At the commencement of his studies in the office of his legal preceptor, the cardinal maxim by which he should be governed in his reading should be non multa, sed multum. Indeed, it was an observation of Lord Mansfield, that the quantity of professional reading absolutely necessary, or even useful, to a lawyer, was not so great as was usually imagined. The Commentaries of Blackstone and of Chancellor Kent should be read, and read again and again. The elementary principles so well and elegantly presented and illustrated in these two justly celebrated works should be rendered familiar. They form, too, a general plan or outline of the science, by which the student will be able to arrange and systematize all his subsequent acquisitions. To these may be added a few books of a more practical cast; such as Tidd's Practice, Stephen on Pleading, Greenleaf's Evidence, Stephens's or Leigh's Nisi Prius, Mitford's or Story's Equity Pleading, which, with such reading of the local law of the State in which he purposes to settle, may be necessary to make up the best part of office-reading. It will be better to have well mastered thus much than to have run over three times as many books hastily and superficially. Let the student often stop and examine himself upon what he has read. It would be an excellent mode of proceeding for him, after having read a lecture or chapter, to lay aside the book and endeavor to commit the substance of it to writing, trusting entirely to his memory for the matter, and using his own language. After having done this, let him reperuse the section, by which he will not only discern what parts have escaped his memory, but the whole will be more certainly impressed upon his mind, and become incorporated with it as if it had been originally his own work. Let him cultivate intercourse with others pursuing the same studies, and converse frequently upon the subject of their reading. The biographer of Lord Keeper North has recorded of him that "he fell into the way of putting cases (as they call it), which much improved him, and he was most sensible of the benefit of discourse: for I have observed him often say that (after his day's reading) at his night's congress with his professional friends, whatever the subject was, he made it the subject of discourse in the company; for, said he, I read many things which I am sensible I forget; but I found, withal, that if I had once talked over what I had read, I never forgot that." Much, of course, will depend upon what may be termed the mental temperament of the student himself, which no one can so well observe as his immediate preceptor; and he will be governed accordingly in the selection of the works to be placed in his hands and his general course of training. No lawyer does his duty who does not frequently examine his student-not merely as an important means of exciting him to attention and application, but in order to acquire such an acquaintance with the character of his pupil's mind-its quickness or slowness, its concentrativeness or discursiveness-as to be able to form a judgment as to whether he requires the curb or the spur. It is an inestimable advantage to a young man to have a judicious and experienced friend watching anxiously his progress, and competent to direct him when, if he is left to himself, he will most probably wander in darkness and danger. In regard to the more thorough and extended course of reading which may and ought to be prosecuted after admission to the bar, the remarks of one of the most distinguished men who have ever graced the American bar, whose own example has enforced and illustrated their value, may be commended to the serious consideration of the student. "There are two very different methods of acquiring a knowledge of the laws of England," says Horace Binney (art. Edward Tilghman, Encyclopedia Americana, vol. xiv.), "and by each of them men have succeeded in public estimation to an almost equal extent. One of them, which may be called the old way, is a methodical study of the general system of law, and of its grounds and reasons, beginning with the fundamental law of estates and tenures, and pursuing the derivative branches in logical succession, and the collateral subjects in due order, by which the student acquires a knowledge of principles that rule in all departments of the science, and learns to feel, as much as to know, what is in harmony with the system and what not. The other is to get an outline of the system by the aid of commentaries, and to fill it up by desultory reading of treatises and reports, according to the bent of the student, without much shape or certainty in the knowledge so acquired, until it is given by | of International Law. Robinson's Admiinvestigation in the courts of practice. ralty Reports. Cases in the Supreme A good deal of law may be put together Court U. S. Dunlap's Admiralty Pracby a facile or flexible man in the second tice. of these modes, and the public are often satisfied; but the profession itself knows the first, by its fruits, to be the most effectual way of making a great lawyer.' Under this view, the following course of reading may be pursued. The whole subject is divided into heads, and the order of proceeding is suggested. All the books named may not be within the student's reach some may be omitted, or others may be substituted. It may, however, be somewhat irksome to pursue any one branch for too long a period unvaried. When that is found to be the case, the last five heads may be adopted as collateral studies, and pursued simultaneously with the first three. I. REAL ESTATE AND EQUITY.-Hale's History of the Common Law. Reeves's History of the English Law. Robertson's Charles V. Hallam's Middle Ages. Dalrymple on Feudal Property. Wright on Tenures. Finch's Law. Doctor and Student. Littleton's Tenures. Coke upon Littleton. Preston on Estates. Fearne on Contingent Remainders. Sheppard's Touchstone. Preston on Abstracts. Preston on Conveyancing. Jeremy on Equity. Story's Equity Jurisprudence. Powell on Mortgages. Bacon on Uses. Sanders on Uses and Trusts. Sugden on Powers. Sugden on Vendors and Purchasers. Powell on Devises. Jarman on Wills. II. PRACTICE, PLEADING, AND EVIDENCE.-Sellon's Practice. Tidd's Practice. Stephen on Pleading, Williams's Saunders. Greenleaf on Evidence. Mitford's Equity Pleading. Barton's Suit in Equity. Newland's Chancery. Gresley on Equity Evidence. III CRIMES AND FORFEITURES. Hale's Pleas of the Crown. Foster's Crown Law. Yorke on Forfeiture. Coke's Institutes, Part III. Russell on Crimes and Misdemeanors. Roscoe on Criminal Evidence. Chitty on Criminal Law. IV. NATURAL AND INTERNATIONAL LAW.-Burlamaqui's Natural and Political Law. Grotius de Jure Belli et Pacis. Rutherforth's Institutes. Vattel's Law of Nations. Bynkershoeck's Questiones Publici Juris. Wicquefort's Ambassador. Bynkershoeck de Foro Legatorum. Mackintosh's Discourse. Wheaton's History V. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW.-Coke's Institutes, Part II. Hallam's Constitutional History. Wynne's Eunomus. De Lolme, with Stephens's Introduction. The Federalist. Rawle on the Constitution. Story on the Constitution. Baldwin's Constitutional Views. Upshur's Brief Enquiry. Calhoun's Works, vol. i. All the Cases on the Subject in the S. C. U. S. VI. CIVIL LAW.-Butler's Horæ Juridicæ. Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall, chap. 44. Justinian's Institutes. Taylor's Elements. Mackeldy's Compendium. Colquhoun's Summary. Domat's Civil Law. Savigny's Histoire du Droit Romain. Savigny's Traité du Droit Romain. VII. PERSONS AND PERSONAL PROPERTY.-Reeves on Domestic Relations. Bingham on Infancy and Coverture. Roper on Husband and Wife. Angell and Ames on Corporations. Pothier's Works. Smith on Contracts. Jones on Bailments. Story on Bailments. Story on Partnerships. Byles on Bills. Abbot on Shipping, Duer on Insurance. Emerigon Traité des Assurances. Boulay-Paty Cours de Droit Commercial. Story on the Conflict of Laws. VIII. EXECUTORS AND ADMINISTRATORS.-Roper on Legacies. Toller on Executors. Williams on Executors. Lovelass's Law Disposal. Very few Report books are set down in this list as to be read in course. In his regular reading, the student should constantly, where it is in his power, resort to and examine the leading cases referred to and commented upon by his authors. this way he will read them more intelligently, and they will be better impressed upon his memory. In It is believed that the course thus sketched, if steadily and laboriously pursued, will make a very thorough lawyer. There is certainly nothing in the plan beyond the reach of any young man with industry and application, in a period of from five to seven years, with a considerable allowance for the interruptions of business and relaxation. He must have, however, certain fixed and regular hours for his law-studies, and he must not suffer the charms of a light literature to allure him aside. The fruits of study cannot be gathered without its toil. In the law, a young man must be the architect of his own character, as well as of his fortune. "The profession of the law," says Mr. Ritso, is that, of all others, which imposes the most extensive obligations upon those who have had the confidence to make choice of it; and, indeed, there is no other path of life in which the unassumed superiority of individual merit is more conspicuously distinguished according to the respective abilities of the parties. The laurels that grow within these precincts are to be gathered with no vulgar hands: they resist the unhallowed grasp, like the golden branch with which the hero of the Eneid threw open the adamantine gates that led to Elysium."-Sharswood's edition of Blackstone's Commentaries, Vol. i., Introd., Sect. I., On the Study of the Law, p. 37, Phila., 1859. ONE NICHE THE HIGHEST. [Elihu Burritt, best known as "The Learned Blacksmith," born in New Britain, Connecticut, 1811, and apprenticed to a blacksmith about 1827, varied the labors of the forge by learning languages; in 1846 went to England, where he formed "The League of Universal Brotherhood," whose object was " to employ all legitimate means for the abolition of war throughout the world," and was proprietor and editor of The Peace Advocate; labored zealously for the promotion of temperance, cheap ocean-postage, the abolition of American slavery, and in peace congresses, returning to America, after serving for some years as United States Consul at Birmingham, in 1853; died 1879.] 46 The scene opens with a view of the great Natural Bridge in Virginia. There are three or four lads standing in the channel below, looking up with awe to that vast arch of unhewn rocks, which the Almighty bridged over those everlasting butments, when the morning stars sang together." The little piece of sky spanning those measureless piers is full of stars, although it is mid-day. It is almost five hundred feet from where they stand, up those perpendicular bulwarks of limestone to the key of that vast arch, which appears to them only the size of a man's hand. The silence of death is rendered more impressive by the little stream that falls from | rock to rock down the channel. The sun is darkened, and the boys have uncovered their heads, as if standing in the presence chamber of the Majesty of the whole earth. At last this feeling begins to wear away; they look around them, and find that others have been there before them. They see the names of hundreds cut in the limestone butments. A new feeling comes over their young hearts, and their knives are in their hands in an instant. 'What man has done, man can do," is their watchword, while they draw themselves up, and carve their names a foot above those of a hundred full-grown men who have been there before them. 66 'Tis They are all satisfied with this feat of physical exertion, except one, whose example illustrates perfectly the forgotten truth that "there is no royal road to learning." This ambitious youth sees a name just above his reach-a name which will be green in the memory of the world when those of Alexander, Cæsar, and Bonaparte shall rot in oblivion. It was the name of Washington. Before he marched with Braddock to that fatal field he had been there and left his name a foot above any thought to write his name side by side of his predecessors. It was a glorious with that great father of his country. He grasps his knife with a firmer hand, and clinging to a little jutting crag he cuts again into the limestome, about a foot above where he stands; he then reaches up and cuts another for his hands. a dangerous adventure; but as he puts his feet and hands into those gains, and draws himself up carefully to his full length, he finds himself a foot above every name chronicled in that mighty wall. While his companions are regarding him with concern and admiration, he cuts his name in wide capitals, large and deep, in that flinty album. His knife is still in his hand, and strength in his sinews, and a new created aspiration in his heart. Again he cuts another niche, and again he carves his name in large capitals. This is not enough: heedless of the entreaties of his companions, he cuts and climbs again. The gradations of his ascending scale grow wider apart. He measures his length at every gain he cuts. The voices of his friends wax weaker and weaker, till their words are finally lost on his ear. He now for the first time casts a look beneath him. Had that glance lasted a moment, that moment would have been his last. He clings with a convulsive shudder to his little niche in the rock. An awful abyss awaits his almost certain fall. He is faint with severe exertion, and trembling from the sudden view of the dreadful destruction to which he is exposed. His knife is worn half-way to the haft. He can hear the voices, but not the words of his terrorstricken companions below! What a moment! what a meagre chance to escape destruction! There is no retracing his steps. It is impossible to put his hands into the same niche with his feet, and retain his slender hold a moment. His companions instantly perceive this new and fearful dilemma, and await his fall with emotions that freeze their young blood." He is too high to ask for his father and mother, his brothers and sisters, to come and witness or avert his destruction. But one of his companions anticipates his desire. Swift as the wind he bounds down the channel, and the situation of the fated boy is told upon his father's hearthstone. that mighty wall, and now finds himself directly under the middle of that vast arch of rock, earth, and trees. He must cut his way in a new direction, to get from this overhanging mountain. The inspiration of hope is in his bosom; its vital heat is fed by the increasing shout of hundreds perched upon cliffs, trees, and others who stand with ropes in their hands upon the bridge above, or with ladders below. Fifty more gains must be cut before the longest rope can reach him. His wasting blade strikes again into the limestone. The boy is emerging painfully foot by foot from under that lofty arch. Spliced ropes are in the hands of those who are leaning over the outer edge of the bridge. Two minutes more, and all will be over. That blade is worn to the last half inch. The boy's head reels; his eyes are starting from their sockets. His last hope is dying in his heart, his life must hang upon the next gain he cuts. That niche is his last. At the last faint gash he makes, his knife-his faithful knife-falls from his little nerveless hand Minutes of almost eternal length roll and, ringing along the precipice, falls at on, and there are hundreds standing in his mother's feet. An involuntary groan that rocky channel, and hundreds on the of despair runs like a death-knell through bridge above, all holding their breath, and the channel below, and all is still as the awaiting the fearful catastrophe. The grave. At the height of nearly three hunpoor boy hears the hum of new and nu- dred feet, the devoted boy lifts his devoted merous voices both above and below. He heart and closing eyes to commend his can just distinguish the tones of his father, soul to God. 'Tis but a moment-there! who is shouting with all the energy of one foot swings off! he is reeling, tremdespair William! William! Don't bling-toppling over into eternity! Hark! look down! Your mother, and Henry, a shout falls on his ears from above! The and Harriet, are all here praying for you! man who is lying with half his length over Don't look down! Keep your eyes to- the bridge has caught a glimpse of the wards the top!" The boy didn't look boy's head and shoulders. Quick as down. His eye is fixed like a flint to- thought, the noosed rope is within reach wards heaven, and his young heart on him of the sinking youth. No one breathes. who reigns there. He grasps again his With a faint convulsive effort the swoonknife. He cuts another niche, and another ing boy drops his arm into the noose. foot is added to the hundreds that re- Darkness comes over him, and with the move him from the reach of human help words God!" and "mother!" whisfrom below! How carefully he uses his pered on his lips just loud enough to be wasting blade! How anxiously he selects heard in heaven, the tightening rope lifts the softest places in that vast pier! How him out of his last shallow niche. Not a he avoids every flinty grain! How he lip moves while he is dangling over that economizes his physical powers, resting a fearful abyss; but when a sturdy Virmoment at each gain that he cuts! How ginian reaches down and draws up the lad, every motion is watched from below! and holds him up in his arms before the There stands his father, mother, brother, tearful, breathless multitude-such shoutand sister, on the very spot where, if he ing! and such leaping and weeping for falls, he will not fall alone. joy, never greeted a human being so recovered from the yawning gulf of eternity. -Sparks from the Anvil. The sun is half-way down in the west. The lad has made fifty additional niches in 66 THE SIEGE OF BERWICK, 1296. [George Buchanan, one of the most learned men of the sixteenth century, and a distinguished poet and historian, was born of poor parents, in Killearn, in the county of Sterling, in February, 1506. During his residence on the continent he embraced the doctrines of the Reformation, and was employed by James V. as a tutor to his natural son, the Earl of Moray. At the same king's command he attacked the Franciscans in a satirical poem, for which his life being threatened, he fled to England, and thence to France, where he ob tained a professorship in the College of Guienne, in Bordeaux, and subsequently held the regency in the college of Cardinal Le Moin, from 1544 to 1547. He next went to Portugal, and became a teacher of philosophy in the University of Coimbra, but expressing some free opin ions, he was confined in a monastery, in which he translated the Psalms of David into Latin. This is generally considered to be the finest Latin version of the book of Psalms. In 1551 he obtained his liberty, and after residing some time in France and England, returned to his native country, where he was appointed the principal of the College of St. Leonard, in the University of St. Andrew's. This favor he obtained from Queen Mary, which he ill requited by writing a book called a Detection of her Doings, designed to prejudice the minds of her subjects against her. The Scottish nobility now nominated him tutor to James VI. In this capacity he labored to imbue the Scottish Solomon with wisdom, but succeeded only in making him a pedant, because, as he said, he could make nothing else of him. In 1570 he was made keeper of the privy seal. The last years of his life were employed in the composition of a history of Scotland, in elegant and powerful Latin. He died at Edinburgh in 1582.] This answer being returned by the Scottish council, the King [Edward I.] of England, who sought not peace but victory, commenced the siege of Berwick by sea and land, with a powerful army of his own subjects; increased likewise by foreign auxiliaries; nor did he omit anything which might contribute to the capture of the city; and trusting to his numbers, he gave the besieged no respite, never intermitting his attacks by day nor night.... But when the siege, which began on the 13th of April, had now lasted three months, and the besieged, besides their fatigue and watching, beginning to be in want of provisions, appeared incapable of longer resisting the power of the enemy, it was agreed with the English, that unless they were relieved by the 30th of July, they would surrender the city to them, Thomas, the eldest son of Alexander Seton, the governor of the garrison, being given as an hostage. Whilst these transactions were going forward at Berwick, the Scottish parliament assembled to deliberate on the state of the nation; and the regent being taken at Roxburgh, that they might not be without a leader, they chose Archibald Douglas as their chief, and determined that he should have an army to march into England, and waste the neighboring districts, in order to draw away the King from the siege. According to this determination, Douglas proceeded for England; but hearing of the agreement of Alexander Seton, he altered his design, and in opposition to the more prudent counsels of the wisest of his officers, marched directly towards the English, and on St. Magdalen's eve was descried both by friends and enemies. The King of England, although the day had not arrived for the surrender of the town, when he saw the Scottish forces so near, sent a herald to the commander of the garrison, who announced to him that unless he immediately delivered up the place, he would put his son Thomas to death. In vain did the governor contend that the day for surrendering the city had not arrived; in vain did he appeal to Edward's pledged faith; for while affection, tenderness, anxiety, and his duty to his country variously agitated his paternal bosom, the King of England, thinking he Would be moved were the terrible object brought nearer, ordered a gallows to be erected on a situation where it could be easily seen from the town, and the two sons of the governor, the one a hostage, the other a prisoner of war, to be brought thither for execution. At this dreadfully disturbing spectacle, when the mind of the father wavered, his wife, the mother of the youths, a woman of masculine fortitude, by various arguments encouraged and strengthened his resolution. placed before him his fidelity to his king, his love to his country, and the dignity of a most noble family. She reminded him that they had other children still remaining, neither did his age or her own preclude the hope of having more; and these, although now they should escape, yet, in a short time either a fortuitous death, or, at best, old age would sweep them away; but if any spot should stain the family of Seton, it would remain forever, and the infamy would attach to their innocent descendants; that she had often heard praised in the speeches of the wise, those She |