Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/820

802 England, as different examples of the same principle as rules of action or conduct imposed by a superior power on its subjects. He propounds in terms a fallacy which is perhaps not yet quite expelled from courts of law, viz., that municipal or positive laws derive their validity from their conformity to the so-called law of nature or law of God. &quot;No human laws,&quot; he says, &quot; are of any validity if contrary to this.&quot; His distinction between rights of persons and rights of things, implying, as it would appear, that things as well as persons have rights, is attributable to a mis understanding of the technical terms of the Roman law. In distinguishing between private and public wrongs (civil injuries and crimes) he fails to seize the true principle of the division. Austin, who accused him of following slavishly the method of H ale s Analysis of the Law, declares that he blindly adopts the mistakes of his rude and com pendious model ; missing invariably, with a nice and sur prising infelicity, the pregnant but obscure suggestions which it proffered to his attention, and which would have guided a discerning and inventive writer to an arrangement comparatively just.&quot; By the want of precise and closely- defined terms, and his tendency to substitute loose literary phrases, he falls occasionally into irreconcilable con tradictions. Even in discussing a subject of such immense importance as equity, he hardly takes pains to discriminate between the legal and popular senses of the word, and, from the small place which equity jurisprudence occupies in his arrangement, he would scarcely seem to have realized its true position in the law of England. Subject, however, to these strictures the completeness of the treatise, its service able if not scientific order, and the power of lucid exposi tion possessed by the author demand emphatic recognition. Blackstone s defects as a jurist are more conspicuous in his treatment of the underlying principles and fundamental divisions of the law than in his account of its substantive principles. Blackstone by no means confines himself to the work of a legal commentatot It is his business, especially when he touches on the framework of society, to find a basis, in history and reason for all our most characteristic institutions. There is not much either of philosopny or fairness in this part of his work. Whether through the natural conserva tism of a lawyer, or through his own timidity and sub serviency as a man and a politician, he is always found to be a specious defender of the existing order of things. Bentham accuses him of being the enemy of all reform, and the unscrupulous champion of every form of professional chicanery. Austin says that he truckled to the sinister interests and mischievous prejudices of power, and that he nattered the overweening conceit of the English in their own institutions. He displays much ingenuity in giving a plausible form to common prejudices and fallacies ; but it is by no means clear that he was not imposed upon himself. More undeniable than the political fairness of the treatise is its merit as a work of literature. It is written in a most graceful and attractive style, and although no opportunity of embellishment has been lost, the language is always simple and clear. Whether it is owing to its literary graces, or to its success in flattering the prejudices of the public to which it was addressed, the influence of the book in England has been extraordinary. Not lawyers only, and lawyers perhaps even less than others, accepted it as an authoritative revelation of the law. It performed for educated society in England much the same service as was rendered to the people of Rome by the publication of their previously unknown laws. It is more correct to regard it as a handbook of the law for laymen than as a legal treatise ; and as the first and only book of the kind in England it has been received with somewhat indis- criminating reverence. It is certain that a vast amount of the constitutional sentiment of the country has been inspired by its pages. To this day Blackstone s criticism of the English constitution would probably express the most profound political convictions of the majority of the English people. Long after it has ceased to be of much practical value as an authority in the courts, it remains the arbiter of all public discussions on the law or the constitu tion. On such occasions the Commentaries are apt to be construed as strictly as if they were a code. It is amusing to observe how much importance is attached to the ipsis- sima verba of a writer who aimed more at presenting a pic ture intelligible to laymen than at recording the principles of the law with technical accuracy of detail.  BLAINVILLE,, a distinguished naturalist, was born at Arques, near Dieppe, Sept. 12, 1777. About the year 1795 he entered the school of design at Rouen, but after a very short time he went to Paris, where he became a pupil of Vincent the painter. Attracted by the lectures of Cuvier and other eminent professors in the College of France, he commenced the study of anatomy, and in 1808 he took the degree of M.D. He now devoted himself to the study of natural history, particularly the department of myology, and he soon attracted the attention of Cuvier, who engaged him to draw some figures for one of his works, and to carry out some of the practical work of anatomy. He was also chosen by that illustrious professor to supply his place on occasions at the College of France and at the Athenaeum, and in 1812 he obtained the vacant chair of anatomy and zoology in the Faculty of Sciences at Paris. His some what irascible disposition was probably one cause of the subsequent estrangement between him and Cuvier, which ended in an open and irreconcilable enmity. In 1825 Blainville was admitted a member of the Academy of Sciences; and in 1830 he was appointed to succeed Lamarck in the chair of natural history at the museum. This he resigned in 1832, being appointed on the death of Cuvier to the chair of comparative anatomy, which he continued to occupy for the space of eighteen years, and in the conduct of which he proved himself no unworthy successor to his great teacher. Blainville was found dead in a railway carriage while travelling between Rouen and Caen, May 1, 1850.

1em  BLAIR, or, the chief place in the convict settlement of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean, is situated on the south-east shore of the South Andaman Island, in 11 42 N. lat. and 93 E. long. In 1789 it was selected as a convict settlement, under orders of the Indian Government, by Lieutenant Blair, R.N., whose name the port bears. It possesses one of the best harbours in Asia, while its central position in the Bay of Bengal give.s it immense advantage as a place of naval rendezvous for military operations in this part of the world. For further particulars see.  BLAIR,, was bora April, 7, 1718, at Edin burgh, where his father was a merchant. He entered Edinburgh University in 1730 and won the favourable notice of Professor Stevenson by an essay on the Beauti ful, written for the logic class in his sixteenth year. On taking the degree of M.A. in 1739, he printed a thesis De Fundamentis et Obligatione Legis Naturae, which contains an outline of the moral principles afterwards unfolded in his sermons. He was licensed to preach in 1741, and in a few months the earl of Leven. hearing of his eloquence. 