Two Lectures on Classical Literature, being Part of a Course delivered at the New York Athenæum, in February and March, 1826. By Richard Ray. New York.

An Anniversary Address, on the Progress of the Natural Sciences in the United States, delivered before the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, February, 1826. By James E. Dekay. New York..

The Trial of Albert Field, indicted for the Murder of Jonathan Gray. Providence, R. I. pp. 48.

The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; with References, and a Key Sheet of Questions Geographical, Historical, &c. &c. By Hervey Wilbur, A. M. Boston. 18mo. pp. 320.

Elements of Phrenology. By Charles Caldwell, M. D. Professor of Institutes of Medicine and Clinical Practice in Transylvania University. Price 50 cents. 8vo.

A Discourse, delivered at Plymouth, December 22, 1820, in Commemoration of the First Settlement of New England. By Daniel Webster. Fourth edition. Boston. 8vo. pp. 60.

The Freemason's Library and General Ahiman Rezon. By Samuel Cole. Second edition. Revised and corrected, with Additions, by B. Edes. Baltimore. 8vo. pp. 380.

The Massachusetts Collection of Martial Music; containing a plain, easy, and concise Introduction to the Grounds of Martial Music. Together with a large Collection of the most approved Beats, Marches, Airs, &c. &c. By Alvan Robinson, Jr. Third edition, revised, corrected, and improved. Hallowell, Me. 8vo. pp. 71.

Lessons from the Bible, for the Use of Schools. Boston. 18mo. pp. 16.

POETRY.

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POLITICS.

Speech of Mr Storrs, on the Proposition to Amend the Constitution of the United States, respecting the Election of President and VicePresident, delivered in the House of Representatives, February 17, 1826. Washington. 8vo. pp. 28.

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Christianity and Literature, in a Series of Discourses. By T. B. Balch, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Snowhill, Maryland. Sermons, Practical and Doctrinal. By the late Elijah Parish, D. D. With a Biographical Sketch of the Author. Boston. 8vo. pp. 421.

A Funeral Sermon, occasioned by the Death of the Rev. Dr Furman, delivered before the South Carolina Baptist State Convention, on the 6th of December, 1825. By Rev. Joseph B. Cook, A. M. Charleston, S. C. Reasons, offered by Samuel Eddy, Esq. for his Opinions, to the First Baptist Church in Providence, from which he was compelled to withdraw for Heterodoxy. Fourth Edition. Boston. 12mo. pp. 24.

Remarks on the Genius and Writings of Soame Jenyns, Esq. and on the Internal Evidences of Christianity. From the Christian Examiner, Vol. III. No. 2. Boston. 8vo. pp. 23.

A Sermon, delivered at the South Church in Andover, March 19, 1826. By Justin Edwards. Andover. 8vo. pp. 16.

A Gospel Salutation in True Christian Love, recommended to Friends, who believe in the name of the Son of God, the True Light; and to all who truly desire to be grounded and settled in the Faith of Christ. By his servant George Whitehead.

Theology, in a Series of Sermons, in the order of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. By John M'Dowell, D. D. Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Elizabethtown, New Jersey. 2 Vols.

A Narrative of Religious Experience, in Twelve Letters. By Harriet Livermore. With an Appendix, containing her Religious Belief, and an Original Poem.

A New Year's Discourse, preached before the Baptist Congregation, in Seekonk, Massachusetts, January 1, 1826. By Bartlett Pease, Pastor of the Baptist Church in that town.

A Sermon, delivered before the Boston Baptist Foreign Mission Society, on the evening of October 26, and before the Salem Bible Translation Society, on the evening of November 4, 1823. By F. Wayland, Jr. Fourth edition. Boston. 8vo. pp. 33.

A Sermon, on the Manner of Forming and Conducting Bible Classes, delivered in the Chapel of the Theological Seminary, Andover, March 12, 1826. By J. Edwards. Andover. 8vo. pp. 22.

A Sermon, delivered November 2, 1825, at the Ordination of the Rev. William R. Talbot, as Pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Nottingham West. By Daniel Dana, D. D. Concord, N. H. 8vo. pp. 28.

A Sermon, delivered in Park Street Church, before the Penitent Females' Refuge Society, on the evening of the Sabbath, December 18, 1825. By Justin Edwards. Boston. 8vo. pp. 27.

An Address to the Christian Public, especially to the Ministers and Members of the Presbyterian Reformed Dutch and Congregational Churches, throughout the United States, on the subject of the proposed Union between the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and the United Foreign Missionary Society. Boston. 8vo. pp. 26.

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Walter Scott. Boston. Cummings, pp. 240 and 227.

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An Essay on Equity in Pennsylvania. By ANTHONY LAUSSAT, Jr., Student of Law, Member of the Law Academy of Philadelphia. Philadelphia. 1826. 8vo. pp. 160.

THIS highly respectable dissertation is an academic task of a student of law in Philadelphia. We feel quite sure, no one would suspect, either from the manner or the matter of the work, that such was the fact. The industrious research, which every page of it exhibits, the judicious compilation of authorities contained in it, and the views, in general, sound and well matured, which distinguish it, are such as an older jurist and a riper scholar need not be unwilling to acknowledge. As a legal treatise, its value is limited in some degree; both because it is chiefly confined to the consideration of equity law in Pennsylvania, and because the chancery jurisdiction, which is exercised by the courts of that State, is exceedingly restricted. For its completeness and accuracy, therefore, as an abridgment of local jurisprudence, we assume not to vouch. Being printed, however, under the direction of the learned principals of the Philadelphia Law Academy, and having their particular testimony to its merits, we cannot entertain a doubt of its being faithful and correct in those details, of which we shall not undertake to judge.

We consider the publication very creditable to the school in which it was produced, and an earnest of the increasing usefulness of that institution and of others of the same character. Mr Du Ponceau's tract upon Jurisdiction, and the pieces appended to it, were incontrovertible proofs of the thorough, systematic 26

VOL. IV.

course of juridical education, pursued in the academy over which that diligent and ingenious scholar and profound lawyer presides. And the dissertation before us, by Mr Laussat, a pupil of the institution, must tend to confirm the favourable impression it has already made on the public mind.

It was the sensible remark of the great Roman orator, who understood that art so well in theory which he practised so admirably in the forum and the senate, that to write much was among the surest methods of acquiring skill in accomplished. spoken eloquence. Stilus optimus et præstantissimus dicendi effector et magister. No exercise more effectually systematizes and fixes the thoughts than this, communicating to the speaker a certainty of conception and precision of argument, without which mere readiness of mind could seldom create an orator. And without practice in composition, extemporaneous address would be apt to degenerate into unfinished and irregular loquacity. For, as Cicero further observes, it is by uniting the habit of elaborate composition to the habit of animated public speaking, that the latter is adorned with all the beauty, facility, harmony, and perfection of a polished style. And the principle is peculiarly applicable to forensic oratory in our own country and our own times, where so wide a sphere of argument and authority must often be embraced by the advocate, and where exactness and order are indispensably necessary. Hence we deem the composition of legal dissertations the most useful course which the student can adopt, to arrange, and to impress upon the mind, the results of the study of jurisprudence; and we are very confident that the recollections of all, who have tried the experiment, will bear witness to the truth of our assertion.

Mr Laussat expresses an opinion decidedly favourable to the union of equity and common law jurisdiction in the same tribunal; and as this question has been much discussed in this country, we extract a part of his remarks on the subject, as a specimen of his manner.

This point has been frequently agitated, and has caused much difference of opinion. The learned Bacon, who flourished when courts of equity were in their infancy, and when their powers first began to grow formidable to those of law, gives his opinion for the separation. "Apud nonnullos receptum est, ut jurisdictio quæ decernit secundum æquum et bonum, atque illa altera quæ procedit secundum jus strictum, iisdem curiis deputentur; apud alios autem, ut diversis; omnino placet curiarum separatio. Neque enim conservabitur distinctio casuum, si fiat commixtio jurisdictionum:

sed arbitrium legem tandem trahet. The authority of Bacon is certainly of the highest class; yet it must be considered that he was a great admirer of the Roman system of jurisprudence, the only one which in his day was known to have reached any high degree of perfection. The common law, by falling into the hands of subtle dialecticians, had become an artificial science, and Westminster Hall a school for subtle disputation; the liberality which it has attained in modern times could not be then foreseen, and a court proceeding according to the civil law, was probably, in his opinion, the means best calculated to remedy the growing evil. Experience has now fully proved that equity and law can be concurrently administered by the same judges; and that when a system of jurisprudence is founded upon rational principles, and free from useless niceties, there is little more required to do complete equity, than a fair and correct interpretation of the law itself. *

In every nation of whose judicial system we have a tolerable account, equity and law are united in the same tribunal. The Roman prætor, the parliaments of France, the court of session in Scotland, and the court of conscience in Portugal, administered as well the strict law as its equitable interpretation. Throughout continental Europe distinct prætorian courts have either ceased to be in use, or have never been introduced. In our own country, the wisdom and policy of a division have been questioned; as notwithstanding the close resemblance which in other respects, our institutions bear to those of England, but eight of the twentyfour independent communities, have drawn even partially the line of distinction between courts of law and equity. The constitutions of six of these were framed at an early date, when all our ideas of jurisprudence were borrowed from England. In the remaining sixteen they are blended together, though with various forms, and dissimilar bounds and regulations.

To these examples we may add the United States courts, in which the two jurisdictions are united. But, indeed, the true and desirable end, to which we ought to arrive, is to have the strict law a code of equity. The very idea of the state of things existing in England, where it requires one half of the courts to relieve, professedly, against the injurious and inequitable system of jurisprudence, which the other half are bound to administer, seems to us to be a monstrous perversion of the proper objects of justice. We are not in the number of those, who lament that the courts, in those states where a distinct chancery tribunal does not exist, are prone to lean towards equitable rules of interpretation. We think the beneficial effects of that tendency in the judges of this country, are many and invaluable. It has freed our law of a multitude of subtle niceties, and of doctrines, engen