OAKS, HOWARD. 



OAK 'HO ANTONIO COUIiKA. 



n 



teat eosnpleto edition of Gaiiu, by Goaoban, only came out in the 

 foUowiag year, 1S21, but the printing wa* begun a* early a* 1819: 

 tae printed sheet* were distributed among the friends of the editor, 

 ad part* of the Institute* of Gains ' had already appeared, and 

 were neajsjisaiH npoa in aavenl heraed reviews in Germany. The 

 first ia rank among the earlier commentator* war* Saviipiy and 

 Ooeoaaa. and it was principally against their opiuion* that Gau* took 

 the field in hi* 'SchoUeu.' lie waa rather raah in publishing hi* 

 Ufaacrration* ' at so early a period, and on the whole the work is 

 superficial ; but it contains some profound remark*, and ahowa the 

 slid knowledge which the youthful author had acquired of the his- 

 torical part of the Koman Law. The learned public ia general con- 

 Mated it a most valuable work, and they were certainly not wrong 

 ! jadf-ag it favourably. Gan* met of course with many distinguished 

 eppoaeats ; and thoee who could not defeat him on the field of science 

 traduced hi* character by styling hi* work the attempt of an inaolent 

 and solf-ouooaiud youth to overthrow the authority of hi* masters. 

 Uans wa* not discouraged : he entered into a closer alliance with 

 Hegel and Tbibaut, who, with Feuerbach, Grollmann, and other dis- 

 ianssBad jurists, were the originator* of the school of philosophical 

 jurisprudence, of which young Oan* soon became one of the most 

 eminent leaders. Their principal aim wa*, and still is, to explain the 

 nature of law and it* bearing npoa the past a* well a* the future, 

 through the medium of philosophical ideas, and to show it* connection 

 with the moral, aocial, and political progresi of mankind; and it 

 cannot be denied that they exercised a beneficial influence upon 

 legislation, the bar, and the judicature. Many of their followers how- 



muled by the influence of some favourite system of meta- 

 physics; forgetting that every law is, or at least ought to be, the 

 product of some national want, they published legal commentaries 

 fat to pnule at once the moat plain and straightforward judge and 

 the moet sophistical advocate ; and it was apprehended that if they 

 should ever obtain a complete ascendancy over legislation, Germany 

 would be blessed with a new edition of Plato's 'Republic,' rather than 

 with a new code and a constitution answering the wishes and the 

 want* of the people. The historical tchool, on the contrary, cared 

 little for the political or aocial progress of the people. Their attention 

 wa* chiefly directed to the past ; ami, satisfied with having discovered 

 the historical development of lawn, they were prouder of having 

 added to the knowledge of obsolete, forgotten, or obscure things 

 than to the knowledge of modern law, however great might be it* 

 practical importance. It was apprehended that, if the historical 

 school should becoma the director of legislation, they would reduce 

 Germany to slavery, since the feurial system, though oppressive, and 

 the Justinian law, though the result of absolutism, were both regarded 

 with favour by them a* being completely developed historical' 

 productions. On the whole, the philosophical school found more 

 adherents among practical lawyers, and the historical school among 

 learned lawyers, scholars, and antiquarians. 



Between the philosophical and the historical schools stood and still 

 stand* the school of positive jurisprudence, which comprehends all 

 such jurist*, mostly practical lawyers, a* write on law with a practical 

 view, the labour* of the other two schools being rather of a theoretical 

 character. One of the most distinguished positive jurists is Solomon 

 Philip Gans, an advocate of the supreme court at Olio in lUnover, 

 and the author of several excellent works and treatises on law, and 

 who ought not to be confounded with his late kinsman, Edward < inns. 

 In the scientific struggle between the philosophical and the historical 

 school Edward Cans was better enabled to take a leading part, as he 

 bad a profound knowledge of the history of the Roman law, combined 

 the qualities of a scholar with those of an eloquent and acute advocate, 

 and could consequently attack his opponents with success on the very 

 field where they thought themselves invincible. His first attack, as 

 already said, wo* contained in the ' Scholia ' to Gaius. The second waa 



DM Krbrecht in weltgeechichtlicher Kutwickelung,' Berlin, Stuttgart, 

 and Tubingen, 4 vols. bvo, 1824-35 (the Law of Succession, its histo- 

 rical developmrnt, and it* importance for the history of the world), 

 by which he placed himself among the first jurist* of German}-. In 

 this splendid work the author treats on the law of succession of the 

 mo*t eminent nations of the world, ancient and modern, European, 

 American, and Asiatic, even those of the Chinese, and shows how the 

 alteration* which the law ha* gradually undergone are combined with 

 the history of the nations, and their advance towards social and 

 political perfection. In 1825 Gans waa appointed professor extraordi- 

 aarina, and some year* afterwards professor ordinarius at the university 

 of Berlin. The latter dignity is not bestowed upon Jews in Prussia, 

 but (ian* had adopted the Christian religion at Hamburg some time 

 previous to hi* appointment. In 1826 he published 'System des 

 Romischen Civil RecbU' ('System of the Roman Civil Law'), and 

 founded a new review, of which Berlin stood in great need, the 



Jahrbucher fur wissunschaftliche Critik ' ( Year-B >oks for S. 

 Criticism'). After the outbreak of the French revolution in 1830 he 

 went to France, a country which he had already visited previously, as 

 well as England ; and hi* fame being already established in France, he 

 wa* well received by the most eminent men in Paris, among whom 

 be preferred those who stood at the head of the gre.it political move- 

 men I. From France he went to England. The Prussian government 



auspicious, and set spits upon him, who reported every 



word they oould catch. On hi* return to Berlin he began a course of 

 lecture* on modern hittory in the university, and hi* learning, 

 eloquence, wit, and liberal principle* attracted an immense crow 

 only of atudenU, who alone are mulled by law to attend the lectures 

 delivered in the German universities, but of public functionaries, 

 advocate*, offloen in the army, and other* who endeavoured to get 

 and actually got admission. He lectured in the Urgast room of the 

 university, which wa* not only full to suffocation, but humhvds of 

 gentlemen were seen standing ouuide, in the hall and in tin great 

 court, in ipite of a very severe winter (1832-33), and all eager to learn 

 from their friends inside the subject of the lecture, or the spiritod 

 observations of the lecturer. This wa* a capital opportunity for tho 

 enemies of Gan* to deuouuoe him to the Prussian government as 

 demagogue ; and after some time the government compelled him to 

 give up his lecture*, on the pretext that he, being a professor of law, 

 had no right to deliver lectures on history. Little discouraged by this 

 check, Gan* introduced lubjeot* connected with modem history into 

 hi* lecture* on law ; and the Prussian government, dreading hi* sharp 

 tongue as well as hi* principles, now commenced a system of annoy- 

 ance and petty persecution against him, in which it wa* well assisted 

 by the numerous enemies of the professor, and which embittered his 

 life, and undoubtedly contributed to hi* untimely death. In the 

 following yean Gau* published ' Vorlesuugen ilber die GesuhioLi 

 letzten fuufzig Jahre ' ('Lectures on tho History of tbo Last 

 Years'), in Raumer's 'Historiauhe* Tasuhcnbuch' for 1>:!3 and : 

 ' Vermischte Schriften juristischen, historisohen, BtaaUwissauschaft- 

 lichen uud iisthetischeu Inhalta' (' Miscellaneous Writings on Juris- 

 prudence, History,' 4a), Berlin, 1834, 2 vols. 8vo ; ' Uuckblicke auf 

 Per-onen und Zustiinde' (' Retrospective View of Individuals and 

 Events '), Berlin, 1836 ; ' Grundlage de* Besitzes ' (' The Basis of 

 Possession'), Berlin, 1839, an attack upon Savigny's celebrated work 

 on the ' Law of Possession among the Romans.' Moat of his time 

 be devoted to a complete edition of the works of Hegel, those that 

 were published already, and those which Hegel left partly unfinished 

 in manuscript, especially on Hegel's 'Philosophy of History;' and 

 without Gans the world would perhaps never have seen a complete 

 edition of Hegel, he being, according to Hegel's own words, the only 

 man who thoroughly understood hi* great but obscure master. On 

 the 1st of May 1839, while dining with a friend, Gans fell suddenly 

 speechless from his chair, beius; struck by apoplexy ; after lingering a 

 few days, he died on the 5th of the same mouth. 



Gans waa one of the most learned, most witty, and most eloquent 

 men of Germany ; distinguished as an author and unsurpassed as a 

 lecturer. His fame would have been still greater had he had an 

 opportunity of displaying his talents on tho political stage. No man 

 was his equal in controversy : he confounded the mo.it skilful of his 

 adversaries by hi* sarcastic replies. Those whom he wounded deepest 

 and spared least were men of acknowledged authority, or of high rank 

 or birth, and among them he had his bitterest enemies. He belonged 

 to those highly -gifted Jew*, hi* contemporaries, who held, or still hold, 

 such an eminent rank among the learned, the poet*, and the artist* of 

 Germany, as Heine the poet, Borne the political writer, Mendelssohn 

 the composer, Michael llehr the poet, his brother Meier ll.-hr. com- 

 monly called Meyerbeer the composer, and many more. Gans's suc- 

 cessor as professor of law in the University of Berlin waa Dr. Stahl, a 

 man of ultra-monarchical principles, and a disciple of Holler, the 

 author of the ' Restoration of Political Science,' 



(.Vcuer Nekrolog tier Dcuttchen; Allgemeine Zcilung (Supplement) of 

 !>:..', No. 132; Cunrertationt- Lexicon dcr Gegmvarl.) 



GARAY, JA'NOS, a popular modern Hungarian poet, was born in 

 1812, at Szegszard, in the county of Tolna; first attracted attention in 

 1834 by his heroic poem of ' Csatar,' written in imitation of Voroa- 

 marty'a epics ; and continued rising in reputation for some years, 

 during which he was one of the favourite contributors to three or 

 four of the Hungarian annual*, and gained several prizes from tho 

 societies which otter premiums for successful contributions to the 

 Magyar drama. He gained a scanty subsistence by literary labours of 

 less ambition by a ' Handbook of Hungarian and German Dial 

 and by editing a sort of almanac, and at one time a newspaper. In 

 his later years, when hU health was bod and he had almost lost his 

 eyesight, he and his family were preserved from positive want by his 

 appointment to a subordinate place in the university library of Tenth, 

 where he died, after a long illness, on the 5th of November IS.Vs. Ho 

 was a member of the Hungarian Academy. His last productions ore 

 'Elizabeth Batori,' a play in 5 acts; 'Christina Frangepdn,' a p 

 tale; a serins of historical legends entitled 'Tho Arpndi;' a coll 

 of poems called Tho Pearls of the Balaton Lake ;' and ' .Saint Ladia- 

 laus,' an historical poem. He was enthu.-uustically patriotic, and took 

 a warm interest in the progress of Hungary during what is now almost 

 looked back upon as it* golden age, from 1840 to 1848. In his lyric 

 porms he takes by preference national subjects, and those connected 

 with modern improvement, such as the power of steam, and the 

 wonders of railways. 



GARCAO, PEDRO ANTONIO CORRHA, the best lyric poet of 

 Portugal, was born at Lisbon in 1735. After labouring siren uo. 

 correct the bad taste of his countrymen, his somewhat premature 

 death at forty prevented the further success of his talents and exem- 

 plary perseverance. His attempt to supersede rhyme by quantity 



