Law Reports—Multiplicity of Law-Books [pp. 76-84]

LAW REPORTS:
turn to the past, and call to mind the great and good deeds
of him who there lies intombed! What sacred resolves he
there makes to lead the life of a Washington, that he may re ceive the love and honor of his countrymen?
He there glories in the thought, that America, that his
country, has presented to the world a man, unequalled, for
the real, true characteristics of greatness and wisdom.
Further on, up the winding road, is the beautifully situated
and spacious mansion in which, near sixty years ago, the
great man lived and died In it are displayed the utensils
and smaller possessions of Washington, where they are most
sacredly kept, under the jealous and watchful eye of a loving
people. And from its portico may be had one of the most
enchanting views of the noble river that rolls at the base of
the hill upon which the mansion is situated, and upon whose
bosom he so often took a prominent part in the manly exercises of rowing and shooting.
Honored be the patriot's name: " First in war, first in
peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
Leaving, with reluctance, Mount Vernon, we follow the
river down to its mouth. It empties into Chesapeake Bay,
at which point it is seven and a half miles in width, and
seven and a half fathoms in depth. The termination of the
tide water is three hundred miles from the mouth of the
river, and it is navigable for nearly the whole of that distance.
ART. VIII.-LAW REPORTS-MULITIPLCITY OF LAW-BOOKS.
WHAT is municipal law? What the common law? What
the origin of the civil and the common law? Who makes the
laws?
Not one of these questions admit of a definite, precise, or
comprehensive answer. Learned commentators are not
agreed about it. That law is a thing of natural origin, growth,
and accretion, is one theory. This theory is, however, only
partially true, for occasionally a new statute, or a revised code,
or a new decision, successfully upsets and repeals pre-existing
law. Which, then, is natural, the old law, or the new one
that repeals and supplants it? Both, possibly, in their origin.
The old law had become unsuited to the times, therefore unnatural, and was properly repealed. The new is sure, in the
lapse of ages, to become unsuited to the new relations of progressive society, and must, in turn, share the fate of its defunct predecessor. Law is like language, it is constantly
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