THE SOUTHERN REVIEW. VOL. III. FEBRUARY & MAY, 1829. CHARLESTON: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY A. E. MILLER, SOUTHERN REVIEW. NO. V. FEBRUARY, 1829. ART. I.-Observations on the Actual State of the English Laws London. In our review of "Kent's Commentaries," we remarked almost in the very words of Mr. Humphreys, that "far from being cultivated on general principles, jurisprudence (that is to say, English jurisprudence) has, with a few exceptions, been viewed as consisting of a series of positive institutions, of a local, or, at most, of a national character." We had not then read the admirable treatise mentioned at the head of this article, or we should have taken pains to except it out of a censure which we passed, and we believe justly, upon most of our elementary treatises. We hail, in Mr. Humphreys, the founder of a new school-that, namely, of philosophical lawyers-of those who look upon jurisprudence as a science and a system, and would have it approach, as nearly as possible, to the standard of right reason and of natural law. It is not disparaging such writers as Fearne and Sugden to say, that with all their learning and ability, their works belong to a decidedly inferior class. Of the treatises on Contingent Remainders and Executory Devises, Mr. Humphreys himself remarks, that "it is to be regretted that the times were not then ripe for directing the talent that produced them, towards simplifying, instead of systematizing the refinements of landed property." No. 3. Art. iii. We add to this observa |