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THE

Law Magazine and Law Review:

OR,

QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF JURISPRUDENCE.

No. VIII.

ART. I.-TWO LECTURES INTRODUCTORY TO THE STUDY OF THE LAW.1

LECTURE I.

N the two first lectures of the present course,2 I propose to

IN

offer some suggestions as to the method which should be pursued in studying Law as a science. I will endeavour to trace out its leading departments and subdivisions, and will further attempt to estimate, at its true value, the knowledge of Cases, which is generally so much prized; and consider how they should be read, that the memory may properly grasp and retain them— how they should be sifted and classified, so as to be ready for use when wanted.

1 Delivered in the Inner Temple Hall at the commencement of Michaelmas Term, 1857.

2 The programme of this course, comprising six lectures, was as follows :— Lectures I. and II. will indicate the method to be pursued in studying Law as a science-will trace out its leading departments and subdivisions— and especially inquire respecting the importance of a knowledge of cases, and how they should be read and fixed in the memory.

Lectures III. and IV. will be devoted to an examination of various elementary principles of our Common Law, and of the mode of applying them in practice.

Lectures V. and VI. will specify the Tribunals by which our Common Law is administered, and the limits of their respective jurisdictions.

VOL. IV. NO. VIII.

P

Now, at the very outset of the line of inquiry just indicated, a question presents itself, some brief answer to which may fitly serve as introductory to what has to be said-Why, in a country so favoured as this-so far advanced in knowledge-is the study of Law so unpopular? Of those who say that it is too technical, too exact, too arbitrary, we may well ask-Are then the laws of nature, as understood by the mathematician, the astronomer, the chemist, less technical, less exact, less definitely marked out and declared in all their details? Does a knowledge of these laws less demand from him who would acquire it, habits of laborious thought—of minute and patient investigation? This can scarcely be contended for. Equally vain would it be to urge that a knowledge of human laws, in part founded on the divine, which bind society together, regulate the conduct and intercourse of its members, determine their rights, prescribe their duties, guard vigilantly their property and lives, is worthless, profitless, or unnecessary. Reason and common sense protest against such absurdity. And yet the fact remains to be accounted for, that the study of our laws is restricted to but few, and amongst the community at large is little cultivated.

One main cause of the apathy thus prevailing, has been the absence of method amongst our legal writers, and the almost total estrangement of our universities and public schools from the lucubrations of civilians and jurists. Even amongst professional lawyers and students preparing themselves for the Bar, a habit has crept in of mastering the Law piecemeal, of reading legal treatises as if the matters discussed therein were wholly isolated from each other, and could not be brought into mutual relation, nor made dependent on the same principles and rules. Much, though not enough, has doubtless been done to remedy this evil.

A grand idea was that which suggested itself to Blackstone, when, having lectured on his country's laws, he bethought himself of remodelling and casting into one connected whole the disjecta membra of his academical themes and readings-of exhibiting the entire body of English jurisprudence, so mapped, arranged, and parcelled out as to be intelligible to any tolerably educated man, albeit ungifted with learning precise and technical.

No less admirable in execution than grand in original conception are the commentaries of Sir William Blackstone-pure in style-as regards the mode of treatment evidencing taste and judgment which scarcely ever go astray-filled to overflowing with the results of patient thought and anxious study continued through a long course of years and habitual to the commentator and judge. No one, so far as I know, ever charged against the author of the Commentaries that they had been hastily put together; nor can any man reasonably hope to gain one tithe of the reputation which Blackstone has acquired as a legal writer, unless he be prepared to devote himself, in like manner, with enduring fortitude to study and reflection-unless he be prepared to detach himself, in no small degree, from the more active and profitable duties of his calling-to look for fame rather than for fortune to crown his zealous, unremunerated labours.

Much, then, has certainly been done by the eminent writer whom I have named towards methodizing the study of our law, and far greater good would doubtless have resulted from his work, could he have been spared from time to time to revise and rearrange it—adapting its contents, without harming the original design, to the actual existing law. It will be collected from what has been just said, that the student of law-as a scienceshould in the first instance strive to get beneath his view, clearly and accurately traced, its various subdivisions and compartments. These, so far as our Common Law is concerned, I shall presently attempt to indicate. He should strive to mark the real connection between, and bearing upon each other, of what might, to the casual observer, seem distinct branches of the law-he should note in what manner, and subject to what modifications, leading principles are applied in them-and place together, side by side, results obtained by applying those principles under dissimilar states of facts and circumstances. A habit of diligently inquiring and satisfying oneself as to the soundness of decisions—long since, perchance, accepted as correct-is further much to be commended. This inquiry, however, should not be conducted in a captious, self-sufficient, or fault-seeking spirit, or with that overniceness and extreme subtlety which Lord Coke takes occasion