Pol Sci. Tregau his

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DISCOURS E,

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BEFORE I begin a course of lectures on a science of great extent and importance, I think it my duty to lay before the Public the rea fons which have induced me to undertake fuch a labour, as well as a fhort account of the nature and objects of the course which I propose to deliver. I have always been unwilling to waste in unprofitable inactivity that leifure which the first years of my profeffion ufually allow, and which diligent men, even with moderate talents, might often employ in a manner neither difcreditable to themselves nor wholly useless to others. Defiroys that my own leisure should not be confumed in floth, I anxiously looked about

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for fome way of filling it up, which might enable me, according to the measure of my humble abilities, to contribute fomewhat to the ftock of general usefulness. I had long been convinced that public lectures, which have been used in most ages and countries to teach the elements of almost every part of learning, were the moft convenient mode in which these elements could be taught; that they were the beft adapted for the important purposes of awakening the attention of the ftudent, of abridging his labours, of guiding his inquiries, of relieving the tediousness of private study, and of impreffing on his recollection the principles of science. I saw no reason why the law of England should be less adapted to this mode of instruction, or lefs likely to benefit by it, than any other part of knowledge. A learned gentleman, however, had already occupied that ground, and will, I doubt not, persevere in the ufeful labour which he has undertaken. On his province it was far from my wish to intrude. It appeared to me that a course of lectures on another science clofely connected with all liberal profeffional ftudies, and which had long been the fubject of my own reading and reflection, might not only prove a moft ufeful introduction to the

See "A Syllabus of Lectures on the Law of England, to be delivered in Lincoln's-Inn Hall, by M. Nolan, Efq.' London, 1796.

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law of England, but might alfo become an interefting part of general ftudy, and an important branch of the education of thofe who were not deftined for the profeffion of the law. I was confirmed in my opinion by the affent and approbation of men, whofe names, if it were becoming to mention them on fo flight an occafion, would add authority to truth, and furnish some excuse even for error. Encouraged by their approbation, I refolved, without delay, to commence the undertaking, of which I fhall now proceed to give fome account; without interrupting the progrefs of my difcourfe by anticipating or anfwering the remarks of those who may, perhaps, fneer at me for a departure from the ufual course of my profeffion; because I am defirous of employing in a rational and useful pursuit that leifure, of which the fame men would have required no account, if it had been wafted on trifles, or even abufed in diffipation.

The science which teaches the rights and duties of men and of states, has, in modern times, been called the Law of Nature and Nations. Under this comprehenfive title are included the rules of morality, as they prefcribe the conduct of private men towards each other in all the various relations of human life; as they regulate both the obedience of citizens to the laws, and the autho rity of the magiftrate in framing laws and adminiftering

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niftering government; as they modify the intercourse of independent commonwealths in peace, and prescribe limits to their hoftility in war. This important fcience comprehends only that part of private ethics which is capable of being reduced to fixed and general rules. It confiders only thofe general principles of jurisprudence and politics which the wifdom of the lawgiver adapts to the peculiar fituation of his own country, and which the fkill of the ftatefman applies to the more fluctuating and infinitely varying circumftances which affect its immediate welfare and fafety. For there are in nature certain foun"tains of juftice whence all civil laws are derived, "but as streams; and like as waters do take tinc"tures and taftes from the foils through which "they run, fo do civil laws vary according to "the regions and governments where they are "planted, though they proceed from the fame "fountains." Bacon's Dig. and Adv. of Learn.— Works, vol. i. p. 101.

On the great queftions of morality, of politics, and of municipal law, it is the object of this fcience to deliver only thofe fundamental truths of which the particular application is as extensive as

* I have not been deterred by fome petty incongruity of metaphor from quoting this noble fentence. Mr. Hume had, perhaps, this fentence in his recollection, when he wrote a remarkable paffage of his works. See Hume's Effays, vol. ii. p. 352. ed. Lond. 1788.

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