For the benefit of such students as feel inclined to make a trial of the system we will in a future number discuss the best means of arranging a law common-place book. We will preface our remarks upon the method of arranging a common-place book with an extract from Roger North's life of his brother, the Lord Keeper Guilford : "It was his lordship's constant practice to common-place as he read. He had no bad memory, but was diffident, and would not trust it. He acquired a very small but legible hand; for, where contracting is the main business, it is not well to write, as the fashion now is uncial or semi-uncial letters, to look like pigs' ribs. His writing in his common-places was not by way of index, but epitome, because, as he used to say, the looking over the common-place book on any occasion, gave him a sort of survey of what he had read about matters not then inquisited, which refreshed them somewhat in his memory and that had not been obtained in the way of mere what and where, as the style of most indexes runs. When this manner of writing is comprehensive, or pregnant, it is called abridgment, of which there are divers large ones of the common law in print, as Fitzherbert, Brook, &c., and are like those the civilians call summists, which with them are not allowed as authority. Certainly it is an error for a student to peruse such; it being like reading over a dictionary, which never teacheth a language. And, for that reason, Coke's comment upon Littleton ought not to be read by students, to whom it is at least unprofitable; for it is but a common-place, and much more obscure than the bare text without it. And, to say truth, that text needs it not; for it is so plain of itself that a comment, properly so called, doth but obscure it. In the disposition of the titles, he chose rather to take many than few, and thereby to become forced (as some have done) to make out the rest by subdivisions; for it is easier to consult with many generals, to which the alphabet leans, than few with many subdivisions; the latter requires an exact skill in the method, which, though well understood, is often forgot. And therein Mr. Keble's table to his statute book is faulty; for if one would look for the title executors, he must go to title administrators, because the author thought fit to make that the general title for all, or most, of testamentary matters. Were it not better to make executors, probate, devastavit, &c., titles, express? He made divers essays towards a common-place book which did not succeed but it purchased experience, at the expense of so much paper, before his method and way of writing was settled and obvious to him; and then he made a very good one, such as may be styled an abridgment, which now remains with the Right Honourable the Lord Guilford. He used to say that no writing, though in a commonplace however improper, was of any ill consequence; for, by making searches difficult, the very going to several titles for the same inquiry refreshed the memory of other things: and it was not at all amiss that common-place sentences, as some may touch divers matters, should be wrote under as many titles. He used to say that the advantage of his common-place book was not as a parson's concordance, to help him to cases; but, when he remembered he had read of a case, to help him to find it, and then his little note there brought into his mind the agitation of the matter at large in the book; and for this reason a common-place book is of little use to any but to him that made it. For the law is inculcated by reading the long arguments to be found in the books, where reasons are given pro and con, and not by any extracts, however curiously made. And the great art of common-placing lying in the judicious but very contracted note of the matter a stranger may pass it by, and not know whether it concerns his inquiry or not." LECTURES ON LAW STUDIES. (Continued from p. 162.) Acute and clever they catch up whatever information falls in their way. But what falls in their way consists of positive rules and of technical forms unaccompanied by any explanation of their meaning or object. And if any thing new comes they are all at sea, and without any compass to direct them. Now this is one use of principles, to give you a compass whereby to steer your course upon all emergencies. This advantage, derived from a knowledge of principles, has been admitted in all times; but how much more is it to be prized at present, when something new is coming every day, when the legis lature has proclaimed war to the knife against those very technicalities which constitute the major part of the business of solicitors in common with conveyancers and special pleaders. By the passing of the Uniformity of Process Act, for example, an infinity of points constituting the pride of practical skill, have, as if by the wand of some Prospero, become such "stuff as dreams are made of;" have vanished into thin air," and, "like an unsubstantial pageant faded, left not a rack behind." Now, indeed, there is no knowledge which a lawyer can calculate upon serving him out his lifetime, except those great principles of justice which are so essential to liberty and civilisation, that to attempt to separate them would be to annihilate liberty and civilisation themselves. Like what is related of the great Athenian sculptor, Phidias, who wished to perpetuate the image of himself by stamping it so deeply on the buckler of his Minerva, "ut nemo delere posset aut divellere, qui totam statuam non imminueret." or never. And, 1 may add, now is the time for the study of legal principles, Very few persons indeed acquaint themselves with legal principles after they are looking for business. The active and exciting nature of our profession is alien to that systematic and sedentary labour which is necessary for mastering the principles of any science. Every great lawyer reckons as the most valuable part of his knowledge (I speak of knowledge independent of forensic dexterity) that which he acquired early in life. The doses of Lord Coke, says Chief Justice Wilmot in a letter to his son, which I took when a pupil, operate to this present hour. "Indeed the squandering of time, in attendance upon courts, makes the race of English lawyers a very ill-informed one, as Erasmus has it of English lawyers in the time of Henry the Eighth, "doctissimum genus indoctissimorum hominum.” There is not much to be learnt in court by persons not actually engaged in causes, let them try ever so hard to profit by close attention. But do those whose profession leads them to spend day after day in courts of justice try to attend to the causes in hand? Go to any of the courts of Westminster Hall, and place yourself in the middle of a cluster of wigs, you will be much less likely to hear the name of Littleton repeated than that of Mr. Liston, and for one mention of Ventris you will hear twenty of Madame Vestris. "So much for the information which consists in stocking your minds with principles. But then I see before me a number of young men who are anxious to be doing something for themselves in the world as soon as possible, of putting their sickles into the harvest, and who would think their time mis-spent if they did not go away every evening with some practical information which they did not know before, and which they were not in the way of acquiring in their offices. It will, therefore, be a most imperative duty to furnish you with a large supply of practical information drawn fresh from original sources; and I am sure that, upon reflection, you will be of opinion that the acquirement of knowledge in every branch of practical law may be materially facilitated and hastened by means of public lecturing. For although the practice of an office in which a student is placed be ever so extensive and ever so varied, yet it seldom happens that there are not several branches of practical law which he will afterwards stand in need of, but with which, in his office, he has not had an opportunity of becoming acquainted; and though practice may not be thoroughly understood without engaging in it, yet it is no despicable advantage when any new or unfamiliar branch of practice requires attention not to be wholly in the dark upon the subject, it is desirable to have, at least, a general idea of the way you should act, and enough to prevent you from burning your fingers. The practical information of a barrister is not often communicated to any one, for there are not many pupils attending barristers' chambers; it is perhaps never communicated to persons bringing up for solicitors; and yet a barrister of long experience may supply them with a multitude of useful hints for getting up their cases. And it is matter deserving the serious consideration of young solicitors that it is the tendency of the present changes in the law to call upon solicitors to discharge the functions of barristers. Witness the enlarged jurisdiction of the sheriffs' courts, which must take away at least one-half of the causes from circuits to be conducted by country attorneys, and the extended powers of arbitration, and the courts for revising votes; not to mention those magic words, the utterance of which is enough to shake Westminster Hall from its roof to its foundation, local courts. "Perhaps my meaning as to teaching practice by lectures may be best explained by examples. I will take one of the most simple that occurs to me. A man sells another goods, and he cannot get his bill paid. He applies to his attorney, and says, 'Do the business as cheaply as you can, for I fear I am throwing good money after bad.' -Attorney: Can you prove an admission ?—Yes; my son here, Mr. Dowlas, jun., called for payment of the bill, and the defendant admitted the debt, and told him to "call again to-morrow.' The brief is made out with a single witness. 'To prove that the defendant admitted the debt, call Frederic Dowlas, jun.' Mr. Dowlas, jun., steps into the witness-box, in appearance a swell, with luxuriant whiskers, and an ostentatious neck watch-chain. He is asked, What passed between you and the defendant ?'-'Defendant admitted the debt due to my father.'-Judge: Tell us what he said. He said it was all right.'-Judge: What was all right?''Of course the debt, £20 5s. 10d.'-Judge: 'Was the amount of the debt mentioned ?'-'No.'-Judge to plaintiff's counsel: Have you any other witness? No, my lord. Upon which the judge drops the ill-omen'd word of nonsuit "A word of fear, Unpleasing to the attorney's ear." "The practical observations arising from this transaction are that, although every attorney thinks he knows how to prove a case by admissions, yet no assizes happen without several attorneys being nonsuited because the admission is not complete, by reason of the sum supposed to be admitted not being mentioned. And it is further a matter of practical remark that in most transactions of the nature in question the amount of the debt seldom happens to be mentioned because it is mentally understood by both parties. "Let us take another example. I happened to be engaged in a case at the assizes at Nottingham; it was an action for market tolls brought by the corporation of Nottingham-an extremely fashionable species of action of late years. A variety of customs were pleaded; the record had swollen to an overgrown size; the case had depended two years in the Court of King's Bench; I had attended summons after summons before the judge at chambers and several motions in banc. The assizes came on, three counsel were instructed on each side, a couple of score of witnesses were subpoenaed, the morning of trial arrivedwhen, lo! the side opposed to me, the defendants, make a motion to withdraw all their pleas and suffer judgment by default (a point of practice, relative to which and its consequences, you will find nothing in the books), and the leading counsel for the defendants, Serjeant Adams, makes, on their behalf, the following speech : "He who fights and runs away, Now, the reason of this sudden flight no doubt was that the opposite side were afraid lest, if a verdict passed against them, that verdict would be evidence in another suit (which is, by the by, a practical illustration of an important rule of evidence, respecting the effect of a res judicata, and which, if we were now considering it, would impress that rule on your minds more than any solitary reading). There is no doubt that the counsel, in reading their briefs, found that they could not sustain their customs as laid. Now, I would be bound that in this case there had been nothing like negligence, and no want of ordinary professional skill. At the same time, if the defendant's attorney had heard a barrister of experience lecture upon the way in which customs are proved in practice, and on the difficulties to be guarded against and the points to be adverted to in getting up cases of this nature, and if he had heard the lecturer illustrate his remarks by actual instances of failure within his own knowledge, it is highly probable that his clients might have been saved the mortification of paying some hundreds of pounds, and suffering the agonies of defeat, all without their case being inquired into. "And further, to show the nature of practical lectures, I shall set out in my next lecture with a short pedigree proved at the last assizes; and I shall explain what difficulties arose in the proof, and how they were removed; what kind of inquiries you should make, and what documents you should search for, in order to supply this or that deficiency in proving pedigrees; what blunders I have seen committed in similar cases. I shall then show in what shape ques |