the body of the law. In this point of view is the student to read the Institutes, which, with one remarkable exception, is an excellent compendium of Roman jurisprudence. The exception we allude to is the doctrine of Evidence, which is altogether omitted in the Institutes. To supply this deficiency we strongly recommend Domat's Civil Law, vol. 1, book 3d, title vi. "Of Proofs and Presumptions, and of an Oath;" and an occasional reference to the pages of Everhardus' "De Testibus et Fide Instrumentorum," Machardus' "De Probationibus," Menochius' "De Præsumptionibus," and Farinacius' "De Testibus," who are the most distinguished authors on the Civil Law of Evidence. The best editions of the Institutes are by Arnold Vinnius, professor of law at Leyden in 1650, in the original, with excellent Latin annotations; and the English translation by Harris, and the recent one by Dr. Cooper, published at Philadelphia in 1812. The student will of course read Dr. Cooper's edition, as it is decidedly superiour to any other, though no very fair specimen of the doctor's learning or industry. (Note 6.) M. POTHIER'S TREATISE &c. Were it not inconsistent with the design of this volume, we should delight to dwell on the genius, learning, useful labours, and moral excellencies of this highly distinguished French civilian: but a very brief notice of him is all that we can with propriety allow ourselves. Perhaps no age or country has produced a writer whose legal works have, in so short a time, been so universally and flatteringly received and admired: to the interest of his topicks, he has imparted all the advantages of the most clear and masterly arrangement, and all the profundity and richness of learning, without the semblance of affectation or pedantry. Robert Joseph Potheir was born in January, 1699, at Orleans, of honourable parentage. At a very early age he lost his father, who left him with but limited resources. He was therefore compelled to supply the deficiency of time, by unremitted intellectual exertion; and to store in his youthful mind, in a few years, all the attainments of mature age and protracted study. He completed his education at the university of Orleans. At the age of twenty-one he was admitted a counsellor of the Presidial court of Orleans, from which he not only derived lustre, but had the happiness, by his zeal in its interests, to be eminently serviceable to it, and to reflect on it a new and lasting splendour. The next honour which awaited him was the professorship of law in the university of Orleans, in which he succeeded M. de la Janes in 1750. His learning, industry, and above all, his talent for instruction, could not fail to render his lectures highly popular and instructive. In 1740 he gave to the world a treatise in two volumes, on the customs of Orleans, which gained him great credit and new honours. But the work which displayed the entire compass of his mind, was an undertaking of prodigious magnitude, great utility, and appalling difficulty; no less than the entire new modelling of the Pandects of Justinian. This he accomplished in the space of twelve years, to the admiration of all who have studied the work, which is entitled "Pandecta Justinianæ in novum ordinem digestæ," in three volumes folio. In 1761 he published his "Treatise on the Law of Obligations or Contracts," an elementary and highly scientifick work, in which not only the legal but moral causes of obligations are displayed. His eulogist, to whom we are principally indebted for the substance of this sketch, says "the reputation of M. Pothier was necessarily extended with the diffusion of his works; and he had, during the course of his life, all the celebrity which a man of science can enjoy. The publick voice acknowledged him as the greatest jurist of his age, or rather as the greatest since the time of Dumoulins*, with whom he was frequently classed. Without waiting for his death, the weight of authority was given to his decisions, and the highest tribunals have acted upon the citation of his works, an honour above suspicion, and the greatest which a jurist can receive."+ Sir William Jones, in his Law of Bailments, having occasion to notice the writings of M. Pothier, thus expresses himself, "I here seize, with pleasure, an opportunity of recommending those treatises to the English lawyer, exhorting him to read them again and again; for if his great master Littleton has given him, as it must be presumed, a taste for luminous method, opposite examples, and a clear, manly style, in which nothing is redundant, nothing deficient, he will surely be delighted with works, in which all those advantages are combined, and the greatest portion of which is law at Westminster as well as Orleans. For my own part," continues he, "I am so charmed with them, that if my undissembled fondness for the study of jurisprudence were never to produce any greater benefit to the pub * Dumoulins was styled "Prince of the French Law.” lick than barely the introduction of Pothier to the ac quaintance of my countrymen, I should think that I had in some measure discharged the debt, which every man, according to lord Coke, owes to his profession." The work which we have recommended in this Course, is the English translation by David Evans esq. in two volumes, accompanied by an introduction, a valuable appendix, and numerous excellent notes, illustrative of the English law. As the second volume is entirely composed of notes, we have recommended the perusal of the first volume only, with the exception of such matter in the second volume, as we have designated in this Course as highly worthy of perusal. (Note 7.) DOMAT'S CIVIL LAW. This work, entitled "The Civil Law in its natural order," was given to the world by its learned author in 1689, in one volume 4to. to which were subsequently added three other volumes. In 1724 an improved edition in two volumes folio, with a supplement, was published by D'Hericourt; and in 1777 M. de Jouy gave a still more valuable edition in folio. In 1721 an English translation of Domat was published by Wm. Strahan L.L.D. with remarks on the material differences between the Civil and Common Law. This is the work, the select chapters of which we strongly recommend to the American student. Domat is certainly a learned and scientifick writer; but as his work is very large, and many of the chapters of but little importance, we have designated such as are particularly valuable, being about one fourth of the whole work. PARTICULAR SYLLABUS. TITLE XI. "If it had been found impracticable to have devised models of a more perfect structure than any of the republicks that have heretofore existed, the enlightened friends of liberty would have been obliged to abandon the cause of that species of government as indefensible. The science of politicks, however, like most other sciences has received great improvements. The efficacy of various principles is now well understood, which were either not known at all, or imperfectly known to the ancients. The regular distribution of power into distinct departments, the introduction of legislative balances and checks, the institution of courts composed of judges, holding their offices during good behaviour; the representation of the people in the legislature, by deputies of their own election; these are either wholly new discoveries, or have made their principal progress towards perfection in modern times. They are means, and powerful means, by which the excellencies of republican government may be retained, and its imperfections lessened or avoided.....HAMILTON, THE CONSTITUTION AND LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1. The Constitution, and Amendments thereto, of the United States. (At this time to once attentively read.) |