Nor have the imperial laws been totally neglected even in the English nation. A general acquaintance with their decisions has ever been deservedly confidered as no small accomplishment of a gentleman ; and a fashion has prevailed, especially of late, to transport the growing hopes of this island to foreign universities, in Switzerland, Germany, and Holland, which, though infinitely inferior to our own in every other confideration, have been looked upon as better nurseries of the civil, or (which is nearly the same) of their own municipal law. In the mean time it has been the peculiar lot of our admirable system of laws, to be neglected, and even unknown, by all but one practical profession; though built upon the foundest foundations, and approved by the experience of ages. FAR be it from me to derogate from the study of the civil law, confidered (apart from any binding authority) as a collection of written reason. No man is more thoroughly perfuaded of the general excellence of it's rules, and the usual equity of it's decifions; nor is better convinced of it's use as well as ornament to the scholar, the divine, the statesinan, and even the common lawyer. But we must not carry our veneration so far as to facrifice our Alfred and Edward to the manes of Theodofius and Juftinian: we must not prefer the edict of the praetor, or the rescript of the Roman emperor, to our own immemorial customs, or the sanctions of an English parliament; unless we can also prefer the despotic monarchy of Rome and Byzantium, for whose meridians the former were calculated, to the free constitution of Britain, which the latter are adapted to perpetuate. WITHOUT detracting therefore from the real merit which abounds in the imperial law, I hope I may have leave to affert, that if an Englishman must be ignorant of either the one or the other, he had better be a stranger to the Roman than the English institutions. For I think it an undeniable position, that a competent knowlege of the laws of that society, in which we live, is is the proper accomplishment of every gentleman and scholar; an highly useful, I had almost said essential, part of liberal and polite education. And in this I am warranted by the example of antient Rome; where, as Cicero informs us, the very boys were obliged to learn the twelve tables by heart, as a carmen neceffarium or indispensable lesson, to imprint on their tender minds an early knowlege of the laws and constitutions of their country. But as the long and universal neglect of this study, with us in England, seems in some degree to call in question the truth of this evident position, it shall therefore be the business of this introductory discourse, in the first place to demonstrate the utility of some general acquaintance with the municipal law of the land, by pointing out its particular uses in all confiderable situations of life. Some conjectures will then be offered with regard to the causes of neglecting this useful study: to which will be subjoined a few reflexions on the peculiar propriety of reviving it in our own universities. AND, first, to demonstrate the utility of fome acquaintance with the laws of the land, let us only reflect a moment on the fingular frame and polity of that land, which is governed by this system of laws. A land, perhaps the only one in the universe, in which political or civil liberty is the very end and scope of the conftitution. This liberty, rightly understood, confifts in the power of doing whatever the laws permit; which is only to be effected by a general conformity of all orders and degrees to those equitable rules of action, by which the meanest individual is protected from the insults and oppreffion of the greatest. As therefore every subject is interested in the prefervation of the laws, it is incumbent upon every man to be acquainted with those at least, with which he is immediately concerned; lest he incur the cenfure, as well as inconvenience, of living in society without knowing the obligations which it lays him under. And thus much De Legg. 2. 23. Facultas ejus, quod cuique facere libet, nifi quid wi, aut jure prohibetur. Inft. 1. 3. 1. may may fuffice for persons of inferior condition, who have neither time nor capacity to enlarge their views beyond that contracted. sphere in which they are appointed to move. But those, on whom nature and fortune have bestowed more abilities and greater leifure, cannot be so easily excused. These advantages are given them, not for the benefit of themselves only, but also of the public: and yet they cannot, in any scene of life, discharge properly their duty either to the public or themselves, without fome degree of knowlege in the laws. To evince this the more clearly, it may not be amiss to defcend to a few particulars. LET us therefore begin with our gentlemen of independent estates and fortune, the most useful as well as confiderable body of men in the nation; whom even to suppose ignorant in this branch of learning is treated by Mr Locked as a strange abfurdity. It is their landed property, with it's long and voluminous train of descents and conveyances, settlements, entails, and incumbrances, that forms the most intricate and most extenfive object of legal knowlege. The thorough comprehenfion of these, in all their minute distinctions, is perhaps too laborious a tafk for any but a lawyer by profeffion: yet still the understanding of a few leading principles, relating to estates and conveyancing, may form fome check and guard upon a gentleman's inferior agents, and preferve him at least from very gross and notorious impofition. AGAIN, the policy of all laws has made fome forms necefsary in the wording of last wills and testaments, and more with regard to their attestation. An ignorance in these must always be of dangerous consequence, to fuch as by choice or neceffity compile their own teftaments without any technical afsistance. Thofe who have attended the courts of justice are the best witnesses of the confufion and distresses that are hereby occafioned in families; and of the difficulties that arise in difcerning the true meaning Education. §. 187. of of the testator, or fometimes in discovering any meaning at all : so that in the end his estate may often be vested quite contrary to these his enigmatical intentions, because perhaps he has omitted one or two formal words, which are necessary to afcertain the sense with indisputable legal precision, or has executed his will in the prefence of fewer witnesses than the law requires. But to proceed from private concerns to those of a more public confideration. All gentlemen of fortune are, in consequence of their property, liable to be called upon to establish the rights, to estimate the injuries, to weigh the accusations, and sometimes to dispose of the lives of their fellow - subjects, by serving upon juries. In this situation they are frequently to decide, and that upon their oaths, questions of nice importance, in the solution of which some legal skill is requifite; especially where the law and the fact, as it often happens, are intimately blended together. And the general incapacity, even of our best juries, to do this with any tolerable propriety has greatly debased their authority; and has unavoidably thrown more power into the hands of the judges, to direct, control, and even reverse their verdicts, than perhaps the constitution intended. But it is not as a juror only that the English gentleman is called upon to determine questions of right, and distribute justice to his fellow-fubjects: it is principally with this order of men that the commission of the peace is filled. And here a very ample field is opened for a gentleman to exert his talents, by maintaining good order in his neighbourhood; by punishing the difssolute and idle; by protecting the peaceable and industrious; and, above all, by healing petty differences and preventing vexatious prosecutions. But, in order to attain these desirable ends, it is necessary that the magistrate should understand his business; and have not only the will, but the power also, (under which must be included the knowlege) of administring legal and effectual justice. Else, when he has mistaken his authority, through paffion, through ignorance, or abfurdity, he will be the object of contempt 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-fubjects, 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 legislature 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, B |