1 present instance the legislature has, in the most positive manner, required the agreement to be in writing. What course might we have expected the courts of equity to follow ? What was, undoubtedly, anticipated by the legislature? That equity would, under ali circumstances, have held a parol agreement to be void. This would have been to construe the statute in a mode which would have precluded frauds arising from the specific source at which the legislature aimed, viz. from agreements being by parol. But the courts of equity reasoned thus. The statute was passed to preclude frauds, and it would be to make it a medium of fraud, if we do not enforce parol agreements which have been partly performed. The answer to which is, that after an enactment expressly requiring every agreement for the sale of lands to be in writing, those who choose still to rely on agreements by parol, have no more to complain of in such agreements being regarded as actual nullities, than if they were to neglect any other positive declaration of the legislature. We are glad to find that Lord Redesdale has viewed this subject in the same light. His lordship added, that "the great reason why part payment does not take parol agreement out of the statute, is, that the statute has said that in another case, viz. with respect to goods, it shall operate as a part performance. And the courts have therefore considered this as excluding agreements for lands, because it is to be inferred, that when the legislature said it should bind in case of goods, and was silent as to the case of lands, that they meant it should not bind in the case of lands.” We trust that this decision, which is consonant to the true spirit of a wholesome statute, will be established, though failing, as we conceive it does, in that part of its premises to which we have above alluded. But though judicial determinations have, in an infinity of instances, grown into principles, and become irresistible authority, yet when founded on a statute, which may always be referred to, and the construction of which is open to the courts at all times, precedents are not "the 1 It seems that no part performance takes a case out of the French enactment. "With us," said Mr. Brougham, in his late speech on the state of the law, things are so numerous which take transactions out of the statute of frauds, that the memorandum is only in a small proportion of cases required."-Colburn's Edition, p. 90. We agree with him, that as almost all men are able to write at the present day, its outlets should be stopped up.-Ibid. wanting to show that a series of dicta and decisions, however long, may be subverted, if considered to militate against its real meaning and policy. 1 A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MR. FEARNE, WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS ON HIS ESSAY ON CONTINGENT REMAINDERS, &c. THE lives of men devoted to scientific or literary pursuits can rarely be chequered by that diversity of incident, which gives biography its principal charm. They are, however, scarcely less interesting on this account to those who are treading the same paths, and who, fixing their eyes on the useful or splendid results of intellectual labour, naturally contemplate, with nearly an equal pleasure, the means of their production. Charles Fearne was the eldest son of Fearne, Esquire, judge advocate of the admiralty, who presided at the trial of the unfortunate Byng, and who, on that remarkable occasion, and in the general course of his profession, was esteemed a very able and learned man. He gave his son Charles the first rudiments of education himself, and at a proper age sent him to Westminster School, where he was soon distinguished for classical and mathematical attainments. Being designed for the law, as soon as he had finished his education at this seminary, he was entered at the Inner Temple, but with no fixed resolution to become a barrister. His life had hitherto passed in making excursions from one branch of learning to another, in each of which he made very considerable advances, and might perhaps have succeeded in any. During this state of irresolution his father died. The interest with which our author is regarded, as the first who successfully digested and elucidated the most abstruse, multifarious, and obscure department of our law of real pro It seems to have been on this principle that the House of Lords proceeded, when in the great case of Ffytche v. the Bishop of London, it determined (May 1783) that a general bond to resign at the patron's request was illegal. 2 Chalmers's B. D. vol. xiv. 159. perty, will be much augmented when it is known that he was one of those who, in the commencement of their professional career, have had to struggle with the res angusta domi, and overleap "poverty's unconquerable bar." But the circumstance was far more honorable to him than to those who have merely surmounted the obstacle of poverty. This will be shown by the following fact, which (it has been justly remarked1) may be looked on as the blossom of that independence and generosity which distinguished him through life. His father, besides being at a great expense for his education, presented him on his entrance into the Temple with a few hundred pounds, to purchase chambers and books; yet generously overlooking these circumstances, left his fortune, which was inconsiderable, to be equally partitioned between our author and a younger brother and sister. The former, however, sensible how much the family property had been wasted on his account, nobly refused the advantage of the will, and gave up the whole residue to the other children. My father" said he, "by taking such uncommon pains with my education, no doubt meant that it should be my whole dependence; and if that won't bring me through, a few hundred pounds will be a matter of no consequence." 66 Those who know the absorbing nature of legal studies, when pushed to the extreme essential to success, or rather to eminence, will learn with surprise, that Mr. Fearne was not merely a general scholar, but "profoundly versed in mathematics, chemistry, and mechanics. He had obtained a patent for dyeing scarlet; and had solicited one for a preparation of porcelain. He had composed a treatise in the Greek language on the Greek accent: another on the retreat of the ten thousand."3 The following circumstance, while it shews the versatility of his talents, and the variety of his pursuits, will evince from how low a situation he climbed to the eminence which he subsequently attained. A friend of the reminiscent (says Mr. Butler in his Reminiscences) having communicated to an 1 Percy Anecdotes, (Bar) 159. 2 Chalm. XIV. 160. We are glad to say, that the brother and sister, who were equally amiable and delicate, were both of them afterwards happily settled. 3 Butler's Rem. vol. i. 118. 4 Ibid. eminent gunsmith a project of a musket, of greater power and much less size than that in ordinary use, the gunsmith pointed out to him its defects, and observed, that "a Mr. Fearne, an obscure law-man, in Breames' Buildings, Chancery Lane, had invented a musket, which, although defective, was much nearer to the attainment of the object." Great attainments are sometimes the fruit of plodding and habitual industry, which, being unaccompanied by native comprehensiveness of mind, not unfrequently loses the end in the means; but they are sometimes the result of that fervid thirst of knowledge, and love of honourable distinction, which distinguish superior minds; and it is then that they become objects of rational admiration. That Mr. Fearne belonged to the latter class, that it was an ardent temperament which carried him forward in the pursuit of information and professional character, will appear from the following fact, recorded by his friend Mr. Butler. He told that gentleman, that when he resolved to dedicate himself to the study of the law, he burned his profane library, and wept over its flames; and that the works which he most regretted, were the Homilies of St. John Chrysostom to the People of Antioch, and the Comedies of Aristophanes.1 When men, remarkable for great attainments and love of literature, resolve to apply almost exclusively to a rugged, and, as they may deem it, a barren science, the sacrifice is always great; and if they are likewise ardent and sensitive, as Mr. Fearne appears to have been, it is keenly felt. His burning the compositions which he valued, may appear to vulgar minds simply an act of caprice or folly; but in the imposition of a painful, perhaps an unnecessary, restriction, those who are better acquainted with human nature, recognise that devotedness which indicates the energy of a concentrating mind, and the ardour of a generous ambition. It was, however, a misfortune which first induced our author to revert to his original profession, with unremitting diligence. In his practice of experimental philosophy, he fancied that he had discovered the art of dyeing morocco leathers of particular colours, and after a new process. 1 Butler's Rem., vol. i. 119. It appears, that the Maroquoniers in the Levant (who are called so from dressing the skin of this goat, named the Maroquin) keep a secret those ingredients which give their liquor its fine red. This secrét, or what would answer equally well, Fearne thought he had found; and like most projectors, saw great profit in the discovery. It was his unlucky connection in this scheme with a needy and expensive partner, which opened his eyes to the fallacy of his hopes, and restored him to the law. 1 He had not long been in chambers, when his habits of study, diligence, and sobriety, were observed; and the extremely able manner in which he arranged and abstracted an intricate set of papers for an eminent attorney in the Temple, first gave him business. After, however, he had established his reputation, and could have commanded what business he pleased as a chamber counsel, he resolved not entirely to throw up his original pursuits, and accordingly contracted his practice within a compass just sufficient for his wants. The time which he denied to increase of business, he generally spent at his house at Hampstead, and devoted to experimental philosophy. He made some optical glasses on a new construction, which have been deemed improvements; formed a machine for transposing the keys in music; and gave many useful hints in the dyeing of cottons and other stuffs. These he called his dissipations; and with some truth, as the frequent dereliction of his professional employments certainly obstructed his advancement, while his unintermitting application to study seriously impaired his health. His conduct, with respect to his philosophical experiments and mechanical inventions, evinced the elevation of his sentiments and generosity of his disposition; the first of them he freely communicated to men of similar pursuits; and the latter, when completed, he as liberally gave away to poor artists or dealers in those articles. He was not, however, without less intellectual recreations. We have heard from a gentleman, acquainted with the habits of this singular man, that when he could quit the metropolis, |