INTRODUCTION TO THE SCIENCE OF THE LAW; SHEWING THE ADVANTAGES OF A LAW EDUCATION, GROUNDED ON THE LEARNING OF LORD COKE's COMMENTARIES UPON LITTLETON's TENURES, OR, AS THEY ARE CALLED BY WAY OF DISTINCTION, BY FREDERICK RITSO, Esq. Moniti meliora sequamur! LONDON: PRINTED FOR W. CLARKE AND SONS, LAW BOOKSELLERS, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN'S INN. 1815. Ir is not exclusively to the Student who intends to follow the practice of the law, but to every Gentleman, every liberal Scholar in the kingdom, who is not insensible how necessary it is that he should apply himself, in order to obtain at least a general acquaintance with the nature of the local constitutions of his native land, that I dedicate the following pages. The importance, indeed, of this interesting branch of instruction, in every situation of life, is universally acknowledged; but the way, in which we ought to endeavour to attain to it, is a subject of much difference of opinion, even among professional men, and presents to the unassisted and unprepared student a constant source of extreme difficulty and discouragement. For my own part, oppressed with the humiliating disappointment, under which I had vainly laboured to remove the inexperience of my earlier years, and when, (as Sir Henry Spelman expresses himself upon a like occasion,) excidit mihi fateor animus, I should have felt most grateful to the man who would have fixed my indecision by the suggestions of his riper judgment, or from whose experience I could have derived one ray of light. It is to those, who may probably now entertain the same feelings, that I offer the following Considerations of the Plan of Education recommended by that distinguished judge, Lord Chief Justice Reeve (1), and which I originally proposed to myself as a sort of occupation in captivity during the memorable and for ever infamous persecution of the detained British hostages in France. In the shape in which they are now offered to the reader, they will at least serve to demonstrate, that the law is not a mere series of unconnected decrees and ordinances, but, in the strictest sense of the word, a science founded on principle, and claiming an exalted rank in the empire of reason; and they will, at the same time, exemplify an easy and certain method of ensuring a due proficiency in this course of study, to those who may desire to be (1) Sir Thomas Reeve was Lord Ch. Justice of the Common Pleas, in the early part of the reign of George II. See his advice to his nephew, on the study of the law, in Hargrave's Collectanea Juridica, vol. 1. p. 79. et seq. ! PREFACE. nefit by it, with a view either to the Bar, to the Senate, or to the duties of Magistracy. Reddere. Fungor vice cotis, acutum And here I must also beg leave (as a privilege of which authors not unusually avail themselves under the same circumstances,) to acknowledge myself much indebted for the explanation of some of the most difficult and obscure passages in "the Institute," to the assistance of an excellent and learned friend, at that time my fellow prisoner at Verdun, who has been long known and distinguished in the political world, in which he has chiefly moved, by his universal and profound erudition in this branch of science (2). The desire of benefiting by instruction is not without praise, but they who assist us in it are entitled to our warmest gratitude. 24, Devonshire Street, Portland Place. FREDERICK RITSO. (2) John Nicholls, Esq. formerly member of parliament for Tregony. |