THE CHICAGO LAW TIMES.

VOL. III.]

APRIL, 1889.

[No. 2.

WILLIAM BLACKSTONE.

*

WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, whose name has become, perhaps, more familiar than any other in the mouths of English [and American] lawyers, was the fourth son of Mr. Charles Blackstone, a silkman and citizen of London, by Mary the eldest daughter of Lovelace Bigg, Esquire, of Chilton Foliot, in the county of Wilts. He was born on the 10th of July, 1723, after the death of his father, and he had also the misfortune to lose his mother before he was twelve years of age. His uncle, Mr. Thomas Bigg, an eminent surgeon of London, took charge of his education, and at the age of seven years he was admitted on the foundation of the Charter House. When he attained the age of fifteen he had risen to the head of the school, and was at that early period of life admitted a commoner of Pembroke College, Oxford. His progress both at the Charter House and at Oxford was distinguished, and he was elected to an exhibition both at the school and at the college. Having selected the law as his profession, he became a member of the Middle Temple on the 20th of November, 1741.

Hitherto he had applied himself exclusively to literary and scientific pursuits; but in entering upon the severer studies of his profession, he conceived it necessary to abandon the more pleasing avocations to which he had devoted himself. The feelings which this change induced he has expressed in some lines, remarkable for elegance both in style and sentiment:

* Abridged from "Roscoe's British Lawyers."

THE LAWYER'S FAREWELL TO HIS MUSE.

"As, by some tyrant's stern command,

A wretch forsakes his native land,
In foreign climes condemn'd to roam,
An endless exile from his home;
Pensive he treads the destined way,
And dreads to go, nor dares to stay;
Till on some neighboring mountain's brow
He stops, and turns his eye below;
There, melting at the well-known view,
Drops a last tear, and bids adieu:
So I, thus doom'd from thee to part,
Gay queen of fancy and of art,
Reluctant move with doubtful mind,
Oft stop, and often look behind.

"Companion of my tender age,
Serenely gay, and sweetly sage,
How blithesome were we wont to rove
By verdant hill, or shady grovė,

Where fervent bees with humming voice
Around the honey'd oak rejoice,
And aged elms, with awful bend,

In long cathedral walks extend.

Lull'd by the lapse of gliding floods,

Cheer'd by the warbling of the woods,

How blest my days, my thoughts how free,

In sweet society with thee!

Then all was joyous, all was young,

And years unheeded roll'd along:

But now the pleasing dream is o'er,—

These scenes must charm me now no more:
Lost to the field, and torn from you,
Farewell!-a long, a last adieu!

"The wrangling courts, and stubborn law,
To smoke, and crowds, and cities draw;
There selfish Faction rules the day,
And Pride and Avarice throng the way;
Diseases taint the murky air,
And midnight conflagrations glare;
Loose Revelry and Riot bold,

In frighted streets their orgies hold; /
Or when in silence all is drown'd,

Fell Murder walks her lonely round;
No room for peace, no room for you-
Adieu, celestial Nymph, adieu!

"Shakespeare no more, thy sylvan son, Nor all the art of Addison,

Pope's heaven-strung lyre, nor Waller's ease
Nor Milton's mighty self must please:
Instead of these, a formal band

In furs and coifs around me stand,
With sounds uncouth, and accents dry,
That grate the soul of harmony.
Each pedant sage unlocks his store
Of mystic, dark, discordant lore;
And points with tottering hand the ways
That lead me to the thorny maze.

"There, in a winding, close retreat,
Is Justice doom'd to fix her seat;
There, fenced by bulwarks of the law,
She keeps the wondering world in awe;
And there, from vulgar sight retired,
Like eastern queens, is much admired.

"Oh! let me pierce the secret shade,
Where dwells the venerable maid!
There humbly mark, with reverent awe,
The guardian of Britannia's law;
Unfold with joy her sacred page
(The united boast of many an age,
Where mix'd though uniform appears
The wisdom of a thousand years),
In that pure spring the bottom view,
Clear, deep, and regularly true,
And other doctrines thence imbibe,
Than lurk within the sordid scribe;
Observe how parts with parts unite
In one harmonious rule of right;
See countless wheels distinctly tend,
By various laws, to one great end;
While mighty Alfred's piercing soul
Pervades and regulates the whole.

"Then welcome business, welcome strife, Welcome the cares, the thorns of life, The visage wan, the purblind sight,

The toil by day, the lamp by night,
The tedious forms, the solemn prate,
The pert dispute, the dull debate,
The drowsy bench, the babbling hall,
For thee, fair Justice, welcome all!

"Thus, though my noon of life be past,
Yet let my setting sun at last
Find out the still, the rural cell

Where sage Retirement loves to dwell!
There let me taste the home-felt bliss
Of innocence and inward peace;
Untainted by the guilty bribe,
Uncursed amid the harpy tribe;
No orphan's cry to wound my ear,
My honor and my conscience clear;
Thus may I calmly meet my end,

Thus to the grave in peace descend!"

The ease exhibited in these lines betrays a pen accustomed to versification; and a volume of juvenile pieces which Mr. Blackstone had collected, but which were never published, shows, that in his earlier years he devoted no inconsiderable portion of his leisure hours to poetical compositions. An early taste for literature has too often misled the student from the ruder and more rugged paths of his profession; but the taste and genius of Blackstone rendered his literary acquirements subservient to his professional success.

In November, 1743, Mr. Blackstone was elected into the society of All-Souls' College, and in the following year he was admitted actual fellow and spoke the anniversary speech in commemoration of the founder, Archbishop Chichele. From this period he divided his time between Oxford and the Temple, where he had taken chambers with the view of attending the courts. His academical and professional studies were there pursued concurrently. On the 12th of June, 1745, he commenced bachelor of civil law, and on the 28th of November, 1746, he was called to the bar.

For several years Mr. Blackstone made little progress in his profession. Without those powerful connections upon which early success must necessarily depend, and without the ad

vantages which volubility and confidence confer, he possessed no means of forcing himself into notice. He was therefore induced to spend a considerable portion of his time at Oxford, where, having been elected bursar, he employed himself in exploring and arranging the muniments of his college, and in reforming the method of keeping the accounts, a subject which he illustrated by a dissertation now preserved in the archives of the college. He also had the merit of hastening the completion of the Codrington library, which was arranged under his directions. For these services he was rewarded with the appointment of steward of the college manors. On the 26th of April, 1750, he commenced doctor of civil law.

A dispute which arose in All-Souls' College, with regard to the persons who were to be considered as next of kin to the founder, gave rise to Mr. Blackstone's first professional publication. This was the "Essay on collateral Consanquinity," which appeared in 1750, and which was afterward printed in the collection of his law tracts. It excited considerable attention, and when, several years afterward, the Archbishop of Canterbury as visitor, formed a new regulation, he appointed Mr. Justice Blackstone his common law assessor.

The very inconsiderable encouragement which Mr. Blackstone had received in the practice of his profession in London, led him in the year 1753, to the resolution of retiring to his fellowship, and of practising at Oxford as a provincial counsel. At the same time he formed the design of delivering a course of private lectures on the laws of England, which was very numerously and respectably attended. Of these lectures he published an analysis in 1756.

The zeal which he had always displayed in forwarding the interests of his college, and of the university in general, led to various honorable appointments. In the year 1757, he became one of the delegates of the Clarendon press, and applied himself successfully to the reformation of various abuses connected with that institution. He was also elected one of the visitors of Mr. Michel's foundation in Queen's College, where he was equally happy in his efforts to terminate the disputes which had previously existed with regard to this donation.