imperial law is much cultivated and it's decisions pretty generally followed, we are informed by Van Leeuwen, that, " it receives "it's force from custom and the consent of the people, either ta"citly or expressly given : for otherwise, he adds, we should no " more be bound by this law, than by that of the Almains, the "Franks, the Saxons, the Goths, the Vandals, and other of the "antient nations." Wherefore, in all points in which the different systems depart from each other, the law of the land takes place of the law of Rome, whether antient or modern, imperial or pontificial. And in those of our English courts wherein a reception has been allowed to the civil and canon laws, if either they exceed the bounds of that reception, by extending themselves to other matters, than are permitted to them; or if fuch courts proceed according to the decisions of those laws, in cases wherein it is controlled by the law of the land, the common law in either instance both may, and frequently does, prohibit and annul their proceedings: and it will not be a fufficient excuse. for them to tell the king's courts at Westminster, that their practice is warranted by the laws of Justinian or Gregory, or is conformable to the decrees of the Rota or imperial chamber.. For which reason it becomes highly necessary for every civilian and canonift that would act with safety as a judge, or with prudence and reputation as an advocate, to know in what cafes and how far the English laws have given sanction to the Roman; in what points the latter are rejected; and where they are both so intermixed and blended together, as to form certain supplemental parts of the common law of England, distinguished by the titles of the king's maritime, the king's military, and the king's ecclesiastical law. The propriety of which enquiry the university of Oxford has for more than a century so thoroughly feen, that in her statutes she appoints, that one of the three questions to be annually discussed at the act by the jurist-inceptors shall relate to the common law; fubjoining this reason, "quia juris civilis stu“ diofos decet haud imperitos effe juris municipalis, & differentias ex“ teri patriique juris notas babere." And the statutes of the university of Cambridge speak expreffly to the same effect.

FROM the general use and necessity of some acquaintance with the common law, the inference were extremely easy, with regard to the propriety of the present institution, in a place to which gentlemen of all ranks and degrees resort, as the fountain of all useful knowlege. But how it has come to pass that a design of this fort has never before taken place in the university, and the reason why the study of our laws has in general fallen into disuse, I shall previously proceed to enquire.

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SIR John Fortescue, in his panegyric on the laws of England, (which was written in the reign of Henry the fixth) puts a very obvious question in the mouth of the young prince, whom he is exhorting to apply himself to that branch of learning; "why the "laws of England, being so good, fo fruitful, and so commo"dious, are not taught in the universities, as the civil and canon "laws are?" In answer to which he gives what seems, with due deference be it spoken, a very jejune and unfatisfactory reafon; being in short, that " as the proceedings at common law " were in his time carried on in three different tongues, the "English, the Latin, and the French, that science must be ne" cessarily taught in those three several languages; but that in "the univerfities all sciences were taught in the Latin tongue "only; and therefore he concludes, that they could not be con“ veniently taught or studied in our universities." But without attempting to examine seriously the validity of this reason, (the very shadow of which by the wisdom of your late conftitutions is entirely taken away) we perhaps may find out a better, or at least a more plausible account, why the study of the municipal laws has been banished from these seats of science, than what the learned chancellor thought it prudent to give to his royal pupil.

contempt from his inferiors, and of censure from those to whom he is accountable for his conduct.

YET farther; most gentlemen of confiderable property, at some period or other in their lives, are ambitious of representing their country in parliament: and those, who are ambitious of receiving so high a trust, would also do well to remember it's nature and importance. They are not thus honourably distinguished from the rest of their fellow-subjects, merely that they may privilege their persons, their estates, or their domestics; that they may list under party banners; may grant or with-hold supplies; may vote with or vote against a popular or unpopular administration; but upon confiderations far more interesting and important. They are the guardians of the English constitution; the makers, repealers, and interpreters of the English laws; delegated to watch, to check, and to avert every dangerous innovation, to propose, to adopt, and to cherish any folid and wellweighed improvement; bound by every tie of nature, of honour, and of religion, to transmit that constitution and those laws to their pofterity, amended if possible, at least without any derogation. And how unbecoming must it appear in a member of the legiflature to vote for a new law, who is utterly ignorant of the old! what kind of interpretation can he be enabled to give, who is a stranger to the text upon which he comments!

INDEED it is really amazing, that there should be no other state of life, no other occupation, art, or science, in which some method of instruction is not looked upon as requifite, except only the science of legislation, the noblest and most difficult of any. Apprenticeships are held necessary to almost every art, commercial or mechanical: a long course of reading and study must form the divine, the physician, and the practical professor of the laws: but every man of fuperior fortune thinks himself born a legiflator. Yet Tully was of a different opinion : "It is necef"fary,

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"sary, says he, for a fenator to be thoroughly acquainted with "the constitution; and this, he declares, is a knowlege of the "most extensive nature; a matter of science, of diligence, of "reflexion; without which no fenator can possibly be fit for his " office."

THE mischiefs that have arisen to the public from inconfiderate alterations in our laws, are too obvious to be called in queftion; and how far they have been owing to the defective education of our fenators, is a point well worthy the public attention. The common law of England has fared like other venerable edifices of antiquity, which rash and unexperienced workmen have ventured to new-dress and refine, with all the rage of modern improvement. Hence frequently it's symmetry has been destroyed, it's proportions distorted, and it's majestic fimplicity exchanged for specious embellishinents and fantastic novelties. For, to say the truth, almost all the perplexed questions, almost all the niceties, intricacies, and delays (which have sometimes disgraced the English, as well as other, courts of justice) owe their original not to the common law itself, but to innovations that have been made in it by acts of parliament; "overladen (as fir Edward "Coke expresses it) with provifoes and additions, and many " times on a sudden penned or corrected by men of none or very "little judgment in law." This great and well-experienced judge declares, that in all his time he never knew two questions made upon rights merely depending upon the common law; and warmly laments the confufion introduced by ill-judging and unlearned legislators. "But if, he subjoins, acts of parliament were "after the old fashion penned, by such only as perfectly knew "what the common law was before the making of any act of "parliament concerning that matter, as also how far forth for"mer statutes had provided remedy for former mischiefs, and "defects discovered by experience; then should very few quef

• De Legg. 3.18. Eft senatori neceffarium fine quo paratus effe senator nullo pacto poteft.

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"tions in law arise, and the learned should not so often and fo "much perplex their heads to make atonement and peace, by "construction of law, between insensible and disagreeing words, "sentences, and provifoes, as they now do." And if this inconvenience was so heavily felt in the reign of queen Elizabeth, you may judge how the evil is increased in later times, when the statute book is swelled to ten times a larger bulk; unless it should be found, that the penners of our modern statutes have proportionably better informed themselves in the knowlege of the common law.

WHAT is faid of our gentlemen in general, and the propriety of their application to the study of the laws of their country, will hold equally strong or still stronger with regard to the nobility of this realm, except only in the article of ferving upon juries. But, instead of this, they have several peculiar provinces of far greater consequence and concern; being not only by birth hereditary counsellors of the crown, and judges upon their honour of the lives of their brother-peers, but also arbiters of the property of all their fellow-fubjects, and that in the last resort. In this their judicial capacity they are bound to decide the niceft and most critical points of the law; to examine and correct such errors as have escaped the most experienced sages of the profeffion, the lord keeper and the judges of the courts at Westminster. Their sentence is final, decisive, irrevocable: no appeal, no correction, not even a review can be had: and to their determination, whatever it be, the inferior courts of justice must conform; otherwise the rule of property would no longer be uniform and steady.

SHOULD a judge in the most subordinate jurifdiction be deficient in the knowlege of the law, it would reflect infinite contempt upon himself and disgrace upon those who employ him. And yet the consequence of his ignorance is comparatively very trifling and small: his judgment may be examined, and his errors rectified, by other courts. But how much more ferious and affecting

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