common practice, and if the foundations are not well laid, the superstructure cannot stand. It is the best, and perhaps the only, method to obtain a thorough and exact knowledge of the proper boundaries of actions, upon which frequently the success or loss of a cause may ultimately depend. Lord Ashburton, in his celebrated letter to a student of law, observes, it is usual to acquire some insight into real business under an eminent special pleader previous to actual practice at the bar. This idea I beg leave strongly to second, and indeed I have known few great men, who have not possessed this advantage.'* Nor should it be forgotten, that special pleading

* As Lord Ashburton's letter is not often to be met with, we here subjoin it for the instruction of our professional readers.

'Letter from John Dunning, Esq. to a gentleman of the Inner Templecontaining directions to the student.

DEAR SIR,

Lincoln Inn, March 3, 1779.

"The habits of intercourse, in which I have lived with your family, joined to the regard, which I entertain for yourself, make me solicitous, in compliance with your request, to give you some hints concerning the study of the law.

Our profession is generally ridiculed, as being dry and uninteresting; but a mind anxious for the discovery of truth and information, will be amply gratified for the toil, in investigating the origin and progress of a jurisprudence, which has the good of the people for its basis, and the accumulated wisdom and experience of ages for its improvement. Nor is the study itself so intricate as has been imagined; more especially since the labours of some modern writers have given it a more regular and scientific form.-Without industry, however, it is impossible to arrive at any eminence in practice; and the man who shall be bold enough to attempt excellence by abilities alone, will soon find himself foiled by many, who have inferiour understandings, but better attainments. On the other hand, the most painful plodder can never arrive at celebrity by mere reading; a man calculated for success must add to native genius an instinctive faculty in the discovery and retention of that knowledge only, which can be at once useful and productive.

"I imagine that a considerable degree of learning is absolutely necessary. The elder authors frequently wrote in Latin, and the foreign jurists continuc the practice to this day. Besides this, classical attainments contribute much to the refinement of the understanding and embellishment of the style. The utility of grammar, rhetoric, and logic, are known and felt by every one. Geometry will afford the most apposite examples of close and pointed reasoning; and geography is so very necessary in common life, that there is less credit in knowing, than dishonour in not being acquainted with it. But it is history, and more particularly that of his own country, which will occupy the attention, and attract the regard, of the great lawyer. A minute knowledge of the political revolutions and judicial decisions of our predecessors, whether in the more ancient or modern eras of our government, is equally useful and interesting. This will include a narrative of all the material alterations in the common law, and the reasons ;—and I would always recommend a diligent attendance on the courts

has a most salutary effect in disciplining the mind for an accurate investigation of principles and accustoming it, by a sort of intellectual chemistry, to the most subtle analysis and combinations. It has been truly asserted by Lord Mansfield, that the substantial rules of pleading are founded in strong sense and the soundest and closest logick; and so appear when well understood and explained; though by being misunderstood and misapplied they are often made use of as instruments of chicane.' We remember to have heard the late Chief Justice Parsons (who was an excellent special pleader) declare, that in knotty and difficult cases he always found more certain and satisfactory results in trying them by the rules of special pleading, than by any other method. Sir William Jones, in his preface to the speeches of Isæus, has beautifully illustrated the same thought. Our science (says he) of special pleading is an excellent logick; it is admirably calculated for the purpose of analyzing a cause, of extracting,

of justice; as by that means the practice of them (a circumstance of great moment) will be easily and naturally acquired. Besides this, a much stronger impression will be made on the mind by the statement of the case, and the pleadings of the counsel, than from a cold uninteresting detail of it in a report. But above all, a trial at bar, or a special argument, should never be neglected. As it is usual on these occasions to take notes, a knowledge of short hand will give such facility to your labours, as to enable you to follow the most rapid speaker with certainty and precision.Common place books are convenient and useful; and as they are generally lettered, a reference may be had to them in a moment. It is usual to acquire some insight into real business, under an eminent special pleader, previous to actual practice at the bar. This idea I beg leave strongly to second, and indeed I have known but a few great men who have not possessed this advantage I here subjoin a list of books necessary for your perusal and instruction, to which I have added some remarks; and wishing that you may add to a successful practice that integrity, which can alone make you worthy of it, I remain, &c. &c.

'Read Hume's history of England, particularly observing the rise, progress and declension of the feudal system. Minutely attend to the Saxon government that preceded it, and dwell on the reigns of Edward I. Henry VI. Henry VIII. James I. Charles I. Charles II. and James II.

'Blackstone. On the second reading turn to the references.

Mr. Justice Wright's learned treatise on Tenures.

'Coke Littleton, especially every word of Fee-simple, Fee-tail, and Tenant in tail.

'Coke's Institutes; more particularly the 1st and 2d; and Serjeant Hawkins's Compendium.

'Coke's Reports-Plowden's Commentary-Bacon's Abridgment; and First Principles of Equity-Pigott on Fines; Reports of Cooke, Burrow, Raymond, Saunders, Strange, and Peere Williams; Paley's Maxims-Lord Bacon's Elements of the Common Law.'

like the roots of an equation, the true points in dispute, and referring them, with all imaginable simplicity, to the court or the jury. It is reducible to the strictest rules of pure dialectick; and if it were scientifically taught in our publick seminaries of learning, would fix the attention, give a habit of reasoning closely, quicken the apprehension, and invigorate the understanding, as effectually as the famed peripatetick system, which, how ingenious and subtle soever, is not so honourable, so laudable, or so profitable, as the science, in which Littleton exhorts his sons to employ their courage and care.' Such commendation supersedes the necessity of all farther discussion of the importance of pleading.

But we doubt the fact, that special pleading is not as well understood as in former times. On the contrary, we incline to believe, that by eminent lawyers its principles are now more fully comprehended and more philosophically examined, than in any preceding period. The age of scholastick quibbling, and petty subtilty, has passed away, and the quaint trifling, which disfigured and disgraced the science, is no longer in fashion. Special pleading is now applied to its original and proper purpose, the attainment of substantial justice and the introduction of certainty of remedy. The good sense and sound logick of modern times has substituted for the artificial pedantry and narrow maxims of the dark ages of the law, rules which commend themselves to all men by their intrinsick propriety and excellence for deciding contested rights. The best ancient treatise on the subject is Mr. Euer's Doctrina Placitandi, a book, which Lord Chief Justice Willes pronounced in his time to contain more law and learning, than any other book he knew, (2 Wils. R. 88.); yet what is this, when compared with the finished elementary and practical treatises of Mr. Lawes or Mr. Chitty ? It were indeed desirable, that modern pleaders should endeavour to imitate more generally the pointed brevity and precision of Rastall's Entries, and waste fewer words in their drafts of declarations which

• Like a wounded snake draw their slow length along.' It might not be useless for them to consider, that the great aim ought to be, not how much, but how little, may be inserted with professional safety. Here at least the study of the ancients would amply repay all their toil, and subserve essentially the publick interests. There is certainly some danger that the current of publick opinion, aided by legisla

tive enactments and not a little accelerated by a distaste for the prolixity of modern pleading, may bring the science itself into disrepute and neglect. If such an event should happen, it will be matter of most serious regret. We hope that the few observations, which we have hazarded, may attract the attention of the rising generation, and call forth abler pens in the vindication and support of its principles and practice.

There are some other topicks, upon which it was our intention to trouble our professional readers with a few observations in proof of the opinion, that the law as a science never was so well understood, nor so well taught, as at the present period, and yet that a profound and comprehensive knowledge of it never was of more difficult attainment. We may, however, safely pass from general reasoning, and appeal to facts within the reach of every professional gentleman. In our own country the advancement of the knowledge of the science has been truly wonderful. The bar and the benches of almost every state in the union have within the last twenty years very strikingly improved. There are lawyers and judges amongst us, who would sustain the weight and dignity of Westminster Hall. And some of our reports exhibit arguments and opinions, which for propriety, and force, and logick, and acuteness, and erudition, have not been excelled in the proudest days of the law. This rapid improvement has without doubt been greatly aided by the invigorating influence of the modern treatises in almost every branch of law; but it has also owed much to the increased diligence, which a lofty ambition of excellence has stimulated among the master spirits of the profession.

But it is time for us to call the attention of our readers to the immediate subject of this article. Mr. Hoffman has published a Course of Legal Study, which he modestly addresses to students, but which is well worthy the perusal of every gentleman of the bar. Many works have been heretofore written, professedly for the direction of persons engaged in the study of the law; but, for the most part, these works have, in a didactick form, laid down elementary precepts for the moral conduct, the preparatory attainments, or the style of elocution and oratory proper for an eminent advocate. Some, indeed, are little more than a distillation from Quintilian's Institutes and Cicero's Orator, without preserving the pungent essence or eloquence of the originals. Mr. Hoff

man's work, on the contrary, is almost entirely practical; and it contains a complete course of legal study with a catalogue of the principal books to be consulted or read under all the titles of the law. The introduction is written with a good deal of force and good taste, and in a tone of strong and sensible argumentation. In point both of matter and manner, it is highly creditable to the talents and acquirements of the author. The object of his work is thus stated:

Though the extensive and elegant commentary of Blackstone now forms the portal, through which the student customarily passes to a more particular and laborious study of his profession, yet much time and labour are undoubtedly afterwards thrown away, for want of due method in taking up the topics, of which he has only exhibited the outline; and however valuable his work as an induction to English law, it would certainly prove more pleasing and more profitable to him, who had previously mastered the peculiarities of the feudal institutions, from which it arose, and of which the nature of his plan allowed but a brief and general notice. It was the design of the author, in the following Course of Legal Study, to reclaim the time and labour thus often and unprofitably expended, by selecting what was valuable in legal learning, and so arranging, as best to adapt it to the complete and ready comprehension of the student.

The value of method is, we acknowledge, a trite topic of dissertation; but in the inquiries of the American law student this method becomes indispensable; where the ideas and language are remote from those of common life; where the terms are, in an especial degree, peculiar to the science, and of various and singular derivation; and where the body of forms, as well as principles, depends, to a very great extent, on institutions, and systems which have long since passed away. Instead of bewildering himself in works, which presuppose a knowledge of these changes, and a familiarity with these terms, the student should descend to institutionary treatises; examine the earliest history of the people, whose law is his study; detect this in its elements; trace it through all the modifications, which time, circumstance, and modes of thinking produce; discover the origin and reasons of the seemingly unmeaning forms, with which it is environed; and thus proceed gradually, but with smoothness and certainty, over difficulties otherwise insuperable, and to the understanding of peculiarities otherwise inexplicable.

The common law of England, which forms the great body of our own law, has its principal foundation in the feudal institutions. After acquiring the general principles of morals and politics, the next step is, therefore, to inquire minutely into these: