WILLIAMS'S (J. W.) Digest of WITHERS's Alfred,

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For JANUARY, 1789.

ART. I. Ledures on History and General Policy; to which is prefixed, An Effay on a Courfe of Liberal Education for Civil and Active Life. By Jofeph Priestley, LL.D. F. R. S. &c. &c. 4to. 11. 1s. Boards. Johnfon. 1788.

T is a maxim of ancient wisdom, not the lefs valuable, whether we derive its authority from Ariftippus or from common fenfe, that young perfons ought to be inftructed in fuch things as will be useful to them when they become men. Had this obvious rule been followed by our ancestors, they would have tranfmitted to us more perfect plans of education; or were it attended to, at prefent, as it deferves, our modern inftitutions for this purpose would foon undergo material alterations. Futile fpeculations would be wholly difmiffed from the schools; real fcience would cease to be profecuted beyond the line of utility; and several branches of knowlege, which modern ingenuity and induftry have difcovered or improved, would be admitted into our circle of inftruction.

In a plan of useful education, it cannot be doubted that the ftudy of hiftory will be allowed a principal place. It seems defirable that this ftudy fhould be pursued in different methods, at different periods of inftruction. At a very early age, when the memory alone can be advantageoufly employed, a brief epitome of hiftory may be learned; and by means of a general chart, and other artificial helps, a ftrong impreffion of the great outline of facts may be fixed on the mind, which will be easily retained, and may be applied to many ufeful purposes. At a later period, the ftudent fhould be taught fomething more than mere hames, dates, and facts; he fhould be affifted to exercife his judgment on the great tranfactions which are exhibited before him in the field of hiftory. But, as it is impoffible that fo large a field can be fuccessfully explored during the fhort term of education, the preceptor can do little more than intereft his pupil in this branch of ftudy, by reprefenting to him the important pfes to which it is capable of being applied, and afford him a clue for his future refearches, by pointing out to him the fources

VOL. LXXX.

B

of

of hiftory, the most eafy and advantageous method of studying it, and the feveral objects which principally demand his atten

tion.

It is for this latter and more important period of historical inftruction that thefe Lectures are defigned: and the ingenious and indefatigable author has fully, and, as will appear in the fequel, very judiciously provided the ftudent with fuch preparatory information, as may ferve to render the ftudy of history pleasant, interefting, and ufeful.

Dr. Priestley opens his course of hiftorical inftruction with a brief illuftration of the tendency of hiftory to amufe the imagination and interest the paffions, to improve the understanding, and to ftrengthen our fentiments of virtue. He then diftinctly examines the nature and value of the feveral fources of hiftory, both direct and indirect. Out of a great variety of juft and ufeful remarks which occur in this part of the work, we shall felect the following concerning law:

As every new law is made to remove fome inconvenience the ftate was fubject to before the making of it, and for which no other method of redress was effectual, the law itself is a standing, and the moft authentic, evidence we can require of the ftate of things previous to it. Indeed, from the time that laws began to be written in fome regular form, the preamble to each of them is often an historical account of the evil intended to be remedied by it, as is the cafe with many of our ftatutes. But a fagacious hiftorian has little oce fion for any preamble to laws. They fpeak fufficiently plain of themselves.

осса

• When we read that a law was made by Clothaire King of France, that no perfon should be condemned without being heard, do we need being told that before the time of the enacting that law the adminiftration of juftice was very irregular in that country, and that a man could have little fecurity for his liberty, property, or life? Is it not a proof that the spirit of hofpitality began to decline among the Burgundians as they grew more civilized, when there was occafion for a law to punish any Burgundian who fhould fhew a ftranger to the houfe of a Roman, instead of entertaining him himself?

It is but an unfavourable idea that we form of the state of paternal and filial affection among the Romans, from the tenor of their laws, which fhew an extreme anxiety to restrain parents from doing injustice to their own children. Children (fay their laws) are not to be difinherited without juft caufe, chiefly that of ingratitude; the caufe must be fet forth in the teftament; it must be tried by the judge, and verified by witneffes, if denied. Whereas among other nations natural affection, without the aid of law, is a fufficient motive with parents to do no injuftice to their children. A knowledge of another part of the political conftitution of the Romans will probably help us to a reafon for the uncommon defect of natural affection among them. The Patria Poteftas was in reality the power of a mafter over a flave, the very knowledge, and idea, of which, though it were not often exercifed, was enough to produce severity

in parents, and fear and diffidence in children, which must destroy mutual confidence and affection.

Customs, and general maxims of conduct, being of the nature of unwritten laws, give us the fame infight into the ftate of things in a country. The high esteem in which hofpitality is held by the Arabs, and the religious, and even fuperftitious practice of it by them, and by other favage nations, fhews the great want there is of that virtue in thofe countries, and that travelling is particularly dangerous in them.

The laws and cuftoms of a country fhew clearly what was the manner of living and the occupation of the original inhabitants of it. Thus where we find that the eldest fons fucceed to the whole, or the greatest part of the estate, we may be fure that we fee traces of feudal nations, of a military life, and a monarchical government; in which a prince is better ferved by one powerful vaffal than by feveral weak ones. Where the children fucceed equally, it is a mark of a ftate having been addicted to husbandry, and inclined to a popular equal government. And where the youngest fucceeds, we may take it for granted that the people formerly lived a paftoral and roving life, in which it is natural for the oldeft to be provided for, and difpofed of, the firft, and the youngest to take what is left; a manner of life which requires, and admits of, little or no regular govern

ment.

The change of manners, and way of living, may be traced in the changes of the laws. Thus the change from a military to a commercial ftate may be traced in England by the progrefs of our laws, particularly thofe relating to the alienation of landed property; a thing abfolutely inconfiftent with ftrict feudal notions, and for a long time impracticable in this country; but which took place by degrees, as the interefts of commerce were perceived to require, that every thing valuable fhould circulate as freely as poffible in a ftate. It muft, however, be confidered, that the change of laws does not keep an equal pace with the change of manners, but follows fometimes far behind. In almost every cafe, the reafon and neceffity of the thing first introduces a change in the practice, before the authority of law confirms and authorifes it. This too is easy to be traced in a great many of our English laws, and particularly those which relate to the eafy transferring of property, for the purpose of trade and

commerce.

Without entering into particular laws, we may observe of the ftate of laws in general, as was obferved with regard to language, that copioufnefs and refinement in them, and even intricacy and tediousness in the administration of them, is an indication of freedom, and of improvements in civilized life; and that few laws, and an expeditious adminiftration, are marks either of the connexions of perfons being very few, and little involved (which is a neceffary confequence of improvements), that the rights of perfons have not been attended to, and that the nation is but little advanced in the knowledge or poffeffion of thofe things on which their happiness and fecurity chiefly depend; or that too arbitrary a power is lodged in fome hands or other; it being well obferved by Montefquieu, that the tedioufnefs and expence of law-fuits is the price of liberty."