Of the Progress from the earliest Times to the Norman Conquest Of the Progress from the Norman Conquest to Edward I. Of the Progress from the Restoration to the Revolution GENERAL INDEX INTRODUCTION. SECTION I. OF THE STUDY OF THE LAW. Ar the outset of a work like the present, in the course of which it is proposed (though with the aid, in part, of materials derived from a former writer) to bring under examination no less a subject than the entire body of the English law, the discouragement to which the writer is naturally inclined by the magnitude of the task before him, is counteracted by the recollection of its general interest and importance. The subject is one to which no class of readers in the realm can be indifferent; for it [is incumbent upon every man to be acquainted with those laws at least with which he is immediately concerned, lest he incur the censure, as well as inconvenience, of living in society without knowing the obligations which it lays him under.] But it ought to have peculiar attractions for men of liberal education and respectable rank. [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 some degree of knowledge in the laws. To evince this the more clearly, it may not be amiss to descend to a few particulars. Let us therefore begin with gentlemen of independent estates and fortune, the most useful as well as considerable body of men in the nation; whom even to suppose ignorant in this branch of learning is treated by Mr. Locke (a) as (a) Education, Sec. 187. VOL. I. B [a strange absurdity. It is their landed property, with its long and voluminous train of descents and conveyances, settlements, entails and incumbrances, that forms the most intricate and most extensive object of legal knowledge. The thorough comprehension of these, in all their minute distinctions, is perhaps too laborious a task for any but a lawyer by profession: yet still the understanding of a few leading principles, relating to estates and conveyancing, may form some check and guard upon a gentleman's inferior agents, and preserve him at least from very gross and notorious imposition. Again, the policy of all laws has made some forms necessary 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 such as by choice or necessity compile their own testaments without any technical assistance. Those who have attended the courts of justice are the best witnesses of the confusion and distresses that are hereby occasioned in families; and of the difficulties that arise in discerning the true meaning of the testator, or sometimes 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 ascertain the sense with indisputable legal precision, or has executed his will in the presence of fewer witnesses than the law requires. But to proceed from private concerns to those of a more public consideration. 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 have frequently a right to decide, and that upon their oaths, questions of nice importance, for the solution of which some legal skill is requisite; especially where the law and the fact, as it often happens, are intimately blended together.] And when juries are incapable of doing this with tolerable propriety, it tends proportionably to lower their authority, and to throw 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 subjects: 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 dissolute 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 knowledge,) of administering legal and effectual justice. Else, when he has mistaken his authority, through passion, through ignorance, or absurdity, he will be the object of contempt from his inferiors, and of censure from those to whom he is accountable for his conduct. Yet farther; most gentlemen of considerable 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 its nature and importance. They are not thus honourably distinguished from the rest of their fellow-subjects, merely that they may privilege their persons; that they may list under party banners; may grant or withhold supplies; may vote with or vote against a popular or unpopular administration; but upon considerations 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 innova |