IJACKINTOSH'S INTRODUCTORY LECTURE ON THE LAW OF NATURE AND NATIONS.
THE originator of the Student's Library of Useful Tracts has projected another series, which, under the title of the Cabinet Li- brary of Scarce and Celebrated nacts, shall present the public with a selection of pamphlets, that are either embodied in ex- pensive volumes, or, from the circumstance of their authors having written little or anonymously, are difficult to be procured at any price. The first number of this useful design comtnences with MACKINTOSH'S celebrated introductory lecture ; an apt and proper selection, for the lately published biography of the author has revived the interest attached to his name, and the Discourse is well worthy of perusal for its own sake. It is true, the reader who may have formed an opinion of its merits from general re- port, or the panegyrics of PITT and men of similar standing, will be somewhat disappointed ; for its style is diffuse, its matter fre- quently consisting of elegant commonplaces, and its views not distinguished for much independence or originality,—the author having taken the principles of the science as he found them, awl confined his ambition to methodizing and popularizing the universally admitted laws which should determine the conduct of private individuals, and rising thence to those which should regulate the intercourse of states. Yet, with all these drawbacks, the work is unique of its kind ; presenting in a little compass a sketch of the origin of the science, and a complete coup deed of its subjects, expressed in a scholastic and artificial eloquence. The following character of GROTIUS may be taken as an ex- ample of judicious panegyrie, where the courtier predominates over the critic without subduing him.
The reduction of the law of nations to a system was reserved for Grotius. It was by the advice of Lord Bacon and Peiresc that he undertook this arduous task. He produced a work which we now, indeed, justly deem imperfect ; but which is, perhaps, the most complete that the woi Id has yet owed, at so early a stage in the piogress of any science, to the genius and learning of one loan. So great is the uncertainty of posthumous reputation, and so liable is the fame even of the greatest men to be obscured by those new fashions of thinking and writing which succeed each other so rapidly among polished nations, that Grotins, who filled so large a space in the eye of his contemporaries, is now pedlar. known to some of my readers only by name. Yet if we fairly estimate Loth his endowments and his virtues, we may justly consider him as one of the most memorable men who have done honour to modern times. Ile com- bined the discharge of the most important duties of active and public life with the attainment of that exact and various learning which is generally the por- tion only of the recluse student. He was distinguished as an advocate and a magistrate, and be composed the most valuable works on the law of his own country; he was almost equally celebrated as a historian, a scholar, a poet, and divine; a disinterested statesman, a philosophical lawyer, a patriot iv ho united moderation with firmness, and a theologian who was taught candour by his learning. Unmerited exile did not damp his patriotism ; the bitterness of con- troversy did not extinguish his charity. The sagacity of his numerous and fierce adversaries could not discover a blot on his character ; and in the midst of all the hard trials and galling provocations of a turbulent political life, he never once deserted his friends when they were unfortunate, nor insulted his enemies when they were weak. In times of the most furious civil and religious faction he preserved his name unspotted, and he knew how to reconcile fidelity to his own party with moderation towards his opponents. Such was the man who was destined to give a new form to the law of nations, or rather to create a science of which only rude sketches and indigested materials were scattered over the writings of those who had gone before- him. By tracing the laws of his country to their principles, he was led to the contemplation of the law of nature, winch he justly considered as the parent of all municipal law. This next passage is just and elegant ; though the reference to HoRacE and Licisnus CALVUS was scarcely needed for the sake of proof, and it weakens the force and stops the continuity of his composition. But allowance must be made for MactuN- Tosn s audience.
Almost all the relative duties of human life will be found, more immediately or more remotely, to arise out of the two great institutions of property and marriage. They constitute, preserve, and improve society. Upon their gra- dual improvement depends the progressive civilization of mankind; on them rests the whole older of civil life. We are told by Horace, that the first efforts of lawgivers to civilize men consisted in strengthening and regulating these in- stitutions, and fencing them round with, rigorous penal laws.
" Oppida ecepertatt mutdre et ponere leges Ise quis fur esset, neu ktro, nen quis adulter."-1 Seem, iii. 105. A celebrated ancient orator, of whose poems we have but a few fragments remaining, has well described the progressive order in which human society is gradually led to its highest improvements under the guardianship of those laws which secure property and regulate marriage.
" Et leges sanctas docuit, et chart jugavit
Corpora conjugiis ; et maguas coudidit urbes."—Frag. C. Leis. Cst.vr. These two great institutions convert the selfish as well as the social passions of our nature into the firmest hands of a peaceable and orderly intercourse; they change the sources of discord into principles of quiet; they discipline the most ungovernable, they refine the grossest, and they exalt the most sordid propen- sities ; so that they become the perpetual fountain of all that streugtheus and preserves and adorns society, they sustain the individual and they perpetuate the race. Around these institutions all our social duties will be found at various distances to range themselves; sonic more near, obviously essential to the good 01 der of human life ; others more remote, and of which the necessity is not at first view so apparent; and some so distant, that their importance has been sometimes doubted, though upon more mature consideration they will be fouud to be outposts and advanced guards of these fundamental principles—that man should securely enjoy the fruits of his labour, and that the society of the sexes should be so wisely ordered as to make it a school of the kind affections and 3 tit nursery for the commonwealth.
The Lectures themselves have perislied,—and, looking at the little time MACKINTOSH could then have given to the study of his subject, perhaps without much loss to the world : yct it is to be regretted that he was not fixed as perpetual lecturer on the Law of Nature and Nations, in Lincoln's Inn Hall. His Insti- tutes would not have had the pith and brevity of the Roman elements, but they would have been the most graceful of law books.
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