LAW. ART. 29. A Practical Treatife, or Compendium of the Law of Marine Infurances. By John Ilderton Burn, of the Inner Temple. 12mo. 225 pp. 5s. 6d. Boofey, &c. 1801. Mr. Burn, in a modeft Introduction, ftates, that his defign in writing this book was to form "a compendious digeft immediately calculated for the ufe of merchants and their agents," which he confiders as "a defideratum in the mercantile world." He acknowledges" that he has reforted to Mr. Park's work as the principal fource of his information, and to that divifion of Mr. Gwillim's Abridgment of Law", we prefume Mr. G.'s edition of Bacon's Abridgment, "which treats of that fubje&t." At the fame time, Mr. B. remarks," that he has not fervilely followed the plan of either of thefe authors; but has adopted fuch an arrangement, as he humbly conceived to be best calculated for conveying a clear view of the fubject to thofe for whom ths work was chiefly defigned." There is nothing fervile in purfuing what is right, and we see no reafon to approve of the author's deviations from Mr. Park's very clear and judicious arrangement. In other refpects the book pofferies merit. The cafes feem accurately abridged, and faithfully inferted. Merchants who can afford the expence of Mr. Park's Treatife will, we conceive, not be content without poffeffing it. But to those who are unequal to the expence, or have no time for the perufal, we recommend this Compendium as a valuable fuccedaneum. ART. 30. Decifions in the High Court of Admiralty; during the Time of Sir George Hay and of Sir James Marriott, late Judges of that Court. Vol. I. Michaelmas Term, 1776, to Hilary Term, 1779. 8vo. 322 pp. 9s. Bickerstaff. 1801. We are happy to recognize another collection of decifions in the Court of Admiralty, published by high authority. We are informed in the Preface, that they were printed at the defire and expence of Government. The motive for publication is ftated to be, "the juftification of the conduct and character of the British Government upon public and avowed principles, fo as to gain that moft powerful weight in the machine of human affairs, univerfal confidence, was the great object; to prevent if poffible the ideas of neutral powers, founded on their own arbitrary modes of proceeding, from harraffing the British Minifters perfonally with complaints, and with demands upon them of doing that which was impoffible in a limited government, as it was unreafonable to do; and otherwife, from forming thofe coalitions, which, long foreseen, have now taken place, fo as to render by fuch coalitions, if poffible, the naval power of Great Britain of little confequence; from giving the utmost assistance to a frequently defeated enemy under the pretence of neutrality, and of protected carriers of the weakeft belligerent, and from prolenging the war." If thefe defirable objects can be accomplished by the force of reafon, we entertain a confident hope that they will be effected by the decicifions here reported, and by thofe of Sir James's very able fucceffor. Upon the reports themfelves we fhall defer all minute remarks until the fecond volume, which is promised to the public, has made its appearance. They will be better confidered when taken together. We are forry to obferve, however, that the prefent volume is deprived of one half of its utility, through the want of an Index. The Preface contains many fpirited obfervations, and much extraneous matter. Some of its allufions we could not, and others we do not wish to understand. We were indeed truly forry to perceive, that it contained a moft illiberal atrack upon the common law reports, and the proceedings of thofe courts in which it is practifed. They are flated to be chiefly the productions of illiterate clerks who mifunderftand, and which mark the low characters of the writers, who perpetuate much bad reafoning in much bad language." The learned writer is totally ignorant of the hiftory of those authors, upon whom he paffes fuch an unqualified fentence of condemnation. The majority of thefe common-law reporters were not only men of great intellectual ability, but perfons who filled the higheft offices in the law, and the most distinguished fituations in their country: and as "Nemefis is always on the watch to punish unjuft critics," the learned anther will find, that this very fentence in which he thus attacks the "bad language," as he calls it, of thefe writers, is confused in its conftruction, and defective in its grammar. But we are further told that, all arguments upon (i. e. we prefume, from) precedents deferve little to be relied upon. Falfe principles, or falfe confequences, are to be found in many reports, and only fhow how much mankind are dif. pofed to pervert justice, under the appearance and pretence of doing it." Refpect for the venerable author will not fuffer us to make a fingle obfervation. We regret that the paffage is not blotted out from the book. The print and paper of this volume are remarkable for excellence, and few errors of the prefs occurred to our obfervation; a ludicrous one appears in a quotation from Juvenal, p. 128: Tu pulfas, ego baculo tantum. If the poor pedestrian had used a staff as the inftrument of pulfation, he would not have complained as coming off the worft in the conteft. It should be vapulo, to avoid nonsense, and false quantities. ART. 31 Enquiries into the Nature of Leafehold Property; in which the relative Situations of Leffor and Leffee, Landlord and Tenant, are fairly confidered. By a Gentleman of the Temple. 8vo. 57 pp. Is. 6d. Bickerstaff. 1801. The Enquiries made by this impartial and fair confiderer, in this pamphlet, refer only to leafes of eftates belonging to the church, and to collegiate and corporate bodies. Here he contends, that the leffee of fuch lands has a property in them beyond the mere term of his leafe, and that it is the extreme of injuftice for the owners of the foil to fix the price of (as it is ufually called) the fine upon renewal, ac cording cording to their own notions of its actual value. He infifts, that a court of equity, or at all events parliament, ought to afcertain this fine according to fome fixed ratio, as is done in the cafe of copyholds of inheritance. The predilection which all corporate bodies, poffeffing lands, entertain for their ancient tenants is well known, and their moderation in leafing them very generally acknowledged. Their great indulgence has given the leffees that fort of fixednefs in their respective farms, which this gentleman would modeftly and generously convert into a legal right. It feems impoffible, at leaft according to our oldfashioned notions, that any principles could juftify the pofition, that the clergy, and other corporate bodies, fhould be denied that liberty of managing their property to the best advantage, which is permitted to every other landholder in the kingdom. But as the law now ftands, there is a further reafon against it than the principle of common right, namely, that this writer's regulation would contradict the true meaning of the ftatutes, by which thefe bodies are prohibited from demifing their eftates beyond a limited period. We are glad that this " Gentleman of the Temple" has not affixed his name to his production. It is a matter of ferious congratulation to him, that he has even suffered it to remain in fortunate ambiguity, which of the learned Societies inhabiting the Temple has to claim the honour of his refidence. His humility is well rewarded, for his book can do him no credit. The arguments are by no means ingenious, his mode of thinking is defultory, and in reafoning he feldom approaches towards a fair and logical deduction. His flyle is rambling and confused, and sometimes ungrammatical; he even mistakes the century in which he is living and writing. Perhaps his judgment is warped by the apprehenfion of jeopardy to fome valuable church-leafe of which he is the proprietor. If it be not, the fooner he quits the Temple (fhould he refide there for the purpofe of purfuing the legal profeffion) the more advantageous for himfelf. He had better attend to this truth, however difagreeable, from us, than learn it ten years hence at the expence of much unavailing study, and many abortive attempts to get into practice. POLITICS. ; ART. 32. Obfervations on the Factions which have ruled Ireland, on the Calumnies thrown upon the People of that Country, and on the Juf tice, Expediency, and Neceffity of refloring to the Catholics their political Rights. By J. E. Devereux, Efq. The Second Edition. 160 pp. 49. 68. Richardfon. 1801. 8vo. It was, if we miftake not, a remark of the late Mr. Burke, that Voltaire, and the other Anti-Chriftian philofophers, "declaimed against Monks in the fpirit of Monks." The writer before us attacks all parties which have, at different periods, opposed the claims of the Catholics, with all the intemperate zeal which he imputes to his adverfaries. The Preface takes notice of a speech, said to have been made in Par Xx BRIT. CRIT, VOL. XVIII, DEC. 1801. liament Politics. liament by Mr. Banks, in which charges are brought against the people of Ireland as guilty of infurrection, diforder, revolt, and rebellion. To repel thefe charges is the immediate object of this author, but his chief view is to procure an unqualified exemption of the Catholics from the remaining difabilities which attach to them. "The prejudices," which (this author fays)" are entertained by a few perfons, but af fected to be entertained by many more, against the people of Ireland, originate in partial narratives, written to ferve the interefts of different factions which have, fince the reign of Henry the Second (by uniformly calumniating Ireland) impofed on the good people of England, that they might be warranted in their manifold iniquities." He therefore deems that, "a few obfervations on thofe factions may not, at this moment, be thought irrelevant." Thefe obfervations accompany an hiftorical detail; for which the author (in a note) acknowledges himself to be indebted to Dr. Curry's" Historical and Critical Review of the Civil Wars in Ireland." We have not that work before us; but the copy appears to us not undeferving the very character which this writer gives of the reprefentations of his adversaries, and to be (as is faid of them) "a partial narrative written to ferve the interefls," we will not fay "of a faction;" but of a religion, the profeflors of which, though most numerous in Ireland, form a minority, comparatively inconfiderable, when we estimate the popula tion of the British empire. Many indeed of the facts stated, are fupported by refpectable authorities; and there can be no doubt, that for feveral reigns after the conquests of Henry the Second, the negligence or partiality of the English government gave room to numerous abufes and oppreffions in thofe who bore the chief fway in Ireland. In that period of the Irish history, upon which the writer chiefly dwells (namely, the reign of Charles the First and the Protectorate) we agree to many of his ftatements; and have no doubt, that when the Puritans had any fway or influence, the Irish, being in general of the Catholic perfuafion, were grievously oppreffed. Yet, even in the account of this æra, we should perhaps, on a comparison of the different hiftorians, find that there are fome exaggerations, and fome fuppreffions. In after times, we cannot, all circumstances confidered, blame the Irish for their adhering, as long as poffible, to the fallen fortunes of James the Second. Admitting, however, that the Irish Catholics in former ages were "more finned against than finning, admitting that it was time they thould receive the most ample toleration, till the expediency of invetting them with political power, may be a matter of very ferious doubt. In the latter part of this tract the author, though he ftigmatizes throughout the oppofers of the Catholics as Jacobins, feems to have thoroughly imbibed the principles and opinions of Oppofition. Mr. Pitt, who is generally fuppofed to have facrificed his power to the fupport of the Catholic claims, is yet attacked upon every occafion. The projected measures of Parliamentary Reform, and what the Irish Oppofition called "an adminiftration responsible to the people of that country" (meafures which, in the manner projected, would probably have produced an entire feparation of the two kingdoms) were, it feems, feems, defeated by the Jacobin arts of the late Minifter, and (what feems to be confidered as a facrilege by this writer) the portrait of the great and good Mr. Grattan was taken down from fome place where it had been hung up. This conduct is alfo compared to that of the revolutionary faction in France!!! A fhort account of the proceedings in the Irish Parliament, refpecting the claims of the Catholics, follows; in which the indecent manner of treating the argument arifing from the Coronation Oath (p. 105) is peculiarly reprehenfible. We have shown on other occafions, that we are far from thinking Mr. Butler's objections to that argument fo unanswerable and conclufive as this author fuppofes. A mixture of violent declamations, grofs mistatements, and arguments that have been often anfwered, fills the concluding part of this work. It is an unpleasant task to queftion any favourable account of national character; and we moft readily give credit to the frifh for many very excellent qualities; but when the affertion of Sir John Davis, refpecting their ready obedience and attachment to the laws, is applied to modern times, we would ask this writer (not to mention numerous other proofs) what he thinks of the neceflity, which certainly exifted in feveral parts of Ireland within thefe few years, if it does not ftill, of fupporting the fheriff in executing writs of poffeffion by a military force? What he would fay to the frequent inftances of young women of fortune and rank being carried of by armed banditti, from the midst of their relations and friends, and at noon day? But we have faid enough concerning this intemperate defender of the Catholics. We would not advife them to truft their cause to advocates of this defcription; and particularly to a writer, who seems to us to want candour, as much as his language fails in elegance, and even in decency. ART. 33. The different Effects of Peace and War on the Price of BreadCorn; confidered in an Examination of Principles attempted to be eftablifhed from the yearly Rates of the Market, by J. Brand, Cl. M. A. Ec. Sc. By John Duthy, Efq. Author of Obfervations on the high Price of Provifions. 8vo. 60 pp. Is. 6d. Wallis. 1801. In a former work, on the fame fubject, this author had stated, that the scarcity and dearnefs of provifions "arofe partly from the difpenfations of Providence, and partly from the mifconduct of Minifters ;" intimating, that the war was one of the principal caufes of scarcity, and affuming (without proof) that our Minifters, by their mifconduct, were the authors of it. This affertion (the author complains) has been termed inflammatory, whereas he deems it conciliatory. Whatever epithet it may thought to merit, we conceive that of candid will not, at all events, be applied to it; unlefs it can be deemed fo to prejudge a queftion of ftate policy (nay to decide it against the general opinion) in arguing a queftion of political economy. But although party may, and we think has, influenced the opinion of this writer, it is but fair to ftate (as fully as our limits admit) the arguments by which it is fupported, and to place his controverfy with Mr. Brand in a clear light. Mr. Brand had maintained that "war has a tendency to lower the prices of bread-corn," and anfwered the feveral allegations by which it is attempted X X 2 |