George Joseph Bell's Inaugural Lecture
Pages | 341-357 |
Author | Kenneth G C Reid |
Date | 01 September 2014 |
DOI | 10.3366/elr.2014.0228 |
Published date | 01 September 2014 |
On 3 January 1822 David Hume, the long-serving and distinguished Professor of Scots Law at Edinburgh University, was appointed to judicial office as a Baron of Exchequer.
G C H Paton, “A biography of Baron Hume”, in
I am grateful to my colleague Dan Carr for discovering and transcribing this letter, which is held in the Library of the University of St Andrews as part of a volume of early nineteenth-century pamphlets and catalogued as G J Bell,
26, Hill Street, January 9, 1822
Sir,
On coming to town this afternoon, I learn that the Chair of the Professor of Scottish Law is likely to become vacant by the appointment of Mr Hume to the Court of Exchequer. And some of my friends, thinking of me I fear more favourably than I deserve, have urged me to put myself in nomination as a Candidate. The distinction of such an Office, conferred by the free voice of the Faculty of Advocates, I consider as one of the highest honours of the Profession; and my election to this Charge as one of the most important trusts which the Public has reposed in our body; But, encouraged as I have been by the kind partiality of my friends, and in the hope that, should the election fall on me, I may be enabled, by that free and unreserved intercourse which I have hitherto enjoyed with my Brethren, to supply, in the performance of the duty, some of those defects of which I am conscious, I beg to propose myself for your consideration as a Candidate.
I have the honour to be,
SIR,
Your most obedient and faithful Servant
On Mathew Ross, “a worthy innocent man .. but with not a particle of worldly knowledge”, see Lord Cockburn,
The Act required a leet of two names, but by this time the practice had developed of including as the second name a person whose position excluded him from appointment.
Bell was born on 26 March 1770.
From 1816 to 1818, in place of his deceased elder brother, Robert: see W M Gordon, “Bell, George Joseph (1770–1843)”
Hume's final lecture to the class of Scots Law was delivered on 12 January 1822, three days before taking up his position as a Baron of Exchequer;
Paton (n 1) 371.
thereafter his lectures were read out by a fellow advocate, the future Lord Medwyn.John Hay Forbes, Lord Medwyn (1776–1854).
For Bell's lectures during the years in which he held the Chair of Scots Law (1822–43), see K G C Reid, “From text-book to book of authority: the
Our readers, we imagine, will all agree that the circumstance which at present is most deserving of notice under this head,
The head in question was “Law”.
is the commencement, on Tuesday last, of a Course of Lectures on Scots Law by the learned Author of COMMENTARIES ON THE BANKRUPT LAW of SCOTLAND.Perhaps an unfortunate manner of expressing the title of that distinguished work.
It obviously proceeded from a mind imbued deeply with the importance and dignity of the subject, and was distinguished no less by a classic elegance of manner, than a philosophic spirit. It gave an earnest, that in the future course, practical details would be rendered illustrative of principles; and that, while the students would be taught to know what the law actually was, they would also be furnished with the means of forming an opinion of what it ought to be.
Hitherto, these brief and uninformative remarks were thought to be the only surviving evidence of the content of Bell's first lecture. Recently, however, a set of student notes has become available; formerly in private hands,
The last of the private owners was Professor George Gretton, who donated the notes to Edinburgh University Library.
it has now been lodged in Edinburgh University Library. The notes, which cover all of Bell's first year as professor, beginning on 12 November 1822 and ending, rather suddenly, many months later with the words “Interrupted by the Circuit”, are exceptionally clear and full. They occupy 211 pages of a bound folio volume under the headingOf course, student notes, even good ones, are not the same as Bell's actual text. Yet in the absence of a copy of that text – and none is known to have survived – they provide as reliable an account of Bell's words as is now likely to be found. Having regard to the difficulties of capturing all that was said by someone speaking at normal speed, it may be assumed that the notes do not form a complete record of Bell's inaugural lecture. Further, the student may have chosen to be selective in what he committed to paper. There will, therefore, be omissions in the notes, and perhaps significant ones. But in respect of those parts of the lecture which the student was able or chose to record, there is no reason to question the accuracy of what he wrote – a view which, as we will see, tends to be supported by comparison with notes taken by other students in later years.
The introductory part of Bell's course of lectures occupies the first sixteen pages of the student's notes.
At the end of this Bell turns to his first substantive topic, which is obligations and contract.
The length alone would indicate material which is more extensive than could possibly have been covered in Bell's initial lecture on 12 November;The first page of the notes is headed “Edinburgh 12th Nov 1822”.
For the possibility that this date should actually have been Friday 15 November, see n 57 below.
Bell's introductory material can be seen as comprising three distinct parts, indicated below by (editorial) headings. Bell begins with an account of the nature of law and of the means of studying...
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