The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 4, December, 1834Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 4, December, 1834
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
The justice of these remarks none can deny. It might be thought
unbecoming in me to say how much the writer from whom I quote them has
done to supply such a work as he describes. Yet I cannot suffer any
feeling of delicacy to restrain me from the duty of recommending that
work to your attentive perusal. I shall eagerly, too, avail myself of
his permission to make frequent use of it, as I know of no book which
so well supplies the necessary details to parts of the subject of which
Mr. Blackstone has given only loose and unprofitable sketches. It is to
be lamented that in doing this he has so strictly bound himself to the
arrangement of that writer. That arrangement, as I have remarked,
imposed on Mr. Blackstone the necessity of being occasionally loose and
superficial. For want of one more strictly logical, the Virginia
Commentator often finds it impossible to go into the necessary detail,
without anticipating matters which properly belong to subsequent parts
of his treatise; and too often, where this is impracticable, topics and
terms are introduced, the explanation of which is, perhaps, deferred to
the next volume.
An instance will illustrate my meaning:--Mr. Blackstone classes
remedies for private wrongs, thus: "first, that which is obtained by
the _mere act_ of the parties themselves; secondly, that which is
effected by the _mere act_ and operation of _law_; and thirdly, that
which arises from _suit_ or _action_ in courts." Now, it probably
occurred to him, that he could not go into details on the two first of
these three heads, without presenting ideas which would be
unintelligible to any who had not already studied the third. In
striving to avoid this, he has touched so lightly upon the other two,
that his remarks on the important subjects of distress and accords,
which come under the first head, leave the student nearly as ignorant
as they found him. For this there was no real necessity, as a knowledge
of the two first heads is by no means necessary, or indeed at all
conducive to the right understanding of the third. Had the pride of
philosophical analysis, and symmetry of arrangement, been sacrificed to
the laws of logic and reason, there was nothing to forbid the
introduction of treatises on these important topics, as copious and
elaborate as those supplied by the diligence and research of the
Virginia Commentator. The manner in which this has been done, has made
it manifest how unfavorable the arrangement of Mr. Blackstone sometimes
is to amplification and minuteness. The essays of the President of the
Court of Appeals on distresses and accords, leave nothing to be
desired. Yet no one can read them profitably without having first
studied the law of remedies by suit or action.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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