member of Congress, lecture with success to considerable numbers of students. There may be other similar institutions which are not known to me; no doubt there will be several more in the course of a few years, such is the rapid course that this country is taking in the pursuit of elegant and useful knowledge.

The opinions of English jurists and the decisions of English Judges so long regarded among us with implicit deference, are now scanned with greater freedom and with the spirit becoming an independent nation. Before the late revolution that spirit prevailed in a great degree in the colonial tribunals, particularly in the provinces that were under charter and proprietary governments, and the Judges shewed a disposition to accommodate the law to the local circumstances of the country. In the royal governments, for obvious reasons, the English system was more strictly adhered to. After the revolution, things went on much in the same course, until the adoption of the federal Constitution, when a Supreme Court was established, the Judges of which were indiscriminately taken from the States which had been under a royal government, and from those which had been governed under their charters and their proprietaries.

From that time there was perceived in the State as well as in the federal Courts a much more rigid adherence to English precedents. Perhaps the vain wish to introduce by that means uniformity throughout the Union, did not a little contribute to it. It was felt, however, and complained of by the people, and the consequence was that some of the States, as Pennsylvania Ohio, and New Jersey, prohibited by law the citing of British authorities posterior to the revolution. This was applying the axe to the root of the tree; it was an ill judged and inefficient remedy, but at the same time a solemn warning to Judges and an indication of the manner in which the people wished the law to be administered, giving them to understand that the spirit of our own statute books, our national feelings, opinions, habits, manners and customs, were as much to be taken into consideration in their decisions as the letter of the English law. Indeed, when it is evident that our statutes, particularly ancient ones, have meant to make some radical alteration in the system of the common law, it seems that they should be construed with a view to the effect which they were intended to produce. The doctrine that statutes altering the common law are to be construed strict

ly, has, I believe, been carried so far as in some cases to counteract the views of our legislatures, and the principles which they meant to establish.

This evil is gradually correcting itself, and the common law appears more and more dignified with American features. It is observed with pleasure that the opinions of Mr Chief Justice MARSHALL, are more generally founded upon principle than upon authority, and with the same satisfaction we see that Judge WASHINGTON, while he pays proper respect to modern English decisions, does not hesitate to reject those doctrines which to his discriminating mind do not appear consonant to our American system of jurisprudence, and thus proves himself to have inherited the spirit as well as the name and worldly estate of the father of the independence of his native land.

Thus, the law in this country, as every other science, tends to improvement. This laudable spirit requires only to receive a proper direction, which will, no doubt, be given by those who are more adequate than I am to this important task. In the mean time I have ventured to give a few hints to shew the importance of sound principles in a branch of knowledge on which our lives, our characters, and

our fortunes depend. The peculiar situation in which we are placed appeared to me to require it, as, unless we rally under the standard of principle, we shall be reduced to choose between a perpetual dependence on foreign opinions, and plunging into an inextricable labyrinth of confusion and uncertainty.

The common law contains within itself almost every thing that is requisite to raise it to the highest degree of perfection. It is fraught with excellent principles which only require to be methodised and properly applied. They are the foundation upon which authority rests, and unless they are constantly recurred to, the law will soon cease to be a science, and will not even be entitled to the name of a system.

This opinion might be supported by the authority of the greatest men that England has produced, among whom it would be sufficient to name the illustrious BACON. But I wish only to be permitted to quote a few lines from the excellent Sir WILLIAM JONES, which are so peculiarly applicable, that I cannot forbear inserting them here in his own words:

"If law be a science, and really deserve so "sublime a name, it must be founded on prin"ciple, and claim an exalted rank in the empire "of reason; but if it be merely an unconnected

D

"series of decrees and ordinances, its use may "remain, though its dignity be lessened, and he "will become the greatest lawyer who has the "strongest habitual or artificial memory.* I shall say no more upon this subject; for ""Tis enough-advent'rous to have touch'd

Light on the numbers of the British sage.”+

The day may come, however, and I hope it will come, when his voice will be responded to from one end of this vast continent to the other.

A few words more will conclude this preface. I am under great obligations to my friend, THOMAS SERGEANT, Esquire, late Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania, and who shares with me in the labours of this institution, for his excellent sketch of the national administration of justice prior to the adoption of the present federal Constitution, which he has kindly permitted me to subjoin to this Essay. It will be found in the Addenda. I am also much indebted to his valuable work on Constitutional law. It enabled me to take that comprehensive view of our Constitutional jurisprudence, which I could not otherwise have

Law of Bailments.

†Thomson.

+ Constitutional Law; being a collection of points arising upon the Constitution and jurisprudence of the United States, which have been settled by judicial decision and practice. By Thomas Sergeant, Esq. Philadelphia, Small. 1822. 415 pp. 8vo.