Other passages too there may be,of which some farther explanation may perhaps not unreasonably be demanded.But to give these explanations,and to obviate those objections,is a task which,if executed at all,must be referred to some other opportunity.Consistency forbad our expatiating so far as to lose sight of our Author:since it was the line of his course that marked the boundaries of ours.
Introduction 1.The subject of this examination,is a passage contained in that part of SIR W.BLACKSTONE'S COMMENTARIES on the LAWS of ENGLAND,which the Author has styled the INTRODUCTION.This Introduction of his stands divided into four Sections.The first contains his discourse `On the STUDY of the LAW'.
The second,entitled `Of the NATURE of LAWS in general',contains his speculations concerning the various objects,real or imaginary,that are in use to be mentioned under the common name of LAW.The third,entitled `Of the LAWSOF ENG LAND',contains such general observations,relative to these last mentioned Laws,as seemed proper to be premised before he entered into the details of any parts of them in particular.In the fourth,entitled,`Of the COUNTRIES subject to the LAWS of ENGLAND',is given a statement of the different territorial extents of different branches of those Laws.
2.`Tis in the second of these sections,that we shall find the passage proposed for examination.It occupies in the edition I happen to have before me,'which is the first (and all the editions,I believe,are paged alike)the space of seven pages;from the 47th,to the 53d,inclusive.
3.After treating of `LAW in general',of the `LAW of Nature',LAW of Revelation',and `LAW of Nations',branches of that imaginary whole,our Author comes at length to what he calls `LAW municipal':that sort of Law,to which men in their ordinary discourse would give the name of Law without addition;the only sort perhaps of them all (unless it be that of Revelation)to which the name can,with strict propriety,be applied:in a word,that sort which we see made in each nation,to express the will of that body in it which governs.On this subject of LAW Municipal he sets out,as a man ought,with a definition of the phrase itself;an important and fundamental phrase,which stood highly in need of a definition,and never so much as since our Author has defined it.