of our common law, which has been so generally admired. When Englishmen speak of the excellency of their common law, it is usually in reference to its superiority over the Roman civil and canon law and every one will be here reminded of the famous declaration of the English Barons, in preferring their common law to the civil; Nolumus leges Angliæ mutari: "We will not consent that the laws of England should be changed."

In a similar temper of mind, and in the way of contrast, I shall here lay before the readers the leading principle of the common law and of the civil and canon law.

The common law of England, then, is so called, because it is given to all in common, as the Lex Terræ, the Law of the Land, called, therefore, by the Saxons, Folkright, the People's Right, Jus Commune. This consists partly of what has been received by immemorial usage and universal custom, (the Lex non scripta) and partly of what has been made law by the consent and sanction of the people and it is the peculiar feature of it, that no part can either be made or altered, at the will of the prince.'

:

It is this law, in the person of whom the author of the Mirror of Justices speaks: When the law of God and nature first came into England, then came I.

On the other hand, in the Roman civil law the voice of the people, either in person, or by representatives, was never heard; the will and voice of the Prince was every thing. It begins with the Emperor's mandate ;2 and in the Institutes the most sacred constitutions means either the Pandects or Digests, with Justinian's Directory prefixed, which are thence called Constitutiones Imperatoria; or the Code, being the Decrees of Roman Emperors; or the Four Books of the Institutes themselves, constitutiones being synonymous with IVOTITOUTα-in all which cases the will of the Prince is both the Beginning and End of Law.3

So again, with respect to the canon law, that, if possible, is further from the point of liberty than the civil. Even in the old canon law, in the earlier ages of the Church, constitutions soon became little more than the decrees of bishops and councils, where the voice of the people was never heard, canons, or rules, to bind conscience; and, at length, cannons of iron proof, by which the orthodox and heterodox, in their turn, destroyed one another. As to the new canon law, when the Roman Pontiff reached his

1 Fortescue de Ll. Angliæ, Cap. 9. One of the principal excellencies of the common law over the civil, is the trial by jury: in the civil law it is by two witnesses. Id. Cap. 10, 11.

2 Mandavimus specialiter ipsi nostrâ auctoritate: et a voce principali procedat: Justiniani Proæmium.

3 Principis Voluntas est principium et finis Legum.

height, the Universal Bishop proclaimed himself Universal Lord. His breath swept away people, and bishops, and councils and kings, all alike. His constitution was a law paramount to their approbation, derogatory to all persons, contradictory and destructive to the order of things.

Previously to offering any plan for diffusing the principles of the British Constitution, it will be most in order, though perhaps not most conciliating, first to point out what may be supposed to be its defects. The subject, therefore, seems to require two more Essays; and should it hereafter justify some freedom of discussion, yet shall it be allowed all its just claims on my modesty and moderation.

DELIVERED AT VENICE,

ON THE DEATH OF THE

DOGE LEONARDO LOREDANO:

BY

ANDREA NAVAGERO,

VENETIAN SENATOR.

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL ITALIAN,

BY

CHARLES KELSALL, Esq.

TO WHICH ARE SUBJOINED

REMARKS ON THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC.

The Republic was never so driven to her shifts, as she was in the time of this Duke (Loredano) in divers traverses of war, and confederacies against her, which she dissolved by pure policy, more than any power."-Howell, of the Republic and Dukes of Venice.

Printed Exclusively in the Pamphleteer.

LONDON:

ADVERTISEMENT.

I send for the amusement of such of your readers as may be interested in Italian literature, a translation of the Oration pronounced at Venice on the death of the Doge Loredano, one of the greatest men that the Venetian republic can boast. It was printed in that city, for the first time, from inedited state-papers, A. D. 1795, and dedicated to the last of the Venetian Doges, Ludovico Manin. It was spoken by the senator Andrea Navagero, who was employed by the Senate to write the history of his country; but dissatisfied with his labors, committed them to the flames. He died ambassador to France, A. D. 1529. Loredano, the subject of the oration, was elected Doge of Venice A. D. 1501. It was he who steered the vessel of St. Mark through the stormy sea of the league of Cambray; and your readers will perceive, from the tenor of the oration, that his private virtues were not less eminent than his public merit. He died in 1521.

Venice, during his Dogate, appears to have attained the summit of her glory; and notwithstanding her loss of the battle of Agnadel,' the Doge had the satisfaction of seeing before his death the territories in the Terra-firma restored to the republic. The august Venetian Senate was at this period the focus of political wisdom

1 Called so by the French; by the Venetians, the battle of Ghiaradádda; by Machiavelli, the battle of Vailà..

and diplomatic dexterity. The arts and sciences were shining with unrivalled lustre throughout Italy; while in the Venetian states, Tartaglia was seen at Brescia, solving for the first time, the higher equations, and submitting the discharge of bombs to mathematical laws; at Verona, Fracastori united the fame of the physician to that of the poet; in the capital, Aldo Manuzio was superintending his press, and diffusing classical literature through barbarous and priest-ridden Europe; Titian, Pordenone, and Sebastiano del Piombo were embellishing the churches and palaces with their labors; while the canals of the Dominante were choked with gondolas transporting strangers to see the Serene Republic, which had weathered the tempest of the league of Cambray, and the Doge Loredano, who then filled the ducal chair.