him that, to govern by those admirable laws, would make him a far greater prince than the most unlimited defpotism.

This he does not only prove by a detail of particular laws, but by an accurate comparifon between the ftate of England and France, one of which he makes a land of liberty, the other of fervitude. His thirty-fifth and thirty-fixth chapters upon this fubject are invaluable, and fhould be read by every Englishman, who

honours that name.

"Through these and the other chapters, we perceive an interefting truth, which is, that the capital parts of our conftitution, the trial by juries, the abhorrence of tortures, the fovereignty of parliament as well in the granting of money, as in the making and repealing of laws, I fay, that all these, and many other inestimable privileges, exifted then, as they do now; were not new projects of the day, but facred forms, to which had given a venerable sanction.

ages

As for the literature of this great man (which is more immediately to our purpose), he appears to have been a reader of Ariftotle, Diodorus Siculus, Cicero, Quinctilian, Seneca, Vegetius, Boethius, and many other ancients; to have been not uninformed in the authors and history of later ages; to have been deeply knowing not only in the laws of his own country (where he attained the highest dignity they could bestow) but in the Roman or civil law, which he holds to be far inferior; we must add to this a masterly insight into the state and policy of the neigh bouring nations.'

We thought this extract ought to be laid before our readers; for fir John Fortefcue is here evidently propofed, as an example to our age; which, however enlighted, is not diftinguished for the more manly and exalted virtues.

The excellent treatife de Laudibus Legum Angliæ, certainly proves the antiquity of our free government; it contains a complete refutation of the fuperficial conceits of fome modern writers, among whom it hath been fashionable to maintain, that this country had no fettled fyftem of liberty, till the Revolution; and that in the days of feudal tyranny, all Europe was equally in a ftate of vaffalage. Such opinions detract from the refpect which is due to the venerable fabrick of our conftitution: whilft, on the other hand, a just notion of the wisdom and spirit of our ancestors will encou rage us to adhere inflexibly to those principles, which the experience of ages hath fhewn to be the true fource of our na tional glory and happiness,

The architecture of this period produced, as Mr. Harris ob ferves, thofe admirable structures of Salisbury Cathedral, and King's College Chapel at Cambridge; works, which, if they ftood fingle, would redeem the times in which they were con fructed, from the imputation of barbarifin,

In the thirteenth chapter our author, to use his own expreffion, passes from the elegant works of art to the more elegant works of nature. This chapter begins with fhewing that men of genius have always admired the beauties of nature. Some fine paffages are cited from Horace, Virgil, and Milton, from whence it appears, that the great elements of this fpecies of beauty were understood by those excellent poets to confift in water, wood, and uneven ground, to which may be added, lawn. The observations which follow are fo interefting to moft of our readers, that we shall give them at length.

The painters feem to have felt the power of these elements, and to have transferred them into their landscapes with fuch amazing force, that they appear not fo much to have followed,' as to have emulated nature. Claude de Lorraine, the Pouffins, Salvator Rofa, and a few more, may be called fuperior artists in this exquifite taste.

Our gardens in the mean time were taftelefs and infipid. Thofe, who made them, thought the farther they wandered from nature, the nearer they approached to the fublime. Unfortu nately, where they travelled, no fublime was to be found; and the farther they went, the farther they left it behind.

But perfection, alas! was not the work of a day. Many prejudices were to be removed; many gradual afcents to be made; afcents from bad to good, and from good to better, be fore the delicious Amenities of a Claude or a Pouffin could be rivalled in a Stour-head, a Hagley, or a Stow; or the tremendous charms of a Salvator Rofa be equalled in the scenes of a Piercefield or a Mount Edgecumb.'

But the principal defign of this chapter is to prove, that a tafte for natural beauty was not wanting to the enlightened few of the middle age; which pofition is chiefly illuftrated by an extract from Leland, by the fituation of Vauclufe, the favourite retreat of Petrarch; and by feveral charming defcriptions from Sannazarius, of his villa of Margillina in the Bay of Naples.

After these reflections upon the taste and genius, the literature, the spirit of adventure, and the works of art, which appear from this enquiry to have belonged to the middle age, our author draws a melancholy picture of the ignorance and favageness of the laity; for he had before obferved, that almost all who were distinguished for their learning during this period, were ecclefiaftics. Some caufes are affigned for this general barbarifm; the most material one is the want of edu cation.

Nothing, Mr. Harris obferves, mends the mind more than culture, to which these emigrants had no defire, either from example or education, to lend a patient ear.'

The

The following remark occurs in this place.

Though the darkness in Western Europe, during the period here mentioned, was (in fcripture language, a darkness that might be felt, yet is it furprising that, during a period fo obfcure, many admirable inventions found their way into the world; I mean fuch as clocks, telescopes, paper, gunpowder, the mariner's needle, printing, and a number here omitted *.'

Upon this fubject a query is fubmitted to the reader.

If the human mind be as truly of divine origin, as every other part of the univerfe; and if every other part of the univerfe bear teftimony to its author: do not the inventions above mentioned give us reafon to affert, that God in the operations of man, never leaves himself without a witness ?

In the conclufion of this volume we have our author's opinion of his contemporaries; an opinion which does great honour to the liberality of his fentiments, and the benevolence of his heart. Serious men, particularly in the decline of life, are fond of declaiming against the degeneracy of the age in which they live. Mr. Harris, on the contrary, not only vindicates the prefent times, but expofes the injuftice and the unreafonablenefs of thefe melancholy declaimers, and the mifchievous tendency of their affertions. The following reflections, which arife upon this occafion, are of confiderable importance.

As man is by nature a focial animal, good humour feems an ingredient highly neceffary to this character. 'Tis the falt, which gives a feafoning to the feast of life; and which, if it he wanting, furely renders the feast incomplete. Many causes contribute to impair this amiable quality, and nothing perhaps more, than bad opinions of mankind. Bad opinions of mankind naturally lead us to mifanthropy. If thefe bad opinions go farther, and are applied to the univerfe, then they lead to fomething worse, for they lead to Atheism. The melancholy and morofe character being thus infenfibly formed, morals and piety fink of courfe; for what equals have we to love, or what fu. perior have we to revere, when we have no other objects left, than thofe of hatred, or of terror?

• It should seem then expedient, if we value our better princi ples, nay, if we value our own happiness, to withstand such dreary fentiments."

It is indeed a very falfe idea, that piety arifes from a gloomy temper. A chearful mind naturally produces good-will to> wards men, and gratitude to God. It inclines us to receive

See two ingenious writers on this fubject, Polydore Virgil, De Rerum Inventoribus; and Pancirollus, De Rebus perditis et inventus.'

plea

pleasure from all the objects which furround us, and to dwell upon what is most beautiful, and most excellent; from whence we are led to the contemplation of the Divine Being, who is the fource of all perfection.

Upon the whole, this work impreffes upon our minds a very pleasing idea of Mr. Harris's character; and raises a high veneration for it. He feems to have defigned this publication, not only as a retrospective view of thofe ftudies, which exercifed his mind in the full vigour of life; but likewife as a monument of his affection to his numerous friends, and a We canteftimony of his general candour and benevolence.

not take our leave of it without felecting the following paffage, as a fpecimen of many other encomiums upon diftinguished perfons of the prefent age, which are interfperfed in feveral parts of this work.

• Nor muft I forget Dr. Taylor, refidentiary of St. Paul's, nor Mr.Upton, prebendary of Rochefter. The former, by his edition of Demofthenes (as far as he lived to carry it), by his Lyfias, by his comment on the Marmor Sandvicenfe, and other critical pieces; the latter, by his correct and elegant edition, in Greek and Latin, of Arrian's Epictetus (the first of the kind that had any pretenfions to be called complete), have rendered themfelves, as fcholars, lafting ornaments of their country. Thefe two va luable men were the friends of my youth; the companions of my focial, as well as my literary, hours. I admired them for their erudition; I loved them for their virtue; they are now

more

His faltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani
Munere

Virg.'

no

To this work is fubjoined an Appendix of four different pieces :

The first, containing an account of the Arabic manufcripts, belonging to the Efcurial Library in pain.

The fecond, containing an account of the manufcripts of Livy, in the fame library.

The third, containing an account of the manufcripts of Cebes, in the Library of the king of France, at Paris,

The fourth, containing fome account of literature in Ruffia, and of its progrefs towards being civilized.'

The Hiftory of the Legal Polity of the Roman State. [Continued from vol. LI. p. 416.]

IN

N the fourth chapter of the fecond book, Dr. Bever proceeds to deliver an account of the various fources of interpretation by which the laws of the twelve tables, originally

ob

obfcure in their compofition, were elucidated and ascertained. Thofe fources were, the Fori Difputationes,'' Refponfa Prudentum,'-Legis Actiones,' Jus Civile Flavianum,'Jus Civile Ælianum.' Befide the college of the Pontifices,' many perfons of the first rank for their experience and political knowlege, formed themfelves into private focieties, to debate on fuch ambiguous queftions of law as were occafionally referred to their confideration, until they could agree to determine the fenfe in which those doubtful ftatutes ought in future to be understood. Though in this employment they acted under no public authority, yet the repu tation of their wifdom and integrity gave fuch weight to their decifions, that these were, from time to time, adopted by the courts of juftice, and received, by a kind of general acquiefcence, into the body of the unwritten, or common law, under the name of Fori Difputationes,' and sometimes of Jus Civile.'

In the earlier times of the Roman ftate, the great fages of the law contented themselves with delivering their opinions in private, to fuch only as had immediate occafion to confult them. But afterwards men of the greatest distinction taught the law publicly in their own houses, to all who were defirous of becoming their pupils; a proficiency in legal knowlege being then confidered as a principal ornament of a statesman, and the fureft road to the most honourable offices in the republic. From the interpretation given by thofe refpectable authorities, arofe that fpecies of law, particularly known by the title of Refponfa Prudentum.'

Our author obferves, that the custom of interpreting the laws in the manner above mentioned, had been of great fervice in clearing away many of their difficulties, and afcertaining their true fenfe. Something, however, was still wanted to fuit them to juridical practice. For this purpose those learned interpreters contrived certain writs or forms, by the help of which, a more regular method of proceeding was introduced into the courts of law. These writs obtained the name of Legis,' or Legitimæ Actiones.'

Notwithstanding the acknowleged ufefulness of thofe forms, they lay in a very confused ftate, for more than a century after their introduction, till Appius Claudius Cæcus reduced them into one collection. The Pontifices,' however, from a defire of preferving their own confequence, ftill kept this ufeful work clofely locked up with their own archives, fo that a fight of it could not be obtained without their express permiffion. This being a fubject of univerfal complaint, Cncius Flavius, who was the fecretary of Appius, and had free ac