Varronianus

monest and most striking peculiarities of Latin word-forms was hitherto undiscovered. In those great seats of learning, where the luxury of study may be enjoyed for its own sake, it is to be regretted that we have no lectures on the Romance languages, which are so deserving of the attention of all those whose ancestors, in part or wholly, adopted them, and which lend a new interest to the study of the Latin language, their immediate parent. Above all, the cultivation of Roman literature will never be restored to its proper place in the estimation of learned Englishmen, until we have revived the classical spirit, which formerly prevailed in this country, and which, on the continent, still directs and influences the study of the civil law. On this subject, I shall take the liberty of quoting the words of a writer, with whom I do not often agree, and whose Latin scholarship is by no means an exception to the general rule of laxity and incompleteness, but who has enjoyed, as I have, the advantage of a regular and prolonged course of legal study; and I am the more induced to quote his words, because, as he has been a public teacher both of Latin and of law, his admissions may be received as partly affecting himself: "That in this country, where we profess to cultivate ancient learning, we should so long have neglected the study of the Roman law, the best and only original part of their literature, and should have gone on in the dark, admiring and thinking that we understood the writings of Cicero, our model of Latinity, is a proof, the strongest possible, of the degradation into which classical studies have sunk in our higher places of education. In one University, lectures on the civil law have ceased to be given, though there is still a Professor; and in the other (Cambridge), though lectures are given, and degrees are taken in civil law, it is well known in how little estimation both the subject itself and the de

grees are held by those who follow what may be called the regular studies of the University. Instead of the lectures on civil law being considered as auxiliary to and part of the Latin studies of the University, which they ought to be and might be, an attendance on the course of civil law, and a residence in the Hall where the lectures are delivered, are generally viewed rather as a convenient means of obtaining a degree. Such being the case, it would not be an easy matter for the Professor to restore the study of the civil law to its proper dignity, and to make it an integral part of the University course1." cannot be denied that there is some general truth in these remarks; but the writer overestimates the difficulty of remedying the defects of which he complains. Whenever the subject of civil law shall be taken up by some genuine Latin scholar fully impressed with its dignity and importance, he will form a school for himself; and to say nothing of my own University, I may be permitted to remark, that the fabric of juristic learning, which an eminent civilian at Oxford has built upon a solid foundation of classical scholarship, not unconnected with a careful study of Niebuhr, may lead us to believe that there are already some persons in England who can bring to the study of the Roman law the thoughtful erudition of Gibbon and the philological acuteness of Savigny.

On the whole, though I feel myself obliged on this occasion to repeat the preface to Varronianus, as it originally stood, I venture to indulge in the hope that, if I live long enough to write again on this subject, I shall be able to speak in more flattering terms of the Latin Scholarship of England.

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