Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/22

6 is the proper accomplihment of every gentleman and cholar; an highly ueful, I had almot aid eential, part of liberal and polite education. And in this I am warranted by the example of antient Rome; where, as Cicero informs us, the very boys were obliged to learn the twelve tables by heart, as a  or indipenable leon, to imprint on their tender minds an early knowlege of the laws and contitutions of their country.

as the long and univeral neglect of this tudy, with us in England, eems in ome degree to call in quetion the truth of this evident poition, it hall therefore be the buines of this introductory dicoure, in the firt place to demontrate the utility of ome general acquaintance with the municipal law of the land, by pointing out it’s particular ues in all coniderable ituations of life. Some conjectures will then be offered with regard to the caues of neglecting this ueful tudy: to which will be ubjoined a few reflexions on the peculiar propriety of reviving it in our own univerities.

firt, to demontrate the utility of ome acquaintance with the laws of the land, let us only reflect a moment on the ingular frame and polity of that land, which is governed by this ytem of laws. A land, perhaps the only one in the univere, in which political or civil liberty is the very end and cope of the contitution. This liberty, rightly undertood, conits in the power of doing whatever the laws permit ; which is only to be effected by a general conformity of all orders and degrees to thoe equitable rules of action, by which the meanet individual is protected from the inults and oppreion of the greatet. As therefore every ubject is intereted in the preervation of the laws, it is incumbent upon every man to be acquainted with thoe at leat, with which he is immediately concerned; let he incur the cenure, as well as inconvenience, of living in ociety without knowing the obligations which it lays him under. And thus much may