litics, profeffional ftudies and practice, all had a fhare of his attention; but the principal object of his hopes and ambition was the vacant feat on the bench in India, to which he looked forward with increafing anxiety. The marriage of Lord Althorp with Mifs Bingham, daughter of Lord Lucan, was too interesting an event to pass unnoticed by Mr.

Egyptian paper, and hung up in the Temple of Mecca, whence they were named Mozahebat, or golden, and Moallakat, or suspended: the poems of this sort were called Casseidas or Eclogues, seven of which are preserved in our libraries, and are considered as the finest that were written before the time of Mohammed.

Essay on the Poetry of the Eastern nations.
Works, vol. x. p. 341.

It may be satisfactory to the reader who does not possess the works of Sir Wm. Jones, to read his metrical imitation of a passage in the 4th Eclogue.

But ah! thou know'st not in what youthful play,
Our nights, beguiï'd with pleasure, swam away;`
Gay songs, and cheerful tales, deceiv'd the time,
And circling goblets made a tuneful chime;
Sweet was the draught, and sweet the blooming maid,
Who touch'd her lyre beneath the fragrant shade;
We sipp'd till morning purpled every plain;
The damsels slumber'd, but we sipp'd again;

The waking birds, that sung on every tree

heir early notes, were not so blythe as we.

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 alfo exerted in a cause ever nearest to his heart, that of liberty he reftrung the lyre of Alcæus, and produced a fhort odet in the genuine fpirit of the patriot and poet, whom he imitated. Thefe were his amufements. The refult of his profeffional ftudies was an Effay on the Law of Bailments. He divided and treated the subject under the diftinct heads of analyfis, hiftory, and synthesis; and intimates an intention, if the method used 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 Effay 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, confifts of many fubordinate fyftems, all of which are con"nected by nice links and beautiful depen"dencies; and each of them, as I have fully

ઠંડ

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 wisdom or

utility; if LAW be a Science, and really

"deferve fo fublime a name, it must be "founded on principle, and claim an ex"alted rank in the empire of reason; 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 "strongest habitual, or artificial memory. In

66

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

invariably to yield, if not from a becoming "modefty, at least from a juft attention to "that object, for which all laws are framed, " and all focieties inftituted, THE GOOD OF "MANKIND."

Nothing can more ftrongly evince the predilection of Mr. Jones for his professional 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 translation 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 Eaftern 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.

to

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 conftitutional means, a reformation of parliament. It would have been surprising 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 should in all refpects correfpond with them; "but, as the "form in a course of years is apt to deviate "widely from the fpirit, it became (in his

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

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