6 OCTOBER 1877, Page 23

Analysis of Austin's Jurisprudence. By Gordon Campbell. (Murray.) —.jurisprudence, 02'

tho science of law, is is subject which, for some reason or other, ban not boon systematically treated by many English lawyers. Bentham and the late Mr. Austin are, of course, conspicuous exceptione. The subject is one which requires immense learning and extreme intellectual acuteness. That this is so, any one will readily perceive who takes the trouble to turn over a few pages of the manual before US. Mr. Campbell's task was by no means easy ; indeed, to compress and abridge judiciously and intelligibly is a toot of consider- able mental power. Mr. Austin's lectures cover a wide area, and many pacts of them hardly admit of condensation. We all know how next to impossible it is to present anything like an abstruse piece of reasoning in a compressed form, without sacrificing point and clearness, This little book seems to us to 8111=111.1s° very effectively for the purposes of a student Mr. Austin's groat work, and this it does in a compass of one hundred and seventy-five pages. We do not for a moment moan to say that it could over take the place of the work itself, but we think it may be regarded as a very complete table of contents, and as such, it is certainly not to be despised. It is furnished, as such a book especially ought to be, with a very full and minute index.