its celebrity cannot but be acknowledged. I have only to hope, (vain as the hope may be,) that my labours may promote inquiry and reward attention; for (without assuming the merit of even diligence or accuracy) I can with truth assert, that I have applied the utmost of my ability, faithfully to execute the task of Editor.

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE FIFTH EDITION.

SINCE the publication of the fourth edition of this work, the EDITOR has endeavoured to make his labours less' reprehensible. He frankly confesses, that, on revision, he found some parts requiring emendation, and others capable of improvement. Many faults he has corrected, and some deficiencies he has supplied. In truth, though the additions are considerable, he trusts that the Profession, in its candour, will not think they have been improvidently accumulated.

SERJEANTS' INN, May 1, 1794.

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE SIXTH EDITION.

THE variety of important publications which have been circulated, since the year 1794, have necessarily increased the notes to this Edition; particularly Mr. Hallam's View of the Middle Ages; a work to which the Editor feels himself under the highest obligations, and which he cannot but recommend to the diligent attention of the English student. Note (A), in Chap. III. p. 55. on Parliamentary Impeachment, has been somewhat abridged; and Note (A), in Chap. IX. p. 220. on Ireland, considerably enlarged.

March, 1820.

SIR MATTHEW HALE was born at Alderley, in Gloucestershire, on the first of November 1609. In the seventeenth year of his age, he was entered of Magdalenhall, Oxford; and on the 8th of November 1629 was admitted of Lincoln's-Inn; where, if the authority of Burnet may be relied on, he studied for many years sixteen hours a day (a). Be that as it may, the diligence with which he pursued his studies, is evident from his acquirements. The jurisprudence of his own country, though the first, was by no means the sole object of his attention. He applied himself with great avidity, to the study of the Roman law; and though he preferred the mode of trial by jury, to that of the civilians, (who intrust too much to the judge,) yet he often affirmed, that

(4) The human mind is incapable of such exertion for any great length of time. A milder mode meets with the approbation even, of the laborious Sir Edward Coke.-Co. Lit. 64. b. And

с

so as to Sir Matthew Hale himself, who thought six hours a day, with attention and constancy, sufficient. See Bosw. Life of John. 4v. oct. 934, and post. viii.

the principles of jurisprudence, were so well delivered in the Digests, that law could not be understood as a science, without first resorting to them for information. This may, with deference, be doubted. Admitting that the knowledge of the civil law, has deservedly been considered, as no small acquisition to the English student, yet is it, in reality, essential to the understanding of our own municipal system, which requires no assistance from any foreign code, however admirable or however just? "We

must not carry our veneration so far, as to sacrifice our "Alfred and Edward, to the manes of Theodosius and "Justinian; we must not prefer the edict of the prætor, "or the rescript of the Roman emperor, to our own "immemorial customs, or the sanctions of an English

parliament, unless we can also prefer the despotic mo"narchy of Rome and Byzantium, for whose meridian "the former were calculated, to the free Constitution of Britain, which the latter are adapted to perpetuate (b).” Great improvement is, in general, the result of intense application. HALE, in the course of a few years, had obtained not only a high professional reputation, but was allowedly well versed in scholastic knowledge. That he was perfectly conversant with the discoveries of the age in which he lived, is evident from the treatise which he wrote on the rarefaction and condensation of air; a treatise which shews as great accuracy, and as much subtilty, as the principles to which he adhered would admit. Ancient history, chronology, and philosophy, amused him in the moments of relaxation; and, through his intimacy with Mr. Selden, he is said, to have made some progress in rabbinical learning.

Where different sciences are pursued at the same time, if one be abstracted and unpleasant, the other

(b) Blac. Com. oct. vol. i. p. 5; and see the remark of Mr. Dugald Stewart, on the rapid progress that has been nade in our own country, during the

last fifty years, in tracing the origin and progress of the present establishments in Europe, in the Life of Dr. Robertson, 2 vo. 224.