River; and thence in a northerly direction, through the middle of the Lake Winnipic, to the place of beginning." It will be perceived that this new ' Island of Barataría' extends considerably into our Missouri and North Western Territories. The effect of gov. Macdonnell's proclamation was to interdict the usual supplies to the North Western Company's Voyageurs. His excellency, however, granted a partial supply out of the seizures made under it, so that their business was not brought to a stand. Lord Selkirk sent out a small body of recruits to his colony, which arrived in the fall of 1814. The North-West Company about the same time procured a warrant from Montreal for the arrest of gov. Macdonnell and his sheriff Mr. Spencer, the execution of which was committed to Mr. Cameron, one of the partners. Gov. Macdonnell refused to submit to this process, and formally warned Cameron to quit the premises' of his landlord the Earl of Selkirk. Macdonnell's men, however, soon began to desert him, and he at last yielded himself up a prisoner. After his departure, one hundred and forty families of the colonists removed to Canada. Lord Selkirk in the mean time had projected a settlement in what is called the Athabasca (Athapuscow) country, another immense and still more remote district, included in the obsolete claim of the Hudson Bay Company. A Mr. Robertson was intrusted with the execution of this project, and collected a party for the purpose in Canada. His fordship was equally active in London, and having fortified himself with the opinions of learned lawyers, obtained from the Hudson's Bay Company the appointment of a governor and council, with paramount judicial and executive powers over all the Company's territories. Mr. Semple was nominated governor, and embarked for York Fort on Hudson's Bay. Robertson proceeded from Montreal, and despatched a Mr. Clark with about 100 men for Athabasca, whilst he remained with some of the Red River settlers who had set out in the spring for Hudson's Bay, and whom he fell in with in the vicinity of Lake Winnipic. Semple advanced with his reinforcement from York Fort, and being joined on his route by Robertson and his party, proceeded to Red River and reestablished the colony. Soon after an attack was made upon Fort Gibraltar, the North West Company's post at the forks of the lower Red River, where Mr. Cameron and his people were taken prisoners. The harsh proceedings of gov. Semple, led to retaliatory measures on the part of the North West Company. Gov. Semple fitted out a gun-boat on Lake Winnipic to interrupt the communication with the Company's remoter establishments, and erected batteries, with the same view. The Company attempted to open a communication by land, between Riviere Qu'Appele and the Lake. About fifty Indians and half-breeds were employed for this purpose. In the prosecution of this enterprise, a skirmish took place, in which the governor and about twenty of his men were killed. The rest of the colonists once more dispersed. Whilst things were in this state in the interior, lord Selkirk had arrived in Canada, and after receiving a commission as a Justice of the Peace for the Indian Territory and Upper Canada, had enlisted 150 disbanded soldiers of De Meuron's regirent, principally foreigners, with whom, in addition to about 180 canoe-men, and a sergeant's guard granted for his lordship's protection by the governor of Canada, he prepared to enter upon his seignorial rights and magisterial duties. In his progress he received intelligence of the disaster which had befallen his Colony. He immediately pushed on to Fort William, the principal depot of the North West Company, where he arrived the 11th of August, 1816. His lordship took possession of this post-no resistance being made, although the company's servants there, at that time, amounted to nearly 500. Having thus far effected his object, by military power, his lordship next assumed the character of the magistrate, and in this capacity put all the partners, whom he found there, in confinement, and afterwards sent them off as prisoners to Upper Canada, where they obtained their enlargement by a writ of Habeas Corpus. Unfortunately one of the canoes in which these gentlemen were conveyed, being overloaded, sunk, and Mr. Mackenzie, a partner of the North West Company, and eight other persons, were drowned. The Company's property at Fort William amounting to £60,000, was retained by his lordship as an indemnity for the expenses of the war, and their servants were taken into his own employ. Sir John Sherbrooke, governor general of the Canadas, was applied to in behalf of the company, in this emergency, to order the arrest of lord Selkirk-but his excellency found, upon due consultation, that the scene of these outrages was situate in the Western District of Upper Canada, and the applicants were referred to Mr. Gore, the civil go North America, and ascertained the geographical situation of almost every river and district of those immense regions. They have recently established a considerable and thriving Colony on the Banks of the Columbia River, on the Pacific Ocean, in direct communication with their Settlements in Canada, and are now extending their inland Trade southward to the Spanish Settlements in California, and northward to those of the Russians at New Archangel. They have at this time upwards of 300 Canadians employed in this Trade, between the Rocky Mountains and the sea; and they have despatched three ships round Cape Horn, with supplies, all of which have taken cargoes of Furs from Columbia, for sale to the Canton market in China." We could wish that among all their doings they had caused a good map to be constructed of the countries they have traversed in so many directions. The trave vernor of that Province, for redress. A warrant was at last issued by Dr. Mitchell of St. Joseph's, a justice of the peace, against lord Selkirk and the De Meuron officers, and a constable, with twelve men, was sent to arrest them. Lord Selkirk not only refused obedience to the precept, but put the constable under guard, and soon after dismissed him. He was, by this means, left in possession of his conquests during the last winter. It is stated that he was preparing to erect a fort between Lake Superior and Lac de la Pluie, at the point which he deemed the commencement of the Hudson's Bay Company's territories, and that he had removed from Fort William into the contiguous territories of the United States one of the wooden buildings or stores belonging to the North West Company, and was taking steps to remove other property effectually beyond the reach of British authority. Governors Sherbrooke and Gore have appointed Messrs. Colt-els of Clarke and Lewis, and of Pike, man and Fletcher, gentlemen of high character, to investigate the proceedings which have been detailed; and these commissioners have entered upon their office and proceeded on their destination. It was supposed they would arrive at Fort William in June. A report has recently reached us from Canada, that a pacification has been so far effected, that the trade of the North West Company is resumed, pending the legal adjudication of the dispute. We will not vouch for the accuracy of the above relation,-but we can answer for the candour with which it has been compiled from the documents before us. Of the personal character of lord Selkirk we have no knowledge, and we are equally ignorant of the collective or individual merits of the partners of the North West Company. The author of the Narrative which gives title to this article, in enumerating the good deeds of the latter, sets forth that they have, with a spirit of liberality and expense, in many instances unrequited by the result of their undertakings, explored the whole Continent of 66 which are illustrated by delineations of their courses, have contributed much important information to geographers.— Hearne and Mackenzie deserve much credit for their resolution and perseverance in penetrating into more inhospitable and desolate climes, but have not accompanied their intineraries with charts sufficiently perspicuous. The present publication on the behalf of the North West Company adds nothing to the stock of geographical knowledge. The contested. ground is, to all but the parties engaged in hostilities, a terra incognita, in almost every respect. We have not taken up this Narrative as a literary production, and as the author very frankly acknowledges that he is not a practised writer, we shall not pretend to assign it any rank as a composition. We cannot but sinile, however, at the complacency with which this champion of the North West Company asserts that he can refer to proof no less equivocal than any that can be advanced by lord Selkirk.' E. ART. 2. A Course of Legal Study; respectfully addressed to the Students of Law in the United States. By David Hoffman, Professor of Law in the University of Maryland. 8vo. pp. 383. Baltimore. Coale and Maxwell. 1817. sanctuary. This diffusion of knowledge may present, perhaps, fewer heroes in science; but it produces a stronger phalanx of disciplined scholars: we are more seldom dazzled with scientific hardihood and adventure, but the march of improvement is more steady and uniform: the literary state is subject to fewer revolutions, is less influenced by the authority of particular names and experiences; in short, all the advantages which arise to both literary and political bodies from having the mass of its citizens well informed and enlightened. The student of English law is particularly indebted to system and arrangement. He has no longer, indeed, the honour of mining his way through undigested matter and obscure language, and drawing light from sources which ordinary enterprise and industry were insufficient to explore. He has the elements of science exhibited in the comprehensible and methodical commentaries of a Blackstone, and the body of principles, maxims, and decisions digested by a Cruise or a Bacon, or in the various treatises which modern times have produced on the different topics of the Law. The viginti annorum lucubrationes, if still necessary, are at least less irksome and laborious; and the path of inquiry, with due attention to method, is practicable to moderate talent and application. This method is, indeed, the principal defect of legal education; and for this reason, among others, we with pleasure find announced a work so well adapted as the present, to remove the fault we complain of, and at once indicate to students the best sources of knowledge, and the regular order in which they are to be consulted. Innumerable questions must present themselves to the mind of the lawstudent in the onset, and during the whole course of his career, which either his instructor has not leisure to explain, or the student himself is too diffident or too indolent to ask, or finds it difficult to reduce to any precise phraseology. All these embarrassments it is the aim of Professor Hoffman, as far as possible, to obviate; and in many parts of the manual which he has presented to the law-students of the country, we have remarked, moreover, an amiable desire to cheer them in their progress, at once consolatory to the student, and indicative of a minute acquaintance with the obstacles and the despondence peculiar to the sedentary and the studious. The following has reminded us forcibly of the doubts and delays of our legal novitiate, and we recommend it to the consideration of all resolving and procrastinating readers. "There is nothing," says he, "which we more earnestly inculcate on every tyro in law, than to observe scrupulously the hours which he has allotted to the study of his profession. Whatever may be the temptations of other and more pleasing literary pursuits, or whatever the allurements of idleness or pleasure, this should be a permanent object from which his attention should never be long diverted. In all studious enterprises, (if we may be allowed the phrase,) he will be found to proceed on a very erroneous plan, who thinks to make the extraordinary efforts of to-morrow supply the deficiencies of to-day. The mind which contemplates with pleasure a short exertion of its powers, which, though it must be regularly made, will, it knows, be re-. gularly relieved by the period for relaxation or for rest, is apt to shrink from the long and uninterrupted exertion which the student often imposes on himself, by way of compensation for past indolence. It will therefore diminish his toil, as much as it will advance his progress, to allot to every day its just labour, and to perform this with all the scrupulosity which circumstances will permit. If, however, accident has deranged his plan, or idleness and dissipation have made inroads into the seasons set apart for study, we would warn him against the common mistake of neglecting to employ the fragments of time thus produced, in the expectation and design of more methodical exertion for the morrow. How much might be gained by the studious occupation of the moments thus idly and unprofitably thrown away, is incredible to those who have never calculated the days, the weeks, and months to which they rapidly amount. He that would not experience the vain regret of misemployed days, "must learn, therefore, to know the present value of single minutes, and endeavour to let no particle of time fall useless to the ground." Whoever pursues a contrary plan will for ever find something to break that continuity of exertion, in looking forward to which, he solaces himself for his present supineness; and at the expiration of the period allotted for the completion of his legal apprenticeship, will generally find a mighty waste of time to have proceeded from the trivial value he attached to its frag ments. "The sedentary and the studious have, indeed, to contend with obstacles peculiar to themselves. Secluded of neces sity, for the larger portion of their time, from the business and bustle of men, their ideas insensibly assume a monotonous character, and, receiving little ventilation from the current of novelties which refresh those who are engaged in active and crowded scenes, are apt to stagnate into languor and melancholy. It is little wonderful that intellectual exertion should become irksome, when thus accompanied by despondency; and that the student should find the lapse to indolence and relaxation so easy, and the return to his solitary avocations so painful ; a painfulness most generally augmented by a consciousness of the neglect of duty, which he is happy to drown in the pleasure or the bustle of society, rather than brood over in the stillness of his study. Instead of attempting to remedy this tendency by total seclusion, it is better to indulge it with moderation; and to mingle business and pleasure in those proper proportions, which will equally prevent the fatigue of too much exertion, and the satiety of too much enjoyment. Hermits, whether in religion or in literature, have generally found their scheme of exclusive and solitary devotion to a single pursuit, to issue in lassitude and in indolence." 【pp. 24, 25, 26.] Our author justly imputes to the want of systematical study, the obscurity and difficulty complained of in legal studies: "Study and research," says he, " are not without their attractions; the mere exertion of mind is productive of pleasure, when the difficulties are not conceived too formidable or too numerous, and the student does not advance to the investigation, hopeless of success, or unfurnished with the means, and ignorant of the sources of information. In short, we conceive, that to an intellect of ordinary capacity, the Law, instead of that guise of difficulty and perplexity in which it for the most part appears, would assume no small degree of interest, and offer no inconsiderable gratification, were the student initiated, so to speak, in its geography; were he instructed in the nice connexions and dependencies which unite its many minute divisions, and conduct him naturally and easily from one topic to another, instead of being set down in the first instance in the midst of difficulties of which he has had no previous explanation, and of which he knows not whither to apply for a solution. These minute connexions, this natural order and arrangement, it was the aim of the author (in which he hopes to have succeeded in Auxiliary Subjects. 1. The Geography, and Natural, Civil, and Political History of the United States. 2. Forensick Eloquence and Oratory. S. Legal Biography and Bibliography. 4. Professional Deportment. This outline he proceeds to fill up by arranging, under their respective divisions, the works of established excellence, often selecting, indeed, the title or the chapter which he conceives to be espe cially useful. To nearly every work recommended is attached a note, containing either a critique on the production, some notice of its author, or other miscellaneous matter, which the student will find either useful or entertaining the bibliographical information is minute, apparently collected with much diligence and correctness, and is a species of knowledge which will be found very useful, if we may judge from the want we ourselves have often experienced of similar information in some condensed shape like the present. We have not leisure to follow Mr. H. through the various divisions of his work. We are happy to discover in his first title a high eulogium of the 'Ethicks' and 'Politics' of Aristotle, and a brief analysis of 1817. the latter of these works,—works too litle known to the youth, or even to the riper scholars of our country. We entirely accord with his exhortation, in the second, to the study of the feudal law, as it is quite clear, we think, how essentialto the interests and satisfactoriness of all our subsequent legal inquiries, is the knowledge of this singular system. Without it we may, indeed, treasure up with infinite pains the maxims and rules of the municipal law; but they lie in the mind without symmetry or shape, and confuse the understanding and oppress the memory, as a disjointed mass of principles, of whose origin, reason and dependencies the student is for the most part extremely ignorant. Nothing more confuses a youth who is laying the foundations of his legal studies, in the unsystematic manner which is often pursued, than the difference which our author has spoken of, between natural and legal reason. A young man fresh from his college studies, and delighted with the abstract and elegant system of natural jurisprudence, is often astonished at the singular deviations from its decisions presented by the municipal code. At a period when all is new, he suspects his own understanding of the matter cannot be perfectly correct, and spends many an hour in attempting to explain on the principles of general law, what he afterwards finds accountable only on the foundation of a particular and singular system, which originated in a peculiar organization of society, and yet retains a partial existence, long after the causes which produced it have ceased to exist. To the previous consideration of this body of institutions, Mr. H. would direct his student, on the score both of perfecting his knowledge and of economizing his time; of acquiring the elements of the Common Law with more facility in the first instance, and of retaining them with more fidelity in the end. In the course of many law-students Coke-Littleton has no longer a place; and the affrighted tyro is easily persuaded to accept any succedaneum for the huge and immethodical commentary. After all, most of this apprehension is unfounded. We can undoubtedly well conceive a work much better adapted than the 'First Part of my Lord Coke's Institutes,' to induct the student into the elements of the Common Law: but we fully agree with Mr. Hoffman, that there is nothing at present in the law library which can supply its place; and we think, moreover, with the single exception of VOL. II. NO. 1. his method, which will be no serious ob- The reflections on' the study of the Civil Law contain a just eulogium on that elegant and excellent code, so properly denominated the 'code of written reason. This branch of legal education is certainly too little attended to; though we are happy to find that the more eminent lawyers of the country justify the strong exhortation of Mr. H. to its study, by placing the best works on the subject in the hands of their students. We should warmly urge the propriety of compre hending the Roman Law in the course of every diligent student, if the considerations offered by the work under review, and to which we refer the reader, did not obviate its necessity. On the subject of Note Books our au◄ thor is very copious; and insists with great zeal on their utility, when used with judgment and suitably arranged. Like most aids to study, their benefit must necessarily be proportioned to the discretion with which they are employed: in legal research we believe there are few capacities which will not derive powerful assistance from these allies of the memory. In this Course eight different species of Note Books are recommended, and specimens given of each. We by 2 |