27.I think it is Selden,somewhere in his Table-talk,that speaks of a whimsical notion he had hit upon when a school-boy,that with regard to Caesar and Justin,and those other personages of antiquity that gave him so much trouble,there was nota syllable of truth in any thing they said,nor in fact were there ever really any such persons;but that the whole affair was a contrivance of parents to find employment for their children.Much the same sort of notion is that which these technical arrangements are calculated to give us of Jurisprudence:which in them stands represented rather as a game at Crambo for Lawyers to whet their wits at,than as that Science which holds in her hand the happiness of nations.
Let us,however,do no man wrong.Where the success has been worse,the difficulty was greater.That detestable chaos of institutions which the Analyst last-mentioned had to do with is still more embarrassed with a technical nomenclature than our own.
28.III Comm.Ch.XXIII.p.387.
29.II Comm.Ch.XXI,p.360.
30.The difference between a generous and determined affection,and an occasional,and as it were forced contribution,to the cause of reformation,may be seen,I think,in these Commentaries,compared with another celebrated work on the subject of our Jurisprudence.Mr Barrington,whose agreeable Miscellany has done so much towards opening men's eyes upon this subject Mr Barrington,like an active General in the service of the principal and professed purpose of it is,to expose the errors and Public,storms the strongholds of chicane,wheresoever they present themselves,and particularly fictions,without reserve.Our Author,like an artful partizan in the service of the profession,sacrifices a few,as if it were to save the rest.
Deplorable,indeed,would have been the student's chance for salutary instruction,did not Mr Barrington's work in so many instances,furnish the antidote to our Author's poisons.
31.I Comm.p.47.
32.To make sure of doing our Author no injustice,and to shew what it is that he thought would `naturally lead us into'this `enquiry,'it may be proper to give the paragraph containing the explanation above mentioned.It is as follows:'But farther:municipal law is a rule of civil conduct,prescribed by the supreme power in a state.'`For legislature,as was before observed,is the greatest act of superiority that can be exercised by one being over another.Wherefore it is requisite,to the very essence of a law,that it be made'(he might have added,or at least supported)`by the supreme power.Sovereignty and legislature are indeed convertible terms;one cannot subsist without the other.'I Comm.p.46.