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Indiana University Studies 
usual thing for a solicitor-general. In 1754 he was made at- 
torney-general. He was a great success in Parliament. He 
was exceeded only by his antagonist Pitt. He was the prop 
of the government under the Duke of Newcastle, and he was 
so important that Newcastle tried to get him to give up the 
appointment to the chief justiceship of the King’s Bench when 
a vacancy occurred, but without avail, and he was made chief 
justice of King’s Bench and Lord Mansfield in November, 
1756. The Duke of Newcastle soon fell. Mansfield presided 
over the King’s Bench for thirty-two years with dignity and 
efficiency. He reformed the practice before the court (al- 
lowed Turks and Hindoos to swear according to their own 
religion) ; founded the commercial law of the country; in- 
troduced some of the most important principles into the law 
of contracts (implied conditions, moral consideration, illegal- 
ity) ; pronounced free a slave brought on English soil ; and 
decided that the property in wrecks did not go to the crown 
if the owner could identify it tho no living thing came ashore. 
In only two cases while he presided was the court not unani- 
mous, and only two of his judgments were reversed. He was 
made earl in 1776. He declined the office of lord chancellor. 
His character, none will surpass. He was liberal and tolerant 
of religion. Yet in spite of this he was once attacked by a 
mob, which had the usual intelligence of a mob and which 
destroyed his library. He was a great oracle of the law. Of 
him it has been said “Ninety-nine times out of a hundred he 
is right ; when wrong, ninety-nine men out of a hundred would 
not discover it.” If he is criticizable at all, it is for continuing 
to take part in political debates after he assumed judicial 
office. 
Blackstone (1723-1780). William Blackstone has exerted 
more influence on United States law than perhaps any other 
Englishman, and before the system of case instruction came 
into vogue here was given a rating above what he was enti- 
tled to by American lawyers. Physically he lived in the Pe- 
riod of Equity; spiritually he belonged in the Period of 
Maturity, with which he made United States law begin. He 
was a posthumous son of a silkman, and was educated by his 
mother’s brother. He attended Pembroke College, Oxford, 
where he specialized in classics and sciences, wrote verses on 
Milton, the death of the Prince of Wales, and notes on 
