Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/472

 458 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1758.

deflc of fome fkllful attorney; in order to initiate them early in all the depths of pra<?tice, and render them more dexterous in the mecha- nical part of bufinefs. A few in- llances of particular perfons, (men of excellent learning and unble- jnlfhed integrity) who, in fpite of this method of education, have Jlicne in the foremolt ranks of the bar, have afforded fome kind of fandion to this liberal path to the profeflion, and biafled many p.irents of Ihoit-fighted judgment, in its favour: not confidering, that there are fome geniufes, fcrmed to over- come all difadvantages, and that, from luch particular inftances no general rules can be formed; nor obferving that thofe very perfons have frequently recommended by the moH forcible of all examples, the difpofal of their own offspring, a very different foundation of legal iludies, a regular academical edu- ♦cation. Perhaps too, in return, I could now dircdl their eyes to our principal feats of julHce, and fug- geft a few hints, in favour of uni- verfal learning : — -■ — but in thefe all who hear me, I know, have already prevented me.

Makintr therefore all due allow-

o

ance for one or two (hining ex- ceptions, experience may teach us to foreteJ, that a lawyer thus edu- cated to the bar, in fubfcrvience to iittornies and folicitors, will find he has begun at the wrong end. If practice is the whole he is taught, practice muft alfo be the whole he will ever know : if he be inllrui5l- ed in the elements and firft prin- ciples upon which the rule of prac- tice is founded, the leail varijtlcn from ellohiifhed precedents will totally diftrad and bewilder him :

ifa lex fcripta ejl is the utmoft his knowledge will arrive at; he muft never afpire to form, and feldom expefl to comprehend, any argu- ments drawn a priori^ from the fpi- rit of the laws and the natural foun- dation of juftice.

Nor is this all; for (as few per- fons of birth, or fortune, or even of fcholaftic education, will fub- mit to the drudgery of fervitude, and the manual labour of copying the tra{h of an office) fliould this infatuation prevail to any confider- able degree, we muft rarely expedl to fee a gentleman of diftindion or learning at the bar. And what the confequence may be, to have the interpretation and enforcement of the laws (which include the entire difpofal of our properties, liberties, and lives) fall wholly into the hands of obfcure or illiterate men, is a matter of very public con- cern."

The Hijiory cf the Life and Reign of Philip King ofMacedtn, the Fa- ther of ALxander. By T o. Le- land, D. D. Felioiv of Trinity- College, Dublin, johnllon, Pak/'j Church-yard. Tivo FoL ^arto.

THEtranflation of the orations of Demofthenes by Dr. Le- land, was fo well executed, that the public expefted to fee the life of Philip, the illullrious antago- nift of tnat gicat orator, handled with equal ability; and the adions of the one as well delivered as the eloquence of the other. Nor were the expedations of the public difappointcd. From fcattered paf- fages in orators and hiftorians, by the united efforts of great labour

and