Stench," in Jermyn Street. Having sent his own boxes to the tobacconist's shop, for this purpose, he followed them, superintended the packing of the cigars, and taking some of them up, countermanded his first direction (i. e., that the goods should be sent to "The Stench"), and requested the tobacconist to keep them for a day or two, when he would call, pay for, and take them away in his cab. This, however, he failed to do; and the seller brought an action against him for the price of the cigars. Now had there been a delivery of them? The tobacconist thought that there had; and accordingly brought his action for "goods sold and delivered." His counsel contended that the delivery to the defendant was completed by the seller's filling the boxes furnished to him by the buyer, "which then became the buyer's warehouse for that purpose, so as to entitle the seller to payment of the ready-money price agreed upon, and to preclude him from any right to unpack them." This may be considered a striking way of putting the case -but hear the ready and decisive answer of the judge (Bayley).

"I do not assent to the proposition that the buyer's boxes are to be considered as his warehouse-and think that the seller might consider his goods as being still in his own possession. Goodall v. Skelton* is directly in point against the seller's right to recover in this action. There, the plaintiff agreed to sell wool to the defendant, who paid earnest. The goods were packed in cloths furnished by the defendant, and were deposited in a building

* 2 Hen. Blackst. Reports, p. 316. This happy citation of a case exactly in point, and not even glanced at in the argument of counsel, is only one out of innumerable instances, of the prompt and accurate legal knowledge displayed by the late Mr. Justice Bayley.

belonging to the plaintiff, till the defendant should send for them—the plaintiff declaring that the wool should not go off his premises till he had had the money for it; and the court held that no action for goods sold and delivered would lie, for want of delivery."*

Such are specimens, selected at random, of the current business passing under the pupil's eye, in his pleader's chambers: and, supposing him to feel an interest in his profession, and exhibit but moderate industry, can anything be conceived more calculated to excite his attention -to lead him easily and at once into the art and mystery" of law-to work his own way both into, and out of, its difficulties,-to deduce accurately the principles by which its details are regulated, and fix them deeply in his mind?+ "Who so valueth, or eateth with so keen a relish," says an ancient worthy, "the fruit he buyeth of the stall-woman in a market, as that which his own hand hath gathered, after great pains, and, it may be peril, encountered in the search?" Our cow-case literally bristles with points of law-law which is involved in threefourths of the most ordinary business of life, in every shade of variety, and degree of complication. Facts, such as those in the two cases above narrated, are comprehended without difficulty, and serve to suggest the principles by which their legal consequences are ascertained and ad

* Boulter v. Arnott, 3 Tyrrwh. 267; S. C. 1 C. & M. 333.

+ How beautiful is the following!" In the sciences, every one has so much as he really knows and comprehends; what he believes only, and takes upon trust, are but shreds; which, however well in the whole piece, make no considerable addition to his stock who gathers them. Such borrowed wealth, like fairy money, though it were gold in the hand from which he received it, will be but leaves and dust when it comes to use."-Locke on the Understanding, Book I. c. iv. § 23.

justed and if a little perseverance, in frequently referring to them, be but exhibited, and a spirit of further investigation cherished, the student will, it may be safely asserted, reap more solid instruction from a month of such labour, than from years of solitary reading, or attendance on the most learned lectures which can be delivered. The daily recurrence of such instances cannot fail to put him into working trim, to stimulate his energies, and accelerate the rapidity, of his progress. Scenes such as these are calculated to enlist, in a certain degree, his feelings-his selflove as a motive and stimulus to exertion. He is anxious to acquit himself well in the sight of his tutor and fellow pupils. Emulation sets an edge upon his attention, and, as it were, chains him to his task. He feels conscious, besides, that he has entered at once upon the species of employment, which is to occupy him throughout life,— that he is every hour qualifying himself for the fit discharge of it. He learns law, by using it;-vires acquirit eundo. Theory thus illuminates practice, and practice, in return, developes, illustrates, and supports theory: they act and re-act upon each other.

III. While, however, so much efficacy is thus attributed to a course of chamber tuition, let us not suppose that it is unattended with disadvantages-that there is not a necessity for the student to be on his guard against contracting bad habits, such as may counterbalance much of the good unquestionably derivable from an assiduous attendance at chambers. First of all, let him never forget that the practice which he is entering upon and learning in a pleader's, conveyancer's, or equity draftsman's chambers, is only a section of the entire legal system. Should he be so absorbed in what is passing immediately before and around

him, as to forget THE WHOLE, in ITS PARTS, let him rely upon it that he is doing much that will require to be undone; deranging the entire scheme of his studies; and losing sight of PRINCIPLE, in petty details. "The practice of a pleader's chambers," justly observes Mr. Starkie, “is, to a certain extent, highly to be valued, as a preparatory exercise; inasmuch as it necessarily includes habits of thinking and attention, and a certain order of arrangement, governed by the different forms of judicial process: according to their arrangement the student digests his ideas, and to these he constantly refers for the solution of legal difficulties. When a doubt occurs, he does not refer at once to general principles. 'Let us see,' says he, 'how it would stand, if the thing were pleaded.' This technical arrangement, and mode of reference, may be frequently advantageous as an aid to memory, as well as to the reason: though undoubtedly the solution of the case must, ultimately, depend on PRINCIPLES, in reference to which the judicial forms and the technical process of pleading, are merely secondary and instrumental." Let the student, in every stage of his study, regard PRINCIPLES as the keystone of the arch, or rather as the polar star: and if he find great and undiminishing difficulty in doing so, after his attention shall have been thus distinctly challenged to the necessity of it, let him seriously distrust his aptitude for the profession -or at least his capacity for rising above the dead level of mediocrity. Let him not, however, rashly come to such a dismal conclusion! but make persevering efforts to discern the clear bright light which, once discovered, will not let him be "in endless mazes lost." "There is nothing," says Mr. Starkie, "which more effectually facilitates the study of the law, than the constant habit, on the part of the stu

dent, of attempting to trace and reduce what he learns by reading or by practice, to its appropriate principle. Cases apparently remote, by this means are made to illustrate and explain each other. Every additional acquisition adds strength to the principle which it supports and illustrates; and thus the student becomes armed with principles and conclusions of important and constant use in forensic warfare, and possesses a power, from the united support of a principle, fortified by a number of dependent cases and illustrations; whilst the desultory, non-digesting reader— the man of indexes and abridgments, is unable to bear in his mind a multiplicity of, to him, unconnected cases; and could he recollect them, would be unable to make use of them, if he failed to find one exactly suited to his purpose. The good fortune to meet with a case fully in point, is not very frequent-not without the voluminous digests of the still more voluminous reports, which, having increased to an enormous extent, are still further increasing in a fearful ratio. A case seemingly in point, is not to be relied on without danger, when it is considered, how frequently nice distinctions are resorted to, as an expedient for attaining justice; and that, sometimes, by a bolder course, the precedent is condemned, and overruled as untenable.".

Every one of the foregoing sentences is worthy of being pondered by the student ambitious of excellence. That distinguished philosopher, Dugald Stewart, adds the weight of his testimony in favour of the same opinion. "I am inclined to believe, both from a theoretical view of the subject, and from my own observations, as far as they have reached, that if we wish to fix the particulars of one knowledge very permanently in the memory, the most effectual way