may ſuffice for perſons of inferior condition, who have neither time nor capacity to enlarge their views beyond that contracted ſphere in which they are appointed to move. But thoſe, on whom nature and fortune have beſtowed more abilities and greater leiſure, cannot be ſo eaſily excuſed. Theſe advantages are given them, not for the benefit of themſelves only, but alſo of the public: and yet they cannot, in any ſcene of life, diſcharge properly their duty either to the public or themſelves, without ſome degree of knowlege in the laws. To evince this the more clearly, it may not be amiſs to deſcend to a few particulars.
Let us therefore begin with our gentlemen of independent eſtates and fortune, the moſt uſeful as well as conſiderable body of men in the nation; whom even to ſuppoſe ignorant in this branch of learning is treated by Mr Locke[1] as a ſtrange abſurdity. It is their landed property, with it’s long and voluminous train of deſcents and conveyances, ſettlements, entails, and incumbrances, that forms the moſt intricate and moſt extenſive object of legal knowlege. The thorough comprehenſion of theſe, in all their minute diſtinctions, is perhaps too laborious a taſk for any but a lawyer by profeſſion: yet ſtill the underſtanding of a few leading principles, relating to eſtates and conveyancing, may form ſome check and guard upon a gentleman’s inferior agents, and preſerve him at leaſt from very groſs and notorious impoſition.
Again, the policy of all laws has made ſome forms neceſſary in the wording of laſt wills and teſtaments, and more with regard to their atteſtation. An ignorance in theſe muſt always be of dangerous conſequence, to ſuch as by choice or neceſſity compile their own teſtaments without any technical aſſiſtance. Thoſe who have attended the courts of juſtice are the beſt witneſſes of the confuſion and diſtreſſes that are hereby occaſioned in families; and of the difficulties that ariſe in diſcerning the true meaning
- ↑ Education. §. 187.
