models of English style, both in prose and verse. Though the eloquence of the bar is comparatively severe and unornate, and the advocate seldom has occasion for poetical imagery, he may often require that comprehension of expression peculiar to the poet; and though his topicks are for the most part technical, they may occasionally derive illustration from all the varieties of literature.

Nothing is so often wearisome to the auditors of the advocate, as the long citations he is under the necessity of making from legal authorities, except it be the drawling and careless manner in which they are read. The reading of an authority, if not the signal for inattention, especially to juries, is at least a forewarning of fatigue. Policy, therefore, might dictate more attention to this matter. Lord Mansfield, it is said, possessed the art, by the agreeableness of his reading, to render even a statute interesting.

The speeches of lord Erskine are perhaps the best models of bar eloquence we possess: equally remote from calm frigidity, and frothy declamation, they appear to us to form a very happy combination of that good sense which is the strong feature of English literature, and that powerful enthusiasm in which it is perhaps deficient. Even in his boldest flights there is a controlling propriety, which disposes us to believe that he has rather constrained than exaggerated his feelings, and which, it is evident, do not on that account affect us the less. We are disposed to a stronger recommendation of these speeches, from believing that the taste of our nation, (if there be not a deeper and more permament cause to be found in its character,) disposes us to an imitation of the florid eloquence

of the Irish school, rather than the chaste and tempered models of which we have been speaking.

If there is any great work in English literature, to which we should direct the particular attention of such as are studious of their style, it is Hume's History; the composition of which, however carefully elaborated, has not more elegance than ease, and holds, to our view, a desirable medium between the old, natural English style, and the more artificial, stately, antithetical, and balanced manner of modern days. And while on this topick, we would suggest to the student, belonging, as he does, to a profession which forms so large a portion of the literati of the country, the propriety of a strict adherence to the established standards of the English language, and of rejecting the numerous innovations which, while they subserve a temporary and inferiour convenience, may issue in worse effects than drawing on us the sneers of transatlantick criticks.

AUXILIARY SUBJECTS.

TITLE III.

LEGAL BIOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY.

It is a useful as well as pleasing interest which we feel in the lives of distinguished personages, especi ally of such as have been eminent in our own particular pursuits. We believe most ambitious minds, in the first pantings after distinction, have proposed to themselves some illustrious character as a model, whose sentiments they have imbibed, whose maxims they have practised, whose very errours they have copied, with a thousand times more ardour than can ever be communicated by precept. Something of this we feel in reading of every eminent man: we rise from our book with more love for knowledge, more respect for genius, more resolution to be diligent, more confidence in the success of exertion: it is scarcely possible to contemplate such characters as lord Hale and sir William Jones, without a more zealous esteem of probity, and a consoling conviction of the prodigies which may be wrought by method and application; emotions similar to those we feel in remembering the heroes of classical literature on classical ground; and which prompted the great Roman orator and lawyer, when

he declares the enthusiasm with which he called to mind the sages and orators of antiquity, amidst the streets and groves of their native city.*

If this sort of enthusiasm were its only effect, legal biography might claim a place in the studies of law students, into whose pursuits despondence and fatigue are so apt to obtrude themselves. It appears too a very natural curiosity, to be inquisitive into the history, fortunes, reputation, and character of those who have imparted lustre to the profession of law, whose decisions or opinions have been handed down as worthy of a place in the body of the law, and in whose names we have a kind of interest and acquaintance, from their having so long been associated with our daily studies; besides that their history, connected as it sometimes is with the history of their own times, may shed light on the legal character, notions, and revolutions of their age. It may not therefore be unacceptable to add a list of such eminent lawyers &c. as are worthy of a portion of the student's attention: by this we by no means desire the student to search after the voluminous biographies of personages, whose lives can be usefully summed up in the extent of a few pages. In this department of his studies, the student must generally be content with biographical sketches or notices, which, if well written, will of, ten be found to contain all that is really useful in biography. Of most of the persons contained in the following lists, such works as Rees's Cyclopædia and Lempriere's Universal Biography, will be found to contain most of what is useful or entertaining to be

* Cic. De Legg.

known. The life of lord Hale, by Burnet, of lord Mansfield, by Holliday, of Francis North, baron of Guilford, and Dodson's life of sir Michael Foster, should be read by every law student. In Mr. Hall's Law Journal the student will find a number of excellent biographical sketches.

On the subject of Legal Bibliography it is sufficient to remark, that a zeal for knowledge is sure to make us anxious and particular as to the sources whence we are to derive it. As the mind is enlarged by knowledge, it grows fastidious in its selection, and is content only when it is supplied with the choicest nutriment. On almost every topick there has been much bad, and some good writing: some authors convey more instruction on a subject, in one page, than others in a dozen: selection therefore is of great moment: but the student should endeavour to make himself previously acquainted with the best productions on each subject, and likewise the best editions of such works; and not be content with chastening his taste, by reading every thing which is placed before him. In this Course we have endeavoured to make this selection for the student; the subject, therefore, of Legal Bibliography can present but few difficulties.New works are daily issuing from the press, and new editions of existing works, (often much improved,) are frequently published; of all which works the student must not be disregardful: with but little expense of labour or time, he can accurately inform himself of their character.