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prospective penetration into all the changes which science and morals shall produce on matter and on mind, then, and then alone, shall he succeed. We do not mean to say, that this difficulty is universal, but we apprehend that it will be found of some extent. If we recollect right, the revisors have mentioned in their letter, the statutes of uses, as being capable of little abridgment. We speak with the diffidence which becomes most men, when a matter of the present nature is under discussion, but we would add among others, the statute "to abolish entails, to confirm conveyances by tenants in tail, to regulate descents, &c."*; the statute commonly called the statute of distribution of intestates' estates ; that for preventing usury; and that for the prevention of frauds. All these laws, except that respecting descents, are copied from the English statutes with more or less fidelity. There has been decision and decision upon their meaning and intent, and little more is now left to do, than to follow the exposition which has so often been given. These decisions it is impossible to incorporate in any code; and if we alter the language, we throw away the benefit of all those decisions, and all that wisdom which was employed in forming them, and all the precision and certainty which time has contributed to produce. True it is, the revisors flatter themselves that there will be no material departure from "the substance or spirit" of the original laws. We by no means agree with them. The very alterations in the words, in their order even, (for example, in the last sections of the statute of frauds) will give rise to a thousand new doubts and questions, and overturn decisions which have been a rule of conduct for years. It would indeed be a miracle, if phraseology could be changed, the construction of sentences altered and yet the meaning undergo not the least modification, nor the smallest diminution or extension. It was remarked by Lord Mansfield that the wit of man could not evade the letter of the statute against usury; and the Hon. Daines Barrington, said, that in his time it was thought among lawyers in Westminster Hall, that the statute of frauds had not been explained at less expense than one hundred thousand pounds sterling. Are we to abandon these monuments of juridical precision, these fruits of long and tried experience, of learned and laborious investigation, for a new, uncertain, precarious and hasty experiment, to be made by men chosen for

+ Ibid 311. + Ibid 64.

* 1 Rev. Law. 52.
Ibid 75.
See Barrington on the more Ancient Statutes. p. 196.

another and inferior object, and in our opinion (as far as regards two of them) exhibiting no great proofs of the prudence or sagacity employed in their selection?

If the people of this state are determined to form a new code of laws, which shall embrace all the necessary principles for the political government of a community, and the moral government of its people, and which shall save us from the necessity of any longer recurring to the principles of the common law, we believe no advantage can or will be found in commencing with the codification of the statutes. It may perhaps abridge the labor of him who enters upon the larger scheme of stating principles, and deriving from them rules; but to him who has looked into the Code Napoleon, or the Digest, it will appear only a disjointed, ill-conceived, and imperfect imitation of what indeed neither permitted, nor was capable of any tolerable analogy. It is very possible to write a good digest of our statutory provisions, (like very many respectable books which are known under that name in our libraries) stating briefly their nature and their practical operation; but who would imagine that such a digest ought to supersede the originals, or be consulted as authority, when the "spirit and substance" of these very originals was professed to be retained? A code of laws is a very different affair; it is comprehensive, and is meant to contain within its own body, all the necessary regulations for the government of a people; to destroy the necessity of any appeal to any other law, or any principles not contained within its own purview. This cannot be the case in the projected codification of our statutes; these refer expressly to the common law of England, the common heritage of these states in their individual and collective capacities. This difficulty met the revisors in the first step they took. They were obliged to make the legislature enact (what they can neither enact nor repeal) an article of the constitution establishing the court for the trial of errors.* It will be said that this was merely declaratory. We cannot stop to answer this explanation. More experience will show the justness of our remarks. We are, therefore, of opinion, that if a new comprehensive system of laws is to be set up, it is idle to begin at the statutes. You cannot apply the same principles to this legislative codification, as the North American calls it, and the effort will neither de honor to its supporters, nor be useful to the citizens.

* See the specimen accompanying the letter.

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Here, however, we are perfectly at issue with the revisors. They say if the formation of a general code is ever to be attempted, "it is obvious that it must be commenced in this manner and with this branch of our jurisprudence." We have to remark, that the experience in Louisiana has been entirely different-that a penal code was first submitted to the attention of the legislature of that state. Mr. Livingston found in treating that title which stands so much alone in our law, the very embarrassments to which we have alluded-the civil code to declare and define those rights, for offences against which penalties were to be denounced by a penal code. This fact has been noticed in a popular periodical most friendly to the undertaking, and the impossibility of forming a consistent whole with a scientific arrangement pointed out and enforced.* If then these difficulties are so great in a single insulated title, what must be the incongruities in a code embracing the multifarious subjects which are brought together in our statute book?

But we must hasten on to a consideration of the advantages of the plan suggested by the revisors. The price of the laws will be reduced by their abbreviation. Economy is a specious, but always to us, a very suspicious argument. We recollect that one argument for re-modelling the judiciary, was that money would be saved to our treasury. What is the result? A more expensive, less effective establishment, and petitions to increase the salaries of the judges. We think that in so impor. tant a matter, the price of the volumes is, comparatively, a very small consideration, and should not enter into the calcu lation at all. If it does, however, we must put down on the other side of the account the loss of our present volumes, and the depreciated value of reports referring to the old laws, the expense of indexes, special treatises, &c. In the second place, the laws will be rendered so concise and simple and perspicuous, as to be intelligible, not only to professional men, but to persons of every description. It is doubtless, highly desirable, that the laws should be understood by those who live under them; but is it to be supposed that the people will read the newly revised laws with more avidity than the whole ones? The people of this state are accurate observers of every thing of a civil character; they have a practical knowledge on the subject, derived from their intervention in making laws, from their

* See Westminster Rev. pp. 62. 72.

service on juries, and acquired from the public depositaries of judicial intelligence, which is infinitely more accurate and useful, than any views derived from a drowsy half an hour spent in reading the statutes. The "Lex Mercatoria" has performed the same office for lawyers, that "Buchan's Domestic Mecine" has done for physicians-it has given a world of occupation, in removing or warding off the effects of ignorant dabbling.

We shall only allude to one other of the professed advantages-the facility which will thus be afforded to the acquisition of law as a science. This might be predicted, it appears to us, with more justice of a General Code which embraced principles. The proposed digest will collect all the positive enactments on the same subject together, and be it admitted, clear away some obscurity. But will it promote law as a science? A marginal note facilitates research, but we must study the case, if we seek the reason of the decision. Science contemplates principles and their applications; and this revision can guaranty no greater facility in learning law, as a science, than any previous revision of the laws, executed with equal talent and fidelity.

We have now performed a duty, by no means agreeable, with a strict regard to truth, and with the best and purest intentions. Any discussion on the propriety of a general code, has been purposely avoided, because it seemed at present, uncalled for and unnecessary. We are opposed to the present project, and we have expressed ourselves with a freedom which belongs to the consideration of public men and their measures. We shall always endeavor to bring to so interesting a task, a becoming diffidence, but at the same time a fearless independence in the manifestation of our sentiments and opinions. If we are wrong, and have been deceived, we have this consolation at least, that truth may be elicited, even from these feeble speculations. The personal pride which we all may well feel in the prosperity and happiness of our state, in the substantial reputation which our judges and our bar have acquired through the union, should induce us to be cautious how we venture on any schemes which may diminish the one, and sully the other.

467

Lempriere's Universal Biography; containing a Critical and Historical Account of the Lives, Characters, and Labors of Eminent Persons, in all ages and countries. Together with selec tions of Foreign Biography from Watkins' Dictionary, recently published, and about eight hundred original articles of Ameri can Biography. By Eleazar Lord. In two volumes. NewYork. 1825.

THE want of such a work as this has been for a long time seriously felt. It is not a little surprising that we have hitherto been contented with a mere reprint of the English edition of Lempriere's Universal Biography. As far as it goes, it is doubtless a very meritorious performance; and considering its compass, is by far the best work of the kind in use among the readers of Great Britain. The notices are brief but comprehensive, embracing such information as may fairly be supposed in most general request, and prudently excluding all matter of limited, local, or temporary interest. But the sketches of eminent Americans are so few and so faulty, that the work became comparatively useless on this side of the Atlantic, and until this edition of Mr. Lord's, no adequate attempt has been made to supply the deficiencies of Lempriere. We have had, it is true, several American Biographical Dictionaries, but of these some were confessedly confined to particular states, while the few which have aimed at a more general enumeration, have either been ridiculously partial, or exceedingly ill-judged in their selections. Elliot's Biographies are principally sketches of the lives of eminent New-Englandmen, and Allen seems to have compiled his book upon the principle of enumerating all the clergymen who first settled in any of the parishes east of Hudson river.

We think that Mr. Lord has done well to retain the great body of the original work of Lempriere. That the Universal Biography was free from occasional errors and defects, we do, not mean to say; but when the variety of the information actually given, and the extreme liability, in a work of this nature, to captious and imposing objections, are considered, it will be admitted that there is more reason to wonder at its fairness, its fullness and its accuracy, than to complain of its imperfections, with which, however, we confess it is chargeable to a certain extent. It is certainly far superior, in correctness, to the Clas

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