Here, in this man, we present a fit exemplar for all men, in every condition of social and civil life. nor to make a noise in the world. Many who hard thought between them, from the eventhave accomplished all these have been a curse ful moment when their destinies were linked rather than a blessing to mankind. But he, together on the altar! And knowing them and he alone, who honestly dedicates his tal- both as we did, we doubt not that she told the ents and his example to the happiness and im-truth. provement of his race, lives for his country, whatever may be his sphere. He who seeks his own aggrandizement at the expense of truth, or principle, or candor, does not live for his country-nor can he live for his country, in the full sense, whose example is demoralizing, or, in any way pernicions. But he truly lives for his country, who, in all the walks of life and relations of society, does as much good and as little harm as possible, and always acts according to the disinterested suggestions of a pure conscience and a sound head. Whatever may be his condition-high or low, conspicuous or obscure-he, whose life exemplifies and commends the negative and positive virtues, personal, social and civil-who lives in the habit of pure morality, enlarged patriotism and disinterested philanthropy and whose conduct and example are, as far as known and felt, useful to mankind-he and he alone lives for his country. And hence it is perfectly true that a virtuous peasant in a thatched hut may live more for his country than many idolized orators, triumphant politicians, or laureled chieftains. The noiseless life we have thus imperfectly sketched, illustrates most impressively the old fashioned truth, that "honesty is the best policy"--shows what may be achieved by industry, probity, and undissembled humilityproves how much better and more honorable it is to deserve than to seek preferment, and how certain modest merit will ever be of ultimate notice and reward--and may we not add, that it affords strong evidence of the important fact, that an enlightened mind, when once abstracted from the cares of earth or mellowed by affliction, will be apt to see the light and feel the value of the christian's hope, and to embrace, as the best of all books, the Christian's Bible? Surely this was a good aud a great manand most truly did he asseverate, on his exit from earth, "I HAVE LIVED FOR MY COUNTRY." him, as he was, without any drapery from either fancy or friendship. Posterity would be greatly benefitted, and his own fame much exalted by such a portraiture. Such is a brief outline of the life aud character of one of the best and greatest of men, hasThe life of John Boyle exhibits a practical tily and imperfectly sketched, by one who illustration of all the nobler and more useful knew him long and well, and who feels too virtues of our race. No man was ever more much respect for his virtues and reverence for chaste and upright in the whole tenor of his his memory to exaggerate or disguise the conduct; he had no selfish pride or sinister truth of faithful biography with any embelambition; he was punctiliously just and truth-lishment of empty panegyric. The best euloful; he was as frank and guileless as an artless gy of Boyle would be a naked exhibition of child untutored in the arts and ways of social life-his humility was most amiable and his benevolence unsurpassed. He always spoke as he thought and acted as he felt--and his sentiments were pure, and honorable, and alThe death of such a man, in the prime of his most always right. He devoted his life to the life, was a great public calamity. His inticultivation of his moral and intellectual facul-mate friends felt it most deeply, and regretted ties, and all those faculties were dedicated to that an inscrutable Providence had not spared the honest and useful service of his fellow-men him to delight and instruct the countrymen his family, and his country. He was a patriot whom he left behind him. Had he lived to a and benefactor in a pure and comprehensive mellow old age, he would have enjoyed the sense. His heart was his country's-his head ripe fruits of his earlier habits and toils, and was his country's--his hand was his country's have rendered inestimable service to his coun-his whole life was full of philanthropy and try in the example of a venerable, virtuous and lofty patriotism-and his example, altogether enlightened Patriarch. blameless and benificent, presents a full-orbed But doubtless it was better for him to die and spotless model, worthy of all imitation. when he did. He had lost his dearest earthly In contemplating his character we see noth-treasure--his house had become, to him, desoing to condemn-much to admire. As a lawyer, he was candid, conscientious and faithful--as a statesman, honest disinterested, and patriotic-as a Judge, pure, impartial, and enlightened--as a citizen, upright, just and faultless--as a neighbor, kind, affable and condescending--as a man, chaste, modest and benignant-as a husband, most constant, affectionate and devoted. late-and, by his early death, he escaped all the infirmities of extreme age. He died full of honor and of hope, when his setting sun had "all its beams entire-its fierceness lost." The worth of such a man is never fully known until long after his death. Posthumous fame is of slow growth, and never attains its full elevation until it has survived all personal prejudice and envy. Though Boyle We have heard his amiable and excellent died in peace with all mankind, and left not wife declare in his presence, not longer than a an enemy behind, yet his death was followed year before her death, that, notwithstanding by no sepulchral honors or postmortuary tesall the cares and crosses of domestic life, there timonial. No funeral eulogy, no public meethad never been a sour look, a harsh word or aling, no Bar resolution, nor even obituary no tice announced that he was dead, and that for ages. Boyle's illustrious deeds and rare Kentucky mourned. Nor has either marble virtues, if faithfully recorded and transmitor canvass, chisel or pencil, preserved any ted, will be long and gratefully remembered trace of his person. But this is just what he by approving posterity. And should a Taci would have preferred. He desired none of the tus ever become his biographer, his name will empty pageantry of mock sorrow-his memory be as immortal and at least as much honored needed no perishable memorial. Like old as that of Agricola. Cato, he built his own monument-and one far more honorable and enduring than any marble cenotaph or granite column. And now and henceforth, in all time to come, may every American youth emulate the Personal reminescences of the most revered virtues and imitate the bright example of John of our race moulder with their dead bodies, Boyle-and then, like him, he may be able and are soon buried forever with the dying honestly to declare, with the expiring breath generation that knew and loved them. Their that wafts him to eternity, "I HAVE LIVED deeds and their virtues alone may be embalmed FOR MY COUNTRY." PRELECTION. Lexington, Nov. 14th, 1842. Dear Sir:-We, the undersigned, a Committee appointed on the part of the Law Class, are instructed to request a copy of your very eloquent and appropriate address, delivered before the Class on Thursday last. By acquiescing, you will confer a favor upon us individually, and upon the Class. D. HOWARD SMITH, HON. GEORGE ROBERTSON. Committee. Lexington, Nov. 17th, 1842. Gentlemen:-The little Introductory Address, for which you have been pleased to express such favorable consideration, was intended chiefly for yourselves and those whom you represent, and therefore it is yours to dispose of as you may desire. Yours, respectfully, Messrs. D. H. Smith, J. L. Allen, and others. G. ROBERTSON. ADDRESS. Harmony is nature's law, and wonderful simplicity the order of Providence. Gravitation is not more universal or effective in the material than love is in the moral world. The moral, as well as the physical economy of the earth, is upheld and harmonized by an admirable chemistry, as universal and resistless as the voice of God. We are not gregarious merely, but instinctively, necessarily, and eminently social. Society is the natural state of man, and love is the attractive element of cohesion which binds us together, and the gravitating principle which holds us fast, as with chains of gold, to the almighty centre and source of all being. Reverence to God and sympathy for one another, are natural emotions of mankind; and consequently, religion and benevolence eminently distinguish our race, and point intelligibly to its duties and its ultimate destiny. old of manhood and the illimitable territory of law, aud that it might not be altogether unacceptable to a miscellaneous auditory, whether under the yoke or in a state of single blessedness, I propose, in this introductory address, unexpectedly and very hastily prepared, to present to you a syllabus of our law respecting marriage and divorce. We have said, and truly, that marriage is both a natural and civil union, the parent and the offspring of primitive society, and therefore, a fundamental relation, natural, social and civil. As defined by Rutherforth, it "is a contract between a man and a woman, in which, by their mutual consent, each acquires a right in the person of the other for the purposes of their mutual happiness, and of the protection and education of children." As it is a spontaneous union, for weal or for woe, it cannot be valid between the parties, But there is a more vital principle-a sexual without the unconstrained consent of both, and sympathy, that pervades and vivifies the living when each was legally competent to make universe-a more than Promethean fire, that such an alliance. But, though necessarily burns in the human heart, even when not one consensual, and partaking of the character of spark of vestal light may glow on the altar of a civil contract, it is anomalous, and in many God. This is the punctum saliens of being, of respects, sui generis. The legal age required society, and of human jurisprudence; and its for irrevocable consent to most commercial first hallowed fruit is marriage. The conjugal contracts is not necessary to the validity of is the natural condition of the sexes. The marriage, which may be binding, if actually bridal couch is prepared, and the nuptial knot consummated, between parties deemed habiles is tied by the hand of Omnipotence. Marriage is ad matrimonium, and that is, according to the not only a sacred union; it is also a rudimental common law, when the male is 14 and the ferelation, coeval with the first pair on earth-male 12 years old. Marriage, at or after those the nucleus of society-the parent of social order and civilization—the guardian of household purity-and the source of domestic charities and joys, without which man would be a wandering savage and woman a beast of burden. The beautiful and most eventful apologue revealed to us concerning our first progenitors, illustrates the true object and nature of the virtuous love and pure conjugal union of man and woman. It prescribes, too, the appropriate sphere of husband and wife-and, whilst it shews that she is "bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh,” and therefore subordinate, it exemplifies the fact of her potential supremacy over his will. As marriage, holy though it be, is also and chiefly a social and civil relation, it is subject of course to human as well as divine law; and few branches of our jurisprudence are more interesting or important than that which regulates the matrimonial state and its consequential rights and obligations. Presuming that the subject would interest and amuse young men just entering the thresh ages, is neither void nor voidable on the ground of infancy or juvenile indiscretion. According to the same ancient code, a marriage de facto, without any formal solemnization or proof of consummation than cohabitation and recognition, may be binding on the parties, and for most purposes as effectual as a marriage de jure. But a mère agreement to marry in futuro, is not ipsum matrimonium; and though a legal obligation may result from such a prospective stipulation, for a breach of which damages might be recovered, nevertheless a Court of Equity would never compel a specific execution, because coercion would frustrate the desirable ends of matrimony. Contemplating the equality of the sexes surviving "the accidents of flood and field," the importance of having well defined legal heirs, and the inappreciable value of concentrated affections, conjugal, filial, and parental-the genius of our common law, like that of Christianity, unites with the voice of nature and the suggestions of enlightened policy, in denounc ing, as meritricious, any other matrimonial connexion than that of monogamy; and conse-contract, might still be recognized as valid by quently as long as the legal relation of husband our courts, if such a marriage here would be and wife shall continue to subsist, neither of legal;-for example, the actual marriage of a the parties to it can lawfully marry any other monk in Spain, which is prohibited by that person, and any such prohibited marriage will Catholic sovereignty. be nullified by such subsisting pre-contract. Such is the international rule in Protestant And the same code of law only echoes the Christendom, as to the status of marriage, or voice of nature, when it declares that duress, the marital condition of the contracting parfraud, mental imbecility, and a prohibited de-ties. gree of propinquity by blood or affinity, may But, as to the legal consequences of marriage, avoid a marriage ab initio. a different rule of comity prevails. The law The legitimate effects of marriage, and the of the contemplated or actual domicil regulates importance of the various relative interests in- marital rights to moveable property; the law volved in it and depending on it, constitute it of the situs governs the same rights to immovan union for life, indissoluble, according to able estate; and the law of the habitation natural law, by either party without the con-controls the personal relations and obligations sent of the other, or without a substantial of the parties. No other sovereignty than breach by one, or the concurrence of both, and that of the domicilium habitationis can authorize perhaps not even then, if they have any child such a divorce as will be deemed valid in any to rear; and the divine law, as now revealed, forum of that domicil; for it might be as subverseems to prohibit a divorce even for a breach sive of the independence and conservative sovof the contract of marriage; for, though the creignty of a nation to suffer a foreign sovJewish Legislator, (Moses,) permitted divor-ereign to control its domestic institution and ces, yet his more perfect successor, contemplating the Christian economy in lieu of Judaism, said, "Whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." relation of marriage, as it would be to permit such foreign legislation over its terra firma, which has never been allowed or claimed. Consequently, a divorce of the citizens of one nation, granted by the authority of any other nation, may not be admitted as valid in any of the domestic tribunals. The positive laws regulating marriage and defining the relative rights and obligations resulting from it, differ essentially in different countries; and in these respects, the common law of England, which is substantially our law, is materially variant from the civil code of Rome, which is the substratum of the laws of a great portion of modern Europe, and also of those of Louisiana. The common law is less tolerant of divorces, and far less liberal to wives than the code of Justinean. Marriage is moreover, juris gentium; and, according to a modern code of international comity recognized among most Christian nations, the lex loci contractus generally determines the validity of this, as well as of other contracts. The degrading and injurious consequences that might obviously and frequently result from any other doctrine, have at last compelled proud England reluctantly to acknowledge the validity of even the stealthy marriages of her own subjects, at famous Gretna Green, in open violation of her local laws. But the recognition of all foreign marriages, valid where consumated, would neither be required by the fundamental principle of comity, nor be consistent with its reason. Our Teutonic code merges the legal exisThat principle, being the offspring of the mu-tence of the wife in that of her husband; intual interests of commercial nations, extends capacitates her to make any contract or testano further than may be useful for subserving mentary disposition otherwise than in executhose interests; and is consequently this-that tion of a power, express or implied; gives to foreign laws, though not entitled, proprio vigore, the husband a harsh dominion over her person, to extra-territorial operation, shall neverthe-the full exercise of which would not be toleraless be deemed as ubiquitous as the rights af- ted by the less authoritative but yet more fected by them, unless by giving them such supreme law of public sentiment, in a Chriseffect in a particular nation, its institutions, or tian society of this enlightened age. And, as its local policy, or the just and preferred rights to property, the same law is also unequal and of its own citizens might be undermined or apparently harsh. It vests absolutely in the jeoparded. Consequently, incestuous marria- husband all the moveable property possessed ges, incompatible with domestic purity; polig- by his wife at the time of her intermarriage, amy, or more wives than one; and polyandry, and the usufruct of her immovable estate duor a plurality of husbands, even though re- ring their joint lives, and even after her death cognized by the law of a foreign country, and as long as he may live, in the event of his 'where these unnatural unions may have been survivorship, the birth of an heir, and the refirst consummated, would not be tolerated in duction of the estate to his actual possession this country where they are deemed pestilent during the coverture. It gives to him also all and extensively mischievous. And, consistent- the chattels that come to her during the marly with the same conservative principle of riage; a right to recover and appropriate to comity, a foreign marriage unreasonably de- his own exclusive use all choses in action clared void by the local law of the place of the accruing after the marriage; and as adminis |