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    CIVIL LA . W . Manual of Civil Law . By Patrick Cumin ., M . A ., Balliol College , Oxon , Barristerat-Law . London . Stevens and Norton . The above work is at once well-timed and well-executed . 3 t was to be expected that the revival of systematic legal studies , in connexion , with our Inns of Court , would create a demand for a good modern commentary on the Institutes , as the great text-bo ok in the Elements of Civil Law . For , however inapplicable many of the dicta of the old Roman civilians may be in the present state of society , and however repugnant " their quiddits and their quillets , their cases , their tenures , and their tricks" may be to the spirit ' with which modern authorities approach , not merely the practice , but the very principles of jurisprudence , still the importance of the civil law in its

    bearing on the study of ancient literature , as well as in its relation to the principles of moral and political science , will ever secure to it many lay students , in addition to those professionally interested in acquiring a knowlegde of one of the great bases of many of the institutions of our own day . In accordance with the general law of supply , this demand has been met by Mr . Cumin with a Manual , which commends itself to acceptance by its reasonable hulk , the general fidelity of its execution , and a completeness of detail which raises it far above the standard of that very useful class of-works of which , by its title , it professes to be one . For although , the learned civilian will range in his book-shelves many works of greater pretence , to which our author acknowledges his obligations , we are bound to state that we know of no volume which -we would with

    greater confidence place in the hands either of the professional tyro or of the more general scholar . Mr . Cumin commences with a short , hut very comprehensive , history of Roman law , from the time when the convergence of three neighbouring tribes to a common centre laid the foundation of that mighty empire whose influence was to be felt in the institutions of all civilised nations to the end of time . He shows how the whole history of their law is interwoven with that of their political being , so that the " Corpus Juris Civilis " is essentially an historical document , the best commentary on which is supplied by a knowledge of the ordinary history of the people . At the same time , he recites the more immediate sources to which Tribonian and his fellovv-labourers had to turn when employed in this great work of codification .

    The body of the work itself , like that of Lagrange , on which at is based , is printed in the form of questions and answers ; but the former serve less for purposes of self-examination than as headings to indicate the subject of small sections of commentary corresponding to the ordinary sub-divisions of the text . Each of these divisions is taken in its order ; evyrything approaching to a difficulty in the original is translated , while the obscurities arising from extreme condensation arc cleared away by careful paraphrase , as well as by the introduction of explanatory matter from Gaius and other authorities ; the notes being enriched by references to the pandects and code , as well as to mediaeval and modern commentators . Of the latter Mr . Cumin seems

    chiefly to have consulted the valuable works of Ortolan and Ducaussoy , though , as an indication of the scrupulous industry with which ho has laboured , we may mention that he frequently refers to Mr . Saunder ' a edition of the Institutes—a work which could only have appeared when his own volume was on the very eve of being issued from the press . Wo find a difficulty in selecting a passage of n length such as our limited space would admit , and which would do justice to the author . The ample index will furnish the general reader with a clue to any topic whoso treatment will test Mr . Cumin ' s powers ; but we would refer the student to the following sections , as fully justifying all tlmfc wo have advanced in behalf of this work : —Book I ., tit . x ., Of Marriage ; tit . xix ., Oi Tutela Fiduciaria . Book II ., tit . v ., OI Usu Capio ; tit . xx ., Of Legacies . Book HI . tit . xiii . Of Obligations ; tit . xxv . Of Partnership .

    , , , Having unintentionally omitted to notice this volume on its first publication , we are glad to Kind that the favourable impression which we then formed of it has boon ratified by the verdict of competent authority . At has been placed on the list of works recommended for the aspirants to honours in the examination instituted by the several Inns of Court ; while in Scotland it has been adopted us the principal text-book in the classes of the present eminent Professors of Civil Law in Edinburgh , iora member of the English Bar , and a Scotchman , which we believe Mr . Cumin is , this is a flattering distinction 5 but it k one which ifl well merited by the ability , industry , and research evincuil by every section of Inn work . There arc muny laurels Htill to bo gathered in the aamo liold , and wo sUnu gladly learn Unit an author 1 ms girt kimsolf to win them . t

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    the Canterbury Tales ( illustrated on every page by explanatory notes ) , the whole published in the form of a book which can be carried in the packet , when it is not wanted , and read by the fireside , when it is . This experiment is so unique , and so honestly and thoroughly deserves success , that we-should be failing in our duty to our readers if we neglected to point out to them , plainly and impartially , some of the special merits which claim for tbe popular edition of Chaucer the people ' s hearty welcome . Of Chaucer ' s life nobody must hope to know much . If we are reduced , for the most part , to guesswork about Shakspeare , how much further into the dark must -we expect to go when we are groping after biographical facts in relation to a poet who lived and wrote two hundred years before the Elizabethan period ! Mr . Bell takes us carefully and skilfully by the hand , but all his experience and intelligence does not avail to lead us very far .

    We estintate our advance principally by the number of doubts we stumble over . We doubt about the year of Chaucer ' s birth- —it may be 1328 , or it may be 1344 , We cannot find out for certain whether he was born in Xcondon or not . We wander in a perfect labyrinth of conflicting opinions the moment we try to find out who his father was . Iceland tells us he was a- nobleman , Speght thinks he was a vintner , Pitts says he was a knight , Hearae declares he was a merchant—we are on the verge of distraction , and begin to execrate Leland , Speght , Pitts , and Hearne , when Mr . Bell comes to Jbhe rescue , and takes us to our first certainty . We ascertain it for a fact that Chaucer received the education of a scholar and a gentleman—infer consequently that his family must at least have been respectable—and are so far perfectly Satisfied . Going on to general discoveries , and still following-Mr , Bell , we find out that Chaucer and John of Gaunt , Duke of Lancaster ,

    married sisters— -that the poet was a fast friend and adherent of the dukes ^ that his patron ' s itinuen . ee procured for him a whole list of lucrative and importantgovernment appomtmemts-r-that he lost these at one period of his lifej . and recovered equivalents for them at another—that he was a member of -Parliament—and last , though not least interesting , that " the father of English poetry" was by no means one of the " poor poets . " " His pensions , " Mr , Bell tells us , " exclusive of his offices , ranged for many years with the salaries of the Chief Baron of the Exchequer and the Chief Justice of the Commbn Pleas . " Of the day and place of his death we may be certain . He ; expired on the 25 th of October , 14 G 0 , in a house in Westminster , situated alinost on the same spot -where Henry the Vllth ' s chapel now stands . His age was seventy-two , and he was buried in Westminster Abbey . From Chaucer himself let us pass for a moment to Chaucer ' s poetry .

    Most truly does Mr , Bell describe it as especially interesting to the modern reader " from the singularly clear and full idea which it conveys of a state of society for which modern , experience furnishes no parallel . . .. '¦ , .. . From Chaucer ' s poetry may be learned much more satisfactorily than from the chronicles of his contemporaries ^ or the more elaborate compilations of later historians , the modes of thought , habits , and manners which prevailed in ithe reigns of Edward IH . and his immediate successors ; the era in which the -Kdrmaii and Saxon races became fused , and our language and social institutions assumed forms that have descended with some modifications to the present time . " Every page of the Canterbury Tales—to go no further than the present volume—attests the justness of this view of the great historical value of Chaucer ' s poetry—history , be it remembered , of that best , truestand most deeply-interesting kind which records the manners and

    , habits of the people at large . As to the intrinsic merits of Chaucer ' s poetry , we ourselves , are mainly impressed and delighted , in reading him , by his wonderful ease , and his exquisite humour . His peculiar graces of metre and his varied beauties of expression flow from him so easily , that we know him for a born Poet , the moment we get acquainted with him . There is no strain in the manly , inexhaustible force of his writing—there is nothing laboured , nothing unnatural in his rich , quaint , exquisitely sly and suggestive humour . But , after all , when everything that can be said and written critically about Chaucer has been said and written , there remains one indisputable proof of the greatness of his genius which is worth all the opinions in the world . He wrote five hundred > ears ago , and his poetry

    lives and lasts still in our day . Any reference to the number of centuries which have passed since Chaucer wrote , necessarily brings us to the consideration of the phraseology in which lie expressed himself . k The English language , " says Mr . Bell , * ' like everything else at this period , was exhibiting signs of change . " French forms and idioms were beginning to be grafted on the original Saxon , and -were adopted by Chaucer as part of the language of the good society in which he lived . What was the new talk , the new style , and tho new spelling five hundred years ago , is necessarily in many respects sufficiently obsolete now . Hence the apparent difficulty , at first sight , of reading Chaucer ; and hence also the many obstacles which Mr . Boll has had to clear away for the public in preparing tho present edition . Attempts have been made at various periods , in a fragmentary and incomplete way , to familiarise the general reader with Chaucer by moans of specimens . Sometimes these specimens have been presented with a prose

    paraphrase—sometimes tho old poet ' s spelling has been modernised—sometimes hip peculiarities of metre have been pedantically distinguished by classical marks for long and short feet , placed over every syllable . The result of these various proceedings hna been to present the public with several ingenious interpretations of Chaucer , but not with Chaucer himself . Mr . Bell has avoided this mistake . Having set himself to the work , lie has done it boldly in a genuine , straightforward way . Being determined to give the whole of Chaucer to the public—as Mr . Tyrwhitt and Mr . Wright before him had given Chaucer to the antiquarians , students , and reading men in general—Mr . Bell has made it his business , in the first instance , to secure the grontcat possible purity of text ; and in the second place , to print that text word for word and letter for letter , exuetly as his own researches and the labours of others informed him that Chaucer wrote it . The result

    is that the old minstrel einga to us his own full and glorious song , in his own Way , just as ho sang it to listening knights and ladiea five centuries ngo . But what if wo arc unable to follow the son g ? asks the general reader . I ^ eatn , with very little exertion , one or two preliminary lessons—wo answor r-r-and you must be careless indeed if you cannot follow it -with perfect oaso . iffcsidea the GUoBaaxy , which will terminate the last volume of Chaucer , Mr .

    Bell gives us an Introduction tothe Poems which explains philological difficulties , and smooths down metrical obstacles so clearly and so skilfully that any reader of average intelligence , who will pay proper attention to the Editor when he opens the book , may feel assured of reading it easily , as well as usefully , to the end . Besides this Introduction to the Poems , the Poems themselves are illustrated by preliminary " arguments , " and by full explanatory notes at the bottom of every page . In short , all has been done that can be done for Chaucer in the first place , and for Chaucer's readers in the second .

    We have already had occasion in these columns honestly to express our high sense of" Mr . Bell's qualifications for the arduous literary undertaking to which he is now devoted . That favourable impression has been greatly strengthened and increased by a very careful examination of the volume now under notice . Proof on proof accumulates , from the first page to the last , of Mr . Bell's conscientious industry and excellent good sense . Heha 3 wrought at his task intelligently , earnestly , and modestly , as a scholar and a gentleman should ; placing the results of his learning and research unreservedly at the reader ' s service ; and never coining forward 5 n his own person but to help and explain . In closing this notice—necessarily a very imperfect one , from the small space to which it is limited—it is only common justice to Mr . Bell to say that , in every respect irk which the prosperity of the present experiment has depended upon his knowledge , industry , and good taste , the conditions of success have been fairly and fully complied with .

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    1216 THE L . EADEB ,. [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 23, 1854, page 1216, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2070/page/16/