Jones; and he celebrated the nuptials of his friend in a very poetical ode, under the title of the Mufe recalled*. This compofition, the dictate of friendship, and offspring of genius, was written in the course of a few hours. His poetic talents were also exerted in a cause ever nearest to his heart, that of liberty he reftrung the lyre of Alcæus, and produced a short ode† in the genuine spirit of the patriot and poet, whom he imitated. These were his amusements. The refult of his profeffional ftudies was an Effay on the Law of Bailments. He divided and treated the subject under the distinct heads of analyfis, history, and synthefis; and intimates an intention, if the method ufed in this tract should be approved, and on the fuppofition of future leifure, to difcufs in the fame form every branch of English law, civil and criminal, private and public; and he concludes the Essay with the following juft and elegant reflections.

*Works, vol. x. p. 381. + Works, vol. x. p. 389.

"The great fyftem of jurifprudence, like

that of the Universe, consists of many fub"ordinate systems, all of which are con"nected by nice links and beautiful depen"dencies; and each of them, as I have fully

66

perfuaded myself, is reducible to a few

plain elements, either the wife maxims of "national policy and general convenience,

or the pofitive rules of our forefathers, "which are feldom deficient in wifdom or

66

utility; if LAW be a fcience, and really

deferve fo fublime a name, it must be "founded on principle, and claim an ex"alted rank in the empire of reafon; but if "it be merely an unconnected series of de

crees and ordinances, its ufe may remain,

though its dignity be leffened; and he will "become the greatest lawyer who has the ftrongest habitual, or artificial memory. In

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practice, law certainly employs two of the "mental faculties; reafon in the primary investigation of points entirely new, and memory, in tranfmitting the reafon of fage "and learned men, to which our own ought

"invariably to yield, if not from a becoming

modesty, at least from a juft attention to "that object, for which all laws are framed, "and all focieties inftituted, THE GOOD OF 66 MANKIND."

Nothing can more strongly evince the predilection of Mr. Jones for his profeffional studies, and his anxiety to acquire a knowledge of the general principles and practice of law, than a work which he undertook about this period, the tranflation of an Arabian poem on the Mohammedan law of fucceffion to the property of inteftates*. The fubject of the original is dry, the diction obfcure; it exhibits no rhetorical flowers, no poetical ornament; and even the partiality of Mr. Jones for Eastern literature could never have induced him to engage in a work of this nature, if he had not thought it connected with objects of information and utility. In the expectation of obtaining the fituation of an Indian judge, this law tract probably recommended itself to his notice,

* Works, vol. viii. p. 183.

as he could not but foresee that a knowledge of Mohammedan law would be effential to the performance of the duties of that ftation.

The reader will recollect how much the public attention was occupied in the year 1782, with the attempts to procure, by constitutional means, a reformation of parliament. It would have been furprising if Mr. Jones had remained an idle fpectator on an occafion, which of all others was most interesting to his feelings. Led by his profeffional studies to an enthusiastic veneration for the principles of the conftitution of his country, he

was anxious that the form of it fhould in all

f

respects correspond with them; "but, as the "form in a courfe of years is apt to deviate "widely from the fpirit, it became (in his

opinion) expedient almoft every century "to restore its genuine purity and loveliness.", These fentiments he expreffed in a speech to the inhabitants of the counties of Middlesex and Surry, the cities of London and Weftminster, and the borough of Southwark, afLife-V. I.

A A

fembled at the London Tavern on the 28th of May, 1782, to confider on the means of procuring a reformation of parliament. The first resolution adopted by the meeting, and in which he expreffed his most fincere concurrence, was, that petitions ought to be prepared for a more complete representation of the people; and the pofition which he endeavoured to imprefs upon the minds of his audience was this, that the spirit of our conftitution requires a representation of the people, nearly equal, and nearly univerfal. This speech has long been before the public, and I fhall therefore only notice his declaration in the advertisement prefixed to it, that, "what offence the publication might give,

either in part, or in the whole, was the laft and leaft of his cares: his firft and " greatest was to speak on all occafions what "he conceived to be juft and true;" and the conclufion, in which he tells his audience that "the people of England can only expect

to be happy, and moft glorious, while they

are the freeft, and can only become the