The Merits of Blackstone's Commentaries from various charges leveled at him by modern critics. Thus he has been accused of having been unduly optimistic, and of having been "a blind defender, if not a rank apologist, of the most palpable absurdities and enormi ties." But on the best of authority, it can be stated that this optimism was the "natural tone of the age," and Blackstone merely reflected the spirit of his time. The following quotation will show Mr. Carson's attitude toward another charge :— “Again, Blackstone's definition of law has been assailed, most forcibly by Austin, who was the disciple of Bentham. But Black stone's definition is substantially that of Hobbes, one branch of which Pollock thinks profound. Austin, who commented on Blackstone so severely, although sustained by Markby, was himself commented on in sixteen chapters by Professor Clark of Cam bridge University.
Professor Holland, in his
work on Jurisprudence, and Judge Dillon, in his recent Yale Lectures, dissent from both Blackstone and Austin, while the late James C. Carter, Esq, before the American Bar Association in 1890, stated with clearness and
force the argument against the Austinian con ception and definition. I refer to this con flict of views to emphasize the point that Blackstone's definition is not so easily dis posed of as Austin in his self-sufficiency seemed to think." Moreover, the author of this paper evidently doubts Austin's competence to criticize Black stone. uAustin, it must be remembered, was a civilian with no adequate conception of the history or character of the common law. He aimed at reducing every branch of the law to the scientific precision of a code, and, enamored of Roman mode-ls, he ignored the pregnant truth so well stated by Pollock and Maitland: that ‘the matter of legal science is not an ideal result of ethical or political analysis; it is the actual result of facts of human nature and history.‘ Austin and his school never gave sufficient weight to the historical facts that English law, while largely Teutonic in its origin, became insular in its scope; that it grew irregularly during many centuries, resting largely in custom, partly in legislation, partly in treatises such as Bracton, Littleton, Coke and others, but
mainly in the decisions of courts, and had never been reduced to formulated rules or scientific arrangement." This is a paper which to be fully enjoyed
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and appreciated needs to be read in its entirety, but lack of space prevents us from doing more than culling a few choice extracts. This is how Mr. Carson sums up the merits of the Commentaries, and we doubt if it has ever been done before by any writer with such a combination of succinctness and eloquence : "We all have often asked ourselves, What are the merits of Blackstone's Commentaries, and what is the real service to the profession which the author performed? The answer may be secured in two ways—first by reading and studying his work, and next by examining his raw materials. . . . The first impression, I take it, will behespecially if you first examine, as you should do, the Table of Contents and Chapter Headings, aided by his own analysis —that here you have a comprehensive and General Chart of Public and Private Law, civil and criminal; a general map in outline, so to speak, of the domain of English law, and exhibiting the relationship to each other of the main divisions. Next you will be im pressed by his unusual analytical power and skill. He divides and subdivides and re divides a subject with logical exactness, and his chapters and their sections are like the working drawings of an architect. Then you will be impressed with the brevity, the pre
cision and the clearness of his definitions, supported by well-chosen illustrations, and concise expositions of principles, and finally, you will close the work with the assertion, This was not a hard book to read, on the con
trary it was delightful—the style is superior to that of any other law book ever written. You sum up then by saying, Here is a master draughtsman of a legal chart—who knows the sweep and indentations of the coast lines their latitude and longitude; who has
marked off the various divisions divisions with relative accuracy; a due sense of proportion; who up the central spaces with accurate
and sub who has has filled and strik
ing descriptions of what is peculiar to each zone; whose illustrations are well selected, and whose method of presentation is pictorial. The work leaves a definite and well-rounded picture in the mind.
It is not a digest, it is
not an abridgment, it is not a series of special essays, it is not a chain of quotations, it is not a discussion of cases; it is an original work, well planned, well executed, with the materials thoroughly fused and welded into a compact, harmonious whole, as a Statement of General Principles. . . .
