I know not that this was the origin of our form of actions upon the case to recover accounts charged upon book, but it shows a disposition on the part of Mr. Sewall to introduce something like order into the practice of the law.

So far as one may judge from the few records that are left, judge Sewall must have been altogether better read in the principles of the common law than any other judge upon the bench.

His connexion with the trials at Salem in 1692 was not only most unfortunate for his memory as a judge, but a source of great sorrow to himself in after life. He acted with entire honesty of conviction while pursuing the horrid though fancied crime of witchcraft, but when convinced, as he soon became, that it was all a delusion, with equal honesty and ingenuousness he confessed his errors, and in the face of the congregation where he worshipped, asked forgiveness of God and his fellow men for the part he took in those trials.

He exemplified in his life the virtues which adorn the christian profession, and though learned, honored, and entrusted with power, he was distinguished for his simplicity of life, and his meekness and singleness of heart.

From his journal many curious anecdotes illustrative of the times in which he lived might be gathered, but they might seem to be misplaced in a notice like this. The following account of the opening of the new town house in Boston, which had been erected to supply the place of the one that was burned in 1711,' has been selected as containing some account of the forms of proceedings in court,

This was known as the "great fire" previous to 1760; "all the houses on both sides of Cornhill from School street, to what is called the stone shop in Dock square, all the upper part of King street on the south and north side, together with the town house and what is called the old meeting house above it, were consumed to ashes." 2 Hutch. Hist.

and particularly as exhibiting a specimen of the quaint conceits which distinguish the address of judge Sewall and were suited to the public taste of the times. "1713, April twenty-seven, first court held in the new town house in Boston. Mr. Coleman prayed excellently. May five, 1713, Dr. Cotton Mather makes an excellent dedication prayer in the new court chamber. Mr. Paine, one of the overseers of the work, welcomed us as we went up stairs. Dr. Cotton Mather having ended prayer, the clerk called the grand jury, giving their charge which was to enforce the queen's proclamation, and especially against travelling on the Lord's day.

"I said you ought to be quickened to your duty in that you have so convenient and august a chamber prepared for you to do it in, and what I say to you I would say to myself, to the court, and all that are concerned, seeing the former decayed building is consumed, and a better built in the room, let us pray that God would take away our filthy garments and clothe us with a change of raiment, that our sins may be buried in the ruins and the rubbish of the former house, and not be suffered to follow into this; that a lixivium may be made of the ashes which we may frequently use in keeping ourselves clean.

"Let never any judge debauch this bench by abiding on it when his own cause comes under trial. May the judges always discern the right, and dispense justice with a most stable, permanent impartiality. Let this large transparent costly glass serve to oblige the attorneys always to set things in a true light. May that proverb, 'golden chalice and wooden priests,' never be transferred to the civil order, and let the character of none of them be 'Impar Sibi.' Let them remember they are to advise the court as well as plead for their clients, &c.'"

The principles of action laid down by the judge on this occasion must certainly commend themselves to the mind

of every man who properly regards the relation that subsists between the bench and the bar, or between these and the public, and so far as these principles were applied by him, there is little doubt that he acted consistently with those he professed.

He was, withal, a very learned man in other branches than the law, and familiarly and critically acquainted with Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and was the author of many religious works.'

He is represented by a cotemporary biographer, as having been "universally and greatly reverenced, esteemed and beloved for his eminent piety, learning and wisdom, his grave and venerable aspect and carriage, his instructive, affable and cheerful conversation, his strict integrity and regard to justice, and his extraordinary and tender heart."

In person, judge Sewall was large, being as he says in his journal of the weight of one hundred ninety-three pounds, and his portrait, preserved in the family, exhibits indications of a full plethoric habit. He survived his resignation of the place of chief justice two years, and died January 1730, at the age of seventy-seven.

No family has been more distinguished in connexion with the judicial history of Massachusetts than that of judge Sewall.

He had two brothers, John and Stephen. John was the ancestor of judge David Sewall of York, Stephen was the ancestor of chief justice Stephen Sewall and Jonathan Sewall, judge of the court of admiralty in Nova Scotia, and attorney general of Massachusetts.

Chief justice Samuel Sewall, the subject of this notice, was the ancestor of chief justice Samuel who died in 1814.

E. W.

One of these was "some outlines towards a description of the new heavens and new earth," 4to. A second edition was printed in 1727.

ART. VIII-CELEBRATED CRIMINAL AND POLITICAL TRIALS.

Causes célèbres criminelles et politiques du 19e siècle, rédigées par une société d'avocats. 8 vol. in 8vo. Paris, 18271828.

A LATE number of the Jurist contained a translation from the new French collection of "Causes Célèbres," of the trial of the assassins of Fualdes at Albi and Rodez. Although the original report was very much condensed, in order to bring it within the limits of a periodical, whereby the arguments of the advocates and those minute incidents of the trial, which give to many of these reports the charm of romance, were suppressed, it is believed to have been copious enough to convey some idea, both of the mode of administering criminal law in France, and of the manner in which the cases in this renowned collection are executed. It was intended as an introduction to a more extended notice of a work, which has long been celebrated in Europe, and which constitutes a remarkable branch of French literature. We purpose, in the present article, to examine and compare this and other similar collections, and to invite the particular attention of the profession to a department of legal literature, which has been so neglected, that it may indeed be regarded as wholly unknown to the English language.

In nothing, perhaps, is the difference between the character of the two nations more strikingly illustrated, than in the character of the law-reports which they have respectively published and patronized. The English, from the time of lord Coke and the year books, have been gathering up the decisions and sayings of the judges, promulgating the abstract and technical principles of jurisprudence-in short, publishing all manner of decided law-cases. And

we have implicitly followed their example, until the presses of both countries are pouring out volumes of new reports, with such rapidity that few can find leisure to read or means to buy them. They are intended exclusively for the members of the bar, and little can be found in them to interest the general reader, or to commend them to the great body of the people. With all their admiration for trial by jury, they have taken no pains to keep a permanent and well executed record of the proceedings of that tribunal, even in the most important cases. The grave, and dry, and austere sayings and doings of their judges alone seemed to them worthy of preservation. These dull and ponderous volumes of law-reports are eminently characteristic of a cold, phlegmatic, and utilitarian people.

The French, on the contrary-the gay, volatile, dancing, excitable French, have, in their accounts of legal proceedings, mingled entertainment with instruction. They have gone to the bar, where questions of fact as well as of law are disputed and determined-where the proceedings are enlivened and varied by the examination of witnesses, by the "dazzling fence" of astute advocates, by bursts of eloquence and flashes of wit, by the presence of many actors and sufferers, and often by scenes as rich in pathos as are afforded by the drama itself. Burke speaks of such trials, as "exhibiting human nature in a variety of positions, at once the most striking, interesting, and affecting."

It is, nevertheless, somewhat extraordinary, that the labors of the profession in this country, and in England, should have been bestowed exclusively upon law reports, treatises, digests and commentaries, which have required a long time, and immense labor, and the circulation of which is limited to the professional reader. The investigation of facts is generally more interesting, and often more important, than the investigation of abstract principles, and the bar is required to do quite as much of the former as the