and how came he to his death? It may be answered, by drowning. And who drowned him? Sir James Hales. And when did he drown him? In his lifetime. So that Sir James Hales, being alive, caused Sir James Hales to die; and the act of the living man was the death of the dead man. And then for this offence it is reasonable to punish the living man, who committed the offence, and not the dead man. But how can he be said to be punished alive, when the punishment comes after his death?" &c. &c,'

From page 12 the professor descants, and that with no common force and eloquence, upon the high mental endowments, and the important moral prerequisites necessary to the first attainments in the profession. He insists, that a knowledge of the broad principles, or what may be called the philosophy of law, is an important element in the requisitions of those, who take any part in sustaining our invaluable republican institutions; necessary to qualify them to legislate, and, above all, to enable them to understand the evils, and correct the mistakes of imperfect legislation.

On page 19 is a fine illustration of the rashness of abrogating existing laws, without extended views to the ultimate consequences.

The oak, which requires centuries to rear its trunk, and stretch its branches, and strengthen its fibres, and fix its roots, may yet be levelled in an hour. It may breast the tempest of a hundred years, and survive the scathing of the lightning. It may even acquire vigour from its struggles with the elements, and strike its roots deeper and wider, as it rises in its majesty; and yet a child, in the very wantonness of folly, may in an instant destroy it by removing a girdle of its bark.'

On page 20 he turns from general views to address those, who contem. plate choosing the profession of law. He affirms, that Christianity is a part of common law. It repudiates every act done in violation of its duties of perfect obligation. It pronounces, as illegal, every contract offensive to its morals. He declares, that lawyers are more often called upon, than any other men, to practise good faith, incorruptible virtue, and chivalric honor. They should be not only pure, but unsuspected. He is indignant at the idea, that leguleius cautus et acutus, præco actionum, cantor formularum, auceps syllabarum; in other words, the requisites for a pettifogger, should be allowed by opinion to enter into the necessary endowments of a lawyer.

On page 24-5 he is vigorous and impressive in his very best manner in pointing out the high duties, which an advocate's profession calls him to discharge the sacred and all important interests, that in the ordinary course of things, fall into his keeping. Here his interest, his popularity may tempt him one way, and the sacred lore, the calm responses of law another. He may be called to sustain the poor and powerless victim against her rich and reckless seducer. Bigotry may have employed the seeming of religion, to raise phantoms about the death bed, by which widows and orphans may be plundered. He must magnify his office, and without fear or favor, stand forth with an ear only open to the great moral obligations of his profession, and the eternal precepts of religion.

We consider him singularly happy and just, in his statement of the intellectual requisites for distinction in his walk. A sanguine temperament-a fluent speech, elementary reading, a kindling imagination, self confidence, graceful action, the inspiration of a judge, jury, trial and impending reputation are generally estimated, in our region, at least, to be all the requisites to the finish of a lawyer. Genius alone, cannot win the heights. There are no royal M'Adamized roads. The passes are sometimes narrow; sometimes precipitous; sometimes dazzling with brilliance, reflected from their naked fronts, and sometimes bewildering, from the shadows projected from their dizzy heights. These are metaphors, but not those of a common mind.

A thorough knowledge of law can only be the acquirement of immense labor. Lord Hale will allow the law to have no rival with the student; and the learned judge cautions him, that she is jealous, and only to be won by constant courtship, and lavish homage. One sage has called this attainment'the gathered wisdom of a thousand years;' and another, not the products of one man, society or age; but the wisdom, counsel and experience of ages of wise and observing men. natural reason; its top stone doctrines moulded to the infinitely comIts deep foundations are plex forms and the last finish of the social state.

He, who would mount to the summit of this glorious ancient temple, must gird up his loins, and not eschew black folios, graced with flowing wigs, nor barbarous Latin, nor worse French. Greek books may daunt a little; and the Abridgements of Statham, Fitzherbert and Brooke, startle his mental mastication. He may give Plowden the slip. But Coke he must digest, tough bone though he be. He must then feast some years upon Fearne. He may afterwards, by way of journeyman effort, try his hand a little upon that darkest of all mysteries, a last will and testament. 'So true it is,' says the facetious professor, smiling, we are sure, under his cap, 'that no man knows his own will so ill, as the testator.'!!

If, after this immense feasting, he finds himself a little dyspeptic, he may be allowed, as a kind of holiday and invalid diet, to expatiate awhile in the 300 English, and the 200 American volumes of reports. Five hundred volumes of this sort of dyspeptic bread, cannot fail to invigorate his stomach to a new and healthful action. study of philosophy, rhetoric, history, and, more than all, of human naTo these should be added the ture. To be serious, the eloquent professor has not at all, we presume, exaggerated the difficulties, nor overrated the heights to be surmounted. He is himself precept and example. intravit. We are glad, that he has been plain and faithful. The temple Per hæc limina Victor Alcides is crowded already; and a thousand supernumerary aspirants have set their faces in the same direction. Let them see, that they can hope no more than decimation in the scale of success, after all this toil. Let them un-. derstand, that to invest the forehead with a panoply of brass, however burnished, to write barrister and counsellor in letters of gold-to provide an office, and a due supply of the narcotic weed, are not the only requisites, to come forth master of all degrees in the science of law.

In a brief, but impressive inculcation of the necessity of drinking into the spirit of true philosophy, he has a personification, so sustained and beautiful, that we quote it entire.

'Nor should he stop here. He must drink in the lessons and the spirit of philosophy. I do not mean that philosophy described by Milton, as

"a perpetual feast of nectared sweets,

Where no crude surfeit reigns;"

but that philosophy, which is conversant with men's business and interests, with the policy and the welfare of nations; that philosophy, which dwells not in vain imaginations, and Platonic dreams; but which stoops to life, and enlarges the boundaries of human happiness; that philosophy, which sits by us in the closet, cheers us by the fireside, walks with us in the fields and highways, kneels with us at the altars, and lights up the enduring flame of patriotism.'

In comparing the eloquence of the bar and the pulpit, pp. 37-8, there are some passages so splendid, true, and important, that we should be glad to embellish our pages with the whole. But, as it is a pamphlet, which every lawyer will choose to read entire, it is the less necessary.This is the close of the strain.

"But I forbear. I seem, indeed, when the recollection of the wonders wrought by eloquence comes over my thoughts, to live again in scenes long since past.The dead seem again summoned to their places in the halls of justice, and to utter forth voices of an unearthly and celestial harmony. The shades of Ames, and Dexter, and Pinkney, and Emmett pass and repass, not hush as the foot of night, but in all the splendor of their fame, fresh with the flush of recent victory. Í may not even allude to the living. Long, long may they enjoy the privilege of being nameless here, whose names are every where else on the lips of praise.'

At p. 41, the professor unfolds the objects, and draws an outline of the studies, required by the professorship, and necessary to constitute the subject matter of the lectures. In an address so exuberant, splendid, varied, figurative, so stored with fine sayings and rich classic allusions, it might seem hypercriticism for us to remark, that we deem, that the usual rigid and luminous views of order, apparent in Judge Story's writings, would have given this expose at the commencement of the address. It would then have begun with the general and ended with the particulars. The author is more aware than almost any other person, that a chief point of distinction between superior and inferior minds, is that the former show forth a whole in every mental production; the trunk, the branches, the leaves, even the gossamer of the blossoms, all in their order. Nothing of the beautiful order of nature belongs to the productions of the latter. We thought, too, that the same thought, a little varied, occurred twice or thrice; and that some of the delightful remarks stood too much, like aphorisms, not belonging to one place, rather than another, and introduced for the sake of effect. But we are perfectly aware, how much easier it would be, to find fault with such an address, than to be able to commit faults, which the eloquent professor will contrive to render so delicious and glorious.

The first subjects of the course of lectures of the Dane professorship are The Law of Nature, the Law of Nations, Maritime and Commercial Law, Equity Law, and The Constitutional Law of the United States.— A brief view and appropriate remarks, by way of outline, are presented touching each topic. Upon the law of nations Grotius and Puffendorf

are the most valuable elementary authors. Wolfius, Ward, Vattell, and Bynkershoeck are also spoken of, as text books on this branch. Sir James Mackintosh, and Lord Stowell, living jurists, are also adverted to with the customary felicity of the author. In regard to commercial and maritime law, the golden chain which connects the nations of the earth,' a branch, in the knowledge of which the professor is supposed to stand alone. The customs of trade were first embodied on the shores of the Mediterranean. The consolato del mare is a collection of these rules, adopted in England chiefly by the aid of Lord Mansfield; and her commercial law has since commanded the admiration of the world.

In his outline of the constitutional law of the United States, the venerated names of Hamilton, Madison and Jay must tend to fire the mind of the young student with emulation and reverence at the same time. A brief but appropriate and affectionate survey of the labors of the yenerable founder of the professorship brings the address to a right and graceful close.

To him we owe the general revisal of our provincial statutes, our collection of colonial and provincial statutes, and above all, the celebrated Ordinance of 1787, which constitutes the fundamental law of the states northwest of the Ohio. 'It is a monument of political wisdom and sententious skilfulness of expression.' This digest and abridgment of American law is comprised in eight large octavo volumes. He seems to have intended the foundation of this professorship, in this most munificent donation, as adding the top stone to the monument, which he has been rearing by the unexampled labors of fifty years.

There is no passage in our language, which exceeds in energy, and comprehension, that, by which the author has brought his splendid address to its graceful finish. It is a personification of law by Algernon Sydney.

'It is void of desire and fear, lust and anger. It is mens sine affectu, written reason, retaining some measure of the divine perfection. It does not enjoin that, which pleases a weak, frail man; but without any regard to persons, commands that, which is good, and punishes evil in all, whether rich or poor, high or lowIt is deaf, inexorable, inflexible."

The Journal of Health, a semi-monthly periodical; each number containing 16 pages, 8vo. Price $1 25 in advance. Published by Judah Dobson, No. 108, Chesnut street, Philad.

We have seen some numbers of this periodical. The writing is generally chaste, simple, intelligible, perspicuous. Of all our earthly physical interests, it touches infinitely the most important. The maxims of wisdom and experience are treasured on the subject, and imparted in words, which he who runs may read and understand. There is no family in the Union, that would not be benefited many times the price of this publication, by reading, and perpending its contents. We are clear, that, as far as it goes, we have read no similar work, so calculated to subserve the interests and well being of the community, in relation to health, in an equal degree, and we wish, that the prudence and good sense of the community may accord to this work a liberal patronage.

MR. BIDDLE's Address at the opening of the Chesapeake and Delaware

Canal.

We take leave to express our unmingled satisfaction, in reading this eloquent and appropriate address. We survey the execution of such gigantic enterprizes, as opening schooner and steam navigation between such important points, with pride and pleasure. Charmingly has the orator delineated the results of the immense and constantly increasing facili ties of intercommunication between the remotest points of our vast country. The Southron, in surveying the north, the Northerner welcomed to the hospitality of the south, the remote planter of the far south western streams, on the margin of the sea, the Atlantic wanderer in the west, all meet men, where, it may be, they thought to find monsters. Gross prejudices are annihilated by the revulsion. Good feelings are kindled in their place. New ideas, comparisons, rivalry, improved manners,, enlarged views, a new impulse to furnish the means for these travels, a proud consciousness, that our great land is neither east, nor west, north nor south, but one land, and consequent genuine patriotism, are among the influences, that might be theoretically expected to flow from this great and growing intercourse. Any one, who has travelled on the chief routes of communication, from the extreme south to our northern limits, as often, and as many years in succession, as we have, cannot but have seen the actual verification, in the urbanity, mutual interchange of good offices, and appearance of kindness and politeness, that mark the deportment of the moving mass of travellers from Charleston and New-Orleans, by the lakes, or by the sea, to the sea shore of the northern states. These are public Lyceums and high schools, more efficient than all others, to polish manners, to impress the indispensible requisites of honor and integrity, to pass as a part of good society, and to bind every portion of the union together in the golden chain of mutual good feeling and respect. The northern public resorts wait the return of their southern friends, as they do the vernal migrations of the wood warblers and the bland breeze. They overlook not the advantage, that they bring their welcome with them. While the cultivator of cotton and sugar, as he feels the recurring miasm of the sultry June, bethinks him of the oxygenated atmosphere, the cool breezes, the ruddy cheeks and elastic steps of his free born friends and entertainers of the past year. Demagogues and Catalines may preach disunion; but these guests, meeting from such remote points, will each find, that the people of the most distant sections of the country of their abode are alike necessary to each other.

Addresses, gentlemanly, conciliatory, philosophic and just, like this of Mr. Biddle's, tend to the same great issue. May the American people read, meditate, and act on the spirit of this speech.

Discourse on the Sins of the Tongue. By Rev. ALEXANDER YOUNG, pastor of Church Green, Boston. Bowles & Dearborn: 1829.

We are glad to see, that this very useful sermon has already passed to a second edition. We render his Latin motto thus: There is a time in which nothing, and a time, in which something may be said; but no time VOL. III.-No. 6.

6.