BURTON'S MANUAL OP TUE LAW OF SCOTLAND.

IVF; very much doubt whether the value of this book will be found commensurate with the care and labour bestowed upon it. The plan is ably executed, but liable to objection. The work, the author says, " is intended for the use of all persons, whether of

the legal profession or not, who may choose to consult it either as a vehicle of instruction or as a practical guide." his plan, he adds, rendered it necessary lbr him " to suppress general reflec- tions and speculations," and " precluded the use of what is gene- rally termed philosophical or scientific arrangement." The book, in short, is just an abstract, drawn up with very praiseworthy cor- rectness, of the rules and forms of Scottish law and judicial practice, as at present subsisting. Now, as " a practical guide," we fear that a work of this kind is useless—or worse than useless.

It is as bad for " every man " to be " his own lawyer," as to be "his own doctor ;" or even worse, for dabblino•° in law is a still more serious matter than dabbling in physic. The doctors know very well that their practice and emoluments have suffered no harm from those treatises on " domestic medicine," by the help of which notable mammas physic their offspring into more diseases than they cure ; and the members of the other learned profession very well know that "the man who is his own lawyer has a fool for his client."

Whether this state of things is equally natural and necessary in regard to law as to medicine, is a different affair. We think not. The complicated and mysterious structure of the human frame is liable to innumerable derangements, which, to be understood and discriminated, require not only extensive, minute, and long obser- vation on the part of individuals, but an exact record, classification, and generalization of those observations, so that a man may profit, not merely by his own experience, but by that of his precursors. Hence, medicine necessarily assumes the form of a science suffi- ciently complex to demand, for its successful study and practice, exclusive devotion to its pursuit : and hence, therefore, in every age and state of society except the very lowest, the calling of the physician has been found to exist ; though, like every other science which is made the basis of a profession, its mysteries have been deepened and its difficulties increased for the benefit of' those who live by it. That the case is in a considerable degree different with respect to law, may be inferred from the fact, that it has not assumed the form of a profession, giving subsistence to a class, so early and so generally as physic has done. In primitive states of society, justice between man and man, as well as the punishment of crime, was administered by the head of' the government, what- ever its form might be; the parties pleading their own cause. The first step beyond this was the appointment of' judges, acting in the name of the executive power ; the next step was the appearance of advocates, employed to plead for the contending patties. This seems to have been all the length which the profession of the law attained, even among the greatest, most wealthy, and most commer- cial nations of anti:pity. In those days, the litigant himself ap- peared in court, and pleaded either through his own mouth or that of his advocate. The virtual appearance by a procurator, or at- torney, is an imiworehrent of' times esm parat iv ely modern,—an im- provement one of the blessings of which has been the creation of a branch of the profession which gives employment to an immensely numerous, wealthy, and influential class, which, however valuable and useful may be it portion of its members, is yet, as a body, a source of the greatest of the existing social evils, as it lives and thrives upon the abuses of the law—upon its costliness, its tediousness, its uncertainty, its mystery, its injustice. -Ancient Home had become the mistress of half the world before even the character of an advocate, or a counsellor, was recognized as a pro- fession of emolument. It was not till the time of the Empire that a pleader or a legal adviser was allowed to receive money for his services ; and even then, it. was in the form of hinenstriime or fee, not sanctioned or recoverable by law, but slipped, as a sort of pre- sent, into the hand of the lawyer. There were no such function- aries as our attornies : every one cited before a court of law was bound, unless in circumstances which rendered it impossible, to appear in person, under pain of judgment to go by defiallt. The persons spoken of under the name of' prognnitiei were merely a sort of agents privately employed by the parties to procure evi- dence or assist in preparing the cause ; but they had no status— were not recognized as practia.ing in courts of justice, and were not looked upon as beloniing to the profession of the law. Even by the obi common law of ii,ngland, personal appearance in courts of law was required ; and const-,moive or virtual appearance, by

attorney, Was afterwards admitted by a special statute. The evil caused by the introduction of this system of vicarious appearance, has been enormous; it has removed the dread of personal expo-

sure and shame, which alone can prevent the rich and powerful from making the law an engine of injustice and oppression I and the magnitude of this evil is illustrated by the beneficial result of its remedy to a certain extent, in compelling personal appearance in certain proceedings of the Bankruptcy Courts. But we must quit a topic which, though important in itself, is merely a digression from our present subject, into which we have

been led in noticing the difference between the sciences of physic

and law as the basis of professions affording employment to great classes of men. That the complication and mystery in which the

practice of both these professions is involved, proceeds from the

abuse of the sciences on which they are founded, is unquestion- able • though the abuses of law have been carried to a greater height, and admit of a larger amount of reform. But be that as

it may, the practice of both the one and the other, in all their various branches, must equally be confined to professional persons, to whom such manuals as that before us can be no guide what-

ever ; while any book upon law, written for popular use, must derive its value from what Mr. BuaTox has expressly avoided-

" a philosophical or scientific arrangement," and " general reflec- tions and speculations." To an unprofessional reader, a treatise on law will never be of any use (but very much the reverse) in enabling him to scrutinize the title-deeds of an intended purchase, to determine whether or not to involve himself in a lawsuit, or to.

discover how it ought to be carried on. But such a treatise may be rendered interesting and useful, by showing how far the institu-

tions of any municipal code accord or are at variance with the law of nature and the eternal principles of justice ; by tracing the con- nexion between the legislation of a country and its political and social state; by referring the laws of any period to the prevailing wisdom or fully, enlightenment or ignorance, freedom or slavery, virtue or vice, of the age. For such an inquiry the law of Scotland affords an ample field. It is not merely in its practical details, but in its fundamental principles, that Scottish jurisprudence differs from ours; and an inquiry into these diversities would, we are convinced, elucidate many curious points in the political as well as social history of both nations. In respect to us, Scotland, as to its law, is a foreign country—much more so' indeed, than with respect to France ; for between the French and Scottish laws, judicatures, and forms of rracedure, there is that analogy which is derived from their com- mon origin, the Roman law, (deservedly called "the civil law" par excellence,) and the close intercourse which for many ages subsisted between the two countries. In the law of Scotland there is a broad foundation of principle, derived from the philosophical jurists of the Romans, which is still apparent, notwithstanding the super- incumbent masses, first of feudalism and then of modern legisla- tion, and renders it well worth the study and consideration of English lawgivers. In proof of this, we may allude to one or two of its features. The Scotch do not recognize the absurd distinc- tion between law and erity, which, among us, prevents the ordinary courts from administering the plainest substantial justice unless founded on express statute or precedent, and has confined this power to a court which, from the cost, the delay, and the un- certainty of its proceedings, is, though called a court of equity, probably the most iniquitous court in time world. In Scotland, the laws between debtor and creditor are based on more ratiOnal prin- ciples than ours. There, imprisonment is held as one of the means of enforcing payment, and never could be used when once, in this point of view, it was found to be useless ; for, since the days of the civil law, the Scotch debtor has had the relief of the cask bonorum, whereby, on delivery of his effects, he is (unless in case of fraud) entitled to be set at liberty. In Scotland, too, the creditor has the right to take his debtor's property of every kind, real as well as per- sonal, in payment of his debt. In England, imprisonment is re- garded as satisfaction for the debt, and on taking this satisfaction the creditor is entitled to no other : so that England presents the spectacle (unknown in Scotland) of men living luxuriously in prison, enjoying the revenues of property which is beyond the reach of the law ; while, on the other hand, the poor debtor, whose person was taken in saglfitetion to an obdurate creditor, might languish in pri- son for life, were it not for the relief given to such debtors only within these lbw years, similar to that which the Scotch have en- joyed for ages. In Scotland, the system of tithes was placed upon its just footing two centuries ago, by the reduction of that interest in land to a lima for the adequate (and not more than adequate) payment of the stipends of the parochial clergy ; so that the burden of tithes upon the land is in all cases trifling, and in many merely nominal. Lastly, the Scotch have a beautithl and complete system of registration, productive of innumerable advantages and facilities in the most important transactions of business.

These, and many other peculiarities in the Scottish jurispru- dence, are worthy of greater attention than they have vet met with on this side of the Tweed; and a work treating of the Law of Scot- land in the same manner as BLACKSTONE has treated the Law of England, would be a valuable contribution not only to the law, but to the literature of both countries.