"I also told him, that I had the charity to believe that the bulk of the jury thought I had some foreknowledge of the murder. Yet I still think, and not without some reason, that they gave themselves too little time to consider the proofs of either side, but gave in their verdict upon the prepossessed notion of guilt. What must convince all well thinking people of their being so prepossessed, is their stopping one of my lawyers twice in his speech to them after the witnesses were examined. Mr. Campbell, of South Hall, if I noticed right, was the first that interrupted my lawyer. There was some other who also spoke, and who I did not know. I am told this is not often practised in Christian countries, but there are many ways taken upon some emergencies for answering a turn, and it appears I must have been made a sacrifice, whoever was guilty. "My dearest friends and relations, I earnestly recommend, and entreat you, for God's sake, that you bear no grudge, hatred, or malice to those people, both evidence and jury, who have been the means of this my fatal end. Rather pity them, and pray for them, as they have my blood to answer for. And though you hear my prosecutors load my character with the greatest calumny, bear it patiently, and satisfy yourselves with your own conviction of my innocence. And may this my hard fate put an end to all discords among you, and may you all be united by brotherly love and charity. "And may the great God protect you all, and guide you in the ways of peace and concord, and grant us a joyful meeting at the great day of judgment. "I remember, Mr. Alexander Campbell, minister at Inverary, for whom I have a great value for his kind and good advices, told me, that the fear of discovering any of my friends might be a temptation to me from making any confession of my knowledge of that murder. Therefore, to do my friends justice, so far as I know, I do declare that none of my friends, to my knowledge, ever did plot or concert that murder; and I am persuaded they never employed any person to accomplish that cowardly action; and I firmly believe there is none of my friends who might have a quarrel with that gentleman, but had the honour and resolution to offer him a fairer chance for his life than to shoot him privately from a bush. "Mr. Brown, of Colston, Mr. Miller, Mr. Stewart, younger, of Stewarthall, and Mr. Macintosh, were my counsel; and Mr. Stewart, of Edinglassie, my agent. I do declare, that I am fully satisfied they did me justice, and that no part of my misfortune was owing to their neglect, or want of abilities; and as they are men of known honour, I hope they will do justice to my behaviour during the trial. I give it as my real opinion, that if Allan Breck Stewart was the murderer of Glenure, that he consulted none of his friends about it. I conclude with my solemn declaration, that I tamely submit to this my lot, and severe sentence, and that I freely resign my life to the will of God, that gave me my first breath; and do firmly believe, that the Almighty God, who can do nothing without a good design, brought this cast of Providence in my way for my spiritual good. "I die an unworthy member of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, as established before the revolution, in full charity with all mortals, sincerely praying God may bless all my friends and relations, benefactors, and well-wishers; particularly my poor wife and children, who in a special manner I recommend to his divine care and protection; and may the same God pardon and forgive all that ever did, or wished me evil, as I do from my heart forgive them. I die in full hopes of merey, not through any merit in myself, as I freely own I merit no good at the hand of my offended God; but my hope is through the blood, merits, and mediation of the ever blessed Jesus, my Redeemer and glorious Advocate, to whom I recommend my spirit. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." We have thought it right to give, at some length, a defence, which appears to us a model of its kind, and to show in every word, the gallant gentleman and sincere Christian; nor do we know a more affecting speech on record. It need not be added that the prisoner was executed in pursuance of the verdict of the jury, he having, it is said, down to the fatal day, "behaved in every respect so like a good Christian that his greatest enemies were forced to commend him." We have laid this trial before our readers from its general interest, and because we were desirous of correcting some erroneous statements respecting it in some recent works, but chiefly because we think a rule may be drawn from it not uninteresting to the cause of Law Amendment, or unimportant to the political condition of this country, although not bearing directly, at the present time, upon Scotland. The majesty of the law must be successfully vindicated, and to carry out the best devised and most hopeful measures for the amelioration of Ireland, the rights of life and property must be protected. The operations of the Incumbered Estates Commission are vain, unless the purchasers under it can buy safely, and enjoy their purchases securely. Perhaps this trial may show the proper remedy for much evil now occurring in Ireland, to be in the hands of the Legislature. Let all offences connected with the occupation of land be tried before an English jury; no one can suppose that in such a matter an undue bias would exist against any one accused; but the conspirator and the assassin might thus be taught a lesson, which he has yet to learn, that punishment is, even in this world, the certain consequence of a well proved crime. ART. VII.—THE HISTORY OF JURISPRUDENCE. No. III.1 § 1.2 UPON the revival of learning in Europe, the term Jurisprudence was not used to designate that department of mental science which treats of the rules of universal justice. In its primary sense, the word Jurisprudence was used to denote the knowledge of the Roman Law. The science of Law in Europe dates from the twelfth century. It was then associated with theology and scholasticism. Irnerius was the contemporary of Abelard. During four centuries from the year 1100 the Civil Law was zealously cultivated in Italy; and simultaneously the Feudal and Canon Laws acquired a systematic form. The Feudal System obtained complete dominion over the tenures of land; the Canon Law regulated the ecclesiastical relations of the States of Europe,—and having been originally but the rule of the Christian Church, it acquired the stability and authority of Positive Law, under Gregory VII., in the thirteenth century. 1 See Nos. I. and II., vol. xvi. pp. 59. and 298. The first professors of the Civil Law appeared in the Italian cities. Irnerius, by universal testimony, was the founder of all learned investigation into the Laws of Justinian. He gave lectures on them at Bologna soon after the commencement of the twelfth century. The freedom of the Italian Republics rendered the Profession of the Law honourable; and the Doctors of the Law were frequently called to the office of Podesta, or Criminal Judge. Irnerius commenced the custom of making glossaries, which long continued to be the only attempts at legal literature. A gloss properly meant a word from a foreign language, or any difficult word which required interpretation. It was afterwards used for the interpretation itself. The first glosses were interlinear; they were afterwards placed in the margin, and were finally extended to a sort of running commentary on the entire book. An example of this latter kind of glossary is the commentary of Coke upon Littleton's Tenures. Thus Italy, the cradle of the Roman Law, was also the theatre of its renovation. The prosperity of the Lombard cities, and their love of independence, gave to civil and political life new events and new activity. The old laws of the barbarians could not satisfy the novel principles which struggled for development, and the study of the learned was directed to the Roman Law. During the space of a century from the time that Irnerius commenced the system of glossaries, each glossator wrote much to show his independence and genius; the glosses had multiplied into a huge and inconsistent bulk, and a digest was required. This work was accomplished by Accursius' the Florentine. The digest of Accursius" Corpus Juris Glossatum "-is described by Eichhorn as remarkable as well for its barbarous style and gross mistakes in history, as for the solidity of its judgments and practical distinctions. Savigny, however, speaks but slightingly of this laborious compilation. To these succeeded Bartolus.2 He appears at the head of the scholastic jurists. The fame of the schoolmen excited the emulation of the 1 Accursius, born 1182, died 1260. Denis Godefroi, Lyons, 1589, 6 vols. fol. 2 Bartolus, born 1303, died 1359. The best edition of his works is that of lawyers to use the dialectic method. Thus during three centuries spent in the study of the Roman Law the science of Law had not yet passed out of a trivial exegesis, which employed in its service neither history nor literature. And this school of jurists, feebly cultivating only the Civil Law, lasted to the close of the fifteenth century. § 2.1 Next after the attempts of the Italian civilians in the Middle Ages, some of the first essays upon Jurisprudence were directed to the consideration of International Law. The Law of Nations was unknown as a science to the ancients. The Jus Feciale amongst the Romans could have been of but little importance, since not the faintest trace of its doctrines has survived to modern times. Their Jus Gentium was what we term Natural Law. Thus Ulpian2 says:"Jus gentium est quo gentes humanæ utuntur; quod a naturali recedere facile intelligere licet; quia illud omnibus animalibus, hoc solis hominibus inter se commune est." Nor had Tribonian, or the other jurists who compiled the "Institutes" and "Digest" from the writings of the classical jurisconsults of Rome, any other idea of the Law of Nations than that comprised in Ulpian's definition. As the revival of Western civilisation arose in the commercial republics upon the coast of the Mediterranean, accordingly the first rules of International Law appear in the customs of Venice, Genoa, Marseilles, Barcelona, and the other trading republics of the Middle Ages during their mutual wars. Machiavelli, a citizen of Florence, early in the sixteenth century, wrote systematic political treatises. Vasquez and Suarez, the learned Spanish Jesuits, wrote on Jurisprudence. And these are among the first eminent authors in modern history treating of the science of Law. For from the sixth to the fifteenth century, both inclusive, not a single writer of any note either upon General Jurisprudence or the Law of Nations appears. In 1506, Oldendorp, afterwards professor at Marburg, published a work, which may be considered as the first system Jurisprudence, 1500-1550. 2 Hugo's ed. 1822. |