acquired a high reputation by the extent and the profoundness of his researches. Those who know him will readily believe, that his treatise on successions will be worthy both of his own anterior labors and of his illustrious master."

Kinne's Blackstone. In reference to this work, a correspondent writes as follows:

"In your critical notice of Kinne's Blackstone' (in the last number of the Jurist), you have omitted to notice the fact, that his questions are a mere transcript, almost literal, of Barron Field's analysis, at the end of Chitty's Blackstone, whose labors he has most impudently stolen and palmed upon the profession as his own, which, had it been truly his own,' must,' as you correctly suppose, have cost him a great deal of labor.””

[From the Charleston (S. C.) Courier, April 1.]

Death of Chancellor Desaussure. This venerable man and useful citizen departed this life on Friday last, in this city, having passed the boundary of three score and ten, and reached the advanced age of seventy-five years. In the dawn of manhood he participated in our revolutionary struggle, having gallantly borne arms in defence of Charleston against the invading foe. After the achievement of our independence, and the organization of our present system of government, he received from the father of our country the appointment of director of the mint at Philadelphia, having been the second to fill that office, (the venerable and celebrated Rittenhouse having preceded him), and we learn that he retained, and took pleasure to the last in exhibiting to his friends and acquaintances, a piece of his own coinage, (one of the first gold coins ever struck at the mint, the very first one having been presented by him to Washington), in evidence of this incident in his life. This office he did not retain long, but returning to Charleston and resuming the practice of the law, he rose to eminence in his profession. In 1797-8, he filled the municipal office of intendant (or mayor) of Charleston, and for a number of years acted as chairman of the board of commissioners of that noble in

stitution of benevolence, the Orphan House of Charleston. He bore a part in the convention of this state which adopted the constitution of the United States, and also in that which framed the present constitution of this state; was a member of the state legislature, and was one of the founders of the South Carolina college, an institution which he cherished with parental care. In December, 1808, he was elected one of the chancellors of the state, and continued to fill that high office for a period of twenty-nine years, until December, 1837, when increasing physical infirmity compelled him to tender his resignation to the legislature.

English Reprints of American Law Books. We perceive, by the advertising sheets of the London booksellers, that Ray's Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity, and Lieber's Political Ethics, recently published by Messrs. Little and Brown, have been reprinted in England. The latter is noticed in terms of approbation in late numbers of the Examiner and Spectator.

Punishment of Outlawry. An anecdote given us by Selden, in his Table Talk (Title Law), may serve very well to illustrate the influence this mode of punishment may have over a man who is out of the reach of every other. In the reign of James first, an English merchant had a demand upon the king of Spain, which he could not get the king to satisfy. The merchant had already brought his action, and Selden, who was his counsel, advised him to proceed to outlawry. Writ after writ was sent to the sheriff to take his majesty, and have his body before the justices at Westminster. His majesty was not to be found. Great outcry, as is usual, was made after him upon this in sundry ale-houses. His majesty did not happen to be at any of the ale-houses. He was accordingly proclaimed an outlaw; and a wolf's head, in due form of law, was clapt upon his shoulders, so that any body might lay hold of him, and put him into jail, that had a mind for it. The case was, his majesty happened at that time to have demands upon several merchants in England, for which demands, so long as he continued under judgment of outlawry, he could not have his remedy. Upon this consideration, his ambassador, Gondamar,

submitted and paid the money; upon which, the wolf's head was taken off, and the king's head put in its place. Bentham's Rationale of Punishment.

Modern Jurisprudence and Reports. The following remarks on the subject of our modern jurisprudence were made by Mr. senator Tracy, in the court of errors of the state of New York, on the occasion of giving his judgment in the case of Wright v. Hart, reported in the eighteenth volume of Mr. Wendell's Reports.

“I am getting to learn that the spirit of the age, which is disposed to consider nothing settled that it imagines susceptible of improvement a spirit which regards nothing as too ancient to be attacked-nothing as too new to be attempted, is extending its influences to the oldest and deepest rooted principles of the common law. This event might not be so much regretted, if it were proposed to be brought about only through the open and responsible agency of legislation; but when pursued through the devious and occult process of judicial exceptions and qualifications, it becomes a subject of some solicitude and apprehension. Lord Eldon wisely remarked, that instead of struggling by little circumstances to take cases out of a general rule, it is more wholesome to struggle not to let little circumstances prevent the application of the general rule. But this principle, in modern times, has been so poorly maintained, that the profession of the law, it seems to me, is fast becoming a matter of memory rather than of reason and judgment; and the study of it is already so much more the study of the exceptions and evasions of general principles, than of general principles themselves, that I am sometimes induced to think, that as a science, the law would be better understood, and as a rule of right, more justly administered, if the reports of judicial decisions for the last half century were struck out of existence. We see continually that the qualification or relaxation of a general principle, established by one reported case, is made the place of departure for ascertaining a new position in another, and this again in a third, and so on, until the original rule, the natural standard of the law, is obscured and utterly lost sight of, by means of intervening artificial measures of supposed particular justice.

The consequence to be feared is, that judicial reports, instead of being, what no doubt it is intended they should be, beacons and landmarks to guide the public into quiet havens of security and repose, may become false lights to decoy into the whirls and shoals of litigation. In speaking of the new and refined distinctions upon general principles, which in his day were multiplying, though in no degree as since, lord Mansfield remarked, that if our rules are to be incumbered with all the exceptions which ingenious minds can imagine, there is no certain principle to direct us, and it were better to apply the principles of justice to every case, and not to proceed to more fixed rules.' And much more may we say, in looking at the ponderous volumes of reported cases which flood the country, and are multiplying with a rapidity that no diligence can keep pace with, that rather than that the science of the law should have to be sought in the exceptions, qualifications and ingenious evasions of general rules, made and to be made by innumerable judges, the records of which are to be spread through thousands of volumes, it were better to abandon all attempts to preserve a written system of jurisprudence, and to revert at once to that species of administrative justice commended by Cicero, when, Amissis auctoritatibus, ipsa re et ratione exquirere possumus veritatem."

Lord Eldon's Advice to Law Students. We find the following in the journal of the late Mr. Wilberforce.-" April 17, 1801.— Saw lord Eldon, and had long talk with him on the best mode of study and discipline-for the young Grants,-to be lawyers. The chancellor's reply was not encouraging I know no rule to give them, but that they must make up their minds to live like a hermit and work like a horse."" Life of Wilberforce.

Obituary. The following brief notice of the late Mr. Stearns is extracted from the Boston Daily Advertiser, of Feb. 8, 1839. Mr. Stearns was one of the few American lawyers, who first ventured upon the publication of a work on American law, and he was also the first professor of law appointed in Harvard University. As a writer, he received the most certain and gratifying

expression of the public approbation, in the entire success and sale of two editions of his work on Real Actions. As an instructer, he will be long held in grateful remembrance, by those who had the good fortune to be his pupils, for the uniform kindness and patience, with which he aided them in their progress.

"Died, in Cambridge, on Tuesday the 5th inst. the honorable ASAHEL STEARNS, aged 64.

"The ill health of the last years of this gentleman's life had taught his friends that its termination must be near; but, whatever be the length of expectation, the blow, when it falls, must strike heavily. In this instance, it is the more painful, because it severs ties of peculiar tenderness and strength.

"Educated as a lawyer, after many years of extensive practice, during which he was at one time a member of Congress, and afterwards, for a long period, county attorney for Middlesex, he was, in 1817, appointed professor in the Law School at Cambridge, and held this office until 1829. In 1824, he published his work on Real Actions, which was universally regarded as learned, accurate and useful. He was afterwards appointed one of the Commissioners for revising the statutes of the commonwealth, Judge Jackson and Mr. Pickering being his colleagues. After this work was completed, he partially resumed his practice, and continued in it, until his failing health compelled his retirement.

"Such is the brief outline of a life which was filled with usefulness, and was in all its relations of singular excellence. Active in a profession which deals with the crimes and quarrels of mankind, he passed through this ordeal unhurt; and no man has combined more perfectly than he, the characters of a skilful lawyer, a zealous advocate, and an honest man. His integrity was not merely that which the world demands and is content with; it was pure, uncompromising, entire. Nor was it mingled with any thing of sternness or severity, for his kindness and gentleness were constant and universal. If he has left to the friends who were nearest to him, hopes and recollections full of consolation, he has also left to society an example which cannot fail to be fruitful of good, as long as his memory lives in the wide circle which knew him and laments his loss."