genius of one man, it is the product of five centuries of the patient labour of the ablest intellects of the world.

satisfactorily acquired without the help of though it professes to pursue what is just those more general ideas which can be de- and fair, really comes to very much the rived only from the science of jurispru- same conclusions as were arrived at by dence or from Roman law; and Roman Bentham in his pursuit of utility. It poslaw, besides exhibiting most of the princi- sesses, however, this element of superiples of jurisprudence in an easily intellig- ority over the philosophy of Bentham, ible form, also presents us with instances that instead of being elaborated by the of their application to daily life in a manner the most in accordance alike with logic and with common sense. Again, as the meaning of an idea is most clearly seen when one is acquainted with the terms by which it is expressed in several languages, so is the precise character of a legal institution best understood by comparing it with the analogous institutions in another system; nor is any body of law so well adapted for this purpose by the clearness and definiteness of its structure as the Roman, where we may find "written in large characters," as Plato would say, those principles which in our own books are only here and there falteringly and imperfectly enunciated. The knowledge of such a foreign system serves not only to illstrate, but also to define our own. It is good not only for comparison, but also for contrast. If however, it is to be serviceable in this way, it must be thoroughly mastered. Such inklings of Roman law as have hitherto been usual have often led to mere confusion of the boundaries of our own law; while the haphazard references to the Digest which occasionally diversify the foot-notes of an English text-book are wholly superfluous and contemptible.

Besides, however, what may be called the domestic uses of the civil law, its study has a wider though less indispensable application. It was, we believe, Mr. Maine who, in an Essay published a good many years ago, pointed out how the terminology of Roman law is the lingua franca not only of the jurists, but also of the diplomatists of the Continent. Till we acquire this it is hardly possible for us to appreciate either the laws or the State papers of the other nations of Europe; and we must also find great difficulty in really understanding a system of international law which is the creation of men whose minds were imbued with the jurisprudence of Rome. The same writer, if we are not mistaken, has also pointed out how the Roman system is the system of the future; to which we, though more slowly than other nations, are yet surely approximating, as we get rid one by one of the often irrational local customs which grew up after the fall of the Empire. It is, in fact, in its full development a system which,

It is of the utmost importance that the advantages derivable from the study of the Civil Law should be well understood at the present moment, when the whole question of the training of lawyers, both professional and academical, has been opened up, and must speedily be solved; especially as it so happens that the academical curriculum generally is also under revision, and may therefore be to some extent modified so as to meet the needs of the lawyer. The question of legal education is in fact two-faced. On one side it is related to initiation into actual professional practice; on the other side to the general culture which is necessary for every highly educated man. The final preparation of the lawyer for his work will doubtless before long be confided to the proposed Law University, or Law Faculty, of London. His earlier literary and philosophical training will, it may be hoped, still take place at the older Universities; but there are intermediate subjects of study which would appropriately come after Thucydides and Aristotle, but before Roscoe, Archbold, and Chitty. These subjects should be taught both in the London Faculty and at the Universities, and a man should have his choice of learning them where it might be most convenient to him. We mean Jurisprudence and Roman Law; and we may quote, in favour of the position which we would assign to them, the practice of the University of London, which obliges all its candidates for a Law degree to pass an examination in these subjects two full years before they are allowed to present themselves for examination in the laws of England.

When, in the University of Heidelberg for instance, there are fourteen simultaneous courses of lectures in Roman Law, it is high time that more provision should be made for its teaching by the Inns of Court than is afforded by the time which can be devoted to it by one reader, who is also reader in Jurisprudence and in International Law. This will probably be a question for the new Institution which is to supersede the Committee of the Inns

of Court in superintending the education of barristers. In the meantime there has been much stir in the Law faculties of Oxford and Cambridge, the latest instance of which is the admirable appointment to the Regius Professorship at Oxford to which we have already referred. Roman law only needs to be efficiently taught in England in order to be acknowledged to be as useful to the practitioner as it is interesting to the jurist.

From The Spectator.
TALES OF OLD JAPAN.*

pled the moon, or the stars, or impossible countries, or islands floating in the air, with a peculiar race of beings, have not created anything really new, but have varied their own experience. In like manner, the nations which bear the smallest resemblance to us are human beings like ourselves, have the same wants and the same passions, and perhaps an agreement in essentials even where there is the greatest apparent difference. Yet these Tales of Old Japan almost seem to pass the boundary. It is not only that so much is difficult to understand, but that when things are understood they cannot be reconciled with any conceivable principle. If WHETHER regarded from the outside or ministered, or the system of government, we take the manner in which justice is adfrom the inside, from an artistic or from a or the relations of classes, we are at a loss literary point of view, this book must be to see what is the foundation on which considered one of the most remarkable they rest. In one story, for instance, we productions ever submitted to the English have a noble sentenced to death for inreader. Our first glance shows us a tea- sulting another within the precincts of the kettle which has developed the head, tail palace. His retainers resolve to take venand limbs of a badger, and is dancing on a geance on the man who caused his death, tight-rope while it holds up an umbrella. and carry their design into execution after We open the first volume, and meet with a long delay and the most careful preparapicture of a man who seems to have had tion. Their act is also punished with an ink-bottle broken upon him, and to be death, but everybody admires them, they much distressed because the black streams are protected and feasted on their way are coursing down his legs. Turning to home, and their tombs are even now kept the text for an explanation of the mystery, in honour. Another story tells us of a we are overwhelmed with unpronounce- great lord who, wishing to be revenged on able names, and before we have conquered a man who had insulted him, invited his this first difficulty, the strangeness of the enemy to his castle, and had him murdered contents shows us that we are in a new in a bath. Nothing seems to have been world. What can this place be where done to the great lord, and we are almost murder is an hourly occurrence and only led to infer that murder, if done in your varied by suicide, where the owners of land own house, is legitimate, while, if done in have more than feudal power, where foxes another man's house, it is a capital offence, and badgers practise magic arts upon man- and if it is done in the street degradation kind, and where families keep the cente- is added to the penalty. Mr. Mitford cernary of a cat's death? The mixture of tainly says that "in the old days if a nolegend, history, and modern experience ble was murdered and died outside his makes it difficult to class all these oddities ow under one single head, and the fact that tates were forfeited," which may be a part own house, he was disgraced and his esJapan has so long been closed to Euro- of the same theory. But the impunity peans, that previous writers on the coun- which attends an act at one time, and at try have been contented with a superficial another gives way to extreme severity, is view, necessarily adds to our perplexity. a remarkable feature of most of the stories. We may safely assume that the habits of an Eastern nation are diametrically opposed to European ideas, but there is in general some point of contact. Some one, we forget who, has remarked that the wildest exercise of the imagination cannot enable us to conceive anything which is not in some sense a modification of what exists on earth. Writers who have peo

* Tales of Old Japan. By A. B. Mitford, Second Secretary to the British Legation in Japan. 2 vols. London: Macmillan. 1871.

It is even stated in the rules laid down on the subject of capital punishment that more regard is to be paid to a deliberate murderer than to one who has given way to a sudden impulse. "When a man has murdered another, having made up his mind to abide by the consequences, then that man's execution should be carried through with all honour. When a man kills another on the spot, in a fit of ungov ernable passion, and then is bewildered and dazed by his own act, the same pains

TALES OF OLD JAPAN.

191

need not be taken to conduct matters, this story, one of the most characteristic is called "The Ghost of Sakura." It gives punctiliously." The account of the ceremony of hara-us the history of a farmer who was crucikiri, from which we have just quoted, and fied by the lord of his village for presentwhich is given in an appendix, has many ing a petition against excessive taxation curious details, and the frequent recur- to the Shogun, as the Tycoon is called in rence of the name in all the stories ren- these volumes. The tenants of this lord ders it necessary to have a clear under- had done all in their power to have their standing of the process. Whenever a Jap-grievances redressed, but ineffectually, anese of rank is condemned to death, it and as they were bowed to the ground by becomes his duty to perform hara-kiri, or the taxes laid upon them, they must in other words to disembowel himself, either starve or appeal to the Shogun. although it appears that a mere formal The appeal produced the desired effect; compliance with this part of the sentence the officers who had increased the taxes were removed and punished, some of them is sufficient. "If the principal," we are told, "urgently requests to be allowed having to perform hara-kiri, but the really to disembowel himself, his wish may, farmer, whose courage had righted this wrong, was sentenced to crucifixion. His according to circumstances, be granted;' but the usual course is to strike off his wife, too, was crucified with him, and head when he leans forward to take the their three boys, aged thirteen, ten, and dagger. Great dignity attaches to this seven, were beheaded. So far the story is mode of death, and we read that it is sheer historical, but with the execution of the nonsense to look upon the place where family it takes a legendary aspect. The hara-kiri has been performed as polluted. lord is haunted by the ghost of the farmer, In the story which relates the vengeance and is tormented in so many ways that at of the retainers on the noble who caused length he has to canonize his victim. This their lord's death, the anxiety of these tardy repentance lays the ghost of the men not to dishonour their victim is con- farmer; the lord is no longer troubled; spicuous. They treat him with the great- the newly canonized saint befriends him; est courtesy, and entreat him over and and he is raised to higher honours when over again to perform hara-kiri. But as, the Shogun is "pleased to depart this life." at last, they find it vain to urge him to die If this story violates nearly all our notions the death of a nobleman, they force him of morality, it is significant of the power down and cut off his head simply. Hav- of the great nobles. In another place we ing done this, they go home and wait till find that the only way in which the Shogun the Government orders them to put them- could put a stop to a feud between two selves to death. The whole story is sig- mighty factions was to cause one of the The fidelity leaders to be secretly poisoned. A physinificant of Japanese customs. of the retainers who cannot live under the cian was found who was willing to adminsame heaven with their lord's enemy; the ister the draught, although it was neceselaborate care with which they disguise sary that he himself should drink half of themselves so as to become acquainted it. Such is the staple of these Japanese with the castle in which he lives; the man-tales. Scarcely one is free from blood-shed, ner in which the chief retainer gives him- and while cruelty is received with subself up to drunken and dissolute ways, mission and treachery with self-sacrifice, divorcing his wife and driving away his courage does not always meet with a fit children, so as to lull suspicion; the re- reward. The quaintness of the sermons which pentance of a stranger who was deceived by such conduct, and who afterwards are translated by Mr. Mitford, and of some atones for an insult to this retainer by of the legends, superstitious, and fairy performing hara-kiri at his tomb, bear tales which he has collected, is a relief witness to a state of things with which we from the barbarity of ancient manners. The relics We find the Japanese preachers great can have nothing in common. of these retainers are still preserved, and adepts in the art of illustrating their subcomprise the armour made with their own ject by lively and familiar anecdotes. "I hands out of wads of leather secured by have a little tale to tell you," is a phrase pieces of iron; the plan of the enemy's that recurs now and then; "be so good house, which one of them obtained by as to wake up from your drowsiness and marrying the builder's daughter; and the listen attentively." And then follows the receipt given to the priests of a certain story about the shell-fish which prided temple for the head which, after being cut itself on the security afforded by its thick off, was placed in their keeping. After 'shell till, on looking cautiously round after

an alarm, it found itself in a fishmonger's place, but as after a time it resumed its shop with a price-label on its back; or natural shape, they sold it for twenty that of the men who went to listen to the copper coins to a tinker. The new owner stags roaring, and found instead that a of the kettle was advised to take it about stag was listening to their lamentations; as a show, and make it dance on the tightor that of the frogs who climbed to the rope; he did this with such success that top of a hill to see a strange conntry, and, he grew very rich, and then the kettle was owing to their eyes being placed at the taken back to the temple, laid up there as back of their heads, were all the while a precious treasure, and worshipped as a looking at the one from whence they saint. We do not know how far the started. We should think that if Japanese miraculous powers of the kettle are to be congregations ever yielded to drowsiness, attributed to the badger's head, but that they would soon prick up their ears when animal plays an important part in Japanese such stories as these were promised. A legend. It is said to produce the most practical application is always added, and exquisite music by drumming delicately due reference is made to the sayings of on its distended belly, and by this means, wise men of old, amongst whom we recog- watching in lonely places, it lures benize Confucius under the name of Kôshi. nighted wayfarers to their destruction. Some of the fairy tales resemble those Sometimes it assumes the shape of a beauwith which we are familiar, while others tiful maiden in distress, but is detected by have features of novelty. In the first class the dryness of the clothes it wears in the we may rank the tongue-cut sparrow, the midst of a pelting shower. A grateful old couple and their dog, the two neigh- badger repays a priest's kindness by fusbours with wens on their foreheads. All ing the refuse of gold mines, and procuring these are marked by the grand principle him money enough to be spent on prayers of fairy retribution, which makes the same for his soul. A wicked badger boils a gift have exactly opposite workings, ac- man's wife for soup, and sets the dish becording to the character of the receiver. fore her husband. Magical powers are Thus in the tongue-cut sparrow, the old also ascribed to foxes, some of whom beman who has been kind to the bird witch a man and shave his head. The receives a basket full of gold and silver, story of "The Foxes' Wedding" is most while the old woman who has slit its remarkable for the drawing which accomtongue also receives a basket, but it turns panies it, and in which we see a little fox out to be full of hobgoblins. The two old being taken out of its bath-tub, while some people who are kind to their dog find a of its brothers and sisters are already buried treasure, while another old couple tucked in and laid on a mattress. The can dig up nothing but filth. The first figure of the little fox is quite delicious, man who has a wen on his forehead is as it stretches out its small forelegs with relieved of it by the elves, with whom he an infantine gesture, and looks up pleadhas a revel; the second, trying the same ingly in the face of the fox-nurse who has plan, has his neighbour's wen added to his been washing it.. We have already spoken own. There is much greater originality of the other illustrations, all of which are in the story of a tea-kettle which belonged drawn and engraved by Japanese artists, to a priest in some temple, and which one and are the very strangest possible speciday put forth the head and tail of a badg- mens of design. But where everything is er, and began flying about the room. original some omissions must be excused, The priest and his pupils were so alarmed and one need merely open this book at any that they forced the kettle into a box, of the drawings to appreciate their charmeaning to throw it away in some distant acter.

A PARTY of workmen are performing miracle plays in the villages of Yorkshire. The strangest fact about their performance is, that they are mostly Congregationalists, and that at a late performance their stage manager was a Roman Catholic priest.

A LARGE and valuable deposit of limestone has been discovered by Mr. Read in the Sonthal Pergunnas, in Bengal, in the Banslo River. There is good communication with Calcutta by water or railway.

NUMBERS OF THE LIVING AGE WANTED.

The publishers are in want of Nos. 1179 and 1180 (dated respectively Jan. 5th and Jan. 12th, 1867) of THE LIVING AGE. To subscribers, or others, who will do us the favor to send us either or both of those numbers, we will return an equivalent, either in our publications or in cash, until our wants are supplied.

PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY
LITTELL & GAY, BOSTON.

FOR EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. But we do not prepay postage on less than a year, nor where we have to pay commission for forwarding the money.

Price of the First Series, in Cloth, 36 volumes, 90 dollars.

Second "

Any Volume Bound, 3 dollars; Unbound, 2 dollars. The sets, or volumes, will be sent at the expense of the publishers.

PREMIUMS FOR CLUBS.

For 5 new subscribers ($40.), a sixth copy; or a set of HORNE'S INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE, unabridged, in 4 large volumes, cloth, price $10; or any 5 of the back volumes of the LIVING AGE, in numbers, price $10.