The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-17 00:00:00

LITERAT EIRE.
THE ADVOCATE. Vol. I. By Edward W. Cox.
Crockford.

A remarkable production is here comavneed—
which it completed with any ability compatible to
that evidenced by the initial volume—will at once
assume. an honourable pozition as a standard autho-
rity in law literature. The author has admirably
q
whiled himself for the composition of the work by
those protracted studies end laborious researches, and
various and extended practice, which could alone
enable him to pronounce upon the subject-matter in
hand with any degrre of judgment. There was a
lack of some work of precisely this character.
Whenever en important enterprise in letters is ad-
ventured upon, we know perfectly well that the
critic is sure to discover that hitherto there was ma-
nifestly some extraordinary hiatus in that particular
department. Although liable, therefore, to be charged
with the same cant phrase of the ordinary reviewer,
we must repeat that the volume here submitted to us
for consideration is precisely what has been long re-
quired, and what will consequently be peculiarly
welcome to the legal bibliographer. Our author un-
dertakes in the course of his present interesting lite-
rary enterprise to specify the exact nature of the
training necessary for the proper education of the
Advocate. He purposes, moreover, to relate the
Practice of the Advocate, the Rights of the Ad-

vocate, and the Duties of the Advocate—a prac-
tice sometimes very complicated, rights al-
ways peculiarly elevated, and duties invariably dis-
tinguished by their responsibility. It must not be
erroneously imagined, nevertheless, that the chapters
constituting this important legal treatise present
attractions solely and exclusively to the professional
man—to the Attorney or Barrister-at-Law. It is
diametrically otherwise. No one, whatever his put..
suits, can peruse those chapters without deriving from
them a very considerable amount of information. Mr.
Cox addresses himself to the extraordinary questions
which he has here undertaken to solve with, mani-

festly enough, the fullest appreciation of their
difficulty. As a tolerably clear assurance
that the work will be in no respect super-

ficial, we may mention that the author has
formally dedicated the result of his industry in the
matter to no less distinguished an authority than
Lord Denman. The terms in which this dedication is

couched are honourable alike to the author of the
work and to the eminent man to whom it is inscribed.

" In the performance of this task," says Mr. Cox, "I
have sought to set up the high standard of acquire-
ment and of conduct that has made the bar of Eng-

land, for so many centuries, the nursery of its noblest
and truest gentlemen—the school of its statesmen—
and the profession of those patriots to whose courage,
independence, and honesty, the liberties of the land
have been more than once indebted for their
salvation." This is a lofty and befitting spirit
in which to enter upon the composition of a well-
digested treatise on the training, practice, rights
and duties of the British advocate. It is a mood in
which the members of the English bar will discover
abundant evidence that the writer has understood
the dignity, the value, and the importance of their
common profession. Another source of interest in
the undertaking here commenced is the peculiarity,
and we may even say the actual peril of the positions
in which the advocate is placed at the present junc-
ture. "My Lord," says Mr. Cox, upon this subject,
n cne of the most solemn and effective parts
his able and judicious dedication, " I
much fear that the glory of the Bar of
England has departed, that its sun has set,
and that it is doomed to destruction, or to a change of
character and position that will be more lamentable
than destruction." This has reference, of course, to
the extraordinary changes which have recently taken
place in the constitution of the British bar—changes
which do in many respects justify our author in con-
jecturing the possibility of its disorganization.
Whether the treatise before us, however, be regarded
as relating to the past or to the future, it will always
retain its interest as a masterly delineation of the
character long maintained in this country by the
advocate, to his own credit and the advantage also of
the general population. As illustrative, in a rapid
and yet complete and comprehensive manner,
of the elaborate nature of the treatise here

penned by Mr. Cox, we may refer cursorily to the
heads under which its constituent portions are classi-
fied. After a very intelligent introduction, pre-
paring the way for his argument, the author succes-
sively particularises the capacities required in the
advocate, and his various natural, physical, and mental
qualifications. He comments at appropriate length
upon such topics as the " pecuniary resources," the
" v►ill and courage," as well as upon the moral, in-
tellectual, and physical " training' of the advocate.
Under the division referring to the moral training, he
devotes one chapter to the consideration of "practical
morals." Under the division referring to physical

training, he dedicates another -chapter to
the " art of speaking." While under the more
complex division referring to the intellectual training,
he enters more at large into the subject of the re-
sponse by successive passages, informing the student
specifically bow to study, how to read, what to read,
explaining the nature of professional studies, the ad-
vantage of studies that educate, and the benefit of
studies for information. During the course of the
chapter upon the last mentioned theme, Mr. Cox re-
veals a capacity for the systematising of human know-
ledge, entitled, we conceive, to the very highest and
most ardent admiration. A happier illustration of his
lucidity and thoughtfulness as a writer could not pos-
sibly be adduced than that portion of his treatise
which immediately follows the supposition of a person
whose mind is a blank being suddenly awakened to
sensation with the capability and desire of receiving
instruction. Here follows his grand and elevating
argument. He says this man would inevitatbly, on
first looking about him, inquire " Where am I?"
Contemplating himself—" his form so curious and his
feelings so strange"—he would next inquire—" What
am I?" After which, meditating upon the world
within and without, striving instinctively to penetrate
the "mystery of existence"--he would inquire " Why
am I?" Under the replies accorded to these three
inquiries, says our author, will be found arrayed in
their natural order the " entire circle of human
knowledge." The thought is wonderfully ingenious,
and we conceive also wonderfully admirable. " Stu-
dying upon a ball that rolls in infinite space, a part of
a planetary system, itself a part of another system, the
individual already supposed to have awakened to con-
sciousness would find in answer to his first inquiry
Where am I?' that Astronomy teaches the relation of
this globe to the rest of creation—Geology, the past
history of the earth— Geography, the aspect of its sur-
face—Chemistry nnd Mineralogy, its composition—
Botany, the vegetation clothing it—Natural History,
the living creatures inhabiting it—Meteorology, its
atmosphere—Electricity and Galvanism and Magnet-
ism, the subtle fluids by which its whole mass is per-
meated—Mechanics and hydrostatics, and Hydrody-
namics, the laws of motion and not as the result of
gravitation. In answer to his second inquiry,
' What am I?' this man would next learn from
Anatomy, the mechanism of the human frame ; from
Physiology, its functions; from Mental Philosophy,
the anatomy and physiology of the mind, building up
the golden framework of Metaphysics ; while, from
the relationship of this mind and body with
he would
.find revealed
science of sight—through Acous-
ticstthhre through
hxteorpntailcs world,
rld ,
the science of sound—through Mathematics and
Geometry the appreciation
and amplitude—through
r and Logic the faculty
Aof
numbers—through Grammar
space all
table nitostiofnormof
of thought—through Rhetoric and Languages the
h the Fine Arts the sense
capacity of speech—through
nuity of construction. Finally, from t e repli
of the beautiful—through the Useful Arts
h theesinge_e_:
cited by the third and loftiest query,
theoo gdinsuaroyoessinivqeul.iyretrow'oluorldal
Poli-
Why am 1 Y
nduimctaeauthor) be
be
tics! Philosophy, and to Religion—to Moral Phdo•
sophy showing the relation of man to man as
(says Philosophy, eur at
indi-
viduals—to Political Philosophy as revealing the
duties and relationship of men as members of
the community—and ultimately to the noblest study
of all that can be conceived by the human intellect,
to Religion, disclosing the relation actually existing
between man and his Omnipotent Creator." In this
really masterly arrangement of human knowledge, we
recognise a scope and capacity in our author's intel-
lect very greatly elevated above the generality. Re-
Member, moreover, that, in referring to this portion
of the treatise we are alluding to one of the most
incidental in character. Possibly for that very rea-
son, however, it may be the most judiciously ac-
cepted as an illustration of the remarkable ability
shown by Mr. Cox
yin the volume of his now work
on -e
a nee Advocate.

BORN'S CLASSICAL LIBRARY.
August.
Four of the Itoman satirists are here collected to-
gether. The metrical version of Juvenal and Per-
sins, by William Gifford, is preceded in this volume
of Bohn's Classical Library, for August, by literal
prose translations by the Rev. Lewis Evans, of not
only Juvenal and Persius, but of Sulpicia and Luci-
liine4t iuoreto,
atnhye bargain. That the two former illustrious
wofri:resdisjould be printed and reprinted is comprehen-
sible—but why Sulpicii, who wrote only half-a-dozen
verses on the expulsion of the philosophers from Rome
!?' Domitisn,' should be preserved, we cannot con-
;torethan we ~ ~ .
c^n undentand the value
()lilted fragments of Lucilius—broken lines
scattered sentence-s—tho very lumber of literature.

etcher, one of the G
-----P------".----------- p
We regret to hear of the death of Mr.
Jose h
Fl
ov., n
1 Frletcher wa-i a most valuable ment Inspectors of British public
servant, as his educational reports amply testify.
SUICIDE AT
SEA.--A'lr. Adamsou, the chief stovera
of the Brazilian packet Severn, committed suicide byjurnPing
and
Foreign Schools.
yr,
overboard a few days before the packet caught fire. Intem-
perance is believed to have been the cause of the rash act.

THE SUN,