LIT on the words of Littleton." The Tenures were professedly written for the instruction of the author's son, and however well adapted they may be to the capacity of a beginner, "the very adepts in the law," says Roger North, "are not, frequently, ashamed to read it. I knew a Lord Keeper, that read it every Christmas, as long as he lived." Lord Hobart held Littleton in such esteem, that he would not allow his authority to be questioned, for "the sayings of Master Littleton are adjudged for law, and are judgments." Fulbeck says, that Littleton, out of the great books of the law, gathered the most special Cases, which were either gene- rally agreed upon, or by the Court awarded to be law, or else, in all ages, received for positive rules. His book, doubtless, is of such singu- larity that Littleton is not now the name of a lawyer, but of the law itself. The civilian Hottoman, made some disparaging remarks of the Tenures, with reference to which, Lord Coke, who had no very kind feelings towards any species of learning that was not Common Law, and downright hatred for all Civilians, remarks : " It is a desperate and dangerous matter for Civilians and Canonists, (I speak what I know, and not without just cause,) to write either of the Common Laws of Eng- land, which they profess not, or against them which they know not. And for Littleton's Tenures, I affirm, and will maintain, against all oppo- sites whatsoever, that it is a work of as absolute perfection in its kind, and as free from error, as any book that I have known to be written of any human learning." Prcf. 10 Reports, 30; Fulbcck's Preparative, 71 ; Nic. Eng. Hist. Lib. 169; 4 Reeve's Hist. 113; Blaxland's Codex, 126; HofF. Leg. Stu. 221; Ritso's Law Educ. 162; 1 Butler's Rem. 115; 1 Bart. Conv, 17; No. 54, L. M. 286; I Campbell's Lives, 396; Plowden, 58; Nortli's Study of the Law, 11, 72; 1 Kent's Com. 503 ; Crabb's Hist. 425; Godbolt, 297; Willes, 332 ; 2 Young and J., 018; 1 M'Cl. & Y. 193. LITTLETON, THOMAS DE. A Commentary on the Tenures of Littleton, written prior to the publication of Coke upon Lit- tleton. Edited by Henry Cary, from the MSS. in the British Museum. 8vo. London. 1829. The author of this Commentary refers to Coke's Reports, and other works of that period, and lived in the reign of James I., but who he was is not known. His annotations are much less numerous than Coke's, and afford some striking and excellent illustrations of the Tenures, but, " so far as authority is concerned, no newly discovered and anonymous manuscript can compete with the prescriptive reputation of the First Institute." The editor collated the references in the MS. with the Re- ports and other works referred to, supplied some omissions, and performed a serviceable act in publishing a work upon the great expounder of the Law of Tenures, which had lain in MS. almost unknown, for more 469
