judiciously amplified to a great extent, and his own notes form a valuable addition to the work. In these notes he shows himself extremely familiar with the authors of the Civil Law, and displays throughout them, as well as in his exceedingly well-written and modest preface, a liberal and philosophical spirit. Mr. Kauffman's work will be complete in two volumes, of which the first is only now before us. The contents may be thus summarily stated: The introduction contains-first, the definitions of the law and legal science, followed by a history of the Roman law and of its sources. It is pleasing to find our faith in Gibbon confirmed by the fact, that the divisions adopted by him in his beautiful chapter on the Roman jurisprudence, have been recognized and followed by Hugo, Mackeldey, and the whole Germain school. It is, indeed, a curious fact, that the incessant activity and laborious investigations of the last half century, instead of shaking the authority of Gibbon have only served to rivet his great statute more firmly on its pedestal. Hugo's introduction to the Roman Law, of which we have in our hands a French translation, is, historically speaking, fuller than that before us, but Mackeldey's History of the Roman Law is peculiarly valuable, as containing a copious list of further sources of information, and thus enabling the students to reach the golden fountains themselves. This introduction, with a very interesting sub-division on the introduction and adoption of the Civil Law in Germany, fills 116 pages of Mr. Kauffman's volume. To this follows a general view of Rights under the Civil Law-of individuals with reference to the modifications of sex-age-freedom-domicile, &c.; and next of aggregations of individuals of corporations and the state (Fiscus or Treasury) and the Pia Causa, which resembles either a trust or a corporation for charitable uses. To this succeeds the Third division of Things and the Fourth of Rights and Remedies. This contains a very interesting lecture on Actions according to the civil system. It will be recollected indeed no lawyer that has ever read the Oration Pro Murena will ever be likely to forget that the Romans had a system of actions which might rival in its intricacy our trover, case, and assumpsit. Indeed, the inventors of formedon in reverter, aieul and besaieul, need not blush on being compared with their predecessors, the legulei of the Eternal City. It is on these that he turns the focus of his eloquence in that magnificent oration: Nam cum permulta praeclare legibus essent constituta, jurisconsultorum ingeniis pleraque corrupta ac depravata sunt Iisdem ineptüs fucata sunt omnia— totum est contemptum et abjectum. These actions and the general course of proceedings in the civil system are more fully set out in Mr. Kauffman's translation than in any work in English that we know of. He has largly availed himself of Savigny's great work, and thus greatly added to the value of his own. This closes the "General Part," as the editor has called it. Next comes the SPECIAL PART, which, perhaps, the student will find the most interesting of the two. This treats first of the nature of Real Rights, and under this of Possession, and Interdicts, or Praetorian Decrees. Then come the Definition and Nature of Property, Mode of Acquisition, Rights of the Proprietors as Joint-owners, and the mode of enforcing those rights by the Rei Vindicatio. Then follow Servitudes or Easements, the Emphyteusis, or Quasi Lease, and the Law of Morgages, with which this volume closes. The contents of the next volume will be Obligations, on which we have Pothier's valuable Treatise-Damages and Interest-Contracts, with the va rious actions deriving from themActio Institoria Exercitoria-Ad Exhibendum, &c., and the Extinction or Cancelment of Obligations. To this will succeed the Rights of the Family-Marriage-the Paternal Relations-Guardianship-the Law of Succession, or as we call it, Descent and Distribution-Wills and Trusts, closing with a general view of the Bankrupt System. It is very plain that these volumes when completed will contain a body of information on the Roman Law-its rights and its remedies, its principles and its practice that may in vain be sought elsewhere in the English tongue. Of Mr. Kauffman's familiarity with the subject, and his ability to make a work which shall be useful to the legal student, a very cursory examination will suffice to convince any one. Indeed no person could undertake such a task who was not thoroughly imbued with the feeling conveyed in those great words of Bacon-"I hold every man a debtor to his profession." It were vain for us to attempt to give any accurate notice of it by extracts. Mr. Kauffman's task has been one of great labor. The smallness of the type used may convey a very erroneous impression, but the excerpts from the Pandects and the collation of numerous authors has evidently required great time and patience. We are well disposed to quarrel with the author's English. We find no fault with his general knowledge of our language; indeed, in that respect, he has the marvellous and greatly-tobe-envied facility of all his countrymen. His preface contains only a single erroneous, or rather irregular expression, where he terms his explanation of the text "dogmatical;" there being nothing dogmatical in any part of the book. But his legal English is unusual, calculated to convey incorrect ideas and to deter the student. There is nothing more appalling to a person in quest of scientific information than to find himself encountered by the chevaux de frise of an arbitrary technical terminology. The Scotch Law may thank its abhorrent terms its poinding, its diligence, its horning, its multiple poinding, its litigiosity, its loosing of arrestment, and other similar euphonious epithets for the small rank it holds beyond its own borders. One technical vernacular is quite enough for one life-time. Now the Roman Law is remarkably free from difficulties of this kind. Our famili arity with Equity Law makes the greater part of it perfectly intelligible; but Mr. Kauffman, by not using techrical language in his translation of legal terms, or by misapplying those he does use, has inadvertently thrown considerable obstacles in the path of the student. Thus, the Establishment of Mortgages, § 340, p. 375, conveys no clear idea to the reader. The Creation of Mortgages would be intelligble. Again, on the same page, we find Establishment of Mortgages by Private Will. This at once, to an English reader. conveys the notion of a will and testament: what is meant is, "by the act of the party," and so the French translator has it-"par la volonte des particuliers." Again: "Thing capable" of a mortgage (p. 371) looks very dubious; subject would be clear. In other places the sense thus hecomes very uncertain. In page 385 he says: "As regards the form (it should be manner) of sale of mortgaged things, the creditor may sell the pledge privately (he means, by his own act); and he goes on to explain, i. e., without judicial authority. The private act, as Mr. Kauffman calls it, is the acte privé of the French Law-the act of the party done without any judgment or material solemnities. So what mean rights "with respect to modality"? Mr. Kauffman means condition; but he makes a word from modus, which is neither legal English nor, we believe, English of any description. We have noticed these defects because they are the only ones that a hasty perusal has enabled us to detect, and because a very cursory revision by an English proof-reader familiar with our legal terminology, would remove them. We lay down the volume satisfied that it will do great good, with great respect for Dr. Kauffmann, and an earnest desire for the second volume. S. CHALK MARKS. BY LINCOLN RAMBLE, ESQ. THE CORNER GROCERY.' THE corner grocery? Why, who ever heard of a grocery anywhere but on a corner? Gentle friend! you speak of times gone by. There was an era when no grocer would have had the effrontery to post himself any where else but on a corner, with a wooden platform elbowing around his two doors -a huge sand-box decorating one side of the angle, and haply a charcoal bin the other, while bags of sawdust emulating hams dangled from the awningpost rails. and barrels displayed their rotund proportions on the side walk. That was when we were boys, kind reader, and believed that Robinson Crusoe was quite as real, and much more of a hero than Captains Ross or Riley. We cared very little then for "the news by the last packet," or the "terrific convulsions in the money market." We never read newspapers except to find out when Kean was to play, or what day the Fourth of July would come on, or to discover when and where the most fun might be had for six pence. Don't say your love for the corner grocery has decayed. If the very name of it does not awaken a thousand old associations which nestle about your heart, I have no idea in what station of society your lot can have been cast. If you were born a getleman, and at the age of twelve conveyed your eminence on high heeled boots, with a tasseled cane in advance of an admiring papa, you know nothing about the matter I am treating. It is to you what olives are to the backwoodsman, or music to a shad. But you that were a boy in fact, I bid you stand. You can remember when you were forced to stand on "tip-toes," and slide your demand for a pound of butter over the surface of that counter. It saw you grow inch by inch, until you were ashamed of your checked apron and carried it in your hand until you got home, there to slip it on in the dark entry ere you faced your mother. It beheld you sprout from day to day until with a little trouble you could look in the face the copper-head, and carolus, the spurious penny, and counterfeit quarter which the grocer had nailed down to show that he knew a thing or two. You recollect when, as years passed on, and thoughts of turning your shirt-collar up, and wearing a cravat excited your ambition, you thought the visit to that grocery a foul disgrace. Have you in mind the last time you went there on an errand? But during the changes I hinted at, there was one time when that same sand-box at the corner was more adorable in your eye than any throne on earth. That was the place where you assembled in the evening to play "Jack of all trades," and "Jack, fetch a pound of candles." It beheld many of your contortions of feature and face while imitating the work of craftsmen, that your companions might from the initial letter guess the trade represented. Then of course it was "his turn" to give out the letters. "C," exclaims the performer, and straightway, while the boys are ranged with mouths agape before him, he saws an imaginary board, accompanying his elbow motions with a most discordant sound; next shoves an aerial jack-plane over an unseen surface, with a quiet kind of ish-ish-ish, and then hammers nails, and constructs admirable carpentry with exquisite skill. When the plays had become tiresome, and the number of boys diminished so as to detract from the interest of other sports, the noble remnant would huddle together in a corner, and hear some embryo proser dole out long stories about that same boy Jack who, always turned off at the cross-roads, where all the giants lived, and who never got into any scrape but he came off victor, until after exploits which would shame those of Hercules, and all the Atridal, he returned home laden with gold and jewels to his mother, and after that "They lived in peace, And died in a pot of grease." That couplet completed every story I ever heard on a sand-box, or in the porch of a corner store. When, where, or how it originated is one of the mysteries hidden amongst the dark recesses where may be sought the authorship of "Who killed Cock Robin?" and the lost poems of Menander. What a place the city corners are for storytelling! and, oh, what a "lion" is he that can relate stories to his admiring fellow-urchins ! The wonder or reverence with which a man looks upon another is generally the caput mortuum, left after the effervescence and decomposition of envy, suspicion, uncharitableness and vanity. But when one boy admires another, he feels as much pleasure in bestowing, as its object does in receiving the idolatry. More exalted is the glory of a chief among boys than of a Burke amongst statesmen. Has the corner grocery then, now that you are a man, lost all its attractiveness? Has it degenerated into a mere receptacle for casks, kegs, hams, brooms and flies? Is there nothing of interest in the sand-hox ? Has the glory departed from the door-step for ever? With what emotions do you scan a nest of tatterdemalions buried in an empty sugar-hogshead, gathering remnants of the saccharine from the well-scraped staves? Is it possible that you turn up your nose, and think of "juvenile depravity," and wonder at the inefficiency of the police, and mumble some stupid common-place about poor human nature," or regret that the young vagabonds are not sent to the House of Refuge. Has it come to this, that a corner grocery is no more respected than the House of Representatives? Why, if you could to one period, of which you are, pergo back haps, ashamed to think, you could remember when you felt more interest in the smoothing and ribbing of a pound of butter upon a white plate than of the whole Oregon question in all its 66 451 bearings. And I should like to know of you, with all your boasted experience and knowledge of the world, your place in society, and your place in the Custom House, or elsewhere, how much would you not give to exchange all your poor state for the independence of a boy, with a round jacket, though never so tattered? Ralph Nickleby said " Boy!" as "if he wouldn't be a boy again, even if he could." Are you a Ralph, or a natural man? 'Tis true that even in the midst of our happiest associations in boyhood, the trades we mimicked, and the daring of the heroes whose exploits we related, lured from us the wish to be men. But is that any reason for loving less the place hallowed by the first throes of our young ambition? I loved the corner grocery then, and I like it still in my maturity. I mean, of course, the grocery store of an elder dispensation, as palpable an idiosyncracy in our day as a venerable gentleman with a broad brimmed hat, buckled shoes, breeches and silk stockings. tidor, in the season of fruits, all panoMark the corner grocery in its frucplied with products from the greenhouse, the garden and the orchard, suitable for immediate use; others to be embalmed in saccharine integuments, and laid by for the wintry time, when the flavor of the delicate preserve will be a sweet memory of a by-gone summer. daintily clad in light wool, to keep off Oh! the round red peaches, so the chill of these cold nights. The purple-blue grapes clustering together with a half-polished, half-dim look, as if the breath of farewell had been breathed upon them by the vine they once adorned, to abide with them like a mother's love, to the moment of their destruction! playing their full proportions at the The burly pumpkins disdoor-step, hiding in their husky exterior the material for that pie which is declared in song to produce such a vibratory effect on the muscles of any one whose ancestor ever came within hail of Plymouth Rock, reminiscent of that glorious distich— "An Indian pudding, and a pumpkin pie, And that's what makes the Yankees fly." Just observe the corner grocery in the morning. The servant maids are flocking there from all directions. The greasy clerk, who seems to have a representative in his face from every article in the shop, smiles a familiar welcome. He has learned to splash broad compliments over a pound of butter, or a dozen of eggs, and is responsible for grievous mishaps in orderly families. He has kept a man of business waiting one minute beyond the usual time for the egg with which he makes his morning meal, and perhaps occasioned some drudging flirt a sudden dismissal from a good place. But how can she help lingering in the grocery? She must examine the hoards of fruit, and the newly-opened box of raisins, and the candles made after a new fashion; and with the eager love of knowledge peculiar to her sex, enquires the price of every article which she has no intention to purchase. While thus engaged the milk-man has come up with a can of fresh milk for the grocer, and perhaps the latest news reeking from the damp newspaper of early morning. There is momentous discussion about it between the milkman, the grocer's clerk, and the dilatory maid, until the first strikes down emphatically the top of his can, and starts off his horse for some new customer, the clerk turns to a ragged boy waiting a sixpence worth of charcoal, and Bridget stalks away to deliver a purchase, and perhaps receive a scolding. It may not be appropriate just here, but I cannot help alluding to one appurtenance of a certain grocery I have in my mind's eye. This is a pursy, black dog of the most aristocratic pretensions and habits. If there be one created being in this wide world which more than any other accepts the example of the lilies of the valley in neither toiling nor spinning, it is this same sable cur. He is above all "conventions," and cares nothing for "the spirit of our institutions." Pampered by his master, and a large circle of admirers, he is, beyond all comparison, the most abandoned sybarite of my acquaintance. In the morning you see him lagging at the heels of the grocer's clerk, to see the store opened. While the shutters are removing he stretches and yawns himself into a little activity, and on the door being opened, trots into the store to take a general survey, and discover what particular department is to furnish him delicacies during the day. After this general glance, he posts himself at But the angle of the door step, looking up and down the street, like a gentleman interested in real estate, and the improvements of the city. He is no great admirer of servant women. They have an unpolished way of trailing their hands along his back, "against the grain," or of pulling his ears. And so when they make their appearance he pretends to be very much engaged in examining a pile of straw-paper, old lemons, and unripe peaches, which a pig is also investigating, like a reviewer drowsing over a modern novel. when any of his acquaintances approach, he has a shake of the tail, a bow and a sneeze ready as the most sincere exhibitions of his pleasure. Still he is not quite ready for play yet, and the boy knows it. He has not had his breakfast. Wait a little until you see him jog out teres at que rotundus, his spirits mounted on a pedestal of butchers' meat, fresh from the shambles, and then you will find he is ready for any amenities suitable to his station in life. He receives the visits and attentions of his admirers like a prince, and indulges in no other active exercise that I can discover, except an occasional dash at some nomadic pig, whose vagrancy provokes his disgust. He has not the fierce antipathy to swine which some dogs exhibit. Your roasting-pig, with clean skin, and white snout, is no enemy in his eyes. He will even provoke the little porkee to some play, though the porkee comes slowly to the conclusion that sport is expected, and even then exhibits very little grace in adapting his awkward evolutions to the agile performances of Sir Black. But wo-wo to the huge, begrimmed, unrubbed swine that plod along with flabby ears, grunting around every collection of miscellanies in the street. He can't endure these wretches-an English squire never evinced more hatred for a poacher. Thus does this colored rascal spend his entire day, seeking and thinking of nothing but his own gratification. I must confess that I was not sorry when his nose was encased in a wire muzzle some months since. He had altogether too much unalloyed pleasure for any dog that could live. When this instrument was secured upon him he exhibited a degree of excitement unusual for an individual of a temperament so equable, and made se |