BY JAMES ALLAN PARK, OF LINCOLN'S INN, ESQ. BARRISTER AT LAW. Lex (de quà agimus) eft fons aquitatis. CICERO, SECOND AMERICAN, FROM THE LATEST ENGLISH, PRINTED AT BOSTON, FOR THOMAS AND ANDREWS, No. 45, NEWBURY-STREET, AND JOHN WEST, No. 75, CORNHILL. Sold at their feveral BOOKSTORES. AUG. 1799. TO THE HONOURABLE SIR FRANCIS BULLER, Bart. ONE OF THE JUDGES OF HIS MAJESTY' COURT OF COMMON PLEAS. &c. &c. &c. SIR, THE 'HE venerable and illuftrious perfon, to whom the former impreffions of this Work were dedicated, being now no more, I am de firous of infcribing this Edition to you, who, with the late Earl Mansfield, firft patronized, and encouraged me in the profecution of this undertaking. Thofe early proofs of your at tention and regard can never be effaced from my memory: and I rejoice in this opportunity of publickly declaring my grateful fenfe of your uniform and continued friendship. Neither can I omit to mention upon this occafion the obligations I am under, for many valuable improvements of this work fuggefted by you, with that liberality and condefcenfion, which are ever found to accompany extenfive knowledge and eminent talents; and which demand from me every A 2 every public and private teftimony of unfeigned refpect and gratitude. It was my wish to have given a sketch of the judicial life and character of Lord Mansfield, by way of preface to this edition of a book, the contents of which might be confidered as fo peculiarly his own and I was the more anxious to have done fo, because no other person had undertaken to pay this fort of tribute to his memory, and because the idea was approved of by you. But when I came to reflect upon the fubject, when I confidered his extraordinary talents, his great penetration, his perfuafive eloquence, and the greatness of his whole character, I found my powers very unequal to fuch an undertaking. However great my veneration and affection for his memory, and however gratifying fuch a Work might have been to my own feelings, I' fhrunk from attempting the portraiture of a man, who, for above thirty years, had fo eminently diftinguilhed himself in the administration of juftice, as to excite the general admiration of Europe; who fixed the principles of Commercial Jurifprudence on the immutable bafis of reafon and natural juftice; and who, as it was well expreffed by you, Sir, explained and commented upon thofe principles, till his hearers were were loft in admiration at the ftrength and extent of the human understanding. A consciousness of my own inability, therefore, is the only caufe for my declining a work, which I should have thought it my honour and my happiness to have accomplished. But when hereafter it shall be undertaken by fome faithful hand adequate to the execution of it, Lord Mansfield will then appear to pofterity to have been, what you well knew him to be, one of the wifest and best men of the age in which he lived. I have the honour to be, with fincere respect and gratitude, SIR, Your much obliged and faithful humble fervant, CAREY STREET, J. A. PARK. |