land), are acquainted with this science, notwithstanding the encomiums beftowed on it by Lord Hardwicke and Lord Mansfield, and the constant references to it in books of reports. I have always afcribed this defect not to want of diligence, but to the nature and quality of the treatises on the subject, for in quantity and number they are abundant.

ner;

Domat is calculated for the meridian of France. Ayliffe's work, though learned, is dull and tedious, and ftuffed with fuperfluous matter, delivered in a moft confufed manthe beautiful fketch of Mr. Gibbon is too fhort, and, like all his writings, prefuppofes rather than conveys knowledge: Woods's Institute, though an excellent work for the ftudent, pursues a method not familiar to the English lawyer. Taylor's Elements, though highly refpectable, are filled with heterogeneous matter, amidst which the civil law feems to be confidered but collaterally, info

much that he has acquired from Gibbon the character of a learned, fpirited but rambling writer. Laftly, Heieneccius, an author powerful in erudition, by a German drefs and fectional form, difgufts the English eye.

It occurred to me, therefore, that a short work, in the method and order adopted by Mr. Juftice Blackstone, in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, as nearly as the spirit of the two laws would possibly allow, might, by the familiarity of its order, entice the student of the common law to take at leaft a curfory and general view of this more ancient code, when the concifenefs of the sketch could not pofsibly encroach on his time. If the text be ftill uninterefting to him, perhaps fome of the notes, as far as they relate to the ftatute law, or contain any new matter, may engage his attention. I have called it the fubftance of lectures, becaufe the reader muft naturally

3

fuppofe, they were longer when deliv much having een omitted which was ada only to academical research, and clafsical quiry. I am aware that an objection ma ftarted (the very converse of thofe a mentioned to the prolixity of civilians) to the brevity of the work. From thofe de verfed in the civil law, the objection is nor is it fuppofed that it can be of uf them, except as an abridgment, in adjun tum memoriæ. But it would come with a grace from the idle theorift who has not duftry, or the bufy practitioner of com law, who has not time to peruse works greater length, and for fuch it was prin pally intended, that he who runs may rea Prolixity would have given little trouble, c

* If deeper research be defired, the parts of the Co Juris Civilis to be read on each subject, are mentione the respective Chapters, so that while confpicuous rema able portions are selected and abridged, a general course Civil Law is pointed out.

ciseness gave much. Quotation, and indifcriminate transfufion, would have fwelled the work, with moderate pains; but comprefsion and felection of points really important, were attended with confiderable labour.

In short, my hope has been that the ftudent at the inns of court, after perufing the inimitable commentaries on the law of our own countries, might be tempted to look into an epitome of the civil, not prefuming to any the smallest emulation in merit, but whose comparative extent is proportionate to the comparative importance of the two laws to him.

The English forum fometimes treats the study of the civil law with levity, but may its difciples be permitted to say, that it never was defpifed but by those who were ignorant of it. The very numerous cafes in our books