¹ The general attitude is reflected by the brevity of the entries on Chambers and Wooddeson in Simpson, A.W.B. (ed.), Biographical Dictionary of the Common Law (London 1984)Google Scholar. The editor's entry on Wooddeson (who became Vinerian Professor in 1777) is less than five printed lines. Ibid., p. 549. Of Chambers (who filled the Vinerian chair immediately after Blackstone), the editor writes, he “was one of the many undistinguished successors of Blackstone … His dreary Treatise on Estates and Tenures (1824) based on his lectures gives a grim picture of the lot of his students.” Ibid., p. 109. Scholars who have studied the lectures of Chambers, however, have evaluated them far more positively and shown that their study plays an important part in the intellectual history of legal classification. See Cairns, John W.' review of Chambers's lectures. “Eighteenth Century Professorial Classification of English Common Law“ (1987) 33 McGill Law Journal 225–244.Google Scholar Professor Baker has exposed some of the sources for the traditional negative view of Chambers and concluded. “Here [in Chambers] is a competent, lucid, and sometimes eloquent survey of the Georgian constitution and the common law. If it cannot be placed on the same level as Blackstone, equally it cannot be denied a fairly prominent place in the canon of legal literature. Anyone who now turns to Blackstone for legal guidance will be advised to refer to Chambers as well.” Baker, J.H., Review of A Course of Lectures on the English Law delivered at the University of Oxford 1767–1773. by Chambers, Robert, in (1989) 7 Law and History Review 389 (1989).Google Scholar

² Simpson, A.W.B. (ed.), Biographical Dictionary, p. 114.Google Scholar The entry on Christian is not by Professor Simpson.

³ The stories are repeated from Venn, J.A. (comp.), Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of all known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge from the Earliest Times to 1900 (Cambridge 1922–1954), part II, vol. 2, p. 33Google Scholar; and The Dictionary of National Biography, ed. Stephen, Leslie and Lee, Sidney (Oxford 1917, reprint ed. 1967–1968), vol. 4, pp. 276–277.Google Scholar

⁴ Gunning, Henry, Reminiscences of the University, Town, and County of Cambridge from the Year 1780 (London 1854), vol. 1, pp. 210–220.Google Scholar

⁵ From Gunning's treatment of the failure of the Savings Bank, which Christian promoted, it is evident that Gunning had some connection with the venture—perhaps, as Gunning takes pains to establish, an involuntary one. Ibid.

⁶ Holdsworth, William, A History of English Law (London 1952), vol. 13, p. 481.Google Scholar Holdsworth cited Christian's notes to Blackstone as authoritative. See Ibid., vol. 15, p. 211 (approving a note on tithes); Ibid., vol. 10, p. 403 (royal control of weights and measures). Holdsworth observed that two controversial positions that Christian advocated became accepted law. First, Christian had argued against Blackstone's view that the title of game was in the Crown and maintained, on the contrary, that game was the property of the landowner, Ibid., vol. 13, p. 490. Secondly, Christian had argued that the Copyright Act of 1709 required publishers to deposit books with certain libraries, regardless of whether the work were registered. Ibid., vol. 15, p. 39. He singled out Christian's editions of Blackstone's Commentaries for discussion. Ibid., vol. 12. p. 715.

⁷ Venn, J.A., op. cit.Google Scholar.

⁸ Minutes of the Proceedings of the Court-Martial Held at Portsmouth, August 12 1792, on Ten Persons charged with Mutiny on Board His Majesty's Ship the Bounty: with an Appendix containing a Full Account of the Real Causes and Circumstances of that Unhappy Transaction, the Most Material of which have hitherto been withheld from the Public (London 1794).Google ScholarChristian was identified as the author of the appendix; Bligh responded; and Christian replied with A Short Reply to Capt. William Bligh's Answer (London 1795, reprinted Melbourne 1952).Google Scholar

⁹ Hough, Richard, Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian: The Men and the Mutiny (London 1972), p. 56.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Venn, , op. cit.Google Scholar

¹¹ Cinzia Maria Sicca with Harpum, Charles and Powell, Edward, Committed to Classicism: The Building of Downing College Cambridge (Cambridge 1987), p. 36Google Scholar, cites Christian's correspondence with the third Lord Hardwicke in the British Museum.

¹² See Leader, Damian Riehl, A History of the University of Cambridge, vol. 1: The University to 1546 (Cambridge 1988), pp. 192–201.Google Scholar

¹³ The story is recounted by Stanley French, The History of Downing College Cambridge (Downing College Association 1978), pp. 7–81Google Scholar, and Pettit Stevens, H.W., Downing College, University of Cambridge College Histories series (London 1899), pp. 1–49.Google Scholar See also Sicca, , Committed to Classicism, pp. 13–18.Google Scholar Stevens includes a copy of the founder's will and codicil, Downing College, pp. 256–270. Downing's goal was unusual in directing that the college be dedicated to “useful learning”, and the younger Pitt apparently suggested the practical orientation in place of the more traditional professorship in oriental languages, which was designated in an earlier draft of the will. Ibid., pp. 65–67.

¹⁴ Technically, this title was granted only “until Downing College should be founded”. Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, vol. 4, p. 432.Google Scholar Christian employed the title on his 1797 syllabus; his 1811 syllabus listed him as The Downing Professor of the Laws of England; but his 1816 syllabus resumed the title of Professor of the Laws of England. Jeremiah Pemberton may have been first considered for the chair, as the Master's appointment of Christian noted “vice Jeremy Pemberton Esq.; promoted to the Chief Justiceship of Nova Scotia.” Ibid., p. 432 n.5 (quoting Cambridge Chronicle of 10 May 1788). But Pemberton never assumed any duties of the chair, and Christian's appointment in 1788 observed that he had lectured for three years. Pemberton's tenure as Chief Justice was short (August 1788 to October 1789).

¹⁵ French, History of Downing College, p. 83. As Chief Justice he received a stipend of 155 pounds. Stevens, Downing College, p. 129.

¹⁶ Stevens, Downing College, pp. 59, 69; French, History of Downing College Cambridge, p. 135.

¹⁷ French, History of Downing College, p. 91.

¹⁸ Sicca, Committed to Classicism, p. 39.

¹⁹ The Origin, Progress, and Present Practice of the Bankrupt Law: Both in England and Ireland (London 1812–1914);Google ScholarIbid., 2nd ed. much improved and enlarged (London 1818); Practical Instructions for suing out a Commission of Bankrupt: With the Best Modern Precedents, and a Digest of Supplemental Cases (London 1816)Google Scholar; Ibid., 2nd ed. much improved and enlarged (London 1820).

²⁰ French, The History of Downing College Cambridge, 83.

²¹ Quoted in Stevens, Downing College, 129.

²² See, for example, Smith's, Adam lectures of 1762 and 1766. Smith's, Adam, Lectures on Jurisprudence, ed. Meek, R.L., Raphael, D.D., and Stein, P.G. (Oxford 1978; reprint cd. Indianapolis 1982).Google Scholar

²³ Blackstone and Boswell recorded the educational inactivity of the inns of court in the eighteenth century. See also Baker, J.H., The Third University of England: The Inns of Court and the Common-Law Tradition (London 1990), p. 21.Google Scholar The educational role of the inns of court needs careful study, but there arc signs of revival of teaching at the time Christian was admitted to Gray's Inn. Christian himself formed a mooting society with three others in Grays Inn. J.H. Baker, Introduction, Readings and Moots at the Inns of Court in the Fifteenth Century, vol. 2: Moots and Readers' Cases, ed. Thorne, Samuel E. and Baker, J.H., Sclden Society (London 1990), vol. 105, p. Ixxvi.Google Scholar The revival of the moot tradition was followed by organised courses of lectures. J.H. Baker has brought to my attention that the Lincoln's Inn library preserves an 84-page syllabus of lectures by Nolan given at Lincoln's Inn in 1796. It is possible that Christian attended lectures on the common law at Gray's Inn, and he might have been first exposed to a syllabus for such a course at that time. As is true for Christian's own publications, the lack of surviving syllabi or other records of teaching at the Inns docs not support an inference that organised courses of lectures and even published syllabi did not exist. It is sobering to recall that very few copies of Christian's syllabi are known to exist. There is only one known copy of the syllabus from 1811, and it is incomplete.

²⁴ Commentaries on the Laws of England, in Four Books, 4 vols., 12th ed., with notes and additions by Christian, Edward (London 1793–1995).Google Scholar

²⁵ Commentaries on the Laws of England, in Four Books, 4 vols., with notes and additions by Edward Christian, 13th ed. (London 1800); 14th ed. (London 1803); 15th ed. (London 1809).Google Scholar

²⁶ St. George Tucker did not identify Christian on the title page, but he retained many of Christian's notes and acknowledged their importance in an Advertisement prefaced to the second volume. Blackstone's Commentaries: with Notes of Reference to the Constitution and Laws, of the Federal Government of the United States; and of the Commonwealth of Virginia, ed. StTucker, George (Philadelphia 1803).Google Scholar

²⁷ Gunning wrote of Christian's failure at the Bar and provided amusing anecdotes that later biographers repeated.

²⁸ The absence of surviving syllabi for other years does not itself support an inference that Christian did not publish additional syllabi. But it is likely that his syllabus of 1797 was his first published syllabus because of his remarks in its preface.

²⁹ Wooddeson first published his syllabus in 1783 as an appendix to Elements of Jurisprudence treated of in the Preliminary Part of a Course of Lectures on the Laws of England (London 1783), pp. 111–118.Google Scholar He republished the syllabus in A Systematical View of the Laws of England; as treated in a course of Vinerial Lectures, read at Oxford. during a series of years. commencing in Michaelmas Term, 1777 (London 1792–93). vol. I. pp. 5–14.Google Scholar

³⁰ See Wooddeson, , Elements of Jurisprudence, p. 110.Google Scholar

³¹ In this way, Wooddeson's organisation was closer to Thomas Wood's arrangement of topics in his treatise: 1) Persons, 2) Estates (property), 3) Crimes, and 4) Jurisdiction of Courts. See Wood, An Institute of the Laws of England; or The Laws of England in their Natural Order. According to Common Use (London 1724; reprint ed. New York 1979).Google Scholar For a discussion of Wood, emphasising similarities between Wood and Blackstone, see Robinson, Robert B.. “The Two Institutes of Thomas Wood: A Study in Eighteenth Century Legal Scholarship” (1991) 35 The American Journal of Legal History 438–442, 456–457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³² Chambers's lectures did not appear in print until 1986. Chambers, Robert, A Course of Lectures on the English Law Delivered at the University of Oxford 1767–1773, ed. Curley, Thomas M. (Madison 1986).Google Scholar Part of Chambers's lectures appeared in 1824, but that text was defective. See Baker, J.H., Review of Chambers's A Course of Lectures, in (1989) 7 Law and History Review 387 (1989).Google Scholar

³³ The following close analysis of the sequence and organisation does not mean to suggest that the syllabi can be closely read. In fact the syllabi were probably not carefully prepared, and they were not proofread with care. For instance, chapter 27 of the 1797 syllabus read, “The Laws of Descent of Real Prosperity [sic[

³⁴ Introduction, A Syllabus, or, the Heads of Lectures publicly delivered in the University of Cambridge (London1811), pp. 18–19Google Scholar; A Syllabus, or, the Heads of Lectures publicly delivered in the University of Cambridge (London 1816), p. 19.Google Scholar

³⁵ See Cairns, J., “Eighteenth Century Professorial Classification of English Common Law” (1987) 33 McGill Law Journal 243.Google Scholar

³⁶ Syllabus (1811), p. 16; Syllabus (1916), p. 17.Google Scholar

³⁷ Ibid.

³⁸ Student lecture notes of Fisk Goodeve Harrison from 1813 are interleaved with Harrison's copy of the 1811 syllabus, D/DU 161/392 Essex Record Office. (At the request of the Archives I observe that the Archives does not claim ownership of the copyright of the manuscript notes.) Harrison was fellow commoner at St. John's in 1811, received a B.A. (1815) and M.A. (1819). Unlike most of Christian's students, Harrison pursued a legal career and was admitted to the Inner Temple (1816). He later served as Justice and Sheriff in Essex. Venn, J.A., op. cit. note 3 above, part II, vol. 3, p. 260.Google Scholar

³⁹ See A Treatise on the Game Laws: in which it is fully Proved, that, Except in Particular Cases, Game is now, and has always been, by the Law of England, the Property of the Occupier of the Land upon which it is Found and Taken: with alterations suggested for the Improvement of the System (London 1817); 2nd ed.Google Scholar (London 1821).

⁴⁰ Part of a note from a two-sided manuscript page in the possession of Baker, J.H. (author unknown). The other side of the paper contains notes on Hale's History of the Pleas of the Crown.Google Scholar

⁴¹ See A Vindication of the Right of the Universities of Great Britain to a Copy of Every New Publication (Cambridge 1807); 2nd ed. much enlarged (London 1814); 3rd ed. (London 1814)Google Scholar; Reasons for a Modification of the Act of Anne respecting Delivery of Books and Copyright (London 1813).Google Scholar

⁴² Harrison, F.G., Notes to Christian's lecture on chapter 4 of the syllabus.Google Scholar

⁴³ Syllabus (1811), p. 43; Syllabus (1816), p. 49.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Syllabus (1797), p. 50, remarked, “The doctrine of Sir Wm. Blackstone, that all the game belonged to the King by the common law, controverted”. See also his treatise on the game laws referred to in note 39 above.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Christian's annotation to Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 15th ed., vol. 2, p. 11 n.3.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Henry Fielding, “A Charge delivered to the Grand Jury at the Sessions of the Peace held for the City and Liberty of Westminster, &c. on Thursday, the 29th of June, 1749,” in The Works of Henry Fielding, Esq., ed. Stephen, Leslie (London 1882), vol. 7, pp. 121–146.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ The Charge of the Chief Justice Edward Christian, Esq.; to the Grand Jury, at the Assizes held at Ely. To Which are annexed, Observations upon the Inefficacy of an Armed Peasantry (Cambridge 1804)Google Scholar; Charges delivered to Grand Juries in the Isle of Ely, upon Libels, Vagrants, Criminal.Google ScholarLaw, Religion, Rebellious Assemblies, &c. &c. For the Use of Magistrates and Students of the Law, 2nd ed. (London1819)Google Scholar; A Vindication of the Criminal Law, and the Administration of Public Justice in England, from the Imputation of Cruelty: in a Charge delivered to the Grand Jury at the Assizes held at Ely (London 1819);Google ScholarCharges delivered to Grand Juries in the Isle of Ely, 3rd. ed., in College Pamphlets, vol. 205 (London, 1821).Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Vindication, pp. 31–32.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ ibid., pp. 40–41.

⁵⁰ “Juries may sometimes give absurd verdicts from ignorance; but I never knew of an instance. I repeat it, from a wish to give a verdict contrary to the evidence, and to counteract the established law of the land”. ibid., p. 11.

⁵¹ ibid., p. 2. Christian's treatment of the problem contrasted with Fielding who openly acknowledged the difficulty for prosecutions posed by the “tender-hearted”. “Inquiry”, Works, vol. 7, pp. 251–253.Google Scholar

⁵² Vindication, pp. 18–19.Google Scholar

⁵³ ibid., p. 43.

⁵⁴ ibid., p. 30.

⁵⁵ ibid., p. 76.

⁵⁶ ibid., pp. 30–31.

⁵⁷ E.g., ibid., pp. 31–38.

⁵⁸ ibid., p. 45.

^{59 4} Blackstone, Commentaries, p. 11.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ “As to the measure. … the quantity of punishment can never be absolutely determined by any standing invariable rule; but it must be left to the arbitration of the legislature …”. ibid., p. 12.

⁶¹ Adam Smith proposed a direct retributionist standard, discounting the passion of the victim, for the measure of punishment: “Now in all cases the measure of the punishment to be inflicted on the delinquent is the concurrence of the impartial spectator with the resentment of the injured”. Lectures on Jurisprudence, p. 104.Google Scholar

^{62 4} Blackstone, Commentaries, ch. 18, pp. 250–256.Google Scholar

⁶³ E.g., Beccaria, C., On Crimes and Punishments, trans. Paolucci, H., in Gay, P. (ed.), The Enlightenment: A Comprehensive Anthology (New York 1973), pp. 734–735.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Fielding, “Inquiry”, note 51 above, pp. 265–270.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Vindication, p. 45.

⁶⁶ ibid., p. 46.

⁶⁷ Holmes, O.W. Jr., The Common Law (Boston 1881), p. 58.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Vindication, pp. 46–47.

⁶⁹ ibid., p. 58.

⁷⁰ ibid., p. 51.

⁷¹ He observed that it was still no crime, for example, to steal growing crops, nor maliciously to destroy crops and certain personalty. ibid., pp. 35–36.

⁷² He quoted from Cicero. ibid., p. 42.

⁷³ ibid.

⁷⁴ ibid., p. 51.

⁷⁵ ibid., p. 49.

⁷⁶ ibid., p. 50.

⁷⁷ ibid., p. 52.

⁷⁸ The accused had asked an employee to steal goods from his employer. The employee disclosed the plot to his employer who permitted the employee to deliver goods to the accused. The permission prevented the taking from being trespassory and also prevented the goods from being “stolen”, so the accused could not be convicted of either larceny or receiving stolen goods. Christian preferred an indictment against the accused for soliciting the agent to steal, which the Sessions accepted (by a majority of one vote). Christian successfully defended two writs of error in King's Bench. See Syllabus (1816), pp. 34–35 nn.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ ibid., p. 53.

⁸⁰ ibid., p. 53.

⁸¹ ibid., p. 55.

⁸² ibid.

⁸³ ibid.. p. 60.