HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BILLY B.

Michael at Southern Appeal notes that William Blackstone was born 281 years ago last Saturday.

I thought about titling this post "cartoon vision of Blackstone," and discussing some of my thoughts (dissertation related) on both the unfairly hostile criticisms of Blackstone that developed from Bentham's critiques, and the uncritical praise of Blackstone that you can find lurking in some parts of our constitutional culture. I'm more a fan of James Wilson, who saw himself as advancing a Blackstonian legal education project but aimed at a wider civic audience (Blackstone was apparently interested in educating university-goers only).

In lieu of that post, meet William Blackstone as he appears on the web (google's first image hit, at least for now).

Picture source here