9 & 10 Vict. u. 95 ; 12 & 13 Vict. c. 101 i 13 & 14 Vict. u. 61 ; 15 8e 16 Vict, i.: Si; 19 & 20 Vict. i;. 108. ENGLISH LAW. " 109 changes in any branch of the law. Let him then, by any marks he chooses to devise, classify and index them. He will find some value in the work itself, while he may rely on it that such a list, of his own making, will be the means of clearing his ideas on the course which legislation has taken, and prove a useful repertory and guide in after studies. Again, there are many treatises with which a familiarity should be gradually acquired, but which it would be extra- vagant to expect a student very early to become thoroughly acquainted with. As to them, something may be done betimes by a habit of glancing through them, and mark- ing in the margins those parts which contain statements of the leading principles and rules upon their several subjects, and gaining a pretty correct acquaintance with these passages, before attempting to master the works entire. In the course of making such marginal lines, the attention is kept alert in reading the parts marked, and the task attempted would be within moderate compass and of comparatively easy accomplishment. When a work had been thus dealt with, the student could at a subsequent period return to it for more thorough perusal, feeling fairly prepared to attempt this satisfactorily; and in the mean time his general knowledge, both of the subject and the author's treatment of it, would assist him towards under- standing questions connected with the particular branch of law when they occur to him, and would facilitate his refer- ence to the volume itself for information upon points of detail. By acquainting himself generally in such a manner with various works, he may in a comparatively short time have traversed a large tract of legal knowledge, gaining a valuable, though not minute, acquaintance with it, and lighten and expedite his after labours in the same field ; and meanwhile he could occasionally set himself some more stubborn task, lest, in the course of these compen- 110 ENGLISH LAW. dious surveys, he should get too much into the habit of a light kind of study, and acquire a distaste for greater la- bour. In some cases it will be useful to treat in the manner before suggested two or more works on the same subject ; for instance, to mark and read the leading propositions in thefirst volumes of Starkie and of Phillips on Evidence; and in Dart's " Vendors and Purchasers," as well as Sugden's. This is not to be understood as recommended in substi- tution for regular and thorough reading ; it is to be used rather as additional and auxiliary to it, and only by those whose object it is really to attain sound professional know- ledge. Others might make such a method a mere excuse for idleness. There is, indeed, another use for marginal lines, in even more thorotlgh study of works than a single reading imphes, and the reader is referred to some remarks on that subject in a subsequent chapter. The fact that fresh editions of treatises of repute are often substituted rather quickly for their predecessors is not without an incidental advantage, inasmuch as the earlier editions, depreciated in price, are sometimes to be procured at comparatively small cost. And, for the pur- pose of instruction, the last edition is not always the most desirable. Where the work is to be studied, either with a view to learning the former state of the law, or on ac- count of the superior ability of the original author, the student may content himself with an early edition ; and in some cases he may well adopt the plan, even with re- ference to learning what is law at present, of studying first an old and short edition of a work which has since been expanded, and then laying it side by side with the last, and comparing it with the alterations which have come into force. This plan may assist in impressing on his mind what modifications have been made in the law. A sketch will now be given of a plan which, it is sug- ENGLISH LAW. 1 1 1 gested, a student of the present day might advantageously use. It is calculated, however, rather for a common law than for an equity student; for the latter would require, in some respects, a different course, giving less time to some of the subjects here touched and more to works suited to his particular purpose. Blackstone, in its old form, read without note or com- ment, would furnish a commencement, to be followed by a steady perusal of Williams's Principles of Real and Personal Property, Smith's Lectures on Contracts, and Broom's " Commentaries on the Common Law." The student might then take Serjeant Stephen's "Commen- taries," and, being enabled, by the brackets in them, to see at a glance what parts represent the new law, examine these by themselves, referring to the adjoining extracts from Blackstone, where this was necessary, in explanation (c). The next step might be to take the new edition of the same author's Treatise on Pleading. In the whole of the course above mentioned there should be a thorough and careful study of the works in hand. In some cases, even the com- mittal to memory of short passages, or of the definitions of legal terms, may be usefully employed. A friend, whose opinion the writer values, lays stress on the importance of this mastery of technical terms being made a preliminary to a study of the more general principles of law. Having learnt something of the law as it is, the student might take up Littleton, and, after reading this, spend some time upon Lord Coke's Commentary, not wearying him- self in the first perusal by doing more than gaining such a knowledge of it as to a mind so prepared would come pretty readily. He might then glance in a similar manner over Lord Coke's Second Institute on Ancient Statutes; (e) If it be wished to avoid, from the first, such parts of Blackstone as are obsolete, Serjeant Stephen's Commentaries, or Mr. Warren's Abridg- ment of Blackstone, may be taken at the commencement of the course. 112 ENGLISH LAW. and in both these works make notes of what he had read and left unread, what struck him as specially deserving further attention, and what as clearly obsolete ; and use these notes on a later perusal (d). Fortescue " De Laudibus Legum Angliae," Sir Matthew Hale's History of the Com- mon Law, and Preface to Rolle's Abridgment, and Bacon's Use of the Law, and Maxims, might be taken up from time to time as occasion served, and the last might be followed by a study of Broom's Maxims. The student might then address himself to Reeves's History, here also making it rather his object to gain a knowledge of the principal facts, than to labour minutely through the principal and secondary alike. By this time he would be in a condition to enter ad- vantageously on a consecutive examination of some of the chief Reports. Smith's, White and Tudor's, and Tudor's Leading Cases, make a fit introduction to them ; and some knowledge of the evidence suited to particular actions may be obtained from one of the works on Nisi Prius, or, on a less extensive scale but in a useful form, from Davis's County Court Evidence. It would be premature for the student, at this stage, to attempt to master the more minute distinctions that have been made in the applications of general rules : if he obtains clear views of the main points to be established by plaintiffs in the principal classes of (d) At some after parts of the student's course, it will be well to make acquaintance with a few more of the older law books. With respect to Lord Coke's Reports, it may be mentioned, that in a work published in America (Hoffman's Legal Studies), the author gives notices of selected cases from Lord Coke, which may be useful in guiding the student in his examination of them. Of Dyer, Lord Campbell has written that he " digested and abridged his notes into a lucid report of each case, introducing only the facts necessary for raising the point of law determined, with a brief state- ment of the manner in which it was presented by the counsel to the Court, and the opinion of each of the Judges." Sir M. Hale's and Roger North's schemes of study may give the student further means for selection among the older authors. ENGLISH LAW. 113 actions, and the defences which are usually set up in an- swer, this will suffice to make his reading of reported cases fairly easy and useful to him. But how is he to select among the accumu.lated volumes of Reports ? Dif- ferent considerations may here influence his choice. Those Reports will deserve particular attention, which contain the decisions of Judges of unusual eminence, or the arguments of justly celebrated counsel. Such reasons may cause an early resort to Atkyns and Vesey, sen., for the judgments of Lord Hardwicke ; to Burrow, Douglas and Cowper for Lord Mansfield's judgments ; to Merivale for those of Sir William Grant; and to Vesey, jun., for the judgments of Lord Eldon and the arguments of Sir Samuel Romilly. Where the Judge has been himself the reporter, this fact tends to authenticate the work, so far at least as respects the author's judgments ; and, on this ground, the student may consult the second volume of Sir W. Black- stone's Reports for his own decisions, [n other cases it will be well not pnly to consider what were the reputations of the judges and counsel engaged in the cases, but also to inquire as to the credit of the reporter in point of accuracy, and as to how far he has successfully attempted to exhibit the principles and reasons of decisions, as well as the deci- sions themselves. Again, there are few or no volumes of Reports in which a student need study all the cases con- tained in them ; and, even at the risk of mistakes, it will be a serviceable exercise to endeavour to distinguish those which appear useful to him', from those which he thinks to be set aside by legislative changes or later decisions, or to be oc- cupied with matters not suited to his present knowledge. His experience, as it increases, will enable him to settle such questions with increasing confidence. In the early stages of study it may be better to pass over those cases the importance of which he does not readily see, than to s. I 114 ENGLISH LAW. spend upon them time which could be well bestowed on studies whose value is more apparent to him. Concurrently with an examination of Reports, a good deal of time may be usefully spent upon such a study as above suggested of the chief propositions contained in various detached legal treatises. Such distinct occupations, used alternately, may lighten and assist each other. Thus, the student (already acquainted with Smith on Contracts) may take Chitty on Contracts not under Seal, Story on Bailments, Agency, Bills of Exchange, Promissory Notes, and Partnership; Smith's Mercantile Law, Abbott on Shipping, and Park on Insurance. Having before read Williams on Real and Personal Property, he may take Sugden on Powers, and on Vendors and Purchasers, and his Essay on the Real Property Statutes, Dart on Vendors and Purchasers, Jarman on Wills, and Williams on Ex- ecutors and Administrators ; and refer at times to Cruise's Digest for the state of the law when it was written. As to evidence, he may consult Best, Phillips, Starkie, and Taylor, or some of them. Some early acquaintance may be formed with the subjects and arrangement of Lush's Common Law Practice, by Stephen, with a view to the common law branch of the profession: and a similar preparation may be made, if the student intends to practise in the Chancery Courts, by the examination of such books as he finds approved by competent advisers, with that view. Roberts on the Principles of the Court of Chancery, Josiah W. Smith's Manual of Equity. Jurisprudence, and Hunter's Suit in Equity, are, as has been mentioned, among the elementary works on the subject. Some ac- quaintance, also, with Lord Redesdale's Equity Pleading, and with Mr. Fry's recent work on. Specific Perform- ance, may be sought before the student is familiar enough with their subjects to be disposed to study them through- ENGLISH LAW. 115 out. In respect to criminal law, it will be well not so to concentrate attention on the modern text books as to leave unopened Sir M. Hale's Pleas of the Crown, and Sir Michael Foster's Discourses on Crown Law. Here, as elsewhere, it seems better to work from the general to the particular, from principles to details, rather than to invert this order. It would of course be idle to advise a student to attempt to master thoroughly all the books already mentioned, but it is believed that he would gain much knowledge,, and need not become a superficial lawyer, if he familiarized himself with their methods and main propositions, distin- guished by his own attention from the rest of the works. Afterwards he might return to the fuller study of such volumes as he thought most valuable, either intrinsically or for his own particular purpose ; and might anew take up, with increased ability to use them, some of the early subjects of his study, consulting Coke upon Littleton again with further power of discrimination, and reading through with fuller understanding Serjeant Stephen's Com- mentaries. With respect to recent reported cases, it will be well pretty early to begin the habit of reading these, as they are published, and also looking carefully at the statutes passed in the successive sessions of Parliament. The study of recent cases can be commenced soon after that of the older reports, and it may be well to practise two distinct modes of study; for, while it is important on the one hand to avoid a superficial habit of reading, it is desirable on the other to acquire expertness in seizing rapidly and strongly the chief points of cases, dismissing accessory matter. Perhaps a good method of attaining both objects may be found in the plan of having on hand some of the older series (e. g., the " Term Reports"), and studying these rather cursorily, caring chiefly to mark the very point I 2 116 ENGLISH LAW. decided, and the principles of the decision, but not dwellin* on accessory details or arguments ; and also, in the same period, reading steadily through, without any such selec- tion, the later cases as they are published periodically. During the use of some such plan as has been indicated, the student would probably have gained knowledge to guide his future reading. It may be added, that the important instruction to be found in the chambers of practising bar- risters will in these days be likely to be sought almost as a matter of course. Further reference is made to this sub- ject in a later chapter. ( 117 ) Chapter V. ON EDUCATION FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING. A STUDENT who attempts to devote himself to the study of oratory, may find his course checked by opposition on two different grounds. He may hear eloquence denounced as useless in some cases, and mischievous in others ; or, when its value is admitted, may find it treated as a power, which is possessed, indeed, by some gifted minds, but is beyond the reach of endeavour. The first of these objections is supported by high autho- rity. Bishop Burnet says of Sir Matthew Hale, that " he looked on eloquence and wit as things to be used very chastely in serious matters, which should come under a severer inquiry : therefore he was, both when at the bar and on the bench, a great enemy to all eloquence or rhetoric in pleading : he said, if the judge or jury had a right understanding, it signified nothing but a waste of time and loss of words; and if they were weak, and easily wrought on, it was a more decent way of corrapting them, by brib- ing their fancies, and biassing their affections ; . . ." Ac- cording to Burnet, he " pleaded himself always in few words, and home to the point : and when he was a judge, he held those that pleaded before him to be the main hinge of the business, and cut them short when they made excur- sions about circumstances of no moment, by which he saved much time, and made the chief difficulties be well stated and cleared" (a). (o) Burnet's Life of Sir M. Hale, p. 74. 118 EDUCATION FOB PUBLIC SPEAKING. To the great weight of the authority of Lord Hale's opinion, some counterpoise may be made by citing what is said a little later in the same work. For Burnet tells us that " where a decent eloquence was allowable, Judge Hale knew how to have excelled as much as any, either in illus- trating his reasonings by proper and well-pursued similies, or by such tender expressions as might work most on the affections, so that the present Lord Chancellor has often said of him since his death, that he was the greatest orator he had known ; for though his words came not fluently from him, yet when they were out, they were the most sig- nificant and expressive that the matter could bear : . . ." (5). Considerable attention might well be given to the culture of the art of speaking, even though customary appeals to the feelings and passions should be excluded. To say of a barrister, as Burnet says of Sir Matthew Hale, that he pleaded always in few words and home to the point, is to describe what may be the result of elaborate culture ; for language is a plant of irregular growth that needs the prun- ing knife, and a man who aims especially at a severe and simple style, may find employment for much time in cor- recting inaccuracies, cutting away repetitions, and giving terseness and point to rambling sentences. It is not a task for negligent efforts to state a complicated case clearly ; to embrace in the statement all things which really belong to it, and to express these completely and in their right order and relation. If the picture be intended to have none of the warm colours of feeling, there is even the more occasion to sketch it well ; to find fit positions for the several objects, and a proper scheme of perspective ; to observe in what parts slight touches may indicate less important matters, and where, on the other hand, the lines should be clear and carefully formed to bring out minutely the shapg of some- thing which is to fix the eye ; to mark where bright lights (i) Burnet's Life of Sir M. Hale, p. 76. EDUCATION FOK PUBLIC SPEAKING. 119 and deep shadows should fall. This requires skill scarcely to be expected from an unpractised hand ; and in the work of the speaker, as in that of the painter, time and thought may be largely spent in preparation for such results. Clear, comprehensive views of a subject and apt arrangement of its divisions will do much, but not all that is needed ; they still leave room for further attention to the particular study of language. Even in an argument upon a dry matter of law, on occasions where anything except close reasoning would be out of place, the excellence of two speakers may be quite unequal, although both are men of clear minds and skilful in disposing their subject matter. The thoughts of one may, in their utterance, be dulled or blunted by clumsy phraseology, while those of the other are expressed in apt and forcible words, which condense a mass of meaning in their compact strength, and yet mark out with some pre- cision the ideas they represent. Thus an attentive study of language and composition may be commended even to one who would appeal to the understanding alone, and refuse to address those warmer sympathies, which are sometimes first required as interpreters, that the understanding itself may be qualified to judge. But to what extent is it really true that the oratory which appeals directly to feeling is out of place at the bar ? This may be tried in part by the test of comments on evi- dence, a test applicable both to civil and to criminal pro- ceedings. Here it may be difficult to give due scope to such appeals without advocating an improper extension of them. To ascertain and to allow its just weight to the testimony which each witness gives is the right thing to be aimed at. It is for the advocate at one time to point out the qualities in evidence which entitle it to be believed, the indications of fairness, intelligence, correct memory and a conscientious regard to truth; at another, to detect and expose the bias of prejudice, of affection, or supposed interest, the 120 EDUCATION FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING. marks of an unobservant mind or a forgetful memory, and, in cases where it exists, the corruption of testimony by positive maUce or revenge. But is it practicable to set these things properly before the minds of a jury, without ex- pressions of commendation on the one hand, or censure, varying from cautionary comment to rebuke and invective, on the other? Is it natural or healthful that either the speaker or the hearers should treat grave matters of right and wrong simply with a quiet and cool analysis, divested of any strong feeling of approval or blame ? Would any one consider a barrister even intellectually fit for his duty, who should, with a perfect absence of passion or feeling, comment upon manifestations of remarkable candour and justice; or of gross levity, or deceitfulness, or a bitter, implacable spirit ? And, although the immediate object of judicial evidence is the attainment of truth upon particular issues, yet it may be urged that tribunals, including so large and varied a collection of free citizens, are important schools of national character, and that any theories of ad- vocacy which involve an habitual repression of the feeling due to the varieties of moral conduct are bad on that account, while a just and tempered utterance of such feelings is desirable for its effect, alike upon the Court, the jury, the parties and the spectators. To advert a little to the peculiarities of separate kinds of procedure. In criminal trials it is, indeed, the duty of a prosecuting counsel to state the facts of the case with calm- ness and so as not to prejudice the prisoner; yet, in reply, there are sometimes occasions which justify an expression of feeling. But it is chiefly on the part of the accused that earnestness of language and manner are fit, and this with- out transgressing the principles which should direct and steady the course of counsel so engaged. Wherever a pro- secution is pressed with the heat of partizanship, or the force of evidence for the Crown is exaggerated; wherever EDUCATION FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING. 121 the demeanour or character of a witness destroy or greatly weaken the probability of his speaking the exact truth, the prisoner's advocate had need carefully notice these points, and in some cases may make them the subject of strong and severe criticism. When there is fair room for a dif- ference of opinion upon the case generally, the jury may be urged to bear in mind the serious consequences of their decision, especially if youth, previous good character, or the loss of employment, would add further weight to a sentence inflicted. And these and similar topics, varied as they are in character and force, even when they ought not to affect the verdict, may be fit matters to be considered by the judge, and may deserve to be specially pressed on his attention with a view to the mitigation of punishment. Nor should their proper use be abandoned because they are sometimes urged with disregard of the limitations which sound judg- ment or right taste would impose. But they involve, in _ their just use as well as when abused, considerations alien from a cold and unimpassioned style, and leading properly to warmth of expression, because they are fitted to awaken warmth of feeling. In civil actions, the mere question whether the jury shall find for the plaintiff sometimes scarcely requires delibera- tion ; the law and the facts being so plain as to set that point beyond dispute; but the amount of damages may then be the real thing to be determined : and arguments to raise or lessen this sum may involve the discussion, in almost numberless forms, of the conduct and character of the parties ; their present condition and future prospects ; wrongs inflicted, hardships endured ; the balance of claims which appeal rather to the moral sense of right and wrong than to a mere process of correct induction. Now an ad- vocate who should argue in a tranquil and unmoved manner on other men's outrages or sufferings would fail to bring out their real character, and thus a theory assuming to 122 EDUCATION FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING. banish emotion ai»d limit judicial inquiries to ascertaining the very truth, might mar the representations given of the truth itself. On such grounds, among others, a plea may be urged for the maintenance of the language of passion at the bar, as well as the language of logical reasoning. If it be admitted that eloquence is a desirable qualification for a barrister, there still remains the question whether it be possible to acquire it. In reference to this matter, some extracts shall first be given which recommend, in express terms, the direction of studies to such an object. One of these occurs in a letter from Sir William, then Mr. Jones, to Lord Althorpe. He tells him that, with his knowledge as well as judgment, he will easily acquire habits of eloquence J " but habits they are, no less than playing on a musical instrument or handling a pencil : and as the best musicians and finest painters began with playing sometimes . out of tune and drawing out of proportion, so the greatest orators must begin with leaving some periods unfinished, and perhaps with sitting down in the middle of a sentence. It is only by continued use that a speaker learns to ex- press his ideas with precision and soundness, and to provide at the beginning of a period for the conclusion of it; but to this facility of speaking, the habit of writing , rapidly con- tributes in a wonderful degree. I would particularly im- press this truth upon your mind, my dear friend, because I am fully convinced that an Englishman's real importance in his country will always be in a compound ratio of his virtue, his knowledge, and his eloquence ; without all of which quahties, little real utility can result from either of them apart : and I am no less persuaded, that a virtuous and knowing man, who has no natural impediment, may by habit acquire perfect eloquence, as certainly as a healthy man, who has the use of his muscles, may learn to swim or to skate" (c). To this extract may be appended some words (c) Memoir,!, pp. 276-7. EDUCATION FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING. 123 of its author, in a letter to Mr. Wilmot, written some eight or nine years earlier, in which he speaks of his own inten- , tions : — " I have opened two common-place books, the one of the law, the other of oratory, which is surely too much neglected by our modern speakers. I do not mean the popular eloquence, which cannot be tolerated at the bar, but that correctness of style and elegance of method, which at once please and persuade the hearer." A letter written to the same person, when a good deal younger, by his father, the eminent Chief Justice Wilmot, taken together with some of his other advice to him, will carry further the argument that industry is not ill spent on an express pre- paration for public speaking, and furnish some useful hints as to m^odes of applying it. . He tells his son that, as he seems to give the law a preference, " an intimacy with all classical knowledge, and more particularly with the Greek and Roman orators, is an essential capital point, and to be cultivated with the greatest industry and application. Above all things, attend to the subject-matter of their ora- tions, and to their modes of thinking upon and treating their subjects ; and beside the cboice and elegance of their diction, you will find everything which can be said or thought of upon the subject, gathered together and urged with such resistless force, as must have amazed and trans- ported their audience— but remember, you are to speak neither in Latin nor Greek, and that language is the vehicle of sense ; and therefore, use yourself to write and speak your own language correctly ; and I can advise you to nothing so likely to improve you in that most material qualification for a lawyer, as translating Greek and Latin orations into English. Your mind will be thus impregnated with their thoughts, spirit, and fire, and you will find yourself surpris- ingly improved every day in speaking and writing your own language" {d). (rf) Memoirs of the Life of Sir John Eardley Wilmot, pp. 45, 46. 124 EDUCATION FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING. Sir Eardley writes to the same son, with reference to his residence at a foreign place of instruction, that, in the legal path, " it may admit of doubt, whether too much foreign language may not prevent that fluency in your own, which contributes very materially to the formation of the forensic speaker here ; for though sense, study and application may make you a very good lawyer and give you knowledge, yet it never shines at the bar, but through the medium and vehicle of a great command and choice of words to adorn and embroider it "(e). Again, he tells his son, with reference to a translation, part of which he was returning to him, that he could not pursue an exercise which would be of greater service to him ; " for besides improving yourself in the knowledge of Latin, it will facilitate the great and arduous work you have undertaken, the speaking ' apte, ornate, et disposite,' in your own language — it will give you a great stock of words, and insensibly impregnate your mind with very beautiful ideas, and a happy manner of expressing them : and I wish you to attain such a knowledge of the Greek, as may enable you to read Demosthenes, because his concise and nervous manner of speaking strikes an audieflce more forcibly than Tully's, and is more adapted to the taste of the present age." But, besides the advice of such men as Sir William Jones and Sir Eardley Wilraot, there is matter for reflection, in reference to this subject, in the examples of some eminent forensic speakers. In one of the letters from which a passage has been quoted. Sir Eardley Wilmot says to his son (referring to Lord Mansfield) : — "The noble lord who was so kind as to take notice of you, is a most eminent example of the utility of a classical education : he laid all his foundations in Greek and Roman oratory and poetry, and by an uninter- mitting cultivation of the prodigious natural powers of his (e) Memoirs, p. 48. EDUCATION FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING. 125 mind, has beaten all his masters." " During the time of his being at school," we are told, " he gave early proof of his own uncommon abilities, not so much in his poetry as in his other exercises, and particularly in his declamations, which were sure tokens and prognostics of that eloquence which grew up to such maturity and perfection at the bar and in both Houses of Parliament" (/). Mr. Butler says, Lord Mansfield told him that he " had translated many of Cicero's Orations into English, and then translated them back into Latin "(^). And both his thoughtful attention to Cicero's Orations and his knowledge of the oration of Demosthenes on the Crown, are illustrated by a Latin essay on the latter, which is at the same time characterized by an appearance of skill in its own structure (A). Lord Mansfield's oratory appears to have been rather persuasive than commanding. Lord Brougham says of him, " His powers as an advocate were great, though not first rate" (i). " He excelled in the statement of a case" (k), we are told by Mr. Butler. But when we turn from him to another and greater orator, Lord Erskine, whose powers might seem peculiarly independent of labo- rious culture, we find that, in his case also, there were studies which may have contributed largely to his sur- passing eminence. " Aware," says Lord Brougham, " that his classical acquirements were so slender, men oftentimes marvelled at the phenomenon of his eloquence, above all, of his composition. The solution of the difficulty lay in the constant reading of the old English authors, to which he devoted himself, Shakespeare he was more familiar with than almost any man of his agej and Milton he nearly (/) Bishop Newton, cited in Lord Campbell's Life of Lord Mansfield. (g) Butler's Horae Juridicaa Subsecivse, 201. (A) See Lord Campbell'* Life of Lord Mansfield. (i) Statesmen of the Time of George IIL : Lord Mansfield. (it) Butler's Horae Juridicse Subsecivae, 207. 126 EDUCATION FOR PDBLIC SPEAKING. had by heart" (Z). Perhaps some of these studies were rather an unconscious, than an intentional, training for the bar, as they probably date a good deal further back than his change to that profession. A very remarkable instance of painstaking preparation for the correct and powerful use of his native tongue, both written and spoken, is furnished by the life of Sir Samuel Romilly. We learn from himself that, having had an idea of becoming an author, he exercised himself in prose com- positions ; and judging translations to be the most useful exercise for forming a style, rendered into English the finest models of writing that the Latin language afforded ; almost all the speeches in Livy, very copious extracts from Tacitus, the whole of Sallust, and many of the finest passages in Cicero; and read and studied the best English writers, Addison, Swift, Bolingbroke, Robertson and Hume; noting down every peculiar propriety and happiness of ex- pression which he met with, and which he was conscious that he should not have used himself. Farther on in his life, his attention to composition was directed both to writing and speaking. " I translated," he says, " com- posed, and endeavoured (though I confess with a success little proportioned to the pains I took) to form for myself a correct and an elegant style ; I translated the whole of Sallust, and a great part of Livy, Tacitus, and Cicero ; I (Z) Statesmen of the Time of George III. : Mr. Erskine. Chief Justice Wilmot writes to his son —" You complain of an ' inedia verborum ' — the best receipt for that complaint, is reading English books of the most classical kind, and a total abstinence from all other languages, except when you turn them into English, or rather paraphrase them. I have often known too much Latin and Greek, or French, almost extinguish the ' flumen ' and ' copia dicendi ' in English ; but habituating yourself to correct modes of thinking, will generally produce clear, and luminous modes of expression : if the spring be clear, the stream will be so too, if other languages do not check or disturb it, or if too great an anxiety fbr a choice diction do not interrupt it." — Memoirs, p. 68. EDUCATION FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING. 127 wrote political essays, and often sent them without my name to the newspapers, and was not a little gratified to find them always inserted : above all, I was anxious to acquire a great facility of elocution, which I thought indis- pensably necessary for my success. Instead, however, of resorting to any of those debating societies, which were at this time much frequented, I adopted a very useful ex- pedient, which I found suggested in Quintilian; that of expressing to myself, in the best language I could, what- ever I had been reading ; of using the arguments I had met with in Tacitus or Livy, and making with them speeches of my own, not uttered, but composed and existing only in thought. Occasionally, too, I attended the two Houses of Parliament; and used myself to recite in thought, or to answer the speeches I had heard there. That I might lose no time, I generally reserved these exercises for the time of my walking or riding ; and, before long, I had so well acquired the habit of it, that I could think these com- positions as I was passing through the most crowded streets" (m). Within the present year there has been published in the Jurist (w) a letter, mentioned as having been written by Lord Brougham to the father of the late Lord Macaulay, some of the advice in which is very much to the purpose of the present part of this chapter. After recommending as a first step the acquisition of ease in speaking, with com- paratively small attention to correctness of style, the writer says, " The next step is the grand one — to convert this style; of easy speaking into chaste eloquence. And here there is but one rule. I do earnestly intreat your son to (m) A student who should be inclined to imitate this example, in its full extent should ponder, for his warning, the next sentence of the memoir, — " The very close application with which I pursued my studies proved at last injurious to my health." (») In the number for January 28th. 128 EDUCATION FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING. set daily and nightly before him the Greek models. First of all, he may look to the best modern speeches, (as he probably has already) ; Burke's best compositions, as the ' Thoughts on the Cause of the present Discontents ;' speech ' On the American Conciliation,' and * On the Nabob of Arcot's Debt;' Fox's 'Speech on the West- minster Scrutiny,' (the first part of which he should pore over till he has it by heart) ; ' On the Russian Armament,' and ' On the War,' 1803, with one or two of Wyndham's best, and very few, or rather none, of Sheridan's. But he must by no means stop here. If he would be a great orator, he must go at once to the fountain head, and be familiar with every one of the great orations of Demos- thenes. I take for granted that he knows those of Cicero by heart; they are very beautiful, but not very useful, except, perhaps, the Milo, pro Ligario, and one or two more ; but the Greek must positively be the model ; and merely reading it, as boys do, to know the language, won't do at all; he must enter into the spirit of each speech, thoroughly know the positions of the parties, follow each turn.of the argument, and make the absolutely perfect and most chaste and severe composition famihar to his mind. His taste will improve every time he reads and repeats to himself, (for he should have the fine passages by heart,) and he will learn how much may be done by a skilful use of a few words, and a rigorous rejection of all superfluities. In this view I hold a familiar knowledge of Dante to be next to Demosthenes. It is in vain to say that imitations of these models won't do for our times. First, I do not counsel any imitation, but only an imbibing of the same spirit. Secondly, I know from experience that nothing is half so successful in these times (bad though they be) as what has been formed on the Greek models. I use a very poor instance in giving my own experience, but I do assure you that both in Courts of law and Parliament, and even to EDUCATION FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING. 129 mobs, I have never made so much play (to use a very modern phrase) as when I was ahnost translating from the Greek. I composed the peroration of my speech for the Queen, in the Lords, after reading and repeating Demos- thenes for three or four weeks, and I composed it twenty times over at least, and it certainly succeeded in a very extraordinary degree, and far above any merits of its own. This leads me to remark, that though speaking, with[out] writing beforehand, is very well until the habit of easy speech is acquired, yet after that he can never write too much ; this is quite clear. It is laborious, no doubt, and it is more difficult beyond comparison than speaking off hand ; but it is necessary to perfect oratory, and, at any rate, it is necessary to acquire the habit of correct diction. But I go further, and say, even to the end of a man's life he must prepare word for word most of his finer passages. Now, would he be a great orator or no ? In other words, would he have almost absolute power of doing good to mankind, in a free country, or no? So he wills this, he must follow these rules." There are some things in the present usages as to prac- tice at the bar which appear to create a particular oc- casion for previous attention to public speaking. In prosecutions in the Crown Court, which are likely to furnish part of the work of a young barrister, the method now prevalent of going straight into the evidence, without an opening speech, withdraws one comparatively simple and serviceable opportunity for gaining timely experience. When the prisoner's counsel calls witnesses, the counsel for the prosecution has to reply, if he do so at all, with small opportunity for preparation or arrangement, having been occupied, perhaps, with taking notes and cross-examining almost until he has to begin his speech. It is scared/ to be expected that one who is nearly a novice would, in such circumstances, be able to discriminate wisely as to his line s. K 130 EDCCATION FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING. of argument, (based on changes introduced by the fresh evidence,) and to select and arrange his topics, find fit and forcible illustrations for them, and clothe his thoughts in well-chosen language. On the other hand, peculiar diffi- culties and dangers gather about the task of defending prisoners. A young barrister is likely, if he gets business of this sort, to have cases brought to him where the evi- dence for the prosecution scarcely admits of an answer ; and it is a trying exercise at once of judgment, taste and principle, to have, in such instances, to say all for the client which can properly be said, and yet to say no more. A young man placed in the dilemma of having seldom an opportunity to speak in Court, except when, in reply for the prosecution, he has to discuss evidence newly brought forward, or when, in defending a prisoner, he has to encounter evidence which is clear and strong, is in danger of becoming reconciled to a style of offensive presumption, in the attempt to supply the want of fair argument by positiveness and confidence. But one who came to the same tasks with habits of self-possession and a practised judgment and chastened taste, would be materially assisted towards escape from such dangers. With respect to the educational plans to be adopted, the ordinary one of debating societies, if properly managed, furnishes a ready, as well as useful, expedient. They are apt to be ridiculed on account of faults which indeed beset them, but which are not their necessary accompani- ments. A society, composed at the outset of sensible men, with minds already fairly cultivated and stored, would form a public opinion fitted at once to check extrav-agances and stimulate effort ; and while it helped to develope among its members an aptitude for ready and forcible speaking, might discipline their minds still farther in the discrimi- nating judgment of thought and expression. For one purpose, a practice of this sort can scarcely have its place EDUCATION FOB PUBLIC SPEAKING. 131 supplied by private study. The confidence, without which an able man may find his words and thoughts refuse to come at his wish, is likely to be the fruit of exercise in speaking, and in some cases to need such an expedient (o). But for the cultivation of a correct and powerful style, — for copious stores of varied phraseology, — for a practised sense of what is beautiful and what is faulty in compo- sition, — for a keen relish forthe higher kinds of eloquence, — a student may well, with Jones and Murray, Erskine and Romilly, devote his time zealously to the study of the great exemplars of good writing and speaking. In doing so, his spirit may be fired with emulation, and his mind grow in strength and versatility ; nor need he be disturbed by the fact that his memory will amass, not only the materials of thought, but trains of argument and a varied multitude of images and illustrations, which, without being aware of it, he may reproduce in fresh combinations and with new form and expression. The great thing here is readily and scru- pulously to acknowledge whatever substantial matter is consciously borrowed. Some attention also should be given by a law student to the manner, as well as the matter, of his arguments. It may be well to reflect on the qualities of voice which are fitted to engage and keep the attention of hearers; on the need there is for clearness, gentleness and the absence of raised, harsh or irritated tones ; for sufficient variety and modulation ; for the occasional and sparing use of emphasis and vehemence. And if the difficulty of doing this wisely, or of overcoming the disadvantages arising from natural qualities or bad habits of voice, appear great, this need not (o) " Put-case clubs, and seizing all opportunities of speaking upon all subjects you understand, will unlock the store-house of words, coin your ideas, and give that currency and profluence which you at present want." — Chief Justice Wilmot to his son. Memoirs, p. 68. k2 152 EDUCATION FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING. prevent, but should rather incite to, a steady attempt to contend with them. A little thought is enough to make a student sensible of the importance of right habits with respect to attitude and action in speaking, and of the danger of contracting bad ones ; apart from the still greater evil of affectation, which has power to render offensive even a demeanour which might otherwise be approved. Perhaps the safest rule which can be given is one which, it is believed, had the authority of Robert Hall, that a man should endeavour to conquer faults to which he finds he is liable, and leave the rest to nature. The present chapter shall be closed with some remarks taken from a manuscript treatise already mentioned, which was written in the latter part of the last century. They relate to the appropriate distinctions of the several parts of which speeches are often composed, but their suggestions may be of use where there is but little of formal division or arrangement. " We begin with the exordium, the first quality of which is brevity. Three or four periods of a moderate length may sometimes be sufficient, but from six to ten or twelve periods will generally be about the proper length of an exordium. Its other qualities are simplicity, clearness, coolness, and an easy and natural connection with the sub- ject it is intended to introduce ; and it should be delivered in a manner engaging and conciliatory ; because it is meant to prepare the hearers for what is to succeed, and to induce them to listen to the speaker with attention and respect. Care however must be taken not to excite in the hearers an expectation which he is unable to gratify; or their patience will soon be exhausted, and he will become con- fused and discouraged. Exordiums are vicious, when the orator speaks much of himself, his situation, his hopes, his EDUCATION FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING. 133 fears or his abilities : when he makes any parade of the sense he has of his inequality to the task he has under- taken ; when he wishes that it had fallen into abler hands; and, on the other hand, when he expresses too much con- fidence of success. If any of these be at all necessary, they may generally be reserved till towards the conclusion ; but they should seldom be placed in the foreground of a speech ; and the less any speaker introduces himself or considerations that affect him personally, the better that which he says will in general be received. "The narration should contain a concise, but distinct and orderly representation of the facts intended to be submitted ; audits style should be simple and chaste. Nothing florid, nothing bombastical, nothing impertinent can be admitted into narrative, which eminently requires the union of per- spicuity and brevity. In his proofs and his reasonings, the speaker should be nervous, solid and correct. In his in- ferences, easy, natural and obvious. In his ornaments and figures, moderate and frugal. Nice in the choice, and in the collocation, of his words ; and varying his style with his sub- ject, let him always observe to engage the attention of those whom he addresses, to the cause of his client, rather than to the brilliancy of his own genius, or the splendour of his own eloquence. "The peroration or conclusion is that part of his speech for which a speaker should reserve all his fire ; here he should rise and swell; and there are occasions in which, inflamed himself with his subject, he may communicate his liveliest and warmest feelings to those around him ; but if he have exerted or heated himself to an improper degree in the preceding parts, it is ten to one but he becomes vapid in the conclusion. Sometimes before the particular point to be gained be pressed home upon the hearers, it may be proper shortly to recapitulate the leading features of the 134 EDUCATION POR PUBLIC SPEAKING. case, and then to close with a warm and impassioned address to their feelings ; but the propriety of the recapitu- lation will depend on the length of the speech, and that of the warmth and passion of the close on the circumstances of the case." ( 135 ) Chapter VI. ON METHODS OF SELF-EDUCATION. Something, indeed much, of a student's success, will be dependent, in ordinary cases, on the methods and plans with which he works. Legal studies have so much about them which renders it difficult to maintain fixed attention, to understand clearly, and remember long and well, that special expedients, of one sort or another, seem particularly reasonable in their case. In drawing attention to the advice and examples of lawyers of former days on this matter, the first method noticed shall be the important and once fami- liar habit of common-placing. There is something to inte- rest in the racy manner in which its former advocates have enforced its value; and some of their remarks may be usefully applied, by adapting them to other plans, besides the particular one which they recommend. Two passages shall be given, one from Roger North's Discourse, the other from Sir Matthew Hale's Preface to Rolle's Abridg- ment. " It will often happen," says North, " that a man shall hear a question of law stated, and remember that he has read some case or other very apposite to, if not the very question in point resolved, somewhere in the books, and if he would give all he is worth, he cannot recover where it is to be found .... Now he that common- places along with his reading, runs straight to his book ; and knowing the method, probably at first finds it out. But if it be a matter that may with equal propriety fall under several titles, then he has two or more to look over, and 136 METHODS OF SELF-EDUCATION. perhaps divers, and not hit on the right. This is not loss but gain of time, for the very perusing the common-place book, and the many entries there which will be taken notice of, besides what is searched for there, will refresh the memory in divers other points that are not in bis inquisition ; for these entries being bis own, bring to his mind the case at large, the book, and many other circum- stances that occurred in his reading, beside what was noted, and hath an unthought-of virtue in improving, or at least retaining in, or, it may be recovering in what one has once read; and in regard that judgment grows with study and more with experience, it is of more use to recover a case to the memory when the judgment is ripe to esteem and value it, than it was at first to read and set it down. Now this advantage is not had from perusing Indexes, Common-places, or Abridgments of others, for there no more is known than what falls under the eye, and that, perhaps, so short and imperfect that it breeds in the mind rather confusion than the distinction and information of Law" (a). Sir Matthew Hale also advises the student to practise common-placing. " What he reads in the course of his reading, let him enter the abstract or substance thereof, especially of cases or points resolved, into his common- place book, under their proper titles ; and if one case falls aptly under several titles, and it can be conveniently broken, let him enter each part under its proper title : if it cannot be well broken, let him enter the abstract of the entire case under the title most proper for it, and make references from the other titles unto it. It is true, a student will waste much paper this way, and possibly in two or three years will see many errors and impertinences in what he hath formerly done, and much irregularity and disorder (o) Discourse on the Study of the Laws, pp. 24, 25, 26. METHODS OF SELF-EDUCATION. 137 in the disposing of his matter under improper heads. But he will have these infallible advantages attending this course : 1. In process of time he will be more perfect and dexterous in this business. 2. Those first imperfect and disordered essays will, by frequent returns upon them, be intelligible, at least to himself, and refresh his memory. 3. He will by this means keep together, under apt titles, whatsoever he hath read. 4. By often returning upon every title, as occasion of search or new insertions require, he will strangely revive and imprint in his memory what he hath for- merly read. 5. He will be able at one view to see the sub- stance of whatsoever he hath read concerning any one subject, without turning to every book (only when he hath particular occasion of advice or argument, then it will be necessary to look upon that book at large which he finds useful to his purpose). 6. He will be able upon any occasion suddenly to find anything he hath read, without recoursing to tables, or other repertories, which are oftentimes short, and give a lame account of the subject sought for ; . . . ." (6), Sir Matthe\y Hale's advice acquires additional weight from his own example. Bishop Burnet tells us that he made " divers collections out of the books he had read, and, mixing them with his own observations, digested them into a common-place book ; which he did with so much in- dustry and judgment, that an eminent judge of the King's Bench borrowed it of him when he was Lord Chief Baron. He unwillingly lent it, because it had been written by him before he was called to the Bar, and had never been tho- roughly revised by him since that time ; only what altera- tions had been made in the law by subsequent statutes and judgments, were added by him as they had happened ; but the judge having perused it said, that, though it was com- (i) Hale's Preface to Rolle's Abridgment, Coll. Jurid., vol. 1, pp. 277, 278. 138 METHODS OF SELF-EDUCATION. posed by him so early, he did not think any lawyer in England could do it better, except he himself would again set about it" (d). As to the choice of books for reading, it is no doubt well to select for chief attention on each subject the best that is accessible. But after the study of a celebrated work, time may be well spent in a hghter survey of one which is con- sidered inferior, not only for the sake of such additional matter as may be found there, but particularly because the mere change of the form, in which undisputed doctrines are presented, makes it easier to seize and remember them. And the reader may go back to his former book with a heightened relish for its excellences, and in a better condi- tion to avail himself of them. Indeed, the crabbed and difficult nature of legal learning renders it useful to adopt various expedients for making the light shine on its sur- faces from different points, that the real form of the objects, which will often be confused or even blank to the vision at first, may afterwards stand clearly out. In order to gain a correct knowledge of law, one of the most material requisites is that the student should under- stand the reasons of its rules. As a mere help to the memory, this is almost necessary. For what ordinary mind can be able to "digest the mass of learning that grows upon the panting student," if disconnected decisions are merely strung together in the recollection without any system of subordination among them ? Even if they were remembered, yet how could they be rightly applied in argu- ing fresh questions referable by analogy to several authorities but not strictly governed by any of them ? In order to deal properly with such an occasion, the advocate needs to see the law, as already established, stretched out before his (c) Life of Sir Matthew Hale, p. 13. METHODS OF SELT?-EDUCAT10N. 139 view with the connection and dependence of its several propositions ; its rules as to particular points should be seen to be applications or modifications of its more general rules; the true distinctions of cases seemingly opposed to one another, and the comparative weight of those really op- posed, should be studied by him. Hope almost sinks at the thought of ever achieving such a task at all thoroughly — but what should be the course taken on the way towards its attainment? Is it not desirable that a yonng lawyer should start with the design of approaching details through principles, of gaining on any subject a fair view of its main divisions and the rules which belong to them, before he attempts to charge his memory with the rules for particular cases ? Sometimes these may be determined by a simple application of the general rule ; sometimes by parallels drawn to the circum- stances in which that rule was laid down ; sometimes the case is an exceptional one, and its deviation from the usual track of decisions is justified by its special characteristics. In any of these instances it seems better to consider it when familiar with the leading rule, whether the case in question conforms to, or departs from, this. It may be supposed that frequently the judge who makes the deci- sion has the leading rule present to his mind, if not in a definite form, yet latent, and exerting an influence on his treatment of the questions before him ; and while igno- rance of the main principles would be thought to go far towards disqualifying a judge from deciding rightly, such ignorance would also tend to disqualify a student for rightly studying a decision. It may be added that this plan of proceeding from general to particular has advan- tages in expediting progress. Each main rule furnishes a starting-point for its subordinate divisions, one to which the student may return to recover his attention, when it is 140 METHODS OF SELF-EDUCATION. lost amidst the intricacies of details, and from which he may set out afresh. And detached rules, wanting any complete connection with each other, may be hung in groups upon the leading rule to which they all belong. But for such points of combination, they might strew the memory in an unassorted and confused mass, where it would be less easy to find them when wanted. With reference to this importance of classification in legal study, the writer suggests a practice which may be familiar to others, but which he does not remember to have seen ex- pressly recommended. A student, after first reading any considerable treatise, and finding but little of it remaining in his recollection, may run his eye over it again, and, with a pencil, line the margin of all those parts which do not appear exceptional and comparatively uninstructive. The parts omitted may consist of controversial passages re- lating to questions not yet solved, when no clear result is reached by the author ; or passages which are merely curious as relating to exploded rules ; or those which belong to par- ticular points which, though practical and distinctly solved, are likely to be of very infrequent occurrence ; or long trains of argument, whose result is enunciated in a few lines, and where the study of the process itself will scarcely repay further time — to the particular reader at any rate. The student may thus have what he feels to be, to him, the marrow of the book marked out and detached — perhaps two-thirds, perhaps but half of it— and fitted, with its lightened weight, to float in the mind more readily. Again, of this portion he may mark off, with second marginal lines, a still less part, consisting, if he likes, of only the main rules and their more important sub-divisions, those which are likely to need frequently to be applied, omitting useful but extended arguments, and minor and occasional cases, which he may reserve for study at more leisure. Once METHODS OF SELF-EDUCATION. 141 more, a third series of pencil lines in the margin may indi- cate merely the broad general rules on the subject, omitting all besides. With his book thus marked, he may find varied and useful occupation, for different extent of leisure, and different states of mental freshness. In occasional hours he may repeatedly retrace the last and smallest class of propositions. With further time he may re-peruse the part which he has double-lined, and which may furnish him with much of the substantial learning of the book; and once or twice he may go over the part marked but singly, reserving the unmarked part to be read, perhaps partially only, or perhaps the whole in detached pieces, as his leisure and judgment direct. It is believed that a student of mode- rate energy might find both encouragement and assistance from tliis method ; and that either in default of, or in con- juction with, common-placing, it would help not a little towards the accumulation and arrangement of legal learning in his mind. Several plans may be adopted with advantage for pre- serving abstracts or notes of works which are read. They may either be mere abstracts (and if so, be less or more ex- tended, and either in complete sentences, or half-expressed hints which would be hard to be understood except by the writer), or may include comments and inquiries by the student himself, and illustrative matter gathered from other sources. But the work so treated had need be worth the trouble, especially as economy of time is one consideration which must be borne in mind. Health is not the least thing to be regarded in the plans and methods which a student forms or adopts. Sufficient relaxation for the mind, and exercise for the body, may be considered not as hindrances, but helps, to proficiency ; and although the saying of Chancellor D'Aguesseau, cited by Mr. Butler, " Le changement d'etude est toujours un de- 142 METHODS OF SELF-EDUCATION. lassement pour moi," is worth lecollection, it is not to be adopted by all persons alike, or by the same person at all times. Varieties of constitution and circumstances need corresponding varieties of discipline ; and a student may well desire not merely freedom from actual disease, but a considerable degree of physical robustness and a cheerful flow of spirits, and may shape his plans with reference not only to the period of education and early professional life, but also to the taxes on strength and spirits which may be levied in after years. Another point to which attention may be directed is the use of companionship in study. This has eminent ex- amples to recommend it. Sir Matthew Hale informs us that the author of Rolle's Abridgment, from his first admis- sion to the Inner Temple till his call to be a serjeant, had, as contemporaries in the same society, Sir Edward Littleton, Sir Edward Herbert, Sir Thomas Gardyner and Mr. John Selden : " with these he kept a long, constant, and familiar converse and acquaintance, and thereby greatly improved both his own learning and theirs, especially in the common law, which he principally intended ; for it was the constant and almost daily course for many years together of these great traders in learning, to bring in their several acquests therein as it were into a common stock by mutual com- munication, whereby each of them became in a great mea- sure the participant and common possessor of the others' learning and knowledge" (6). Sir Samuel Romilly writes of his friend, Mr. Baynes, and himself:— "We prosecuted our studies together; we communicated to each other, and compared the notes which we took during our attendance in the courts. We used to meet at night at each other's chambers to read some of the classics, particularly Tacitus, (e) Preface to Rolle's Abridgment, Coll. Jiirid., i. 264. METHODS OF SELF-EDUCATION. 143 in whom we both took great delight ; and we formed a little society, to which we admitted only two other persons, Holroyd and Christian, for arguing points of law upon questions which we suggested in turn. One argued on each side as counsel, the other two acted the part of judges, and were obliged to give at length the reasons of their decisions ; an exercise which was certainly very useful to us air'(c). Of the advantages to be reaped by companions in study, Roger North writes thus : — " I will be bold to say, that they shall improve one another by discourse as much as all their other study without it could improve them." " There are many reasons," he tells us, " that demonstrate the use of society in the study of the law — 1st. Regulating mis- takes; oftentimes a man shall read and go away with a sense clear contrary to the book, and he shall be as confident as if he were in the right ; this his companion shall observe, and sending him to the book, rectify his mistake. 2nd. Confirming what he has read. For that which was con- fused in the memory, by rehearsing will clear up and be- come distinct, and so more thoroughly understood and remembered. 3rd. Aptness to speak. For a man may be possessed of a bookcase, and think he has it ad unguem throughout, and when he offers at it shall find himself at a loss, and his words will not lie right and be proper, or per- haps too many, and his expression confused ; when he has once talked his case over, and his company have tossed it a little to and fro, then he shall utter it more readily with fewer words and much more force. Lastly, the example of others, and learning from them many things which would not have been otherwise known. In fine, the advan- tages of a fit society are to a student superior to all others put together, and I shall not go about to make a complete (/) Memoirs of Sir S. Romilly, i. 67. 144 METHODS OF SELF-EDUCATION. catalogue of them" {d). What Lord Bacon writes of friend- ship is to the purpose on this subject; for he says, that it " maketh daylight in the understanding, out of darkness and confusion of thoughts : neither is this to be understood only of faithful counsel, which a man receiveth from his friend ; but before you come to that, certain it is, that whosoever hath his mind fraught with many thoughts, his wits and understanding do clarify and break up, in the communicating and discoursing with another ; he tosseth his thoughts more easily ; he marshalleth them more orderly ; he seeth how tliey look when they are turned into words ; finally, he waxeth wiser than himself; and that more by an hour's discourse than by a day's meditation." To law students this resource of companionship is com- mended as one which may much lighten their toils and help their progress ; the companionship of a few carefully chosen associates in a hearty, assiduous prosecution of learning. Congenial men, resolutely set upon such a plan, would be likely to place their standard of attainments high, and to arouse in one another tastes for various kinds of excellence which at first were not common to them ; a friendly criti- cism might detect and expose the weak points in their several theories or plans, while there was still time to change ; and there would be a relief from the discourage- ments which oppress a lonely student, in the consciousness that there were others struggling upwards amidst like difficulties and with like aims. Wearied and refreshed by turns, but seldom all together, such comrades, in the long and rugged ascent which leads to excellence in our profes- sion, might find their journey passed more pleasantly than that of the traveller who toiled on from point to point alone. The energy which sometimes accompanies a lonely life, and may seem to outweigh its disadvantages, may be an (g) North's Discourse, pp^ SO, 31. METHODS OF SELF-EDUCATION. 145 object of endeavour amidst move social studies ; while these may increase its value by contributing to a better direction of its efforts. And not the least pleasant incident of such a course might be the review of it, when in the possession, if not of success, yet at least of the merited friendship of com- panions more successful than himself, the student should retraverse in thought the old path, rich to him with recol- lections of resolution and patience in a liberal study of the profession he had chosen, and also with the memory of esteem and sympathy and cheerful fellowship among his old friends and fellow travellers. s. 146 ON THE MORAL DUTIES AND DIFFICULTIES Chapter VII. ON THE MORAL DUTIES AND DIFFICULTIES OF AN ENGLISH BARRISTER. In some respects life at the Bar is beset with peculiar dan- gers to personal character, besides those which belong to it in common with other exciting secular occupations. As Lord Bacon says, that " the great atheists indeed are hypocrites, which are ever handling holy things, but without feeling ;" so those whose daily speech is occupied with the inforcement of right and duty, and with invectives against supposed wrong-doers, are exposed to risks of their own, from the formalism and insincerity in which men so engaged are apt to be entangled. They have to do with moral questions, not when placed in an impartial position, but when there is. a strung bias to excess in commending one of two adverse parties, and in censuring the other. The dis- crepancy in many cases between what is legally right, and what may and should be desired in reference to the moral qualities of the persons and conduct concerned, forms another occasion either of perversion or discipline to character, according as it is met. Moreover, familiarity with crimes brought before the attention amidst the routine of business needs the counterpoise of watchful care to pre- serve right impressions of their true character; else the sense of their evil is liable to be gradually deadened. And this risk is the greater, because the Bar have to deal with criminal law when they are met as a body, and when the tendency to find or make matter for amusement will lead men to treat with levity subjects which it might shock them to treat in the same way at other times. It may be added OF AN ENGLISH BAKRISTEE. 147 that it is usual to frequent the Criminal Courts in the early stages of practice, when men are peculiarly liable to be in- fluenced too much by the examples of their companions and seniors. There are difficulties also of other kinds which make the early part, at any rate, of the legal journey fatiguing or dangerous. The student has to surmount a steep ascent of hard labour before he can command a view of the knowledge which is needful for the fit discharge of his duties. If this task be fairly undertaken, and a satis- factory amount of learning be gained, yet the unexpected forms of practical points may put him at fault, and some moral courage is wanted to overcome the temptation to affect a knowledge of the particular matter which is not really possessed. The nature of a profession in which business is to be waited for rather than sought, brings with it tempta- tions to find or make some shorter path to success than an upright and honourable man would approve : jealousy of more successful competitors, and a disposition to a sus- picious construction of their actions ; impatience of the dreary delays which often occur so largely in early profes- sional life ; and the society of companions who while away their disgust and weariness with little regard to anything else than present pleasure ; present in turn obstructions or allurements which may hinder a steady advance. But, besides all other things which test a young barris- ter's judgment and constancy, there is the special question which belongs to his profession — what are the limits within which an advocate's support of his client is to be held ? How is a barrister to reconcile a full discharge of his duty to his client with a firm adherence to his duty as a man — that of being in all cases truthful and fair ? The writer ventures to present the following theory, though aware that it is opposed to views which find many defenders among men whose standing and experience give weight to their opinions. l2 148 ON THE MOHAL DUTIES AND DIFFICULTIES The advocate is to do for the person whom he represents all which that person could rightly do for himself, were he disencumbered of the excitement and confusion occasioned by his interest in the trial, and were he furnished with the ability, learning and experience which his counsel should bring to the support of his cause. Therefore the advocate may and ought to see to it, that, as far as his powers allow, the whole strength of his client's case is brought out; that it is arranged in such order, stated with so much clearness, enforced with so much earnestness, that it will leave upon the minds of the judge and the jury the impress of its weight, well stamped, and proof against the defacing effects of antagonist reasoning. All the lesser points among the merits, or the evidence, which would escape a superficial view, must be diligently explored ; all cross-lights, which one part of tlje case, properly understood, reflects on another, must be brought to the notice of the tribunal ; incidental presumptions, which to a mind weighing proba- bilities should tell in support of the view urged, should be noticed, and receive the degree of enforcement which they deserve ; and where these, though perhaps weak singly, become strong (like the sticks in the fable) when bound up in one fagot, the advocate should see that their strength is brought to bear united. If his client has suffered hard- ship, its nature and extent should be so depicted, and its claims to sympathy so presented to the mind and imagina- tion, that the hearers should be, if possible, affected as fully by the wronsj; as if they had witnessed it. If his conduct has been marked by justice, kindness, forbearance, courage, patience, or thoughtfulness, it is for his advocate to en- kindle the respect which such qualities deserve. The case must be cleared of its intricacies, defended against preju- dices, and, in each particular and in its connected form, be brought home fully and forcibly to the understanding and the hearts of the tribunal. OF AN ENGLISH BARRISTER. 149 And while this is the positive side of the advocate's duty, there is a* negative side scarcely, if at all, less important. If the argument for the opposite party be conducted with all the fairness which could reasonably be expected, it is yet likely to be tinged with natural prejudices, and grounded on partial knowledge. Against the effects of these causes of error the advocate should watch, not with the impar- tiality of a just judge, but with the earnestness of personal interest. Where mistaken views are put forth merely from error of judgment or imperfect information, he should carefully correct them ; where they are persevered in obstinately, he should strenuously contend against them. Fencing, when that is necessary, against the crafty feints and parries of arguments which would misapply correct principles or established decisions to fortify wrongdoing ; and, when such artificial defences are eluded or thrust aside, striking right home with the strong blows of simple truth, the advocate should exert his best skill, constancy, and vigour on his client's behalf. But, in the conduct of his own case, he should seek for it no advantages which would not belong to it in the judgment of an impartial bystander who thoroughly knew and appre- ciated its claims ; and in resisting his opponent's, he should not attempt to lessen its real merits, or to attach to it any blame or discredit which he does not really believe that it deserves. So, in the treatment of witnesses, while unsparing in the pursuit and detection of fraud and malevolence to the utmost of his power, and severe in its exposure, he should be so far from attempting to confuse or intimidate a blunder- ing witness, who appears to be intending honestly, that he should rather assist him to recover his disordered faculties, and to recollect more clearly what he had forgotten. And in bringing out the evidence on his own side, he should not conceal or withdraw from disclosure facts which would naturally and properly accompany those which he elicits. 160 ON THE MORAL DUTIES AND DIFFICULTIES Throughout, he should hold it to be his duty to assist rather than retard the development of the truth. How, then, does an adv.ocate so acting difiPer in his con- duct from a judge ? In this important particular, that, while he seeks no perversion or suppression of truth, he takes it to be his own duty to bring out and urge only that portion of it which makes for his client. It is for his antagonist to bring out the strong points against him. It is for himself to see that those which make for him are clearly stated and enforced, and (as far as he can secure it) understood and appreciated. And he has also to tear off every disguise from the case of his adversary, to point out all that is rotten in its supports, to attract attention to whatever in it is dark, irregular, or unsound. But throughout it is truth he should bring to light and maintain — whether in the strong points of his own case, or in the weak ones of his adversary. The judge is to see to it that the whole truth is brought out ; the advocate, that the portion of truth is brought out which is in favour of the cause he represents. But neither judge nor advocate may rightly seek that truth should be suppressed, or a mis- leading view be presented and credited. But, it may be said, in every instance there must be one side in fault, and what are the counsel on that side to do ? One answer is, that there are few causes in which either side is wholly wrong, although one party must be wrong on the whole; and there may be much to be done in seeing to it, that those facts or reasonings, even on the worse side, which are really material and weighty, be brought forward, and receive fair and full attention. Again, although at the end of the trial it may be clear that a client should fail, a long investigation may be required be- fore this is clear, and, even after a long investigation, it may often be real matter of doubt on which side the right lies. If we take the case of a criminal charge which appears OF AN ENGLISH BARRISTER. 151 to be well made out on paper, this apparently strong fabric may melt away under a strict but fair cross-examination in open court. It may be seen that, after all, the person charged is innocent ; or, if there be no substantial doubt in his counsel's mind that the crime was really committed by the prisoner, it may yet be very far from clear that this has been established by legal evidence, and he may direct his argument to the question not of guilt, but of proof of guilt. He may test and watch the evidence, remark upon any want of completeness in it, and expose its incon- sistencies. The jury are to give their verdict according to the evidence, not according to the fact in the abstract of . the prisoner's innocence or guilt. In exceptional cases, it will be the duty of counsel to give up a cause during its progress, and in some, still more extreme, to refuse a brief. The man whose usual conduct of business is regulated by a carefully conscientious, but not morbid, sense of duty, will be on that account the more likely to judge rightly as to the fitness of such steps. It would be pretty generally allowed that so strict a course as that above indicated would rather be of advantage than detriment to the public. But it would more often be doubted whether any barrister who adopted it would be successful. Clients would in practice exact, it may be thought, a less scrupulous devotion to their supposed in- terests. The shoi't and principal answer is, that the whole matter turns on the question whether such a practice is required by a true view of what is right. This is fair matter of discussion, but if it be so required, then the supposed interest of the individual ought not to set it aside. There are, however, some reasons for thinking that the apprehen- sion suggested is rather shortsighted than clear-sighted. It may be admitted that a barrister, acting on such prin- ciples, must be content to forego employment in the sup- port of cases radically unfair and fraudulent, — where the 152 ON THE MORAL DUTIES AND DIFFICULTIES object intended is to throw dust in the eyes of the Court, and succeed in the proposed end, whatever it be, by help of the temporary blindness so caused. Few men would have the effrontery to acknowledge that they desired such practice as this. But where the object is to have the facts and law thoroughly studied, to be secured against prejudices or false reasonings on the other side, and to have the real character of a just claim brought out clearly and urged heartily, there may be a fair field for such a practitioner. A reputation for utter uprightness in advocacy would gradually find its way to judges and juries, and would carry weight with them, which even clients might learn to value. Practically, from the nature of things, it is likely to make a difference, either with one learned man, or with twelve men of ordinary habits and common sense, whether they feel confidence that the person addressing them is dealing with them sincerely and openly, or whether a lurking suspicion, at one time contracted, at another ex- panding, warns them not to surrender either judgment or sympathy to his guidance. It may be added, that the consciousness of such habits may be reasonably expected to add force to the speaker himself. A man whose specious sophisms and unreal sem- blance of passion are at the call of any client will scarcely have so much within him of the sound material of stirring appeals as one who refuses to seem either sympathetic or indignant, unless he sees real cause for sympathy or anger. And it is not a trifling question for an advocate to con- sider, what effect a contrary habit may have upon his own character. Whatever arguments may be found for dis- tinguishing between official and personal conduct, still they cannot be so severed as to prevent what a man does in his profession from affecting the general tone of his mind and feelings. And perhaps what Lord Bacon says of "civil OF AN ENGLISH BARRISTER. 163 business" may be applied, with some allowances, to the case of a professional advocate, that " it will be acknow- ledged, even by those who practise it not, that clear and round dealing is the honour of man's nature, and that mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it ; for these winding and crooked courses are the goings of the serpent, which goeth basely upon tjie belly, and not upon the feet " (b). Sir Matthew Hale's example, according to Bishop Burnet's account of it, may be referred to upon this as upon many other points : " If he saw a cause was un- just, he for a great while would not meddle further in it, but to give his advice that it was so ; if the parties after that would go on, they were to seek another counsellor, for he would assist none in acts of injustice. If he found the cause doubtful or weak in point of law, he always advised his clients to agree their business : yet afterwards he abated much of the scrupulosity he had about causes that appeared at first view unjust, upon this occasion : — There were two causes brought to him, vyhich, by the ignorance of the party or their attorney, were so ill represented to him, that they seemed to be very bad ; but he enquiring more narrowly into them, found they were really very good and just. So after this he slackened much of his former strictness of refusing to meddle in causes upon the ill circumstances that appeared in them at first. "In his pleading he abhorred those too common faults of misreciting evidences, quoting precedents or books (6) Essay on Truth ; "in which," according to a remark of Vice-Chancellor Wood, in a lecture delivered in Exeter Hall, " more condensed ore may be found than would suffice for the gilded truisms of whole volumes of modern philosophy."— Lectures delivered before the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation, in Exeter Hall, from Nov. 1856 to Feb. 1857, p. 4. 154 ON THE MORAL DUTIES AND DIFFICULTIES falsely, or asserting things confidently, by which ignorant juries, or weak judges, are too often wrought on. He pleaded with the same sincerity that he used in the other parts of his life, and used to say it was as great a dishonour as a man was capable of, that for a little money he was to be hired to say or do otherwise than as he thought. All this he ascribed to the unmeasurable desire of heaping up wealth, ^hich corrupted the souls of some that seemed to be otherwise born and made for great things "(b). When thinking of those who occupy judicial positions, a young lawyer can hardly find it difficult to feel that not only ability and experience, but moral worth also, is to be looked for, in order to the satisfactory transaction of legal business. A halo of bright light settles round the bench, when those who preside are conspicuous for an earnest devotion to duty, directing and employing great powers, but it fades into common daylight when no serious sense of responsibility and love of rectitude marks them. But, though perhaps in a less striking manner, moral qualities are really needed for the satisfactory fulfilment of the tasks of an advocate ; and a barrister lately received into the ranks of his profession might well feel a sense of obligation to set before him a high standard both of attainments and of character. The stimulus of such a purpose, in addition to whatever others he may have, may not be superfluous. For degrading, as well as depressing, influences are likely to beset his early years, and if he surrenders himself to drop passively down their tide, it may carry him on from point to point, until he regrets that be ever entered a profession in which the loss of time is perhaps not the only loss which he mourns — perhaps not that which he mourns most bitterly. Let a man come to terms with himself, and resolve that, according to his (6) Burnet's Hale, 85 6. OF AN ENGLISH BARRISTER. 155 power, he will not allow himself to live a mere cypher, useless to himself and others, in a profession in which so many monuments of energy, as well as patience, have been raised. If delays dispirit him, let his leisure be not time lost but gained, by the resolute use of it in the accumula- tion of fresh stores of knowledge, and in the more thorough discipline of mind and spirit. The same want of immediate or early success, which to one man is a source of despondency and recklessness, leading him either into indolence in which his faculties are rusted, or into an intemperance that con- sumes them, may be, to another, a talent so employed, that a life which might otherwise have been one of half-qualified mediocrity becomes marked by higher enterprizesi and fitted for the attainment and worthy use of more eminent, though later, success. And if, after all, the success which he has desired should not be given him, very different would be the condition and prospects with which such a man would turn to some more remunerative field of action — with a cultivated, enriched, and disciplined mind, and an energy grown, to his own consciousness, stronger amidst the difficulties that have tried it — from those of one who floats on helplessly from disappointment to disappointment, without a well chosen purpose, or energy for exertion. No man, suc- cessful or unsuccessful, need quit the profession without in some measure leaving it the better for his joining it, at least by the benefit of a good example, and perhaps by^ some really useful addition to the literature from which its learning. is to be gained, in writings which will be not a new incumbrance to bookshelves already overloaded, but fresh and valued way-marks and lights, making the lawyer's path more sure and clear. But labour and patience are, in some cases at all events, the indispensable prerequisites to signal success : ' " Abroad in armes, at home in studious kynd, Who seekes with painfull toile, shall Honor soonest fynd : 166 ON THE MOKAI, DUTIES AND DIFFICULTIES, ETC. " In woods, in waves, in warres, slie wonts to dwell, And wil be found with perill and with paine ; Ne can the man, that moulds in ydle cell, Unto her happy mansion attaine : Before her gate High God did Sweate ordaine, And wakeful! Watches ever to abide: But easy is the way and passage plaine Tb Pleasures pallace ; it may scone be spide, And day and night her dores to all stand open wide." The highest, the Christian, idea of professional life, more difiRcult of attainment than external success, indeed un- attainable without better help than a man can render to himself, is not without examples to illustrate it, both at the bar and on the bench. Sir Matthew Hale, whose reputation stands alone for the combination of the excellences which support it, has expressed his own thoughts of right conduct in a secular occupation by the words which he has attributed to the " Good Steward" when rendering his account to God of the use made of his life. He represents him as having endeavoured to employ it, in part, " By exercising myself in the very business of my calling, as an act of duty and obedience to Thee, acting in it those vertues of Christianity that might be honourable to Thy name, of good example to others, of improvement of grace unto myself; using in it diligence without anxiety; dependence upon Thee without presumption; contentedness, patience, thankfulness, honesty, justice, uprightness, plain dealing, liberality; and by this means translating my secular imployment into an exercise of Christian duty, serving Thee whilst I served myself, and converting that very imployment and the time spent therein to the use, honour, and advantage of my Lord and Master, the good example of others, and the increase of my spiritual advantage, as well as my temporal" (c). (c) Sir Matthew Hale's Contemplations. The Account of the Good Steward. ( 167 ) Chapter VIII. ON PEIVATE TUITION. Any history of Education for the Bar would be incom- plete, which failed to advert to the custom of reading with some practitioner as a tutor. Indeed this has been the recognized method of preparation. Serjeant Stephen says in his Commentaries, " The business of legal education has in fact been long conducted in private channels— a method which experience has proved to be efficacious, the usual plan being to obtain admission into the chambers of a practising barrister, conveyancer, or special pleader, where, in addition to the opportunities of observing the course of practice, the pupil enjoys for some years the advantage of tuition in the grounds and principles of the law." Traces of something like this, though perhaps attribut- able to the interest felt for a personal acquaintance, may be found asjong ago as Lord Somers's time. He was a student of the Middle Temple in lfi69, and was known to Sir Francis Winnington ; and Lord Campbell represents him as having, soon after, had the run of his friend's chambers, and been there to see and assist in the business which was going forward. Another plan was that of attendance in attornies' offices; In his account of Lord Thurlow, who left college about 1751, Lord Campbell speaks thus: "The usual custom was to place the aspirant for the Bar, as a pupil, in the office of a solicitor, where he was supposed to learn how actions were commenced and conducted, with the practice of the different courts of law and equity." Thurlow was 158 ON PRIVATE TUITION. in Mr. Chapman's office, where William Cowper was his very dissimilar fellow pupil. That Lord Hardwicke was in that of Mr. Salkeld seems to have been in his own case explained by his being regularly articled, with a view to becoming a member of the same branch of the profession ; but Mr. Parker, afterwards Chief Baron of the Exchequer ; Mr. Jocelyn, afterwards Lord Chancellor of Ireland ; and Mr. Strange, afterwards Master of the Rolls, were also, it appears, in the same office. The modern practice of studying with a barrister is assigned to a later date. Lord Campbell, after mentioning that Lord Mansfield " never had the advantage of being initiated in the mysteries of legal warfare by any practi- tioner," adds, " the pnpilising system, now in such vigour, having been introduced in the following generation by the celebrated Tom Warren and Mr. Justice Buller." The latter was one of Lord Erskine's legal tutors. The mode in which time in a tutor's chambers is occupied varies, of course, in different instances. Sometimes, as in Sir Samuel Romilly's account of his own life, the advantage gained may appear to be rather the assistance rendered in the course of the pupil's reading, fresh light thrown in on passages which he finds obscure, the supply of books for his use and guidance as to their selection, than much ex- perience in drawing, or familiarity with the details of an extensive practice (a). Sometimes the tutor has given his (o) " My good friend, Mr. Lally, advised me to become the pupil of some Chancery draftsman for a couple of years ; and, for the first year, to confine myself merely to reading under his direction and with his assistance. This advice I followed, and placed myself under the guidance of Mr. Spranger. I passed all my mornings and part of most of my evenings at his house. He had a very good library, which I had the use of i he directed my reading; he explained what I did not understand ; he removed many of the difficulties I met with ; and, what was of no small advantage to me, I formed a lasting friendship with this very kind-hearted and excellent man, who was universally esteemed, and who had a high character in the pro- fession."— Memoirs of Sir S. Romillj', vol. ], p. 6. ON PRIVATE TUITION. 159 pupils the benefit of regular instruction, which has taken, ultimately at any rate, a connected and methodized form. Lord Redesdale's Treatise on Pleading was composed, it is said, " not for ambition, or for profit, but simply, in the course of his duties, for the education of another man, at that time only his pupil "(i) ; and the work of Mr. Preston, on Abstracts, appears to have had a like history. It " originated," says its author, " and was, in a great measure, completed, in a Course of Lectures to Pupils." " To carry the student " (he says at a later point) " into a knowledge of the grounds and rudiments of law, by teach- ing him, step by step, the principles and the reasons of the practice ; and to lead him, while learning to prepare his abstract, into the more nice and difficult branches of the profession, was deemed an object justifying the labor of the undertaking, and the still more arduous work of publi- cation." The work, he says, " consists of one hundred lectures, delivered in as many hours; each lecture having occupied one hour "(c). And this work is not the only one, in Mr. Preston's case, of which some such account has been given. " Without the duty of communicating infor- mation to others," he says he would " never have embodied into writing .... the three volumes already published of the Treatise on the Practice of Conveyancing." But courses of careful and systematic instruction, even in the more technical part of professional knowledge, are hardly so characteristic of the modern system of private tuition as might be thought from such instances as these. The life of pupils in chambers, where there are real habits of work, is fairly expressed in the following extracts, from the evidence of Sir Fitzroy Kelly before the Inns of Court (6) From a lecture by Mr. Walpole, as quoted in Mr. Warren's work on Law Studies, (c) Preston on Abstracts, vol. 1, vii. x. 160 ON PRIVATE TUITION. Commission {d). " Perhaps there is too much copying, or rather there was, I suppose that would, in modern changes, be disused. But there was also this — there were constant debatings, there were constant investi- gations of every case that came into the barrister's or pleader's chambers for his opinion, and looking up of cases; and then the students, each giving his own opinion upon the case, and saying why he formed that opinion, by re- ferring to authorities ; and then the barrister saying, my opinion is so and so, upon such and such grounds, correcting the errors of the one student, and approving of the course resorted to by the other." This " was coupled with the copying of precedents and preparing pleadings, coupled also with reading of elementary books, and reading cases "(e). The mode of distributing the time which pupils devote to this method of learning is naturally varied with the parti- cular professional courses which they propose to themselves. In Mr. Warren's book on Legal Education distinct plans of pupilage, occupying, in some cases, about four years, are recommended, severally, for those who aim at the common law bar, or conveyancing, or equity practice, or are as yet undecided as to what is the best branch to attempt (/). (d) Sir F. Kelly spoke in favour of the modern system of tuition. " I found," he said, " and as far as I know, everybody else with whom in my early professional life I was acquainted, found that the best, the most satisfactory, and the most rapid mode of acquiring an accurate and sound knowledge of the law, was to pursue a system of Legal Education at the chambers of a barrister and special pleader. (e) Report, &c. p. 40. (/) For the student for the common law, if intending to practise at first, or wholly, as a pleader under the bar, Mr. Warren recommends a year's attendance at the chambers of a pleader who has such a moderate practice as will admit of his giving personal instruction to one or two pupils ; a second year with a conveyancer, who would read with his pupils; six or twelve months in the chambers of an equity draftsman j and, finally, that the student ON PRIVATE TUITION. 161 This practice of private tuition, which for a long time possessed a sort of monopoly as a method of education in should betake himself to the chambers of a pleader in large practice, or a pleading barrister. In the case of a student who intends to be called to the bar at the earliest practicable period, and commence with sessions practice, the proposed plan IS that, after pupilage successively with a junior pleader, a conveyancer, and an equity draftsman, he should spend either two years with a pleading barrister, or one in private reading and the other with a pleading barrister, and the six months immediately previous to his being called to the bar with some barrister practising at sessions. Mr. Warren attaches much im- portance to the last suggestion. ' He who intends to become a conveyancer should spend his first and second years with a conveyancer, his third with an equity draftsman, and a fourth year with a pleader, or pleading barrister; or say, that the second year be spent with an equity draftsman, the third with a common law pleader, or pleading barrister, and the fourth with a conveyancer." " The student who intends to practise at the equity bar should spend at least a year with a conveyancer, another with a common law pleading barrister, and two years with an equity draftsman ; or two years with a conveyancer, one with a common law pleading barrister, and the last year with an equity draftsman." A young man, irresolute as to the department which he would select, may commence with a conveyancer, and spend a second year with a. common lawyer or equity draftsman j and, being by that time better assisted to make his election, dispose of the remaining period of pupilage accordingly. For a student who cannot command the time and funds for a full range of pupilage, Mr. Warren suggests one half year with a junior pleader, and another with a conveyancer, followed by twelve months with a pleader or pleading barrister in first-rate practice, and subsequent sedulous solitary study previous to entering into practice (pp. 676-7, and 682-3-6). This account will show several of the combinations in which private tuition may be adapted to the different requirements of students. But the plans proposed exceed what would be most customary. Some knowledge of convey- ancing (and the knowledge of real property law which should accompany it) is required both at the common law and the equity bar ; but the writer thinks it could hardly be stated as the usual practice of students intending to practise in equity, to read with common lawyers, or vice versd. And, with respect to time, three years gives probably the full limits for ordinary cases. Sir F. Kelly, in his evidence before referred to, expressed an opinion that a man "going for a year to a common law barrister, and six months to a con- veyancer, and the remaining year and a half back again to a common law barrister, might turn ont perfectly fit to practise at the bar; " three years is mentioned also in the evidence of Dr. Maine as about the time usually occu- pied in study ; and Mr. Birkbeck speaks of " three years spent in chambers, according to the old system." Mr, W. D. Lewis refers to men taking " two S. M 162 ON PRIVATE TUITION. the Inns of Court, has indeed great value for some of its obJRcts. As a means of instruction in the practice of the profession, it can scarcely have a competitor. " Looking," says one able and experienced vpitness before the Commission, "at the state of the profession, and the sort of acquirements which are necessary for a barrister in this country, my opinion is, that it is absolutely neces- sary that any one who wishes to practise effectively as a barrister, should have the advantage of spending two years, before he is called to the bar, in the chambers of a practising barrister, or in some place where he will see the actual routine of business, and not only have opportunities of studying jurisprudence theoretically "(^). But an analogy traced by the same eminent man (Sir Hugh Cairns), although used for the purpose of enforcing the necessity of such instruction, may also be applied to show its deficiencies. For when he remarks that "it is as absurd to think of any one practising as a barrister without that kind of training, as it is to think of any one practising surgery without walking the hospita]s"(A), it may be answered, wiiiie the force of the illustration is admitted, that a medical man, whose only knowledge was derived from the hospitals, would be but imperfectly trained. The connected and orderly study of medicine as a science is also required ; and, for this purpose, not only private reading is desirable, but also the systematic instructions of competent teachers. years at least in chamber practice," which tallies with the opinion of Sir Hugh Cairns, subsequently noticed. (g) Evidence of Mr. Cairns, Report, &c., p. 137. (A) Report, &c., p. 139. Sir Hugli Cairns, however, is not to be under- stood as having been an advocate for the neglect of more general juris- prudential studies. His evidence contains an interesting sketch of a method by which he proposed to provide for their claims. Before giving it, he says, " I think the larger the range of reading in jurisprudence, which those who are preparing for the bar could be led to adopt, the greater would be the advantage., I cannot, indeed, fancy any branch of knowledge which at the bar may not be brought into use at some time or other." — p. 138. ON PRIVATE TUITION. 163 So, too, in the legal profession. If the mere student and theorist will be wanting in practical expertness, the merely practical man is likely to be without those compre- hensive views of the reasons and mutual relations of legal rules, which are essential to a liberal practice of the pro- fession, and to the real health and usefulness of legal ad- ministration. Such views a student must hardly reckon on obtaining, in ordinary cases, in the chambers to which he resorts for the sake of accumulating a mass of tech- nical details and readiness in their use. Is the guidance in reading, which Mr. Romilly received from his tutor, to be expected from one whose days are passed amidst a throng of pressing claims from clients ? Or is a tutor in large practice usually able and inclined to devote himself heartily, after the pattern furnished by Mr. Preston's de- scription, to elucidate for his pupils the scientific founda- tions which support the machinery of business, and the principles which, when that machinery is in right order, supply its motive powers ? The claims of clients may often thrust aside those of pupils, — at any rate so far as to render irregular any large expenditure of time on their general instruction. And the nature of clients' business itself is likely to vary and be unsystematic. Arrange- ment and selection of topics are of importance in edu- cation; but the influx and order of the tutor's papers are not at his, or his pupils', discretion. Besides, it is not in every pupil room that a student will find his com- panions help, rather than hinder, his progress. An or- dinary pupil room is in truth hardly the place, even for learning the general rules of law, but still less for learning their reasons and theory ; yet both the rules and their reasons should be studied. A man who knows the rules merely, and knows these well, will indeed be able to get through a great deal of current business successfully. But if he would prepare himself, not only for routine tasks, but M 2 164 ON PEIVATE TUITION. for a masterly knowledge, and an enlightened and satisfac- tory practice, of the profession, he must not be content to know the letter of the law only, but become acquainted ■with its history and its prospects, the points at which it conforms to principle, and those where it is irregular and exceptional : he should be able to distinguish the cases in •which it can merely claim obedience as a subsisting rule from those in which it can challenge approval as not only legally, but morally, right. It is comparatively easy to dogmatize on such matters in a shallow way ; but, before a man is really entitled to judge of them, his understanding must be exercised on such topics, and his learning be real and sound. How is this sound learning to be best ac- quired ? In recent discussions on Legal Education, the contest has been in part between the system of private tuition and that of instruction by lectures. Of the latter plan it may be observed in passing, that a method which, both in Eng- land and America, has produced master-pieces of legal authorship, in the Commentaries of Mr. Justice Black- stone and Chancellor Kent, can scarcely be unadapted to legal instruction (i). Public lectures may indeed leave the student to seek from some other source the supplementary help which their formal and unbroken character is not adapted to give. Opportunities may be wanted for asking explanations and for stating difficulties. And no doubt a private tutor, well qualified to teach, and unencumbered by pressing business, (j) As to Blackstone, see p. 166 : Chancellor Kent, after referring to his appointment as professor of law in Columbia College, says — " The following lectures are the fruit of the acceptance of that trust; . . ." — Preface to Kent's Commentaries, vol. 1. The writer, from attendance on the lectures of Mr. Amos, as Downing Professor of English Law, and Dr. Maine, when Regius Professor of Civil Law, at Cambridge, has further reasons for trusting the capabilities of this mode of instruction, when employed by able men. ON PRIVATE TUITION. 165 might, render assistance of this kind more readily than a public lecturer. But a combined system of lectures and private classes with frequent examinations can provide against the defects that have been mentioned, and the existence of competition and emulation among the students themselves gives some advantage to a comparatively nu- merous class. A system of this kind is now in operation which will be noticed more at length in later pages. ( 166 ) Part III. SYSTEMATIC LEGAL EDUCATION IN THE INNS OF COURT IN MODERN TIMES. Chapter I. ATTEMPTS IN SOME OF THE FOUR INNS SEPARATELY. Although the methods of instruction in English law which were anciently pursued were allowed gradually to lose their vitality, and to dry up into mere sapless branches of a decay- ing tree; and, in the region where they had flourished, no sufficient substitute, better suited to the altered soil, and with fruit more palatable to the appetite of the fresh inhabitants, was for a long time planted ; yet, after a while, English law was publicly taught elsewhere ; and, in at least one early in- stance, taught in a manner which laid an abiding foundation for the instructor's fame. Blackstone's Commentaries con- tained the substance of a course of lectures on the laws of England which he read in the University of Oxford. He tells us in the preface, that his original plan took its rise in the year 1753 ; and that, "notwithstanding the novelty of such an attempt in this age and country, and the pre- judices usually conceived against any innovations in the established mode of education," he had the satisfaction to find that his endeavours were encouraged and patronized by those, both in the university and out of it, whose good opinion and esteem he was principally desirous to obtain. He further tells us, that the death of Mr. Viner in 1 756, and his ample benefaction to the university for promoting ATTEMPTS IN SOME OF THE FOUR INNS SEPARATELY. 167 the study of the law, produced, about two years afterwards, a regular and public establishment of what the commen- tator had privately undertaken ; that the knowledge of our laws and constitution was adopted as a liberal science by general academical authority; competent endowments were decreed for the support of a lecturer, and the perpetual en- couragement of students; and that he had the honour to be elected the first Vinerian professor. Instruction has been since given, both by his successors in the University of Oxford, and in that of Cambridge by the Downing, professors of English law, and lectures have also been given on that subject in London, at University College and at King's College. It may be added that, after being for some time one of the subjects for examination in the University of London, English law holds a place in University examinations at Oxford and Cambridge. Before, however, the later of these plans had been adopted, some lectures had already been given in the Inns of Court. An early and memorable one is in print, the Discourse on the Study of the Law of Nature and Nations, by Sir James (then Mr.) Mackintosh. Mr. Mackintosh says in that discourse, that he " had long been convinced that public lectures, which have been used in most ages and countries to teach the elements of almost every part of learning, were the most convenient mode in which these elements could be taught ; that they were the best adapted for the important purposes of awakening the attention of the student, of abridging his labours, of guiding his inqui- ries, of relieving the tediousness of private study, and of impressing on his recollection the principles of science." He " saw no reason why the law of England should be less adapted to this mode of instruction, or less likely to benefit by it, than any other part of knowledge." It appears, however, that Mr. Nolan had proposed to deliver lectures on that subject in Lincoln's Inn Hall, and Mr. Mackintosh, 168 ATTEMPTS IN SOME OF THE FOUR INNS SEPARATELY. avoiding an intrusion on his province, set about the course of lectures to which the published Discourse vpas introduc- tory. " No writer," he tells us, " since the time of Grotius, of Puffendorff, and of Wolf, has combined an investigation of the principles of natural and public law, with a full application of these principles to particular cases;" and he expresses, in modest terms, his hope that he should be able to exhibit a view of this science which should be more intelligible and attractive to students than the learned treatises of those celebrated men. He proceeds to state the general plan and subjects of his lectures. Considering that on the knowledge of man's nature the science of his duty must be founded, he proposed that the course should open with what he states as "a very short, and, I hope, a very simple and intelligible account of the powers and operations of the human mind." He was to proceed to the consideration of men's practical duty, in that part of ethics " which regards the duties of private men towards each other, when they are considered apart from the sanc- tion of positive laws." " Having established the principles of private duty, I shall proceed," he says, " to consider man under the important relation of subject and sovereign, or, in other words, of citizen and magistrate." His next attempt was to be " to lay open the general principles of civil and criminal laws." Fifthly, he was to take " the law of nations, strictly and properly so called." And he tells us that, as "an important supplement to the practical system of our modern law of nations, or rather as a neces- sary part of it," he should " conclude with a survey of the diplomatic and conventional law of Europe ; of the treaties which have materially affected the distribution of power and territory among the European states ; the circum- stances which gave rise to them, the changes which they effected, and the principles which they introduced into the public code of the Christian commonwealth." At a later ATTEMPTS IN SOME OF THE FOUR INNS SEPARATELY. 169 point he adds, " As a useful appendix to a practical treatise on the law of nations, some account will be given of those tribunals wJiich in different countries of Europe de- cide controversies arising out of that law ; of their con- stitution, of the extent of their authority, and of their modes of proceeding; more especially of those courts which are peculiarly appointed for that purpose by the laws of Great Britain." It is mentioned in Sir James Mackintosh's life (a) that his course of lectures occupied thirty-nine (beginning with February, and continuing till June, 1799), and was repeated, with some variations, the following year. It appears that in 1833 the benchers of the Inner Temple resolved that two lecturers should be appointed to deliver lectures in their hall weekly, except in the long^ vacation, and in the vacations at Christmas and Easter. One of the lecturers was to take as his subject the principles of law administered in the Superior Courts of common law and equity in England ; the other, the general principles of jurisprudence and international law. But, from the evidence before the Inns of Court Commis- sion, it seems that the attempt was soon discontinued. Although the lecturers were able men, the attendance be- came so small that, after less than two years, the lecture- ship ceased, until 1847 (b). In November, 1845, the benchers of the Middle Temple, on a motion by Mr. Bethell, resolved — " That it is expedient that steps be taken for promoting the legal education of the students of this house ;" and referred it to a committee to report on the mode of procedure. In the Committee's Report they " recommend that the steps to be taken by the Middle Temple should be such as are best adapted for the commencement of a sound and comprehensive legal (a) Vol. I., pp. 106-7. (i) See Mr. Bryant's Evidence, Report, &c., p. 144. 170 ATTEMPTS IN SOME OF THE FOUR INNS SEPARATELY, education ; for they have reason to hope that the plan, thus rightly begun, will be followed out and completed by the proceedings of the other societies ; so that the institutions (which) will be finally established by the several Inns shall aflPord to the students collectively a complete course of legal instruction." The committee, in this Report (which was approved of and confirmed), recommended the appoint- ment of a reader on jurisprudence and the civil law, who should deliver three terminalcourses,of twenty lectures each, in each year ; the lectures to be open to students of all the societies; attendance not to be compulsory, until some general system should be adopted in connection with the other societies. It was proposed that there should be an annual voluntary examination of students previous to their being called, such exan)inations to be conducted by three benchers assisted by the lecturer ; and to consist of ques- tions in jurisprudence, common law, equity and convey- ancing. Students who distinguished themselves were to be honourably mentioned at their call ; and, at the exami- nation in each year, the two most meritorious students who had attended three courses were to receive a hundred guineas each. Mr. George Long was appointed reader. Two dis- courses delivered by him in the Middle Temple Hall, one an introductory lecture, the other on the advantages of studying the Roman law, were published by Charles Knight in 1847. The question of legal education was noticed in 1846 by the House of Commons. In the month of April an order was made for the appointment of a select committee, who were to make inquiry as to legal education in Ireland ; and in May the scope of the inquiry was enlarged, so as to include the state, improvement, and extension, of legal education in England. To return to the steps taken in the Inns of Court : it ATTEMPTS IN SOME OF THE FOUR INNS SEPARATELY. 171 appears, from the evidence of Mr. W. D. Lewis before the Inns of Court Commission, that the several Inns appointed, each of them, a lecturer, but the attendance on the lectures was voluntary. " In pursuance of the plan which, as I believe, Mr. Bethell suggested, Mr. Spence was appointed the lecturer of Lincoln's Inn, on Equity ; Mr. Long on Civil Law, at the Middle Temple ; Mr. Hall on Common Law, at the Inner Temple ; and myself on Real Property and Conveyancing, Devises and Bequests, at Gray's Inn." At Gray's Inn it had been announced on the part of the Benchers, towards the close of 1846, that they were "desirous that, in addition to the lectures, some further means should be adopted to secure the attention and to ascertain the proficiency of the students. The discussion of some appointed subjects, in which the students should be invited to join, subject to proper regulations, opportunities afforded to students of stating and of obtaining from the lecturer the solution of difficulties, and examinations in the subjects of the previous lectures and discussions, suggest themselves as means by the judicious application of which the end in view may be attained "(c). Mr. Lewis (who held office as lecturer at Gray's Inn till 1852) id) established mootings and fortnightly examinations in the subjects of the lectures, and, with the approbation of the benchers, an annual voluntary examination for honours. In the report of his .evidence, before the Commission, two plans are mentioned as adopted by him in his mootings, one of which afforded practice in advocacy, the other in the statement of opinions. Sometimes, it appears, he named parties, and requested individuals to conduct their cases; and at other times asked for the views of the students upon (c) Appendix to Report, p. 114. (d) In a published lecture by him, delivered in November, 1851, are remarks upon the statutes, some of vfliich he proposed to take as subjects during the ensuing period. 172 ATTEMPTS IN SOME OF THE FOUR INNS SEPARATELY. a case stated by himself. In the latter part of his evidence he thus urges the value of mooting : " With regard to moot cases, I would press that portion of the system practised by me at Gray's Inn strongly upon the notice of the Commission. I will just mention wherein it appears to me to be useful. It has none of the objections of a debat- ing society about it ; it does not beget any of the evils of a debating society. The rule of compelling the students to compress their arguments within a certain time is good. Again, by moot cases you catch up all the straggling points, not susceptible of scientific treatment, that stand out of the general course and are angular. There are many points that do not come into any theory, and you dispose of them in that way. Then by a moot case you illustrate your lectures. If the students are not up to the mark upon any of the subjects which you have been lecturing on, you take a good striking practical case, arid by this means you can bring it home to them more forcibly." Being asked, " How do you put a moot point ?" Mr. Lewis says in his answer, "Of course I framed the case, knowing, or sup- posing that I might know, the proper solution of the question ; and therefore, also knowing that the proper dis- cussion of the case would elicit a full examination of all the surrounding principles and doctrines ; and in this way, cer- tainly, I succeeded in bringing out a great body of doc- trine in the arguments. Sometimes I went to the argument with a prepared opinion upon the point in question, and at other times I deferred giving my opinion ; and I must say some very able arguments have been addressed which would have done credit to some of the first men at the bar. Some of the benchers at Gray's Inn generally attended the mootings, and would bear witness to the fact that the stu- dents did exhibit the greatest possible interest in moot cases. For the due order and regulation of these mootings, I framed rules, to which I found no difficulty m procuring ATTEMPTS IN SOME OF THE FOUR INNS SEPARATELY. 173 submission on the part of those who attended the dis- cussions." The fortnightly examinations appear to have been in- tended to have reference to the lectures ; the annual exami- nations to have been more general. " There were generally three benchers who were kind enough to take upon them- selves the trouble of acting as examiners for honours. There were oral and written examinations. We had two days, one for the oral and the other for the written exami- nation." Certificates were awarded, and the lecturer him- self gave a prize to the first man upon the list. In 1850, Mr. George Bowyer was appointed reader at the Middle Temple. A series of his readings was published, which includes among its subjects the uses of the Science of General Jurisprudence, the Classification of Laws, the Uses of the Roman Law and its Relation to the Common Law, the Construction of Statutes, the Criminal Jurispru- dence of the Civilians, and the Canon Law. In 1851 Mr. Bowyer resigned. He was succeeded by Mr. J. G. Phillimore. An inaugural lecture by him, on Jurisprudence and on the Influence of the Canon Law, was published. These were some of the later instances of public legal instruction in the Inns of Court while the action of the different societies was not yet combined. ( 174 ) Chapter II. THE PRESENT SYSTEM. In 1852, by orders at the several Inns, a report, which was made to the benchers by a committee, was adopted, and the regulations therein suggested became the rules of all the societies. It was then determined that the four Inns of Court should act in concert in the joint establishment and main- tenance of an uniform system for the legal education of students before admission to the bar; that a standing com- mittee or council should be established, to consist of eight benchers, two to be nominated by each of the Inns of Court; and that to this council should be entrusted the power and duty of superintending the whole subject of the education of the students, and of arranging and settling the details of the several measures which might be deemed necessary to be adopted. The members of the council were to remain in oiBce for two years, and vacancies during that period were to be filled up by the Inn of which the member whose place was to be supplied had been the nominee. For the purpose of aifording to the students the means of obtaining instruction and guidance in their legal studies, five readerships or professorships were to be established, which should include the three readerships, on Jurispru- dence and Civil Law, the Law of Real Property, and Com- mon Law, already established by the Middle and Inner Temples and Gray's Inn ; and also a readership on Equity, to be held by a nominee of Lincoln's Inn ; and one on Con- stitutional Law and Legal History, to be founded by the four THE PRESENT SYSTEM. 175 societies jointly. The appointment to this last readership was to rest with the standing council. The duties of the readers (subject to regulation by the council) were to include the delivery of three courses of lectures in each year, the formation of classes for instruc- tion in a more detailed and personal form than could be supplied by general lectures ; and advice and direction to students for the conduct of their professional studies. The lectures and classes were to be for students of all the socie- ties alike. For the purposes of education, the legal year was to be considered as divided into three terms or periods, com- mencing and ending respectively on the 1st of November and the '22nd of December, the 11th of January and the 30th of March, the 15th of April and the 31st of July; subject to a deduction of the days intervening between the end of Easter and the beginning of Trinity Term. In order to be eligible for a call to the bar, students were in future either to attend for one whole year the lec- tures of two of the readers, or to pass a public examination satisfactorily. Public examinations were to be held three times a year, in Michaelmas, Hilary and Trinity Terms, and to be conducted by at least two members of the coun- cil, jointly with the five readers ; and certificates of having honourably passed were to be given to such of the candi- dates as appeared to the examiners to be entitled to them. A studentship of fifty guineas per annum, to be held for three years, was to be conferi-ed on the most distinguished student at each public examination ; and the examiners were to select and certify the names of three other students who should have passed the next best examinations ; but were not to be obliged to confer any studentship or certifi- cate, unless they were of opinion that the examination of the students they selected had been such as entitled them thereto. 176 THE PRESENT SYSTEM. The Inn of Court to which a student belonged, who obtained one of the three certificates of honour, was autho- rized to dispense with any terms, not exceeding two, that might remain to be kept by such student before being called to the bar. And, at every call to the bar, those students who had passed a public examination, and either obtained a studentship or a certificate of honour, were to take rank in seniority over all other students called on the same day. The standing council were to have power to grant dis- pensations to students, who should be prevented, by any reasonable cause, from complying with all the regulations as to attendance on lectures which should from time to time be established. These early regulations may be taken as presenting a general outline of the system which was constructed in 1852, and which is still in use. Under the present system it has been usual to issue prospectuses of the proposed subjects for lectures, and for the occupation of the private classes, together with (in some cases) references to works recommended by the readers. The following notices, gathered from the series of these prospectuses, may both serve to give a general idea of the plans attempted, and be of some use to students, as indi- cations of courses of study marked out for their prede- cessors by officially authorized instructors. Taking the prospectuses in the order of their arrangement, we find first the programmes of the reader on Constitutional Law and Legal History. In the prospectus for Michaelmas Educational Term, 1852, it was proposed to contrast the genius of the English constitution, civil and ecclesiastical, with that of France, during the reign and at the accession of Elizabeth. In the THE PRESENT SYSTEM. 177 same term, the progress of the constitution was to be traced during the reigns of James I. and Charles 1., until the breaking out of the civil wars; notice was to be taken of proceedings in Parliament and the Courts of Justice, from the Restoration to the Revolution of 1688; and that Revolution was to form the subject of the sixth lecture. The history from the accession of Elizabeth to 1688, more in detail, was to form the subject of the private lectures, " with illustrative reference to the institutions of France, to explain the causes which led to different results." In the following term, the proposed subject was the " Progress and History of Constitutional Law from the Revolution of 1688 to the Accession of the House of Brunswick." Dur- ing some of the subsequent courses, both earlier and later periods of our history were to be noticed. Thus it was proposed in Trinity Educational Term, 1858, to trace the progress of our constitution and jurisprudence through the reigns of the Plantagenets, as well as through those of the Tudors and Stuarts; and in two of the terms in 1857, the reigns of George I. and George II. were to be con- sidered. During the twenty-three terms which have elapsed, some or all of the same periods have (as was natural) been retraced. Among subjects of more general character, sometimes adverted to, are the following : the influence of the Canon and Civil Law on our institutions and courts of justice ; the genius of the Feudal Law, and its character in this country and in France (a) ; municipal institutions of Rome, ■their influence on the social state of Europe after the downfall of the Roman Empire (b) ; the rise and progress of Written Law ; the character of the early writers on English Law — Glanville and Bracton ; the value of Mat- thew Paris ; contrasts between French and English his- (a) Prospectus for Michaelmas Term, 1853. (i) Prospectus for Hilary Term, 1854. * ». N 178 THE PRESENT SYSTEM. tory ; between the resistance of the French and Enghsh vassal (c). Equity. The reader on Equity has given courses of public Lec- tures on the History, Principles and Practice of the Courts of Chancery ; taking frequently a connected series of sub- jects, commencing with the Michaelmas Term of one year and ending with the Trinity Term of the next. Two of such courses may be given as examples of the plan. It was announced for Michaelmas Term, 1853, that six public lectures would be given on the History of the Court of Chancery, its Procedure, and Relation to the Courts of Common Law. The lectures in the next term were to be on the relief afforded by the Court of Chancery, which depends (c) For Trinity Term, 1854. The following is a list of some of the works which have been recom- mended l_in whole or in part) in one or other of the Prospectuses, for use or reference: — Clarendon's History; Clarendon's Life; May's History of the Parliament; Hallam's Constitutional History; Blackstone ; State Trials; Brodie's Constitutional History; Millar's Constitutional History; Sulli- van's Lectures; Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois; Burnet's History of the Church; Hale's History of the Common Law; Ralph's History; Rapin ; Tindal's Continuation of Rapin; Bolingbroke's Letters; Lord Halifax's Works; Mackintosh on the Revolution; Burnet's Memoirs; Fox's His- torical Fragment ; Somerville's Reign of Queen Anne; the Statute Book; Somers Tracts; State Tracts ; Mably, Histoire du Droit Public del' Europe; Coxe's Marlborough; Canciani, Leges Barbarorum ; Hericourt, Loix Eccle- siastiques; Savigny, Geschichte des Romischen Rechts; Matthew Paris ; Henry's Droit Ecclesiastique ; Corpus Juris Canonici ; Littleton's Services; Butler's Notes to Co. Litt. ; Sugden's Preface to Gilbert on Uses and Trusts; Eichhorn, Deutsche Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte; Muratori, Antich. Ital. ; Creasy on the English Constitution; Parliamentary History; Martens, Histoire de France; Temple's Memoirs; Dalrymple's Memoirs; Hardwicke Papers; Foster's Crown Law; D'Aguesseau, Etudes sur les Fonctions de I'Avocat du Roi ; Pothier's Pandects; Stephen's Commen- taries; Macaulay's History; Whitelocke's Diary; Kerr's Blackstone; Annual Register; Bracton ; Reeves's History of English Law; Fortescue de LaudibusLegum Angliae (Amos's edition); Political Register; Hayes's History of Conveyancing; Lord Bacon's Political Tracts; Lord Somers's Tract on Grand Juries. THE PRESENT SYSTEM. 179 upon principles not recognized or applied by Courts of Common Law ; first, in matters of trust ; secondly, in respect of penalties and forfeitures; and, thirdly, in cases of mistake and accident : and those of the following Trinity Term, on the jurisdiction exercised by the Court of Chancery in consequence of rules of procedure adopted by the Courts of Common Law not permitting them to administer justice sufficiently in certain cases {d) ; on the advantages and disadvantages attending the systems of procedure in Com- mon Law and Equity ; on the proposal to amalgamate the equitable with the legal jurisdiction; and on the present course of practice in the Court of Chancery. The second example shall be taken from the courses of lectures beginning with Michaelmas Term, 1855, and end- ing with Trinity Term, 1856. These were to include, during the first series, lectures on the Origin of the Laws of England ; the system of writs and the relation of the superior Courts of Common Law to the Chancery, duiing the first three centuries after the Norman Conquest; on the equitable jurisdiction of the Council, and its trans- ference to the Chancellor ; on the authority conferred by the custody of the Great Seal ; the history of the Court of Chancery, and the principal diflPerences between the mode of procedure which it has adopted and that followed in the Courts of Common Law ; on the amalgamation of the two jurisdictions; on rehearing, review, and appeals in and from the Court of Chancery. The second and third courses include lectures on the general principles and maxims of Equity ; the nature of uses and trusts ; the doctrine of notice; registration of deeds affecting land; the rights and liabilities of mortgagor and mortgagee ; the jurisdiction of Equity to enforce the specific performance of agreements ; (rf) This branch of the subject would have been modified soon afterwards by the Common Law Procedure Act of 1854. n2 180 THE PRESENT SYSTEM. the equitable conversion of real and personal estate ; the jurisdiction of Equity over principal and surety ; the juris- diction of Equity in cases of accident or mistake; and transactions between parties, one of whom possesses undue advantage over the other. Variations in the programmes for different years intro- duced different subjects for attention. Thus equitable pre- sumptions, partnership, voluntary settlements and convey- ances, election, the administration of assets, the jurisdic- tion in lunacy, and the principles of equity pleading, have been among the subjects announced (e). The Law of Real Property. The reader on this subject, in 1852, proposed to begin his course by a historical review of the modifications which the municipal law of this country has at different times received, with reference to the power of alienating real and personal property ; proceeding thence to an inquiry (which was noticed in the prospectus for the following term as to be then resumed) into the restrictions which have been im- posed upon the power of alienation. The various topics announced for discussion in the public lectures of some of the subsequent terms appear to have been less arranged in order as parts of connected schemes, than those in some of the other departments ; but the following selection from the subjects chosen will show that the lectures included within their scope matters of value to men who would require a particular knowledge of real pro- perty law in the practice of their profession. Title by (e) The following is a list of some works mentioned in one or other of the prospectuses, with reference to the subjects either of the lectures or of the private classes : — Blackstone ; Gilbert's Forum Romanum ; Mitford's Treatise on Pleadings in Chancery; White and Tudor's Leading Cases; Story's Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence; Smith's Manual of Equity Jurisprudence; Wigram's Points in the Law of Discovery ; Fonblanque on Equity; Spence on the Equitable Jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery. THE PRESENT SYSTEM. 181 prescription, nonclaim and descent; powers of sale, con- ditions of sale, the law of judgments, the doctrine of notice, conveyances by tenants in tail and married women, testa- mentary law, and the construction of deeds and wills, voluntary settlements, covenants, the law of husband and wife as respects property, the law of fixtures, apportion- ment of rents and annuities, assignments for the benefit of creditors, and the bankruptcy and insolvency acts, so far as they affect real property, have, with other matters, had place, once or more frequently, in the prospectuses (/). Jurisprudence and the Civil Law. The reader on Jurisprudence and the Civil Law has had at least three distinct classes of subjects within the range of his lectures ; that of Law in the abstract, in its connec- tion with Ethics; that of International Law as actually established ; and lastly, that of the Civil Law of Rome, with the modifications which it has received when adopted by some of the states of Modern Europe. The prospectuses of his lectures have touched all these. They began with the province of Jurisprudence, and the definitions of " Law," " Rigjit," and " Duty ;" and the na- ture of general Jurisprudence, and the ideas with which it is conversant, have been introduced in subsequent pro- spectuses, not only as topics for abstract' speculation, but (/) The following is a list of works mentioned in the Prospectus for the Autumn of 1852. In some cases reference was made only to particular parts of them. Hallam's Middle Ages; Stephen's Commentaries; Butler's Notes to Co. Litt. ; Preston on Estates ; Littleton on Tenures ; Williams on Real Pfpperty ; Sugden on Powers i Hayes's Conveyancing ; Fearne on Contingent Remainders ; Spence's Equitable Jurisdiction ; Sanders on Uses; Bacon's Reading on Uses; Lewin on Trusts; Sugden's Vendors and Purchasers ; Jarman's Notes to Bythewood's Conveyancing ; Davidson's Notes to Martin's Conveyancing; Roper on Legacies; Jarman on Wills; Williams on Executors. Ig2 THE PRESENT SYSTEM. also with a reference to the history of such speculation in past times. Thus it has been announced at different times that the reader would lecture on the relation of law to moral philosophy ; on the jus gentium of the Roman jurists, and on some modern theories of natural law ; on principles of classification in jurisprudence ; the nature, limits, and uses of the science ; some prevalent errors concerning it, and the misapprehensions from which they have arisen; the analysis of the conceptions implied in the primary terms of jurisprudence, the extreme importance of this analysis, the mode in which it has occasionally been prosecuted, and the results to which it has been supposed to lead; and again, the analysis of " Law," and of the conceptions de- pendent on it, as effected by Bentham and Austin. Some- times the history of juristical ideas, in their connection with positive laws, has been introduced, as when the subjects for lectures have included ancient codes, and the charac- teristics of primitive law; the conception of Equity, its ancient and modern history ; the Roman and Feudal con- ceptions of property, and the consequences of the difference between them. The relation of the Roman civil law to general juris- prudence has been marked out as one subject, and that system itself has been considered in greater detail. In part this has been done historically. Lectures have been announced on the original character of Roman law, the agencies by which it was progressively modified, and the form which it ultimately assumed ; and on its sources, and the composition of the Corpus Juris. Sometimes the old Roman law has been compared with institutions of more modern times, and this not only in cases where . Heath ... S7 Long V. Cape Town 37 Martin v.MackonochieS? Westerton v. Liddell 36 Election, Law. Davis 6 Warren 34 Committees, Warren 34 England, Laws of, Blackstone 4 Francillon 33 Stephen 4 English Bar. Law students' Guide 36 Pearce 33 Smith 28 Equity, Drttftsman, Lewis ... 14 Pleader. Drewry ... 26 Practice, Goldsmitti 27 Suit in. Hunter ... 8 See Chancery. Evidence, Circunutantial, Wills 30 County Court. Davis 29 Law of. Powell ... 30 Wilts. Wigram ... 31 Examinations. Preliminary, Benhaln 15 Journal ... 39,40 Intermediate and Final, Mosely 57 Eences. Hunt 39 Fisheries. Oke ]j -» «- -o INDEX TO CATALOGUE. 3 Eorms, page Contie^anct»^.Cra1)b .. 18 Rouse 10 iiagisteriaU Oke ... 23 Pleading. Greening 34 Probate. Chadwick 24 Friendly Societies. Brabrook 10 Gaius' Roman Law ... 17 Game Laws, oke ... ii Gaming. Edwards ... 35 Gavelkind. Robinson .. 35 Guernsey (Law of). Bowditch 34 Highways. Glen ... 28 House of Lords, Practice. May ... 2? Reports. Clark ... 38 Digested Index to Cases. Clark 13 Idiots. Phillips 32 Indian Penal Code. Cutler and Griffin ... 32 Industrial and Provi- dent Societies. Brabrook .' 10 International Law. Beane 35 Hamel 33 FhlUimore 35 Of Rivers. Cutler ... 34 Jamaica Riot. Williams 37 Jersey (Law of). Bowditch 34 Joint Stock. Banks. Grant ... 24 Companies. Shelford 6 Jurisprudence. Law Magazine 39, 40 Justice of Peace. Oke 22 Law Exam. Jouraal 39, 40 Law Magazine ... 39, 40 Law Studies. Cutler's Lecture ... 33 Francillon 33 Mosely 17 Smith 25 Leading Cases, Reat Property. Tudor 15 Leases. Crabb 18 Rouse 10 Xegacy Duties. Shelford 19 Legitimacy. -. . Gardner Peerage ... 33 Life Assurance. Blayney 36 Libel, starkle 12 Local Government. Bristowe 33 Glen ... 29 Lords Chancellors, &c., Catalogue of. Hardy 36 Smyth 36 Lord Mayor's Court. Brandon 39 Lunacy. Phillips ... 32 Magisterial Law, Acts. Davis 32 Practice. Oke ... 22 Forma. Oke 23 Maritime Warfare, i^age Deane 35 Hamel 33 Marriage Acts. Burn .. 35 Master and Servant. Davis ,. 6 Master and Workmen. Lovesy 25 Mayor's Court. Brandon 39 Memoir, Lord Brougham ... 34 Lord Lyndhurst ... 34 Mr.JusticeTalfourd... 34 Mercantile Accounts. Pulling 34 Militia Laws. D?fyer... 35 Mines and Minerals. Balnbridge 31 Fisher 7 Kouse 10 Municipal Elections. Haly 34 Sewell 35 Neutrals. Phillimore 35 Nisi Prius. „ .I-eigh 34 Nuisances. Glen 29 Pamphlets 37 Parliamentary. Davis 6 May 27 Warren 34 Partnership. Dixon 11 Pothier . 36 Patents. Curtis 34 Norman . 33 Peerage Claim. Finlason'a Wiltea .. 33 Lemarohant's Gardner 33 Petty Sessions. Oke 22 Pleading, Common Law. Chitty, Jun. 20 Greening 34 Williams 31 Equity. Drewry .. . 26 Lewis 14 Guide. Anstey . 36 Poor Law, Orders. Glen . 11 Precedents, Conveyancing. Crabb 18 Rouse . 10 Priority. Fisher . 7 Private Bills. May .. . 12 Prize Law. Lushington 25 Probate, Practice. Coote 12 Forms. Chadwick .. 24 Duties. Shelford .. 19 Reports. Swabey & Tristram 38 Provident Societies. Brabrook 10 Public Health. rko^ Glen 29 Questions On Stephen's Comments. 4 Railways. RedBeld 34 Shelford 5 Compensation. Ingram 9 Carriers. Powell ... 32 Real Property. Tudor 15 Chart. Fearne ... 35 Registration. Davis 6 Warren 34 Reports. (Law) 38 Religion. Church and State ... 36 Supremacy of Crown . 37 Religious Confession. Badeley 3? Ritual. Bayford 37 Hamel 37 Phillimore 37 Roman Law. Gains 17 Tomkins 8 Savings Banks. Grant .24 Sciences (the) and Law 33 Sea Shore. Hunt ... 4 Settlements, Postnuptial, Cutler 33, 39 Volunta/ry. Hunt ... 39 Sewers. Woolrych ... 20 Sheriff. Sewell 85 Sheriff's Court. Davis 29 Short Hand. Gurney 3i Slander, starkie ... 12 Solicitors' Bookkeeping. Coombs 25 Specific Performance. Fry 28 Stock Exchange. Keyser 35 Succession Duty. Shelford 19 Suit in Equity. Hunter ., 8 Summary Convictions. Oke 22 Touchstone. Sheppard 36 Trades Unions. Brabrook 29 Treaties. Hertslet 39 Trusts, Charitable. Tudor 16 Turnpike Laws. Oke 22 WUls. Crabb 18 Redfleld 34 Rouse 10 Tudor 15 Wigram ... .31 Winding-up. Grant ... ... .24 Shelford . .. 6 Window Lights. Latham 16 ^' LAW WORKS PUBLISHED BY Stephen's Commentaries. — Sixth Edition, 4 vols. 8vo., £4 : 4*. cloth, Mr. SERJEANT STEPHEN'S NEW COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND, partly founded on Blackstone. The Sixth Edition, by James Stephen, LL.D., of the Middle Temple, Barrister- at-Law, one of the Registrars of the Court of Bankruptcy, formerly Recorder of Poole, and late Professor of English Law at King's College, London, ' It would be impossible, without entering done throughout with much ingenuity and in- minutely into details, to notice at any length this most valuable work. It is one which cannot be too highly recommended, not only to the profesBion but to the general public. It is a great mistake to act upon the notion that the study of the law is a matter of in- terest to lawyers only. Now there is no work which gives a summary of the English law at once so exhaustive and intelligible to the gene- ral reader as this publication of Dr. Stephen. He has incorporated into it all those portions of Blackstone's greatwork which wouldatthe pre- sent day be useful to the reader." LawMagcmne. "To redeem Blackstone from oblivion, it became necessary that his work should be edited by a lawyer as able and a scholar as graceful as Blackstone himself. Mr. Ser- jeant Stephen, more than twenty years ago, conceived the happy thought of introducing the necessary alterations into the text itself, and, as he says in his preface, ' interweave his own composition with it as freely as the purpose of general improvement it might seem to require.' The first edition was favor- ably received, acknowledged at once as an able reproduction of an invaluable treatise on English law, and has since passed rapidly through successive editions, till it has become the acknowledged students' text hook, and is accepted by the critics as a standard work. Mr. James Stephen, a no less distinguished and painstaking legal writer than his father, has with equal skill and research, super- intended the later editions, made the amend- ments rendered necessary by alterations in the law, and incorporated and commented upon recent statutes, judgments and decisions with as good an arrangement, as bold a grasp, and with as much felicity of style, adapted to and reading smoothly with that portion of Blackstone's text which still remains, as his predecessor in the same path; and the four volumes now published maybe safely regarded as a full exposition and a sound authority on English law to the present time." — LawJot^mal. "This new edition of the well known Stephen's Commentaries deserves a cordial welcome, for few years have been more event- ful in legislation than those which have passed since the publication of the fifth edition. The skill with which the new matter is incorporated with the old is particularly remarkable, and in spite of the incongruity of the materials, and the threefold authorship of Blackstone, Ser- jeant Stephen, and the present editor, the re- sult is perfectly homogenous and satisfactory. Indeed the 'noting up' appears to have been dustry, and the alterations, great and small, to have been made with excellent judgment. We have no doubt that the work will in its most recent shape retain ail its original popu- larity. We very sincerely recommend this stan^rd text book to all members of the profession. To the student it is simply in- valuable, but it is also a useful companion to the most experienced lawyer." — SolicUor^ Journal, " The popular notion of the study of law is, that it is dry. No person who reads these Commentaries will call it so. It is a fasci- nating book. After six editions, it is im- possible to say anything new of a standard work like this. We can but repeat that Stephen's Blackstone is indispensable, not to the law student alone, but to all who take part in public afiairs, and especially to ma- gistrates, who ought to be examined in it before they are permitted to sit upon the bench. Nay, it may be affirmed that no gentleman can be considered properly educated unless he has acquired so much knowledge of the law of England as is contained in Blackstone noted up by Stephen." — Zato Times. " How careful Mr. James Stephen, the pre- sent able editor, is to continue this work may by reference be ascertained. Mr. Serjeant Stephen, by his great ability, by his unwearied industry, his simplicity and clearness of diction has made himself the first tutor to English law students. With a knowledge of the existence of these Commentaries, the student need not ask, with what work am I to commence my legal studies ? Here he will find every branch of English law ably treated on. Not only is the work an essential to the beginner, but it will be found of the greatest use at all times, as well after as before call or admission. Any praise on our part of such a work is wholly unnecessary ; as we have before remarked, we feel assured we need do nothing more than announce a new edition, to cause an eager demand amongst all law students, and indeed amongst every one wishing to gain an insight into the laws of his country." — Law Examina- tion R^orier. *' A very valuable feature is the reference made to the cases on each point. This con- stitutes the work a law library on a small scale. It is a book which is indispensable to every student of the law, whilst practitioners will find it to their advantage to consult it frequently, since they will find therein the law laid down scientifically, concisely, and, above all, accurately."— /r««A Law Times, ®- Stephen's Questions on the New Commentaries. 8vo., 10s. 6d. cloth. QUESTIONS FOR LAW STUDENTS on the SIXTH EDITION of Mr, SERJEANT STEPHEN'S NEW COMMENTARIES -on the LAWS of ENGLAND. By James Stephen, LL.D., of the Middle Temple, Barrister at Law. " Nothing can be more useful than a aeries of students, and touching as it does on Pv^r^ of questions on a book like Stephen's Black- branch of the law,"-Law Magazine ^ stone, intended as it is principally for the use "w«**"(e. -o MESSRS. BUTTERWORTH, 7, FLEET STREET, E. C. 5 ' ' ■ ' ' ' I. ■ 1, . 1 1 I I .1 II—.. . .1 . I..-I. . I- ■ I Shelford's Law of Railways. — Fourth Edition by Glen. In 2 thick vols, royal 8vo., 63*. cloth, SHELFORD'S LAW of RAILWAYS ; containing the whole of the Statute Law for the Regulation of Railways in England, Scotland and Ireland: with copious Notes of Decided Cases upon the Statutes, In- troduction to the Law of Railways, and Appendix of Official Documents. Fourth Edition. By William Cunningham Glen, Barrister-at-Law, Author of the "Law of Highways," "Law of Public Health and Local Government," &c. The First Volume (pp. 850) contains the whole of the Statute Law for the Regulation of Railways down to the 32nd Victoria, including the Carriers' Acts, Lord Campbell's Act, and every other Act having immediate relation to Railways in England, Scotland and Ireland, together with the whole of the Judicial Deci- sions upon each Statute; Introduction to the Law of Railways; and an Appendix of Official and other Documents and Information, The Second Volume (pp. 950) contains the Consolidation Clauses Acts, and the Amending Acts, applicable to England, Scotland and Ireland, with the Decisions of the Courts upon each Act ; and the Law relating to the Assessment of Railways to the Local Taxes. From the Law Magazine. " Though we have not had the opportunity of going conscientiously through ihe whole of this elaborate compilation, we have been* able to de- vote enough time to it to be able to speak in the highest terms of the jadgmeut and ability with which it has been prepared.' Its execution quite justifies the reputation which Mr. Glen has already acquired as a legal writer, and proves that no one could have been more pruperly singled out for the duty he has so well discharged. The loOTk muse take its ungiiestiova&/e position as the leading Manual of tlte Hatlway JLaw oj Great Britain. The cases seem to have been examined, and their effect to be stated with much caxe and accuracy, and uo channel from which informa- tioD could t>e gaiued has been neglected. Mr. Glen, indeed, seems to be saturated with know* ledge of his subject. The value of the work is greatly increased by a number of supplemental decisions, which give al! the cases up to the time of publication, and by an iudex which ap- pears to be thoroughly exhaustive," From the Law Times. "Mr. Glen has done wisely iu preserving that reputation, and, as far as possible, the text of She! ford— though very extensive alterations and additions have been reciuired. but he has a claim of his own. He is a worthy successor of the original author, and possesses much of the same industry, skill in arrangement and astute- ness in enumerating the points really decided by cited cases. But we have said enough of a work already so well known. It will nave a place not In the library of the lawyer alooe. Ic is a book which every railway office should keep on its shelf for reference." Fltom the Law Journal. " Mr. Glen has modestly founded his work as a superstructure on that of Mr. Leonard Shellord, but he has certainly claims to publish it as a purely independeot composition. The toil has been as great, and the reward ought to be as complete, as if Mr. Glen had disregarded all his predecessors in the production of treatises on railway law. Since the year 1864 he has been unceasingly engaged in collecting materials, and though he has been ready for the printer for some time, and has delayed the appearance of the volumes in the expectation ot legislative changes in railway law, yet he- has expended full five years of care and attention on his work. Let us hope that he will have no cause to think his labour has been in vain. At any rate toe may venture to predict that Mr,, Cunning ham Olen^s edition of Hhelford on Railways will be the stait- dard work, of our day in that department of law." From the Justice of the Peace. "Far be it from us to undervalue Mr. Shelford's labours, or to disparage his merits. But we may nevertheless be permitted to observe that zchat has hitherto been consider d as the ' best Toork on the subject ' CShelford) has been immeasurably im- proved by the application of Mr. (j ten's dilligence and leariMig, Sufficient, howeveri has been done to show that it is in every i espect worthy of the reputatioi) which the work has always enjoyed, V^e feel little doubt that the credit of that work will be greatly increased by Mr. Glen's instru- mentality, and that not only will he have ably maintained its xeputation by his successful exer- tions, but that he will have added materially to it." From the Solicitors* Journal. " The practitioner will find here collected together all the enactments bearing on every possible subject which may come before him in connection with railways' or railway travelling. Whatever questions may arise the lawyer who has this book upon his shelves, may say to him- self ' ll there has been any legislation at all con- Dccted with this branch of the snbject I shall at once find it in Shelford ;* and it needs not to be said that on this account the book will be a very * comfortable' one to possess. The collection is equally exhaustive in the matter of rules, orders, precedents and documents of official authority. X'o sum up our rciview; as a collection of statutes and general information the work will pro\'e extremely useful, because in these respects It is so perfectly exhaustive." -ie & 6 LAW WORKS PUBLISHED BY BuUey and Bund's Bankruptcy Manual. 12mo., cloth. A MANUAL of the LAW and PRACTICE of BANK- RUPTCY as Amended and Consolidated by the recent Statutes: with an APPENDIX containing the Bankruptcy Act, 1869; the Debtors Act, 1869; the Bankruptcy Repeal and Insolvent Court Act, 1869, and the unrepealed sections of the former Acts. Together with the new General Orders and Forms of Procedure of Mich. Term, 1869. By John F. Bullet, B.A., of the Inner Temple, Esq., Barrister at Law, and J. W. Willis- Bund, M.A., LL.B., Caius Coll. Cam., Chancellor's Legal Medallist 18H7, Professor of Constitutional Law, University College London, and of Lincoln's Inn, Esq., Barrister at Law. Shelford's Companies. — 2nd Edit, by Pitcaim and Latham, 8vo., 21j. cloth. SHELFORD'S LAW OF JOINT STOCK COMPANIES; containing a Digest of the Case Law on that subject ; the Companies Acts, 1862, 1867, and other Acts relating to Joint Stock Companies ; the Orders made under those Acts to regulate Proceedings in the Court of Chancery and County Courts, and Notes of all Cases interpreting the above Acts and Orders. Second Edition, much enlarged, and bringing the Statutes and Cases down to the date of publication. By David Pitcairn, M.A., Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister-at- Law ; and Francis Law Latham, B.A , Oxon, of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law, author of " A Treatise on the Law of Window Lights." Davis's Law of Eegistration and Elections. One small 12mo. vol., \os. cloth. MANUAL OF THE LAW AND PRACTICE OF ELEC- TIONS AND REGISTRATION. Comprising all the Statutes, with Notes and Introduction, and a Supplement containing the Cases on Appeal down to 1869, the Rules relating to Election Petitions, and a complete Index to the whole Work. By James Edward Davis, Esq., Barrister at Law, Author of "Manual "of Practice and Evidence in the County Courts," &c. - ' H,H,'*=nT^„Vj,'','''.''f 'i' <'?F>''Knient, is the h an- order to obtain a fair mastery of the whole siib- ij"f ™iP. f ,«/k °t"" "i^nials which the ject.wehave no hesitation in highly recommend- Keform Act of 1867 has brought into existence." in? this ■work."-&/ici/or5' JotAa/. ~" w. .S'nf ;. .1,. k... f .1, v" ^ ° °"' "^O""'' forward with better credentials We think tills the best of the now numeroa.s than Mr. Davis, and the hook before us seems to works on this subject. It has a great advantaKe possess the qualities essential to a Buide to a in Its arrangement over those which are merely discharge of their duties ly the officials The new editionsof works imblished before the recent scheme of Mr. Davis's work is veS sfmole '^^ legislation. To read through consecutively, in Law Journal »= ""iii is very simple. The Supplement may lie had separately, price 3s. semed, Davis's Law of Master and Servant. 12mo. 6i. cloth. THE MASTER AND SERVANT ACT, 1867 (30 & 31 Vict. t^^' K *" Introduction, copious Notes, Tables of Offences, and Forms of Proceedings, prepared expressly for this Work. By James E. Davis, Jisq., Barrister at Law, Stipendiary Magistrate, Stoke-upon-Trent « MESSRS. BUTTERWORTH, 7, FLEET STREET, E.G. -O Fisher's General Law of Mortgage. — Second Edition. Two vols, royal 8vo., 55s. cloth. THE LAW of MORTGAGE, and other Securities upon Pro- perty. By William Richard Fisher, of Lincoln's Inn, Esq., Barrister at Law. Second Edition, very considerably enlarged. , «For a length of time it has been received as the best text book on the law of mortgages, and it has recently received the honours of a second edition. We have never been niggards towards Mr.Fisher's very laborious, learnedand useful treatise, and we still see no reason to retract those commendations or to reduce their measure. His book thoroughly deserves the cbaracter it has won of being the only good and complete repertory we have of the law of mortgages, and other securities upon pro- perty.'' — Lata Magazine. "The second edition of this book, comprised in two volumes of royal octavo, haa liitle beyond its paternity to identify it with the original volume which appeared in 1856. If we speak of the author's first essay as merely tentative and meagre and partial, it is only to draw particular attention to the very complete arrangement and copious detail of the edition now before the public ing." — Law Times. and we doubt not that the excellence of the work will receive its due appreciation at the hands of the profession. A word in conclusion is due to the clearness and simplicity which pervades Mr. Fisher's writing. If his language is too often bold and devoid of grace it is never obscure, and we think that the absence of attractive composition will not in tliese days be accounted a demerit in a treatise designed solely for professional purposes, which pos- sesses the essential qualities of accurate learn- ing and lucid arrangement." — Law Journal. ' ' The labour bestowed upon it by Mr. Fisher will be best understood by this fact. The mere list of cases cited in the text fills forty- three pages in double columns, and the list of statutes and orders cited occupies fifteen pages. We conclude by commending this work equally to the practitioner and the stu- dent; it will be invaluable to the former for reference, to the latter for reading and digest- Coote's Admiralty Practice. — Second Edition, 8vo., 165. cloth. THE PRACTICE of the HIGH COURT of ADMIRALTY of ENGLAND: also the Practice of the Judicial Committee of Her Majesty's Most Honorable Privy Council in Admiralty Appeals, with Forms and Bills of Costs. By Henry Charles Cootb, F.S.A., one of the Ex- aminers of the High Court of Admiralty, Author of ''The Practice of the Court of Probate," &c. Spcond Edition, almost entirely re-written, with a Supplement giving the County Courts Jurisdiction and Practice in Admiralty^ the Act of 1868, Kules, Orders, &c. The Supplement containing the County Court Practice in Admiralty is coTivplete in itself and may he had separately , 2s. sewed. •** This work contains every Common Form in use J>y the Practitioner in Admiralty, as well as every description of BUI of Costs in that Court, a feaJtwre possessed by no other work on the Practice in Admiralty. "Mr. Coote, being an Examiner of the Court, may be considered as an authoritative exponent of the points of which he treats. His treatise is, substantially considered, every- thing that can be desired to the practitioner." —Late Magazine. " The book before us is a second and en- lai^ed edition of a work on the Practice of the Admiralty Court, written by the author some ten years ago. It is, however, a great im- provement on its predecessor, being much fuller and more systematically arranged, and containing greater facilities for reference. The first part of the book la a treatise on the practice of the Court, which appears to us to be very carefully done, and to go thoroughly into the subject. The second part is a similar treatise on the practice of the Judicial Com- mittee of the Privy Council in Admiralty matters, written on the same system as the former part. The appendix contains a large number of common forms and precedents of pleadings used in the Court of Admiralty, together with bills of c sts. Altogether Mr. Coote has done his work very carefully and completely, and we think his labours will be duly appreciated by Admiralty practitioners." —Solicitor^ Jowmal. '• The first edition of this excellent work was produced for the purpose of illustrating the practice of the High Court of Admiralty, just then subordinated to the 'Rules of 1859* drawn up by the late distinguished judge. Since then several important changes have been carried out, both in the matter of an extended jurisdiction and of practice. These changes it has been Mr. Coote's object to in- corporate in the present edition of his work. In addition he has increased the utility of his book by a chapter on the practice of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Admiralty Appeals, and by a copious set of Admiralty precedents, in which it is the author's hope and belief that no necessary common form has been omitted. The present edition appears very seasonably." — Shipping and Mercantile Gazette . " Mr. Coote has the great advantage of ex- perience; he has long been a practitioner in the court as a proctor; he is consequently familiar with those minutiae of practice which mark the distinction between the student and the practical man. " Mr. Coote is a successful writer upon the Practice of the Probate and the Admiralty Courts. His book on the former has reached a fifth edition, and the volume before us is a second edition." — Law Times. -u O- ~0 LAW WORKS PUBLISHED BY Hunter's Suit in Equity. —Fourth Edition. Post 8vo. IO5. cloth. AN ELEMENTARY VIEW of the PROCEEDINGS IN A SUIT IN EQUITY. With an Appendix of Forms. By Sylvester J. Hunter, BA., of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister af Law. Fourth Edition, by G. W. Lawrance, M.A.j of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister at Law. * It is now ten years since Mr. Hunter's modest yince is proved by its arriva] at a fourth edition, and unpretending volume first saw the light, and few we imagine have been the students of equity ])ractice during those years who have not been indebted to its pages for their first iuitiation into the mysteries of the Court of Chancery We will only add that we are glad to find this little work is in such good hands, and while it con- tinues to receive from time to time Mr. Law- rance's careful revision, we venture to predict for it a long-lived success and many future edi- tions." — Law Journal. " An outline, after this fashion, of a suit in equity is contained in Mr. Hunter's little volume, and that it has been found to perform its pro- Mr. Lawrance has added a chapter on the eqnit< able jurisdiction of the county courts."— iaai Timns. " This book has now maintained for so long a time the position of a standard manual for the use of law students, that ihere is little for us to say respecting iis general scope, 'i'he work is intended for beginners, and the design is excel- lently carried out. Everything is there which ought to be placed before the learner, and yet the book is not encumbered with references and details which would serve merely to embarrass him ; the arrangement is also very clear.'"— &/»- cUors^ Journal. Kerr's Action at Law. — Third Edition. 12mo., 13s. cloth. AN ACTION AT LAW: being an Outline of the Jurisdiction of the Superior Courts of Common Law, with an Elementary View of the Proceedings in Actions therein. By Egbert Malcolm Kerr, Barrister at Law ; now Judge of the Sheriff's Court of the City of London. Third Edition. '*_As a Third Edition the volume needs no de- scription' and permits no criticism. Enough to say that its present appearance will amply sustain the reputation it had already acquired." — Law Times. " This Is just the book to put into a f'tudent's hand when he enters the legal profession. Ve have had occasion more than once to recommend it to the notice of our junior brethren." — legu- leian. There is considerable merit in both works (John William Smith'sand Mwlcolm Kerr's); but the second (Kerr) has rather the advantage, in being more recent^and published since the Com- mon Law Proceaure Act. 1860 *'— Jurist. "Mr. Kerr'sbook is more full and detailed than thatof Mr.John William Smith, and is therefore better adapted for those who desire to obtain not merely a general notion but also a practical ac- quaintance witb Common Law Procedure " — Solicitors^ Journal, Tomkins' Institutes of Roman Law. Part I. royal 8vo. (to be completed in Three Parts) 12s. cloth. THE INSTITUTES OF THE ROMAN LAW. Part I. The Sources of the Roman Law and its external History to the decline of the Eastern and Western Empires. By Fhedebick Tomkins, M.A., D.C.L., Barrister-at-Law, of Lincoln's Inn. Ihis work promises to be an important and valuable contribution to the study of the Uoman -Law." — Law Magazine. 'Of all the works on the Roman i aw we believe this will be the best suited to law stu- dents. Mr. Tomkins gives us a simple Knglish history of Roman Law, airauged most lucidly with marginal notes, and printed in a form cal- culated for easy reading and retention in the memory. We welcome the book of Mr. Tom- kins. It IS calculated to promote the study of Koman Law ; and both at the L niversities and in tne Inns ot .Court it is a work which may safely and benehcially be employed as a text book."- ■Law limes. «!.'; Ji*"'* ^"'^ " pronounced by its author to be bestowed, the research exercised, and the ma- terials brought together, it seems to deserve a ™Hj'."''Tb°.'"l,"' , "■''" ',''" ,°f »" elementary treatise. The chapter on legal instruction, de- tailing the systems of legal education pursued in the various epochs of Home, reflects great credit on the author, and so far as we know is purely original, in the sense that uo preceding English writer has coflated the matter therein contained."— iaa( Joumat. . " I\lr. Tomkins has chosen his subject wisely in at least one respect, there can be no doubt that a good iutroductory treatise on the Roman law IS sorely needed at present. The present part IS only an instalment. Uut the presentpart IS unquestionably both valuable in itself and of good promise for the future. We know of no other book in which anything like the same amount of information can be acquired with the same ease. We shalt look with great interest tor the publication of the remainder of this treatise. If the second part is as well executed as the hrst and bears a due proportion to it, we th:nk the work bids fair to become the standard text book for English students."— So/iciwrj' Joumat. " The study of this voltime is necessary to all who wish to be properly acquatuted with the history and literature of the Koman law "— Irtsh Laio Times. ■• Mr. Tomkiiis has produced a book that was long needed.— ZaK Examhia'ion Reporter -a- & MESSRS, BUTTERWORTH, 7, FLEET STREET, E.G. 9 Ingram's Law of Compensation.— 2nd Edit, by Elmes. Post Svo., 125. cloth. COMPENSATION to LAND and HOUSE OWNERS: being a Treatise on the Law of the Compensation for Interests in Lands, &c. payable by Railway and other Public Companies ; ^vith an Appendix of Forms and Statutes. By Thomas Dunbar Ingram, of Lincoln's Inn, Esq., Barrister at Law, now Professor of Jurisprudence and Indian Law' in the Presidency CoJlege, Calcutta. Second Edition, By J. J. Elmes, of the Inner Temple, Esq., Barrister at Law, " We say at once that it is a work of great merit. It is a concise, clear aud cumplbte ex- pobitiou of the law of compensation applicable to the owners of real propf-rty aud railway and otlitT companies." — Law Magazine, " Whether for companies taking land or hold- ing it, Mr. Ingram's volume will be a welcome gaide. Withthisinhishand the legal adviser of a company, or of an owner and ocL-upierwhose property is taken, and who demands compen- sation for it, cannot fail to perform his duty lightly." — Law Timet. " 'J'his work appears to be carefully prepared a? regards its matter. This edition is a third hirger than the fiist ; it contains twice aa many cases, and an enlarged index- It wiis much ciilled for, and douhiless will be found very useful to the practiiioner." — Laa Magazine^ second notice. Mr, Justice Lush's Common Law Practice. — Third Edition by Dixon. 2 vols. 8vo., 465. cloth. LUSH'S PRACTICE of the SUPERIOR COURTS of COMMON LAW at WESTMINSTER, in Actions and Proceedings over which they have a common Jurisdiction : with Introductory Treatises re- 11 siting Parties to Actions; Attornies and Town Agents, their Qualifica- tions, Rights, Duties, Privileges and Disabilities ; the Mode of Suing, whether in Person or by Attorney in Forma Pauperis, &c. &c. &c.; and an Appendix, containing the authorized Tables of Costs and Fees, Forms of p Proceedings and Writs of Execution. Third Edition. By Joseph Dixon, of Lincoln's Inn, Esq., Barrister at Law. "This is an excellent edition of au excellent and by wliom the new edition has been pro- vork. He has effected a most successful 'restoration.' Altogether, both iowhathehns omitted and wh»t he has added, Mr. Dixon has been guided by sound discretion. We trust that the gieat and conscientious labours he has un- dergooe will be rewarded. He has striven to Djake his work 'thorough/ and because he lias done So we take pleasuie in li'^art.ily recom- mending it to every member of both branches of the profession." — Salicitora' Journal. " Lush's Practice is whatTidd's Practice was in our days of clerkships and what Archbold's Practice was in gur early professional days — the practice in general use, and the received authority on the subject. It was written by Mr. Lush when he was only a junior rising into fortune atid fame His practical know- ledge, his clearness and industry, were even then acknowledged, aud his name secured for hia work au immediate popularity, which ex. perience has confirmed and eiitended. But the work was, iu it.s turn, productive of con- siderable advanrage to the author, it largely increased the number of his clients. When new editions were called for, Mr. Lush was too occupied with briefs to find time for the preparation-of books, and hence the association of his name with that of Mr. Dixon as editor. duced. Mr. Dixon reminds us that twenty-five years have passed since Mr. Lush made his appearance as an author, and vast indeed have been the changes the law has since witnessed. So numerous are they, that the editor has found it the most convenient course to ignore, as it were, the second edition, to take the text of the original work as it came fresh from Mr, Lush's pen, and to mould that to the present practice. He is tlius enabled to assure tlie reader, that for every alteration in, or addition to, the text, he alone is responsible. The in- dex is very copious and complete. Under Mr. Dixon's care Lush's PrHCtice will not merely maintain, it ^ilt largely extend its reputa- tion." — Laio Timet. "The profession cannot but welcome with the greatest cordiality and pleasure a third edition of theii old and much valued friend * Lush's Practice of the Superior Courts of Law.' Mr. Dixon, in preparing this edition, has gone back to the original work of Mr. Justice Lush, and, as far as the legislative changes and decisions of the last twenty- five ye Times, work to be a most valuable contribution to " This is the first time that the text of Gaius juristical learnings, and vre unhesitatingly has been translated into English, and it is recommend its careful perusal to all students remarkably well done by Messrs. Tomkins of Roman Law." — Law Magazine. and Lemon in the part before us, who have "The translation is carefully executed, and also enriched the text by many valuable the annotations show extensive knowledge of notes."— Zctw Sxaminaiion Mejp&i'ter, the B-oman Law." — AthencEunt, .,^^.„v,^,,a-vs«^^>-/^«.-- Mosely's Articled Clerks' Handy-Book. 12mo., 7s. cloth. A PRACTICAL HANDY-BOOK of ELEMENTARY LAW, designed for the use of Articled Clerks, with a Course of Study and Hints on Reading for the Intermediate and Final Examinations, By M, S. Mosely, Solicitor, Clifford's Inn Prizeman, M. T. 1867. CONTENTS :— IsTBODUCTORT Remarks.— Chap. I. — ^The First Year. — Introduction to the oflBce — "What may be learned by copying a Draft — Explanation of technical terms — The profession, and its subdivisions — Conveyancing; Equity; Common Law; Bankruptcy Law — Office work and office routine^ Course of reading for the first year — Practical hints on reading — System of self-examination. Chap. II.— The Second Year. — Practical view of the ordinary routine of Conveyancing — Investigation of Titles— Purchases — Leases — Mort- r- gages — Settlements — Wills — Course of reading for the second year — Introduction to the :^ Statute-law — General analysis of the Statutes at large, preliminary to theirstudy. Chap. III. The Third Year. — Office work— Suggestions for acquiring a knowledge of the Details of Common-law practice — The Courts— Nisi Prius business — The Brief and its preparation — Marshalling the Evidence — General rules of Evidence — A short practical view of the ordinary steps in an Action, with examples — Course of reading for the third year : the Intermediate Examination — Points to be attended to in reading for it — Method of answering the Ex- aminers' questions — The Siatue law {continued). Chap. IV.— The Fourth Year. — The County Courts — Method of acquiring a knowledge of Practice — Hints on Advocacy — Course of reading for the fourth year. Chap. V. — The Last Year. — Assignment of Articles — The town agent's office— London professional life — Attendance at Chambers'— Rules of Pleading— General view of points to be attended to during the last year under Articles — Course of reading for the fifth year : R&mm4 of old books— Analysis of Case law. Chap. VI. The final Examination — Piactical suggestions on reading for the Examination — ^Notes and CoDMnon pi ace-book— The Examiners' standard — "Coaches," their advantages and dis- advantages—Reading for honours — Routine of the Examination— Admission — Conclusion. Appendix.— (A.) Practical directions for Examination and Admission. — (B.) List of standard books on special subjects. " l"his nsefnl little book is intended forthe use " There are few who read this book with care of urticled clerks during the period of their arti- who will not readily admit that on many intricate cle^s. The style of this book is peculiar: it is an points of law their notions have become much exBgperationof the style adopted by Mr. Haynes clearer than before their acauaiutance with ic. in nis admirable 'uutliues of Equity.' 'J'he Both parts are well worked out, and will befound author seems to think the adoption or such a useful ; but in the second division of each ehap- 5tyje the only way to make the study of the law ter the law student will find most valuable in- popular, and we are not prepared to say he is formation, as there Mr. Mosely not only marks wrong-,"— XflHi Magatine and Review. _ out the course of reading which he rpcommeuds . *"Jhe design of this little book is to combine for each year, but also carefully analyses the mstruction, advice and amasement, if anything contents of each book, and points out those ainusiog can be extracted from the routine of a chapters and subjects which it will be most ad - solicitor's office and the staditfs of articled clerks. vantageous for the student to master at the first The book will cenainly be found useful by any reading, and those which he ought to defer till articled clerk, for it contains much information a second perusal and a wider experience have which it is sometimes very troublesome to find, made him more competent to understand them, and the facetiousness of Mr. Mosely's manner The style is remarkably good, and, cnnsidering will doubtless help to grease the course of a the sub.iect, free from technical expressions." — rough and uneasy sub.iect." — Lav) Journal- IrUh Law Times. ^^ ©- 18 LAW WOBKS PUBLISHED BY Christie's Crabb's Conveyancing.— Fifth Edit, by Shelford, Two vols, royal 8vo., SI. cloth. CRABB'S COMPLETE SERIES of PRECEDENTS in CONVEYANCING and of COMMON and COMMERCIAL FORMS in Alphabetical Order, adapted to the Present State of the Law and the Practice of Conveyancing ; with copious Prefaces, Observations and Notes on the several Deeds. By J. T. Christie, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. The Fifth Edition, with numerous Corrections and Additions, by Leonabd Shelford, Esq., of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law. General Table of Heads of Prefaces and Forms. Abstracts, — Accounts. — Acknowledgments. — Acquittances. — Admittances. — Affidavits, Affir- mations or Declarations. — Agreements : to relingulsh Business: to Guarantee: for a Lease : before Marriage : for a Partition : between Principal and Agent ; for the Sale and Purchase of Estates: for Sale of Copyhold Estates : for Sale of Leaseholds: for Sale of an Advowson. — Annuity : secured on Copyholds. — Annuities : Assigments of. — Appoint- ments: of Guardians. — Apportionment. — Apprenticeship: to the Sea Service: to an Attorney: Assignment of. — Arbitration ; Award. — Assignments* Bonds: Leases: Patents: Pews : Policies of Insurance : Reversionary Interests. — Attestations. — Attornments. — Auctions : Particulars of Sale. — Bargains and Sales : of Timber. — Bills of Sale of Goods. — Bonds: Administration: Receiver pending Suit: Post Obit: Stamps on.— Certificates. — Composition: Conveyances in Trust for Creditors. — Conditions: of Sale. — Confirmations. — Consents. — Copartnership: Dissolution of Copartnership. — Covenants; Stamps on; for Production of Title Deeds. — Declarations. — Deeds: I. Nature of Deeds in General: II. Requisites of a Deed; III. Formal parts of Deeds; IV. Where a Deed is necessary or otherwise: V. Construction of Deeds; VI. Avoiding of Deeds; VII. Proof of Deeds; VIII. Admission of Parol Evidence as to Deeds ; IX. Possession of Defeds : X. Stamp Duty on Deeds. — Defeasances. — Demises — Deputation. — Disclaimers. — Disentailing Deeds. — Distress ; Notices of. — Dower. — Enfranchisements, — Exchanges. — Feoflfments. — Further Charges. — Gifts. — Grants. — Grants of Way or Road. — Indemnities. — Leases . I. Nature of Leases in General: II. Requisites to a Lease; III. Parts of a Lease; IV. Incidents to a Lease ; V. Stamps on Leases. — Letters of Credit. — Licences. — Mortgages; of Copyholds: of Leaseholds ; Transfer of: Stamp Duty on. — Notes, Orders, Warrants, &c. — Notices; to Quit. — Partition. — Powers ; of Attorney. — Presentation. — Purchase Deeds ; Conveyance of Copyholds ; Assignments of Leaseholds : Stamps on. — Recitals. — Releases or Conveyances ; or Discharges. — Renunciations or Disclaimers. — Resignations. — Revocations.— Separation. — Settlements; Stamp Duty on — Shipping: Bills of Lading; Bills of Sale; Bottomry and Respondentia Bonds ; Charter Parties. — Surrenders. — Wills; 1. DeOni^ion of Will and Codicil ; 2. To what Wills the Act 7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 26 does not apply ; 3. What may be disposed of by Will ; 4. Of the capacity of Persons to make Wills : 5. Who may or may not be Devisees i 6. Execution of Wills; 7. Publication of Wills ; 8. Revocation of Wills : 9. Lapse of Devises and Bequests: 10. Provisions and Clauses in Wills: II. Construction of Wills. •■■n. framthe Law Times. From the Solicitors' Journal. « J J . preparation of it could not have been con- " The collection of precedents contained in these naea to more able hands than those of iMr. Shel- two volumes are all that could be desired. Ihey WiVh rh„^"f "," ";l^''"}y 9" "■?»' property law. arc particularly well adapted foi Soliciturs.beiug dk, ,. ,^nl. ^ =,r '■ f '';«'°Bl|5'ies h.m he has of a really practical character. Ihev are more- ilil in h ™ " ^i^nnrf r 'i'k''^ '" carefulness we over free from the useless repetitions of comuion suuer Sr^ and rh?rlV,f,S' "{;<'' .'""Crabb's forms that so muchincrease Ihe bulli and expense or Binal author wmriri hi. i h "'^ °' 7'"'=^;''■' "^ some collection, that we could name. W e know "av"»Bwared und^A^fow ,'f°'"'- u'''^ 'I "u"' °^ any collection of conveyancing precedents a book to h/m, t»rf ^ , t "«'V"^1' ""• " '■" ","' ''"" ?'""''' """ke it so possible for a tyro to put exhibited bvauota.lSnl?1t„';r^,^l!''"K""''L''! '"P^er a presentable Sraft at an exigency, or pitt^i^^iToXtvx^;i'^&^^^^^^^ .te'1x^;e^riZ';?ra?,ls,a".:"'^i^r'Hfa,F-%f" fine and dismissed with i|.plausc, and a recom- proved himself in tMs ta^k w bfoMu w^rihi^of «*- -a MESSES. BUTTERWORTH, 7, FLEET STREET, E. C. 19 Christie's Crabb's Conveyancing— coTt^tnuecZ. From the Law Magazine and Review. "'I'o this importanipart of his duty — theremo- delliag* and perfecting of the Forms— even with the pxaminalion which we ha^ e already been able to afToril this work, we are ablv to affirm, that the learned editor has beeo entinently successful and effected valuable imprnveuients." From the Law Chronicle. " " It possessesoae distinctive feature in devoting more attention than usual in such works to forms of a commercial naturft. We are satisfied from an examination ofthepresentwith the immediately preceding edition that Mr. Shelford has very cou- siderahly improved the character of the work, both in the prefaces and in the forms. On the whole the two volumes of Crabb's Precedents, as edited by (Wr. Leonard Shelford, will be found extremely useful in a solicitor's office, presentine a large amount of real property learning, with very numerous precedents: indeed we know of no book so Justly entitled tothe appellation of 'handy' as the fifth edition of Mr. Ciabb's Preoed^uts^," Eouse's Copyhold Manual. — Third Edition* 12mo., 105. Qd, cloth. THE COPYHOLD ENFRANCHISEMENT MANUAL, giving the Law, Practice and Forms in Enfranchisements at Common Law and under Statute, and in Commutations ; with the Values of Enfranchise- ments from the Lord's various Rights : the Principles of Calculation being clearly explained, and made practical by numerous Rules, Tables and Examples. Also all the Copyhold Acts, and several other Statutes and Notes." Third Edition. By Rolla Roitse, Esq., of the Middle Tem.ple, Barrister at Law, Author of ^' The Practical Conveyancer," &c. " This new edition follows the plan of its pre- decessor, adopting^ a fivefold division : — 1. The Law. 2. I he Practice, with L*ractical Sugges- tions to lords. Stewards and Copyholders. _ 3, 'I he Mathematical con>-ideratioD of the Subject in all its Details, with. Rules, 'J'ables and (Exam- ples. 4. Forms. 5. i he Statutes, with '^ mes. Of these, we can only repeat what wehave said before, that they exhansti the subject ; they give to the practitioner all the materials rpqnired by hiin to conduct the enfranchisement of a copyhold, whe- - iher voluntary or compulsory "— Xaw I'tTnes. " When we consider what favor Mr. House's Practical Man and Practical Conveyancer have found with the profession, we feel sure the legal world will greet with pleasure a new and im- proved edition of his co[iyhold manual. The third edition of that work is before us. It is a work of great practical ^'ahie, suitable to lawyers and laymen. We can freely and heartily recom- mend this volume to the practitioner, the steward and the copyholder." — Laio Magazine. *** Now, however, that copyhold tenures are being frequently converted into freeholds, Mr. Rouse's tre.Ltise will doubtless be productive of very extensive benefit ; for it seems to us to have been very carefully prepared,, exceedingly well composed and written, and to indicate much ex- perience in coiiyhold law on the part of th& author."— 'Sb/wilWJ* Journal, Shelford's Succession, Probate and Legacy Duties. Second Edition. 12mo., 16s. cloth. THE LAW relating to the PROBATE, LEGACY and SUCCESSION DUTIES in ENGLAND, IRELAND and SCOTLAND, including all the Statutes and the Decisions on those Subjects : with Forms and Official Regulations. By Leonard Shelford, Esq., of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law. The Second Edition, with many Alterations and Additions. "The book is written mainly for solicitors, Mr. Shelford has accordingly planned his work with careful regard to its practical utility and daily use." — SottcitOTS^ Jovrnal. "One of the most useful and popular of his productions, and being now the text nook on tne subject nothing remains but to make known its appearance to our readers. Its merits have been already tested by most of them."— Z-aw Times. " On the whole Mr. Shelford's book appears to us to be the best and most complete work on this extremely intricate subject."— Xazo Magazine, -0 0- 20 LAW WORKS PUBLISHED BY Woolrych's Law of Sewers.- 8vo., 125. cloth. -Third Edition. A TREATISE of the LAW of SEWERS, including the DRAINAGE ACTS. By Humphry W. Woolrych, Serjeant at Law. Third Edition, with considerable Additions and Alterations. " Two editions of it have been speedily ex- hausted, and a third called for. The author is an accepted authority on all subjects of this class."— Z/flw? Times. " This is a third and greatly enlarged edition of a book which has already obtained an esta- blished reputation as the most complete dis- cussion of the subject adapted to modern times. Since the treatise of Mr. Serjeant Callis in the early part of the 17th century, no work filling the same place has been added to the literature of the Profession. Itis awork of no slight labour to digest and arrange this mass of legislation ; this task, however, Mr. Serjeant Woolrych has undertaken, and an examination of his book will, we think, con- vince the most exacting that he has fully succeeded. No one should attempt to meddle with the Law of Sewers without its help." — SoUcUors' Journal. Grant's Law of Corporations in General. Royal 8vo., 26s. boards. A PRACTICAL TREATISE on the LAW of CORPORA- TIONS in GENERAL, as well Aggregate as Sole; including Municipal Corporations ; Railway, Banking, Canal, and other Joint-Stock and Tradirg Bodies; Dean and Cliapters; Universities; Colleges; Schools; Hospitals; with quasi Corporations aggregate, as Guai'dians of the Poor, Church- wardens, Churchwardens and Overseers, etc. ; and also Corporations sole, as Bishops, Deans, Canons, Archdeacons, Parsons, etc. By James Grant, Esq., of the Middle Temple, Ban-ister at Law. J. Chitty, jun's. Precedents in Pleading.— Third Edition. Complete in One Vol. Royal 8vo., 38s. cloth. J. CHITTY, JuNS. PRECEDENTS in PLEADING; with copious Notes on Practice, Pleading and Evidence. Third Edition. By the late Tompson Chitty, Esq., and by LEOPnrc Temple, R. G. Wii- llAMS, and Charles Jbffery,. Esquires, Barristers at Law. (Pai-t 2 may, for the present, be had separately, price \»s. cloth, to complete sets.) " To enter into detailed criticism — -— ] and praise of this standard wotU would be quite out of place. In the present instance the matter has fallen into competent hands, who have si)ared no pains. This valuable and useful work is brought down to the present time, altered in accordance with the ca-es and statutes now in force, Great care has been expended by the competent editors, and Its usefulness, as heretofore, will be found not to be confined to the chambers of thespecial pleader, but to be of a more extended character. I'o those who knew the work of old no recommenda- tion is wanted, to those younger members of the profession who have not tbat privilege we would suggest that they should at once make its ac- quaintance." — Law Journal, " Notwithstanding the great value of the Pre- cedents in Chitty, Junior, this is the first edition ot the work which has appeared since the pass- ?,"^°*.^he Common Law Procedure Act, 1852 Ihe edition of the late Mr. Pearson, which had been published a fcwyears before that important epoch in the history of pleading, was a most useful book and of great repuwtinu in the profession It has been with us for long a matter of regret that no one aad adapted the precedents it con- tained to the requirements of^lhe existing law. We hail theref.ire with much satisfaction the present edition ot a work to which we owe a great oeal., Ihe work which has been done has been well aone. r np prececenis are neatly and suc- cinctly drawn and are numerous and varied. Ihere cannot be better models of pleading than the precedegts which are given. The observa- tions and notes have been carefully revised, and recent changes and decisions added. We cannot pay the editors a greater compliment than by saying that the work has been remodelled by them as It would have been done by the late Mr. Pearson It he had lived to perform the task which has lallen to them."— iaw Maeazine. ' A--??!^ almost as well known to the profession as lidd was has been republislied. we might almost say rewritten, and adapted to the require- ments of modern pleading. Few there are for whom assistance will not be found by reference to these pages, which serve yet another useful purpose, by helping the lawyer to pick holes in nis adversary's pleadings, as well as properly to frame his own. >i or is the volume useful in the rZn"',',°V^'""'"-,P?'yv- practitioners in the County Courts will find it a valuable adviser in the preparation ot pleadings, such as they are."— ".Chilty's Precedents will always occupy its position upon the bookshelves of the practitioner The plan ot the work is well known, comorisine condensed observations on the general law con nected with the precedents, which we think is i better method than that followed in Bullen anH Leake.".-i0!!; Times CSeccnd noliceX '^ " © MESSRS. BUTTERWORTH, 7, FLEET STREET, E. C. 21 ; Scriven's Law of Copyholds.— 5th Edit, by Stalinan. Abridged in 1 vol. royal 8vo., £\ : 10s. cloth. A TREATISE ON COPYHOLD, CUSTOMARY FREE- HOLD and ANCIENT DEMESNE TENURE, with the Jurisdiction of Courts Baron and Courts Leet. By John Sckiven, Serjeant at Law, Fifth Edition, containing references to Cases and Statutes to 1867. By Henry Stalman, of the Inner Temple, Esq., Barrister at Law, "No lawyer can see or hear the word 'copy- half a ceutury been uot only a standard work hold' without assaciating with it the name of but one of unimpeachable authority, and in its St^en. wbose bonk has oeen always esteemed pages the present generation has learned all that not merely the best but the only one of any js Known of copyhold and customary tenures, worth. Until a commutation of the tenure for All chat is necessary to say is, that in the pre- B fixed rent-charge, after the manner of a tithe sent edition of Scrivea on Copyholds Mr. Stal- commutation, is compelled by the legislature, man has omitted what it was useless to retain, thistreatise will lose none of its usefulness to the and inserted what it was necessary to add. soHottors in' the country." — Lavt Times. Until copyholds have disappeared utterly, it is " It would be wholly supeiHuous to offer one at least certain that Scriven on Coj)yholas by Word of comment oo the general body of the Stalman will hold undisputed sway in the pro- wbrk. Scriven on Copyholds has for exactly fessiou."— iflw Journal. Browning's Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Practice. Post 8vo., 85. cloth. THE PRACTICE and PROCEDURE of the COURT for DIVORCE and MATRIMONIAL CAUSES, including the Acts, Rules, Orders, copious Notes of Cases and Eorras of Practical Proceedings, with Tables of Pees and Bills of Costa. By W. Ernst Browning, Esq., of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law. /' After a careful study of this work, we un- *' We ought not to omit noticing the very !, 'Kesitatinglyreeommenditaswelltotbestudent useful precedents of bills of costs which it ' as to ttie legal practitioner." — Law Magazine contains. These alone are sufTicient to obtain and Review. a good circulatioa for this manual." — Solici- "Ifthefotnre editions are edited with the tors* Journal. game eare and ability that have been bestowed " Mr. Brovniing's little volume will doubt- Qpon thb, it will prohably take its place as the less become the practice of the Divorce Court," t ' Practice at the Divorce Court." — Jurist. — Law Times, Brandon's Law of F(n:eign Attachment. 8vo., 14s. cloth. A TREATISE upon the CUSTOMARY LAW of FOREIGN ATTACHMENT, and the PRACTICE of the MAYOR'S COURT of the CITY OF LONDON therein. With Forms of Procedure. By Wood- THORPB Bbahdon, Esq., of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law. Moseley's Law of Contraband of War. Post 8vo., 5s. cloth. WHAT IS CONTRABAND OF WAR AND WHAT IS NOT. Comprising all the American and English Authorities on the Subject. By Joseph Mosbl-et, Esq., B.C.L., Barrister at Law. -® KS- 22 LAW WORKS PUBLISHED BY Oke's Magisterial Synopsis. — Tenth Edition. Dedicated by permission to the Right Hon, Lord Cairns. Two vols., 8vo., 58*. cloth. THE MAGISTERIAL SYNOPSIS : a Practical Guide for Magistrates, their Clerks, Attornies and Constables ; Summary Convictions and Indictable Offences, with their Penalties, Punishments, Procedure, &c., being Alphabetically and Tabularly arranged. By George C. Oke, Chief Clerk to the Lord Mayor of London, Tenth Edition. This Edition contains the Law hrought down to the close of the Session, 1868. Opinion of Lord Cbancellor 'Westbury. " Upper Hyde Park Gardens, October ZOth, 1862. "The Lord Chancellor presents his compliments to Mr. Oke, and thanks him veiy much for the valuable present of his most excellent and elaborate works, the * Magisterial Synopsis' and ' Magisterial Formulist,' which, in the opinion of the Lord Chancellor, will be of great public service. " To George C. Oke, Esq., &c., &c., &c., Mansion House, London." Opinions of the late Lord Chancellor Campbell. " I congratulate you on the great success of your valuable Synopsis, and I shall be well pleased to be Dedicatee of successive editions while you desire that 1 should have this honour." — Letter to Mr. Oke, dated April 6th, 1858. " Stratheden Bouse, May 24th, 1858. " My dear Sir, — I thank you for the copy of your new edition which you have had tbe goodness to send me, and [ am glad to hear of the increased circulation of the Work. " Your instructions as to cases under 20 & 21 Vict. c. 43, will be particularly useful. " I remain, yours faithfully, *' George C. Oke, Esq." " Campbell." " I am aware that the Lord Mayor has at present an able assistant in the person of a gentleman of the name of Oke, Author of the ' Magisterial Synopsis,' a very enterprising, able and learned man." — The Lord Chancellor {Campbell) in the House of Lords, February 23rd, 1860. *' We are really at a loss to discover any criticism which can fairly be offered on this remarkable work. A new edition every two years is a success such as rarely falls to the lot of the greatest of legal authors, and no one pretends to deny that Mr. Oke has fairly earned his good fortune. The first edition started with 410 pages of matter. Legislation, judicial decisions and the unwearied research, care and skill of the author have swelled 410 into 1402 pages, so that he is driven to offer an apology for the bulk of the book and for its compulsory division into two handsome volumes. It would be idle in us to take a survey of the general contents of a work which is familiar to all persons who are concerned in the ad- ministration of justice in petty sessions. It is enough to say that Mr. Oke's Synopsis is not only the standard guide to the magisterial bench, but that it is regarded throughout England as the indispensable companion of every justice of the peace."— iiaw Journal. " Mr. Oke's Synopsis has been for so many years before the public, and its reputation is so fully established, that any elaborate criti- cism upon the work as a whole would be out of place on the occasion of the publication of a new eoition. The functions of magistrates out of quarter sessions and of their clerks and officers are so many and of so very miscella- neous a character, that there is perhaps no part of our judicial system in which the ser- vices of a reliable and easily accessible guide is BO absolutely necessary to all those who have to take any part m the working of the system. To meet this need there are few men who have better reason to know exactly what is necessary than Mr. Oke, and lew men be! ter able to supply it, and the success with which he has laboured to this end has been amply attested by the reception which the various editions of his work have met with. But the very nature of the subject with which this work deals, renders frequent new editions most important. This edition incorporates the statute law affecting magistrates since the date of the last edition, as well as the decisions of the courts ; and, whether by good luck or good guidance, the publication has been so timed as to enable the author to bring the statute law down to the actualdate of issue. The work in its present form is considerably increased in bulk, but it retains its two great merits — com- pleteness and conciseness." — Solicitors' Journal. " The tenth edition of this valuable com- pendium of magisterial law makes its appear- ance in two volumes, a great improvement for convenience of reference upon the single bulky volume of the former editions. The position which the work has gained and the growing demand tor it are shown by the fact that a ninth edition was published so lately as 1866. In ac- cordance with the suggestion made to Mr. Oke, the present eilition has been prepared and is- sued immediately after the fourth edition of its equally useful companion. The Magisterial For- mulist, The careful and conscieniious treat- ment which M r.Oke always bestows upon what- ever he takes in hand, entitles him to full credit when he says that ' many titles have been en- larged, much new matter inserted, and a variety of minute improvements made in the re;er- ences, upon all of which I have bestowed my personal attention and utmost ca.Te.' "—Law Magazine. Cf St -& MESSRS. BUTTERWORTH, 7, FLEET STREET, E. C. 23 Oke's Magisterial Formulist. — Fourth Edition. One thick volume, 8vo., 88^. cloth. The MAGISTERIAL FORMULISTr bein^r a complete Collec- tion of Forms and Precedents for practical use in all Cases out of Quarter Sessions, and in Parochial Matters, by Magistrates, their Clerks, Attornies and Constables: with an Introduction, Explanatory Directions, Variations and Notes. By George C. Oke, Author of " The Magisterial Synopsis." Fourth Edition, enlarged and improved. "The publication of a new edicioii of this most useful collection uf forms has been urgently called for. Mr. Oke's works are so well known to all who are concerned in the admiDistration of niHgistenHl law, that we need say no more than that the present edition seems to have been prepared with his usual care. On a reference to a very full index at the end of the book, we have been unable to detect Che omission of any subject in the place where it Diigiit be expected to be found, and such forms as the author has had to draw, and not merely to transcribe, appear well executed." — Soliciton'' Journal. " Mr. Oke has had many predecessors in his office of Chief Clerk to the Lord Mayor of London of skilly learning and reputation, but it would be impossible to name any one ot such officers who has rendered such signal services to the administration of the law by the jusiicts as the author of the book before us. It is indeed difficult to offer any remarks of moment upon a work which has gone through three editions, and has been acknowledged as com* plete by all who has had occasion w use it. But time alone, and the m^ss of new legisla- tion which it has brought with it, have made the revision of the book necessary. The im- portant changes and extensions of the law ad- miiiistered by the magistrates since the session of 186i have justitied and demanded a new edition, and in that new edition we believe will be found the same qualities of accuracy and completeness uhich distinguished its three predecessors. No clerk to justices, and no justice who is anxious to dischatge his onerous functions successfully, should be without the * Magisterial Formulist* and the 'Magisterial SyiiO]jsis;' and it need scarcely be added that those members of the profession who are brought in coutact with business in petty sessions will derive great assistance from them." — Law Journal. '* Thiswnrk is loo wet I known to need eulogy. It is in universal use in magistrates* courts ; ic has been out of print for some time, and a new edition was urijently required. We believe that Mr. Oke purposely delayed it that it might be made contemporaneous, or nearly so, with the. Synopsis. The contents are brought down to the end of last yeai, and consequently it in- cludesall the forms required by the new statutes and decisions ot the six years that have elapsed since the publication of the third edition. Tliey have been arranged uiiderdivers new titles, and especially the modes of describing indictable offences have been much enlarged. It is a book that lias been known so long, and so extensively, that no further description of it is needed now.*' haw Times, Oke's Law of Turnpike Roads. — Second Edition. 12mo., 18s. cloth. THE LAWS of TURNPIKE ROADS; comprising the whole of the General 'Acts ; the Acts as to the Union of Trusts, for facilitating Arrangements with their Creditors; the Interference of Railways and other Public Works with Roads, their Non-repair, and enforcing Contributions from Parishes (including the Acts as to South Wales Turnpike Roads), &c. &c. ; practically arranged, with Cases, Notes, Forms, &c. &.c. By GeuRGE C. Oke, Author of *' The Magisterial Synopsis.'' Second Edition. '* In the * Synopsis' Mr. Oke is unique ; the plan was perfectly oiiginal. and he has no com- petitor. In the I urnpike Law he is himself a competitor with others, who had previously pos- session of the field. N evertheless, -o well has he exeLUted his design ihat his volume has fairly taken precedence in the esteem of the profession, because he has written it with the same in- dustrious research and painstaking correction which distinguished the 'Synopsis.'" — iaai Times. " All Mr. Oke's works are well done, and his 'Turnpike Laws' is an admirable specimen of the class of books reuuired for the guidance of magistrates and legal jiracLitioneis in country districts." — 3olicito?s' Journal. -& 0- -» 24 LAW WORKS PUBLISHED BY Chadwick's Probate Court Manual. EXAMPLES of Royal 8vo., 12«. cloth. ADMINISTRATION BONDS for the COURT of PROBATE; exhibiting the Principle of various Grants of Administration, and the correct Mode of preparing the Bonds in respect thereof; also Directions for preparing the Oaths, arranged- for practical utility. With Extracts from the Statutes ; also various Forms of Affirmation prescribed by Acts of Parliament, and a Supplemental Notice, bringing the work down to 1865. By Samuel Chadwick, of Her Majesty's Court of Probate. " We undertake to say that the possession of this volume by practitioners will prevent many a hitch and awkward delay, provoking to the lawver himself and difficult to be satisfactorily explained to the clients," — Law Magazine and Review, " Mr. Chadwick's volume will be a necessary Eart of the law library of the practitioner, for he as collected precedents that are in constant re- quirement. This is purely a book of practice, but therefore the more valuable. It tells the reader what to da, and that is the information most required after a lawyer begins to practise," — Law Times, Grant's Law of Banking. — Second Edition by Fisher. 8vo. 2l5. cloth, GRANT'S LAW of BANKERS and BANKING and BANKS OF ISSUE, Limited and Chartered, and Winding-up ; Directors, Managers and Officers ; and the Law as to Cheques, Circular Notes or Letters of Credit, Bank Notes, Exchequer Bills, Coupons, Deposits, &c. (Appendix contains the Bank Notes Issue Bill, and Reasons for Bill, and Official Bank Returns.) Second Edition. By R. A. Fishek, Esq., of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law. " The present editor has very much in- creased the value of the original work, a work whose sterling merits had already raised it to the rank of a standard text-book." — Law Maga- zine. " No man in the profession was more com- petent to treat the subject of Banking than Mr. Grant, Thisvolume appears opportunely. To all engaged in the litigations, ,^s well as to all legal advisers oi" Bankers, Mr, Grant's -work vi'ill be an invaluable assistant. It is a clear and careful treatise on a subject not already exhausted, and it must become the text-book upon it." — Law Times. " A Second Edition of Mr. Grant's well. known treatise on this branch of tlielawhas been called for and very ably supplied by Mr, Fisher."— iaai Times, Second Notice. " The learning and industry which were so conspicuous in Mr. Grant's former work are equally apparent in this. The book supplies a real want, which has long been felt both by the profession an d by the public at large,"— 7uto«. "We commend this work to our readers. It is at once practical and intelligible, and is of use alike to the unprofessional as well as the professional reader. No bank, whether a pri- vate concern or a joint-stock company, should be without it."— Money Market Review. Parkinson's Common Law Chamber Practice. 12rao,, 75. cloth, A HANDY BOOK FOR THE COMMON LAW JUDGES' CHAMBERS. By Geo. H. Parkinson, Chamber Clerk to the Hon. Mr. Justice Byles. ' FS'j'ii" x'"''' Mr- Parkinson is eminently qualified. —Jurjw. " It is extremely well calculated for ihe purpose tor which It IS intended. So much work is now done m Common Law Chambers by junior clerks that such a httle treatise is much wanted Mr Parkinson has performed his task skilfully and with care. 'Solicitors' Journal. _" 'The practice in Chambers has become suffi- ciently important to call for a treatise devoted to It, nor could a more competent man for the task have presented himself than Mr, Parkinson, h^^^'\I^J^\ experience as well as intelligence Save long placed him lu the position of an autho- rity on all matters appertaining to this peculiar tteL"!liJ?Sf "'"°''°f ^°"°""' ^•«' P-- "The e is much that would prove very useful l^,H " W»"'"on" in Mr, Parkinson's compilation and which, so far as we are aware, is not to he found in any other book collected withenual nnn cisene!s."-Z,,» Magazine -anti Ret,iew ™" -© MESSRS. BUTTERWOETH, 1, PLEET STREET, E.G. 25 Coombs' Manual of Solicitors' Bookkeeping. 8vo., IOj. 6rf. cloth. A MANUAL of SOLICITORS' BOOKKEEPING: com- prising Practical Exemplifications of a Concise and Simple Plan of Double Entry, with Forms of Account and other Books relating to Bills, Cash, &c., showing their Operation, giving Instructions for Keeping, Posting and Balancing them, and Directions for Drawing Costs, adapted to a large or small, sole or partnership business. By W. Bayley Coombs, Law Accountant and Costs Draftsman. •»• The varioiis Account Boohs described in the above System, the forms of which are copyright, may he had from the Publishers at the prices stated in the worh^ page 274. "It adds some excellent instructions for drawing bills of costs. Mr. Coombs is a practical man, and has produced a practical book." — Law Times. " A work in which the really superfluous has heen omittedt and that only which is necessary and useful in the ordinary routine in an attor- ney's office has been retained- He has per- formed his task in a masterly manner, and In doing so has given the why and the wherefore of the whole system of Solicitors' Bookkeeping, The volume is the roost comprehensive we-re- member to have seen on the subject, and from the clear and intelligible manner in which the whole has been worked out it will render it unexceptionable in the hands of the student and the practitioner." — Law Magazine. " So clear do the instructions appear, that a tyro of average skill and abilities, with applica- tion, could under ordinary circumstances open and keep the accounts of a business ; and, so far as we can judge, the author has succeeded in bis endeavour to divest Solicitors* Bookkeeping of complexity, and to be concise and simple, without being-inefficient. We cannot dismiss this volume without briefly commenting upon the excellent style in which it is submitted to the profession." — Law Jov/mal, " M r. Coombs' book appears to us to have heen carefully and usefully prepared, and the direc- tions and illustrations given as to solicitors* bookkeeping In general are o-f such a nature that the work, may he referred to with confi- dence on any point relating to Solicitors' Book- keeping as a safe guide to the subject. This is not merely a valuable addition to the library of every solicitor, it is a hook that every ar- ticled clerk, now that intermediate examinar tions embrace bookkeepings will be read with profit and benefit to himself. It may be fairly said to exhaust tlie subject of which it treats, and the author has adopted a system having the great advantage of simplicity, while he employs as small a number of books as is con- sistent with a clear and accurate record of the business of each day for the purpose. We have little doubt that this work will gain a favourable place in the estimation of the pro- fession and of law students, and will stand the test of the value of a book written pro- fessedly for practical men— the number nf editions through which it will pass."— 5b;«n'- tor^ Journal. "Mr. Coombs' Manual of Solicitors* Book- keeping, in our opinion, takes the safe middle course, between too great intricacy of arrange- ment on one side, and want of detail and ex- planation on the other. His system can be equally followed in a small office, where a regular accountant Is not employed, and in an office where the stafl* is large. Solicitors who manage property will find the specimens of rental accounts given in the Appendix very useful." — IHsh Lam Times, "This is a work of considerable extent, pre- pared at the request of eminent solicitors, by an experienced law accountant."— ^(Aenoram, Lushington's Naval Prize Law. Royal 8vo., 10s. 6d. cloth. A MANUAL of NAVAL PRIZE LAW- By LusHiNGTON, of the Inner Temple, Esq., Bai'rister at Law. Godfrey Lovesy's Law of Arbitration (Masters and Workmen). 12mo. 4s, cloth. {Dedicated, h/ permission, to Lord St. LeonoA'ds.^ THE LAW of ARBITRATION between MASTERS and WORKMEN, as founded upon the Councils of Concilmtion Act of 1867 (30 & 31 Vict. c. 106), the Masters and Workmen Act (5 Geo. 4, c. 96), and other Acts, with an Introduction and Notes. By C. W. Lotest, Esq., of the Middle Temple, Barrister at Law. " I think you have bestowed mucli attention upon the late statute and added some useful notes.*'— XjOTd St. Leonards. ,q? ^ 26 LAW WORKS PUBLISHED BY Trower's Church Building Laws. Post 8vo. 85. cloth. THE LAW of the BUILDING of CHURCHES, PAR- SONAGES, and SCHOOLS, and of the Division of Parishes and Places, By Charles Francis Trower, M.A., of the Inner Temple, Esq., Barrister at Law, late Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and late Secretary of Pre- sentations to Lord Chancellor Westbury. " We may pronounce it a useful work. It con- sides a good table ofcontents.it has an elaborate tains a great inaf>3 of ioforinatiou of essential im- index. It i.t a book we are glad to have and to pore, and those who, as jjarishioners, Jegsl ad- recommend.'' — Literary Chvrchman. visera, or clergymen, are concerned with glebes, " N"tonly has Mr. I'rower performed this work, endowments, district chapelries. parishes, ecclesi- bnt he has performed it in a th->rougb!y satisfac- astical commissions, and such like matters, about tory manner, giving ns a volume which will set which the pub ic, and notably the clerical public, many minds at rest, and prevent.lt may be, many seem to know but little, but which it is needless a parish squabble, or its natural complement a to say are matters of much importance.*' — Soli' lawsuit." — Church Opinion, citors' Jimmai. _ " Mr. Trower has. as we have said, supplied His book is just the one we could wish every this need ; tnd done so fairly well. He has pro- clergvman to possess, for if it was in tbe hands of educed a very useful and concise practical guide " our readers they would be saved the trouble nf — a-uardian. asking us very many questions."— C/tfriVaWo7/rnfl/, " I his book will be aboon to many a puzzled \ In a well-arranged volume this gentleoiaa and bewilderedclergymau. Wecommendtheboofc points out concisely and intelligibly how the diffi- to every clergyman "—Chuchman culties which usually besei parties in such mat- " We welcome Mr. Trnwer*s book as a valuable ters may be avoided."— Oj/orrf University Herald. and useful manual of the obscurest and most dis- 1 -ml"/ topics germane to its title this vo. creditable portion of the statute book."— iJecorrf. Inme will be found a handy book of ecclesiastical " A task by no means inviting, but which the law, and should on that account be made widely author has performed in a manner which does jus- known among the clergy y—Chvrch Mail. tice to the subject and credit to his own reputation Itisacompact and handy treatise, veryclearly as a scholar and lawyer."— Bwi/ifer, written, well arranged, easy of relerence,and,be- Drewry's Equity Pleader. 12mo., 6s. cloth. A CONCISE TREATISE on the PRINCIPLES of EQUITY PLEADING ; with Precedents. By C. Stewart Dkbwry, of the Inner Temple, Esq., Barrister at Law. "It will be found of great utility as intro- ing for the information of students, he has auctory to the more elaborate treatises, or to successfully accomplished his professed ob- refresh the memory after the study of the ject."— Law Chromcle larger books."-£aw Timei:. " As an introduction to pleadings as they Keepmg in view Mr. Drewry's design, now subsist in the Equity Courts the book is namely, to produce a work on Equity Plead- v,entimei."—Lau, Masazine and LawReview, PetersdorflF's Abridgment of the Common Law. — New Ed. 6 vols., Royal 8vo., 11. 7s. cloth. A CONCISE, PRACTICAL ABRIDGMENT of the -COM- MON AND STATUTE LAW, as at present administered in the Common Lav/, Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Courts, excluding all that is obsolete, overruled or superseded : comprising a Series of Condensed Treatises on the diiferent Branches of the Law, with detailed Directions, Forms and Prece- dents ; an Alphabetical Dictionary of Technical Law Terms and Maxims, and a Collection of Words that have received a SpeeialJudicialConstructiof. the whole illustrated by References to the principal Cases in Equity, and in Rv r",T° t' J^™P™^" ^'"' Irish Reports, and the most eminent text writers, w^nnn p Pbtbrsdorfp, Serjennt-at-Law, assisted by Charles W Wood, Esq., and Walker Marshall, Esq., Banisters-at-Law cl^e^'is'Sorsl^prtSIf ^;?at*rrusr. t"h"at"?he™sTx^'rT "i '"^ «"'.™'™- Now work. It is a complete dictionary of the law n„M,iJ,lr t„ .^^^^^ ''^^° Published, we have as it exists at the p'iesent day, a^l'^L' a^ se°ems''fo be fn'the'be^t'stWe'of'l'hisfr-"™ index to every law library. We noticed the iiiri.if =nH „- i > " S ""' laborious plan and object of this work at s?me lengtt ' professional wiiter."_r,-„e.. Goldsmith's Equity. — Fifth Edition. Post 8vo., 16*. cloth, THE DOCTRINE and PRACTICE of EQUITY : or, a Con- cise Outline of Proceedings in the High Court of Chancery. Designed principally for the Use of Students, By G. Goldsmith, Esq., M.A., Barrister-at-Law. Fifth Edition, including all t&e alterations made in pur- suance of the late acts and the orders thereon to the present time, professedly an elementary work, its merits are greater than its pretensions. Professing to accomplish a limited task, that task has been well done. The knowledge in haste and by piecemeal acquired, remains long ill digested, perhaps thiough life, crude and unready. This manual seeks to prevent, such a result by introducing to the learner a plain summary of the doctrines of equity, together with a sketch of the practice in the Chancery Courts. We " A volume designed for the law student. Hence such a volume as Mr. Goldsmith has puhlished is a perennial, and, while addressed principally to the student, it may be profitably read by the practitioner. Five editions attest the approval of those who have experienced the benefit of its instructions. It has grown in bulk with each successive appear- ance, as Mr. Goldsmith discovered what were the wants of his readers, and a continued suc- cession of new topics has been added. It is now an extremely comprehensive sketch of the history, jurisdiction and practice of our Courts of Equity — a summary of what could be obtained only by hard reading of Reeve and Spence and Ayckbourn and Drewry." — Lata Times. "TheexcellenciesofeachC Smith's Manual* and ' Hunter's Suit') appear to be successfully combinedin Mr. Goldsmith's Treatise. Though cordially recommend Mr. Goldsmith's Treatise to those for whom it is designed." — The Law Magazine and Review. "It contains a great deal of miscellaneous in- formation, and if a student were confined to the selection of one book on equity, both for its doctrine and practice, he could hardly do better than choose the one before us," — The Solicitors' Journal. Sir T. E. May's Parliamentary Practice. — Sixth Edition. One very thick volume, 8vo., 35s. cloth. A TREATISE on the LAW, PRIVILEGES, PROCEED- INGS and USAGE of PARLIAMENT. By Sir Thomas Erskine May, K.C.B., of the Middle Temple, Barrister at Law ; Clerk Assistant of the House of Commons, Sixth Edition, Revised and Enlarged. CoHTEHis : — Book I. Constitution, Powers and Privileges of Parliament.— Book TI. Practice and Proceedings in Parliament.— Book III. The Manner of Passmg Private Bills, with the Standing Orders in both Houses, and the most recent Precedents. " Six editions in twenty-four years attest the estimation in which this great work is held by the members of successive Parlia- ments, by the promoters of private bills, and by constitutional lawyers It is an exhaustive treatise on that most lawless of all law the Law of Parliament. Since the publication of the last edition considerablechanges have been made in the Standing Orders of both Houses, and these have been embodied in the present edition. We may point to the words sixth edition upon the title page as the best possible testimony to its practical value, for all who are in any way concerned in the Law and Practice of Pailiament." — Law Times. " The high reputation and the proved prac- tical utility of Sir T. Erskine May's work, render it unnecessary for us to say anything as to its merits. The present edition has been carefully revised and considerably enlarged. It comprises every alteration in the Law and Practice of Parliament, and all material prece- dents relating to public and private business from the date of the former edition down to the end of the ses&ion of 1867, and many even of the last session. Including the latest orders concerning committees and referees on private bills Sir T. Erskine May deserves the best thanks of all who are interested in parliamen- tary proceedings, for the care and attention he has bestowed in preparing this edition of his valuable work." — Law Magazine. *' We hail with satisfaction a new edition of this admirable work. The politician, the law- yer, the parliamentary agent and the educated gentleman, will find here a teacher, a guide, a digest of practice and a pleasing companion. To le.al readers, the first portion of this work is of the most value. We may advert to the great care with which the author has noted up and incorporated in this new edition all the changes and events of importance since the pubiication of the fifth edition. From un- jfragmentary excerpts, it is plain that the author has taken pains to add all novel matter bearing on the subject matter, and to maintain for the work that character for accuracy and com- pleteness which it has already acquired."— Law Jourmal. "Perhaps no work has achieved a greater reputation among lawyers than May's Parlia- mentary Practice. Since the first publication in 1844, a succession of editions have been called for, and now, after an interval of four years since the issue of the fifth, a sixth edition has been found necessary. The work is too well-known to need the repetition of any description of Us scope, and we will therefore merely add that it is extremely useful to the parliamentary lawyer, in fact the only work in which he can obtain every information on matters of practice ; and is moreover a work from which the lay reader may learn very much as to the history and constitution of English Parliamentary Government."'- ,SbZi- dtoTs' Journal. -ffl Glen's Law of Highways.— Second Edition. Post 8vo., 20s. cloth. The LAW of HIGHWAYS: comprising the Highway Acts 1835, 1862 and 1864; the South Wales Highway Act; the Statutes and Decisions of the Courts on the subject of Highways, Bridges, Ferries, &c., including the Duties of Highway Boards, Surveyors of Highways, the Law of Highways in Local Board of Health Districts; Highways affected by Railways, and Locomotives on Highways. With an Appendix of Statutes in force relating to Highways. By W. Cunningham Gi.en, Esq., Barrister ' at Law. Second Edition. "Altogether we may confidently ventare to confirm the statement in the preface that it may now fairly claim to be recognized as a standard authority on the law of highways b^ those who are engaged officially ur otherwise m the admi- nistraiion of that branch of the law. It is so as we from personal knowledge can affirm, and, we may add, that it is received by them as a trust< worthy guide in the discharge of their onerous duties."— Zrfiw Times, " The present edition of Mr. Glen's work con- tains a great deal uf valuable matter which is entirely new. To those interested in ihe law of highways this manual as it now cuipears will be found a safe and efficient guide." — Law Magasine. " Mr. Glen has an established reputation in the legal profession as acareful and laborious writer, and this new edition of his new work on highway law will convince those who reier to it that he has neglected no topic likely to be useful to those whose dnties reqaire them to have a knowledge of this particular branch of the law. 'J'his work aspires above others which profess merely to be annotated reprints of acts of parliament. It will be found to contain much information which might be looked for elsewhere in vain. The general law upon the subject is set forth with a care and lucidity deserving of great praise, and a good index facilitates reference, and renders this work the most complete on this important subject which has yet been published."— /lu/tre of the Peace. " Mr. Glen may well say that an entire revision of the first edition was necessitated by the recent statutes, and his second edition is a bulk^ volume of 800 p^ges. flis work may be read with sati&< faction oy tbe general student as well as referred to with confidence by the practitioner. We need say nothing further of this second edition than that we think it likely to maintain fully the repu- tation obtained by iis predecessor. It has the advantages, by no means unworthy of considera- tion, of being well printed and well indexed, as well as well arranged, and a copious index of statutes renders it a perfect compendium of the authorities bearing in any way on the law of highways."— 'ew Criminal Law t onsoiidatioo Acts, and will Davis's edition of the Sew Criminal >tatntes be found extremely useful for practical purposes- will prove very serviceable both to magistrates The name of Jlr. I 'avis will be a suf^cient and the profession." — Law Magatine and Review. guarantee that the work has been i. one in a lawyer- Powell's Law of Inland Carriers. — Second Edition. 8vo., 14s. cloth. THE LAW OF INLAND CARRIERS, especially as regu- lated by the Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 18.54. By Edmund Powell, Esq., of Lincoln College, Oxon, M.A., and of the Western Circuit, Barrister at Law, Author of " Principles and Practice of the Law of Evidence." Second Edition, almost re-written. ■' The treatise before us states the law of which it aspires to become, the text book on the Law of It treats ably and clearly, and contams a good Carriers."— £«!s Times "'" ^-."S^"? n!"''' ^J!"""''-- , ' , . J , " 'i'^e subject of this treatise is not indeed a Mr. Powells writing IS sinffularlyprecise and laree one, but it has been got up by Mr Powell condensed,withont being at all dry as those who with considerable care, and contains amije notice have read his admirable Rook of hvidence will of the most rtcent cases and authorities:"- jMr"" attest. It will be seen, from our outline of the " The two chapters on the Railway and Canal contents, how exhanstively the subject has been Traffic Act, 1856, are quite new, ISI Se re?S treated, and that it is entitled to be, that which cases unde; the brovisions of tli« stature "e analyzed in lucid language."— Xasi Magazine^ Phillips's Law of Lunacy. Post Svo., ISs. cloth. THE LAW CONCERNING LUNATICS IDIOTS anH MTofTlfl'^.'^f''^^^^ ''J^^- ^y Charles piLiEHpILLt nfi-stirers'-oFtnaey""' ^'''■' ^""^*^^''* ^^^^' '^^^ ^^-'-^ *° '^^ Com! elZa\e"an^d-u^?fS'ill;^^rpr\'leS,nrth an- e;SlvTL" 7" °","'''^^ '"% """"^ has excellent view of the present" law afwell as the on y bears Temar^'^of ^S,T'an"i "''■''='> ■">' SfS'"'"'""'"'""""^- '^"°"^''^"''"'»'"' -?5^--=^"'AhS£3ho°w^l'?a"iii!fe'n=^^ '"'^'"- subject."— Ji«(ic8 of the Peace. " '"^ -Q-Sii — & MESSRS. BUTTERWORTH, 7, FLEET STREET, E. C. 33 Civil Service Examinations. On reporting Cases for the Periodical Examinations by Selected Candidates for the Civil Service of India : Being a Lecture delivered on Wednesday, June 12, 1867, at King's College, London. By John Cutler, B.A., of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister at Law, Professor of English Law and Jurisprudence and Professor of Indian Jurisprudence at King's College, London. 8vo., Is. sewed. A General Catalogue of all Modern Law Works now on Sale by Messrs. 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The Law Examination Journal and Law Student's Magazine. No. 2, for Hilary Term, 1870. o- On Novenvber tlie X2th, 1869, was puiUahed, in ^o., price \t., hy post Is. Id., to be regularly continued on the morni/ng of the second day after each respectwe Meammation in Hilary, Easter, Trinity and Michaelmas Terms in each year, No. I. of The LAW EXAMINATION JOURNAL AND LAW STUDENT'S MAGAZINE. Edited by M. S. MOSELY, Clifford's Inn Prizeman, M. T. 1867, Author of *• A Handy Book of Elementary Law," &c. &c. Contents of No. 1. I. County Courts, their Merits and D^ects as Local Tribunals : By tlie Editor. — IL Digest of New Decisions in Banco and at Nisi Prius. — III. Analysis of the more Important prac- tical Statutes of 32 & 33 Vict.— IV. Interme- diate Examination Qnestlons and Answers. — V. Final Examination Questions and Answers. — VI. Notes on the Examinations. — VII. Cor- respondence. Ej^e Hab i^agaitne antr Hab Kebteb. (N EW SERIES.) 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