technical details with which such a communication must abound, would make it an incongruous addition to this letter.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

East Sheen, July 30. 1852.

Your most obedient servant,

C. H. CAMERON.

ART. IV.-JAMES REDDIE, LL.D.

THE History of the Legal Profession records very few examples of eminent faculties more usefully employed or of solid learning more amply acquired and more ably applied, than that of the late Mr. Reddie. Although the accident of his early retiring from the Bar to an important though a provincial judicial office prevented him from rising to the more exalted stations of the magistracy, his life affords matter of useful meditation to both the student of Law and the practitioner; and to dwell upon it at its close is in an especial manner incumbent upon us, who were his colleagues in furthering the great work of diffusing legal knowledge and promoting the amendment of the Law.

He was born about the year 1773, the youngest son of a highly respectable family in the town of Dysart, friends of the St. Clairs, of Dysart, to whose head, the late Lord Rosslyn, Mr. Reddie inscribed the Thesis which he published and nominally defended, according to the practice of Scotland, when called to the Bar of that country, in 1797. We say nominally, for though the publishing a Civil Law Thesis is still required of the Advocate, after he has passed an examination first in the Roman and then, a year after, in the Scotch Law, the defending its positions has long been only nominal', the examinations themselves having also become next thing to a name; as the examiners, nine on the Roman

We believe this is not a mere form at the present day.—ED.

and seven on the Scotch Law, almost invariably inform the candidate on what titles (nine and seven respectively) their questions are to turn, so that a few days' reading will suffice to make the answers an easy matter.

He had been educated at the High School of Edinburgh, and we have heard Lord Brougham and others who, though considerably younger than Mr. Reddie, were his class fellows, describe the reverence with which he was regarded as so immeasurably their superior, that, during the four years of the curriculum, no one ever for an instant approached him, or even thought of making the attempt; although it is certain that he began at the same point and time with them, having had no previous instruction, and only being prevented by bad health from commencing his studies earlier.1

At the University he studied under the great men who then adorned that seat of learning: Stewart, Playfair, Robison, Black; and before he confined himself to the learning of his profession, he acquired an extensive and accurate knowledge of other sciences, physical as well as moral. His study of Law, too, was conducted on scientific principles. He began by passing some time at the College of Glasgow, to benefit by the instructions and the conversation of the justlycelebrated Professor Miller. While he applied himself to acquiring a knowledge of the Civil Law, he bestowed much of his attention on subjects connected with general jurisprudence, and it is probable that he was one of the very few professional men in either Scotland or England who ever came to the study of the Municipal Law after an ample preparation by the examination of the legal principles common to all systems.

When he entered more minutely into the study of the Scotch Law, and for some time after he came to the Bar, he continued to occupy his leisure hours with philosophical and literary subjects. He took an active and most useful part in the select societies which were formed in Edinburgh for pursuing such inquiries; and no one can read with attention his

1 We have seen it stated that Lord Brougham was at the head of the school when he left it in 1791. This is true; but Mr. Reddie did not remain to that year; he had left it in 1790.

valuable works on Jurisprudence without perceiving the many traces both of general philosophical habits and of much scientific knowledge. Seldom, if ever, did any one enter upon the study of our profession with a mind so fitted to master its peculiar learning, or engage in its business with more resources for applying that learning to practice.

Mr. Reddie began his professional life without any patron or party to rely upon, or any recommendation but his own great learning, solid though not brilliant talents, and a sound judgment, which well fitted him alike to advise a client and to conduct his cause. In the course of two or three years his extraordinary merit became known, notwithstanding his modest and retiring nature; and Mr. Hope, then Lord Advocate, afterwards Lord President, distinguishing him among his contemporaries without any regard whatever to the differences of his political opinions, contributed greatly to his professional success. It was in some prize causes, which involved the questions of neutral rights so much agitated towards the close of the first Revolutionary war, that he became first known in the Court, and showed himself not more deeply versed in the doctrines of public (sometimes now termed international) Law than capable of close and logical reasoning in their application. His argument on the right of search connected with the case of the Flad-Oyen, was very long remembered at the Scotch Bar, and at once pointed him out for advancement in the Profession.

Nor can any doubt be entertained, that had he continued. at the Bar the highest place both in practice and ultimately on the Bench would have been within his reach. This was held by all men, save one, of every party, as an incontestible proposition; but his own modest and little adventurous nature led him to prefer an humbler path, and he listened to the suggestion of his friends at Glasgow, whom he permitted to propose him as a candidate for the respectable and very important offices of Town Clerk, the Assessor of the Magis trates, and Presiding Judge in the Town Court-the principal Civil Court of that great commercial city. As soon as it was known that he was willing to take the office, the other candidates, six in number, all professional men of eminence

one of them Sheriff of the County, another Professor of Law in the University-retired from the contest, and he was chosen unanimously. He entered upon the duties of this office in 1804, and until 1822, when by the appointment of a resident sheriff many causes were removed into that Court, the number that came before him, including the small debt jurisdiction, was nearer six than five thousand a-year, of which many were of great importance in principle as well as value, the jurisdiction being unlimited in amount, and in every kind of personal action. The satisfaction which his judgments gave was almost unexampled,— they were rarely appealed from, most rarely altered upon appeal. In affirming one of those which ultimately came before the House of Lords (1833), the Lord Chancellor observed, "That it well became even the most eminent Judges upon the Bench to approach with the greatest caution and deference a judgment upon a point of law pronounced by so distinguished a lawyer," and this remark met with the universal concurrence of the profession.

Although the labours of his office necessarily occupied time to the exclusion of other pursuits during the greater portion of the year, he yet had continued from the first to employ his hours of relaxation and the short vacation which the sittings of the Court allowed, in the perusal of works on general jurisprudence, and the examination of questions connected with its various branches. But the time which he could thus bestow was, of course, scanty, and he could do little more than keep up his acquaintance with the subjects. When, however, the new arrangements of 1822 altered in the course of a few years the distribution of business, and relieved him from a considerable portion of his duties, he profited by the command of time which this gave him to prepare three most able and learned works, with which he enriched the library of the lawyer. In 1840 appeared "Inquiries Elementary and Historical in the Science of Law"--which in 1842 was followed by a continuation under the title of Inquiries in International Law." In 1841 he had published "An Historical View of the Law of Maritime Commerce"-and in 1845 appeared his greatest work, "Researches

66

Historical and Critical in Maritime International Law," of which it would be difficult to say whether the profound legal views and legal learning, or the extensive historical knowledge that it displays be the more worthy of admiration. It received the unqualified praise not only of his own professional brethren, but of Mr. Savigny and the other eminent Jurisconsults of the Continent. Let us add, that the pages of this Journal have been enriched by his researches in a manner justly calling for gratitude from ourselves and our readers. It would not be easy to point out more able and learned discussions than some of these pages contain; as the series of articles on International Law1; nor more interesting and even entertaining historical details than others present to the student and the legal antiquary, as that on the life and writings of Savigny.2

It may most justly be said that he is the greatest benefactor to legal science who has appeared for many years: and that, had his judicial labours been laid out of view, his eminence among its cultivators would have entitled him to a place in the very highest rank. But it is important, because it is most useful, to consider his speculations in connexion with his practical labours. We find that they were kept in completely harmonious consistency with each other; that the legal Philosopher was all the time an acting Judge; that the same person who was laboriously occupied in discussing the grounds and defining the limits of the rules which govern the mercantile intercourse of nations, was as laboriously engaged in dispensing justice among suitors, settling the rights of bill-holders, examining the obligations of guarantees, sifting the claims of partners, ascertaining the title to chattels, possibly of very trifling value, awarding compensation for injuries to personal property; in short, dealing with every variety of transactions between man and man, trader and customer, or trader and trader, which can arise in a densely crowded commercial capital. We draw from hence the inference that they, calling themselves true practical men,

19 L. R. 22. 260. 10 L. R. 261, &c.

2 5 L. R. 1-8. 278.