who rose to eminence, among others Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Lord Belper, Lord Romilly. Lord Clarendon, Mr. Charles Villiers, Mr. Hare, and Mr. Whiteside, subsequently lord chief justice of Ireland. Congenial occupation seemed to be before him. He was enthusiastic and zealous, and his earnest and eloquent exposition seemed likely to attract many students. 'Demand explanations and ply me with objections — turn me inside out,' was his characteristic advice to them. But again he was unsuccessful. Pupils flocked to the lecture-room of his colleague, Mr. Amos; his was almost deserted. The number of men attending his lectures dwindled down to five (Sargant's Essays); and it soon became plain that there was in England no demand for teaching of a high order in jurisprudence. 'There is some hope,' said the 'Law Magazine' in 1832, 'of his being induced to prepare a course on the Roman law, or the law of nations, for the ensuing session. But it is almost too much to ask him to make an extraordinary exertion for such a meagre audience as he hitherto has had.' Seeing no prospect of obtaining even the small audience with which he would have been content, he resigned his chair in 1832. The year before he published an 'outline' of his course of lectures; and this, corrected and enlarged, was appended to his work, 'The Province of Jurisprudence determined,' which was published in 1832. It was, at first, little read; and its value was not always appreciated by the few who read it. Lord Melbourne's remark about it, as recorded in the Greville memoirs, expressed a too common opinion. 'In answer to the observation that "the Austins were not fools," he said, "Austin? Oh, a damned fool! Did you ever read his book on Jurisprudence?" I said I had read a great part of it, and that it did not appear to be the work of a fool. He said that he had read it all, and that it was the dullest book he ever read, and full of truisms elaborately set forth' (iii. 138). In 1833 Austin was appointed by Lord Brougham a member of the Criminal Law Commission. He did not find the position or the opportunities of giving effect to his views all that he desired. 'He used to come home,' writes his wife, 'from every meeting of the commission disturbed and agitated, and to express his repugnance to receiving the public money for work from which he thought the public would derive little or no benefit. Some blurred and blotted sheets which I have found bear painful and affecting marks of the struggle that was going on in his mind between his own lofty sense of dignity and duty and the more ordinary sense of duty which subordinates public to private obligation.' He accordingly resigned his position upon the commission. In 1834 he was requested by the society of the Inner Temple to deliver a course of lectures on jurisprudence; but they, too, failed to attract students, and they were soon discontinued. His powerful friends, however, still entertained the highest opinion of his capacity, and a new channel of activity was opened to him. In 1836 he and his friend, Sir George Cornewall Lewis, were appointed commissioners to inquire into the administration and state of government of the island of Malta. The task was eminently congenial to a man of Austin's acquirements. The commissioners were instructed to examine into the laws and usages, the administration of the government, the state of the judicature, the civil and ecclesiastical establishments, the revenue, trade, and resources of the island; and they were also requested to make suggestions as to changes which they thought advisable. No commission ever did its work more carefully, and its reports to the colonial office are remarkable papers, dealing with great ability and thoroughness with some of the most important questions of political economy and jurisprudence. Among those possessed of permanent interest are the despatch urging the establishment in Malta of liberty of printing and publishing; the history of the origin of the corn monopoly in that island; the account of the government charities, of which last paper Lord Glenelg, the colonial secretary, said: 'It is impossible that all the necessary facts should have been brought together with greater brevity and clearness, or that the principles which should direct his Majesty's government should have been stated with greater force and perspicuity.' The reform of the tariff which the commission effected was pronounced by Sir James Stephen 'the most successful legislative experiment he had seen in his time.' What was the precise share which Austin had in the laborious work is a little uncertain; but his peculiar ideas and vigorous language are often clearly discernible — for example, in the account of the history of Maltese law and the proposals with respect to legal education. The elaborate ordinance as to liberty of printing and publishing is interesting as a sample of his style of legal drafting. The commission did not accomplish all that was anticipated, and the government of Malta has been repeatedly subjected to considerable changes since 1837. But Austin did much to improve the institutions of the island. Being ill when he returned from Malta, he went to Carlsbad, and spent there the summers of 1841, 1842, and 1843. The winters
