National Republican., 1873-10-02
"oRIe,s on Taa COMMON LAW,
Lecture by Jsdse Charles p. James.


The hall Of the law school OF tho University
Of Georgetown, In tho old Gcouptown col
lcge building, Y street, was well filled last
gathered 10 hear tho opening lecture Of the
Origin Of tho Common Law" II was very
able and Instructive essay, giving clear and
Interesting view Of the rise and progress of
the laws and customs Of tho English realm
and the Roman empire.
Judge James, IN the course OF his learned
lecture, said.
That the older English LAWYERS should have
cherished the belief that the common law was
almost wholly anEngllsh aboriginal, and should
have declined to appreciate the evidences Of
their Indebtedness to foreign teacher, was
natural enough, and was partly excusable.
They were of sturdy, proud, efficient and
sclf.sufiicient race; they were 10 political an,
| tsgonism to the continent where the civil
law fourlshed; they saw in the tribunals of
France and Germany and Spain and Italy,
which seemed to them inquisitorial rs much
as judicial, the work OF Imperial Roman law,
and their tempers refused to applaud or wei
| come the scientific elements OF the system
which those courts so largely represented,
because II also contained dcspotic elements
which they dislikcd; but, more than all, their
learning touching the actual origin OF their
| own laws was not comparable TO the liberal
and exact culture Of the later writers who
have explored the same field OF inquiry with
moro persuadable depositions. But now, as
l have said, new race Of lawyers Is growing
| up In England, which acknowledges the gifts
Of the past, and Is willing to deserve new
ones.
Surely tho American lawyer has no tempta-
ton to DO less frank In admitting the truth,
or less cordial to foreign teacher. He is
not bound by pride or affection TO the task OF
/ yindicatinu Rnxon nriUiuality. Ills ancestry
| Ia Of all peoples, and IL should be rs gratify-
ing to trace the title Of his estate OF jurispru-
dcnce to Roman as to Saxon Propesnustt
to discover the Instruments OF his Intellectual
history by the banks Of the Tiber us by those
| OF the Thames.
but all these affections and disaifections
aside, neither the English nor American
lawyer need find Ii hard to confess that the
first rude forms and many oil tho later per-
fections Of his system were fashioned by the
hands that built the code, the digest and the
institutes.
The Roman law was the work Of race Of
men who, at a time when oil the German
tribes. including our Anglo Saxon, werc
restless barbarians, had known how to con-
quer and govern prodigious empire, TO
build cities, TO found systematic colonies, to
regulate the municipal affairs and the busi-
ness transactions Of countless and dissimilar
provinces, to maintain by sea and land q dis
tant commerce, to establish upon the securest
basis the ownership and transmission of prop
| erty and the sacredness of contract, and,
finally, to produce literature Of history, of
poetry, Of eloquencc, and OF the drama, to
know which has been deemed liberal culture
| In all succeeding ages. IL was people of
such capacities as these which devoted all
the strength and passion Of Its intellect to
juridlcal science; all Its passion, because II
saw all questions In the light Of law; all its
strength, because the very constitution OF
Roman society made mastery OF law indis-
pensible 10 every man who would achieve
emincncc In the State, and emlnencc In the
State was, to every well-born Roman, the
goal Of life.
The Roman patrician was the head Of
people whose rights he was bound TO know.
Great Offices at home and In tho provinces
abroad were bestowed on the possessors Of
this accomplishment. ITO the close Of the
| republic the law was the sole Geld for all
ability, except the special talent Of capacity
/ for generalship," and when Rome had passed
through her brief period Of literature, strictly
so called new circumstances under the en-
pire determined the choice Of every man Of
Inherent ca ,city In the same direction. To
use the language OF Mr. Mani, "he might
become teacher of rhetoric, commander
Of frontier posts, or professional writer Of
pancgyrics. The only other walk OF active
life which was open TO him was the practice
Of the law. Through that lay the approach
to wealth, to fame, to Office, to the council
| chamber Of the monarch-it may be to the
very throne itself. The premium on the
| study Of Jurisprudence was so enormous that
there were schools OF law In every part of the
empire"
shall we hesitate to own such masters as
these May not the scholar, who, from his
youth, has deemed Cicero the model for his
eloquence, will be eager to know what law
| that was which Cicero vlndicatcd N his great
| arguments May he not well deem worthy
| Of his respect body Of treatises and statutes
which had the marvellous power to re-estab-
llsh In Europe second Roman Empire
Shall 1t still be deemed respectable to pretend
that, whatever may have been their intrinsic
worth, the rich stores Of this long-accumu-
lated learning were thrust aside by the un-
l skilled Saxon and only less unskilled Norman,
though pressed upon his hands by his only
teacher; and that the actual slmilitudes Of
our law are the work Of u half barbarian's
original inventionf
Inc culture Of to-day puts these old pre-
judices to shame. At the universities, In the
sch ools of the very inns Of court, where they
i were once cherished so undoubtingly, your
contemporaries are learning that law In not q
body Of insuler rules and facts, but world
wide philosophy, to which all thoughtful and
| Instructed nations may contribute; that II q
decent knowledge Of 1t is 'ldbor uigini an
noruDi, Its development has been the labor OF
twenty ages. Let IL not be our peculiar
shame to be altogether left behind In this
new progress. Our own curriculum en-
braces at present only the law Of our own
/ system, but let us address ourselves to that
with at least liberal appreciation Of its true
| sources, and Of It's later history, and with the
feeling that the study Of a science which has
tried all the capacity of so long succession
of great and laborious jurisconsults must
| be worthy of our attentive reverence and en-
thusiastic regard.
TO boast OF the dignity Of our mere yoca-
ton Is affected and tasteless enough, but we
may well congratulate ourselves, without any
such Impeachment, that q science of rights
and obligations, which successfully ruled the
impetuous and warllke people of q splendid
empire two thousand years ago; which taught
barbarians to substitute discussion for the
| sword which, by furnishing permanent rules
| Of conduct, enables the world to grow rich In
possessions and learned and redued; which
helps the citizens of different lands TO hold
commerce with each other In confidence and
safety, and which, only the other day, at
Geneva, adjusted the hot disputes Of two
embittered nations by the forms of solemn
and peaceful adjudication-is indeed glorious.
With such "reminiscences of Its past-with
faith In Its present and hope for Its future,
take hold of this winters work. Be assured
that to q man of honest and manly inten-
tions II Is not hard and painful work, and re-
member, above oil, that, as trihing Is the
shame, fidelity and enthusiasm are the glory
and the crown Of u young mans life.
BOAT RACES TODAY,