I.—CHANNING'S TRANSLATION OF JOUFFROY ON NATURAL LAW. Introduction to Ethics, including a critical survey of Moral Systems, translated from the French Rights of Persons, according to the text of Black- stone, incorporating the alterations down to the pres- ent time. By JAMES STEWART, of Lincoln's Inn, Esq., Barrister at Law. M. P. London: 1839. 1 The Principles of the Law of Real and Personal Property, being the second book of Blackstone's Commentaries; incorporating the alterations down to the present time. Second edition, revised and greatly enlarged. By JAMES STEWART, of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister at Law. London: 1841. 1 vol. 8vo. New Commentaries on the Laws of England, (partly founded on Blackstone.) By HENRY JOHN STEPHEN, Sergeant at Law, author of the Treatise on Pleading, &c. First American edition. Vol. I. New York: Halstead & Voorhies, 1841. 8vo. X.-OFFICE AND DUTY OF A NOTARY PUBLIC. A Treatise on the Office and Practice of a Notary of England, as connected with Mercantile Instruments, &c. By AMERICAN JURIST. NO. XLIX. APRIL, 1841. ART. I.-LIFE OF LORD HARDWICKE. [The lives of men distinguished in the judicial history of our mother country, and who may be said, in some respects, at least, to have assisted in laying the foundation or in contributing to the superstructure of our legal and political institutions, cannot be much less interesting to us than to our contemporaries of the English bar. We have long been desirous, therefore, to present our readers with biographical sketches of the eminent lawyers and judges of England. But we have found it nearly impossible to do this, by the ordinary aid of original correspondents, without greater means than are at our command. In view of these circumstances, we have concluded to avail ourselves of the biographical articles published in the Law Magazine, which are for the most part written with ability and elegance, and for professional readers. In republishing these sketches, we shall omit or curtail those portions which are likely to be of very little or no interest to our readers; but we shall not undertake to change their substance or disfigure them in any manner; so that when published in the Jurist, they will not the less be the productions of their English authors. In taking this course, we think it proper to add, that it corresponds with the expressed wishes of several of our friends, and meets with the entire approbation of others. We commence the series with the following life of lord Hardwicke, from the third volume of the Law Magazine, p. 72-117.] Of the numerous individuals whom the profession of the law has raised from indigence and obscurity to the possession of wealth and honors, there are few, if any, who at the outset of their career have had to contend against more powerful obstacles, or who have surmounted them with greater success, than Philip Yorke, afterwards earl of Hardwicke and lord high chancellor of England. His father was an attorney at Dover, without much, or at least without lucrative practice; for though before his death he had provided for his two daughters by marrying them, the one to a dissenting minister, the other to a tradesman or small merchant, he was reduced to such poverty as to be wholly incapable of affording his only son the means of entering the profession of which he afterwards became such a distinguished ornament. The same difficulties, however, which are sufficient to confound and overwhelm an irresolute mind or a desponding temperament often prove nothing more than wholesome stimulants to the energies of a vigorous intellect. Thus the necessity of combating impediments in the early part of life, materially conduces in many instances to eventual success; and it is possible that Yorke, like many others of his own and indeed of every profession, may have been, in a great measure, indebted for his advancement to the very obstacles which might at first appear a bar to all hope of it. He was born at Dover, on the 1st of December, 1690. Being designed for his father's profession, and his slender means rendering it expedient for him to lose no time in qualifying himself for it, he was not suffered to remain till a late age at school. The person to whose care his education was entrusted was one Mr. Samuel Morland, a man of learning, who kept a school of some reputation at Bethnal Green. But whatever advantages in point of classical instruction Yorke might have enjoyed under his direction, he was not allowed sufficient time to make much progress. After he had attained rank and celebrity as a lawyer, there were many who asserted, and affected to believe, that he had during his youth been conspicuous for the ardor and |