Ill


"the  learned  commentator"  was  any  thing  hm  an  original  or
philosophical  thinker.  He  has  done  nothing  more  than  fill  up
the  outline  sketched  by  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  and  with  all  his  per-
spicuity  and  precision,  and  comprehensiveness,  one  is  continu-
ally tempted  to  say  of  it,  as  D'Arguessau  does  of  the  Institutes
of  Justinian  -quoique  Tordre  de  ce  livre  ne  soit  pis  vicieux,
vous  sonhajterez  neanmoins  plus  d'uite  fois  qu'elle  etit  pu  etre  trace
par  M.  Domat  au  lieu  de  Pet  re  par  M.  Tribonien.  If  Lord
Bacon  had  lived  in  the  reign  oi  George  III.,  and  accomplished
the  great  work  which  lie  was  so  desirous  of  undertaking,  even
mi  his  own  time,  his  profound  and  systematic  understanding  had
left  us,  no  doubt,  a  norum  organon  of  jurisprudence,  worthy  of
the  science  and  the  age.  The  other  elementary  writers  of  our
law — the  compilers  of  institutes,  abridgements,  &c,  even  down
to  the  present  day,  are,  with  few,  if  any  exceptions,  liable  to  the
same  criticism.  The  most  that  can  lie  said  of  them  is  par  nego-
liis,  neque  supra.  None  of  them  stand  upon  that  'Vantage
ground/'  of  which  Bolingbrokc  speaks.  They  are  mere  prog--
ttttitki — who  treat  their  subjects  in  a  strictly  technical  manner,
and  whose  whole  system  of  logic  consists  of  a  case  in  point.
They  seem  to  dread  nothing  more  than  generalization,  or  the
stating  a  proposition  in  the  form  of  a  theorem.  They  string
together  cases  from  which  it  is  often  difficult  to  extract  any  dis-
tinct, general  principle,  and  which  are  determined  to  be  analo-
gous, or  otherwise,  by  circumstances  comparatively  immaterial.
