2. The Conveyancer's Guide, or the Law Student's Recreation, a
poem, by JOHN CRISP, Esq. of Furnivals Inn. Third edition. Mr. Caisp has turned his love of rhyme to some account. Here is a com- plete and regular treatise on Conveyancing, in verse. None of the difficulties seem to be avoided, for even precedents are given in oc- tosyllables. The notes are learned in the extreme ; and the list of quotations from the authorities of all kinds are so numerous, that we are at a loss whether to admire most the author's legal learning or his poetical enthusiasm. In an age of curiosities, the Con- veyancer s Guide is a curiosity. To lawyers it must be amusing; but only to lawyers,—a deed of conveyance is always a dull busi- ness, and in verse the drollery must necessarily consist in the at- tempt. ANSTRY'S Special Pleader's Guide was a different affair. Artsrrr was a man of wit and a poet, who accidentally found him- self at a lawyer's desk ; whereas Mr. CRISP is deep in the myste- ries of his art, and chooses the form of verse in order to expound them to the ear of posterity. In an introduction, he has defended the practice by a long list of examples of laws and legal docu- ments in verse ; some of which are certainly amusing. The LEGAL GL E2 is not the least so- " A woman having a settlement
Married a man with none; The question was, he being dead, If that she had was gone.
Quoth Sir John Pratt, her settlement
Suspended did remain, Living. the husband—but him dead, It doth revive again.
Chorus of Puisne Judgts.
Living the husband—but him dead, It cloth revive again."
The opening of the poem reminds us strongly of HOMER'S cata- logues; or perhaps still more vividly, of JOEL BAR.LOW'S enume- ration of American heroes- " Oh ! Ockham, Britton, Glanville, Bracton, Brooke, St. Germyn, West, Hale, Littleton and Coke,
Lilly and Horsman, Duane, Booth and Fearne, Bridgman and Blackstone, Butler, Hargrave, Herne, Hill, Bell and Preston, Duval, Sugden, Cruise,
Names now immortalized, assist my muse !"
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