fections, with suggestions for their amendment; its literature, foreign and domestic, ancient and modern,-all of which could be done in perhaps, a shorter compass than is usually appropriated by the existing treatises. We should, therefore, have been better pleased (as the subject is peculiarly fitted for it,) had Mr. Theobald drawn much more extensively on foreign sources, and entered still more fully into the science of his subject.

(Note 4.) STORY'S COMMENTARIES ON THE LAW OF BAILMENTS.-In our Introductory Lecture on the Roman or Civil Law, which we presume is in the hands of a very few, as we gave it only a partial, and gratuitous circulation, we had occasion to advert to this admirable work of Mr. Justice Story, an author always learned, perspicuous, elementary, and thorough; quem appellâsse, laudasse est. We hope to be pardoned for here repeating, from that lecture, our brief remarks on this work.

'In matters of pure reason, and the eternal principles of justice, as they have been educed by wise heads and sound hearts, we may often rely on the Roman law, and its commentators, with almost unerring confidence. No one can read without admiration, their expositions of the law of contracts, in all its numerous divisions. This is strongly exemplified in the recent very learned Treatise on the doctrine of Bailments, by Mr. Justice Story. We there perceive the riches of a highly cultivated and embellished mind, gratefully returning to the abundant fountain of Roman law, a portion of its borrowed wisdom, and paying the most willing homage to the exalted merits of Justinian, of Pothier, Domat, Vinnius, Heineccius, Ayliff, Wood, Brown, and others. Whilst his learning on the law of bailments, ranges from the year-books, down through

* Vide Introductory Lecture on the Civil Law, p. 10, Baltimore, 1832.

all successive ages of the common law, he illustrates and happily enforces his doctrines by constant references to Roman law, as set forth in the distinguished sources to which I have just alluded. How much more valuable and authoritative he has thereby rendered his work, will be allowed by all, except by those (and there are such) who deem it idle, unprofessional, and even pedantic, to transcend the narrow limits of the common law, or to pursue our researches into regions, which, to them, are terræ incognitæ, they would apply the carping objection, that the Roman law, if not authoritative, need not be referred to at all, as it would only tend to add to our already unwieldy bibliotheca legum, a mass of works accessible only to a few.'

We confidently recommend also to the careful study, no less of the British, than of the American legists, the 'Commentaries on the Conflict of Laws'-and the 'Commentaries on

Equity Jurisdiction'-by the same author. As to his very able Commentaries on the American Constitution they of course, will be studied on this side of the Atlantic; but we doubt not the bright day of unprejudiced, untrammeled philosophical research, will soon prevail much beyond these limits; and that the scholars at least, of that noble country to which we are so closely allied, by various ties, will also unite with us in admiration, praise, and study of this work.

(Note 5.) SELECT CASES IN DOUGLAS' REPORTS.-Mr. Douglas, afterwards lord Glenbervie, reported the decisions of the Court of King's Bench for four years, commencing with 1778. His reports are of the highest authority; and his manner is preferred by many to that of sir James Burrow. We advise the student by all means to read with attention the preface to this work, and the selected cases (if practicable) in the American edition, Philadelphia, 1807.

(Note 6.) SELECT CASES IN BURROW'S REPORTS.--Sir James Burrow has recorded with a faithful and able pen the decisions of that living voice and oracle of English jurisprudence, the Earl of Mansfield. The substance and style of these reports have attached to them a reputation of which scarce any other repository of legal decisions can boast. The material facts of the cases are luminously detailed; the arguments of counsel circumstantially, but not tediously reported; and the opinions of the court accurately and satisfactorily stated. On the principles of the lex mercatoria these volumes may be considered a copious and original fountain. In fine, Burrow is to be regarded as, of all other reporters, the most elementary and methodical, and therefore, best suited to impart instruction to the student. The great pleasure we derived from these volumes is forcibly brought to our recollection by the beautiful and graphic remarks of our distinguished countryman, Chancellor Kent, who, in speaking of the modern reports, says, 'they are worthy of being studied even by scholars of taste and general literature, as being authentic memorials of the business and manners of the age in which they were composed. Law reports are dramatic in their plan and structure. They abound in pathetic incident, and displays of deep feeling. They are faithful records of those 'little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind,' that fill up the principal drama of human life; and which are engendered by the love of power, the appetite for wealth, the allurements of pleasure, the delusions of self-interest, the melancholy perversion of talent, and the machinations of fraud. They give us the skilful debates at the bar, and the elaborate opinions on the bench, delivered with the authority of oracular wisdom. They become deeply interesting, because they contain true portraits of the talents and learning of the sages of the law."

* 1 Kent's Comm. 496, 2d edition.

(Note 7.) SELECT CASES IN THE REPORTS OF CRANCH, WHEATON, AND PETERS, OF DECISIONS IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES.-Cases argued and adjudged in the Supreme Court of the United States, if faithfully reported, command our confidence, and are appealed to as authoritative and decisive of the law. To a repository of such cases the student resorts with pleasure and the utmost reliance, as they are almost necessarily supposed to be cases, no less important in principle, than sound in decision, because few else than cases of legal importance reach this tribunal, and they generally receive, both in the inferior and supreme tribunal, an elaborate discussion by counsel, and a serious judicial consideration.

Judge Cranch's Reports, in nine volumes, embrace cases from the year 1801 to 1815. Our selection from these volumes, on mercantile and constitutional law, will be found to include most of the important cases on those subjects. The latter will be found under the Ninth Title of this Course. The few decisions of the supreme court, of any interest, prior to 1801, will be found in the third volume of the Pennsylvania Reports by A. J. Dallas. The period taken in by judge Cranch, is, perhaps, the most momentous and lustrous in our judicial history. The principles of our admiralty and maritime jurisprudence were in a great measure defined; those of our neutral and belligerent rights and duties pointed out and vindicated; the laws of commerce were examined with research and applied with discrimination. Constitutional questions of vast importance were settled, and many of our statutes interpreted, and the powers of the various branches of our government, in various particulars, ascertained.

Mr. Wheaton commenced his duties of Reporter in 1816, and terminated them in 1827. Mr. Wheaton's Reports are

accompanied with many valuable notes and appendixes, evincive of learning, discrimination and scholarship. His classical and richly embellished mind; his truth, accuracy, and judgment, are all manifest in these annotations; and the cases are reported with the skill of a lawyer, and the faithfulness of one conscientiously alive to the high trust reposed in him. To the twelve volumes by Mr. Wheaton, have been added nine by his successor, Mr. Peters. During these twenty-one years a noble superstructure of constitutional law has been raised. Every other department, also, of our jurisprudence has been greatly expanded, strengthened and embellished. The application of the Constitution of the United States to the various elements of our great confederacy, so as to educe a national system productive of general good, and as little particular and local evil as possible, demanded judicial talents of the highest order. Twenty-four sovereign states, and fourteen million of people, had reposed a trust of the most exalted character in this august tribunal: questions of the deepest interest and the utmost intricacy; questions of the first impression, for which it were vain to seek analogies in other systems, were often to be solved, and applied, not only to individuals but to states,—and all was happily accomplished with almost universal submission and satisfaction. 'I cannot conceive,' says Chancellor Kent, ‘of any thing more grand and imposing in the whole administration of human justice, than the spectacle of the Supreme Court, sitting in solemn judgment upon the conflicting claims of the national and state sovereignties, and tranquillizing all jealous and angry passions, and binding together this great confederacy of states in peace and harmony, by the ability, the moderation, and the equity of its decisions.

The existing volumes by Mr. Peters contain many cases of great, and some of intense interest.

* 1 Kent's Comm. 444, 2d edition.