Θ COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND, IN FOUR BOOKS. BY SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, KNT. ONE OF THE JUSTICES OF HIS MAJESTY'S COURT OF COMMON PLEAS. WITH NOTES SELECTED FROM THE EDITIONS OF ARCHBOLD, CHRISTIAN, COLERIDGE, CHITTY, STEWART, BARRON FIELD'S ANALYSIS, AND Additional Notes, and a Life of the Author, BY GEORGE SHARSWOOD, PROFESSOR OF THE INSTITUTES OF LAW IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I.-BOOKS I. & II. PHILADELPHIA: CHILDS & PETERSON, 602 ARCH STREET. 1860.// ( 2 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by CHILDS & PETERSON, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of STEREOTYPED BY L. JOHNSON AND CO. PHILADELPHIA. PRINTED BY DEACON & PETERSON. 8055 PREFACE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. THE present edition of the Commentaries of Sir William Blackstone has been prepared with especial reference to the use of American lawstudents. The main object of the notes, selected and original, has been to correct any statement in itself erroneous, and to explain what might be calculated to mislead. In some cases where the text appeared to pass over important topics, they have been introduced in order to render the book complete as an institute of legal education. Besides the editions of Archbold, Christian, and Chitty, which have been republished in this country, the editor has drawn largely upon the valuable notes of Mr. Justice Coleridge. The late English editions by James Stewart and Robert Malcolm Kerr-in which all the recent alterations by statutes have been referred to and incorporated-have been freely used, and an occasional note will be found from the late abridgment of Blackstone by Samuel Warren; and the attention of the student is especially called to the notes added to the last chapter of the work, on the rise, progress, and gradual improvement of the laws of England, for valuable sketches by Coleridge, John William Smith, Stewart, Warren, and Kerr, of the latest enactments, to which the American editor has ventured to add some remarks upon American jurisprudence. Barron Field's Analysis-a most important aid to the student in the work of self-examination-has been added at the end. On the whole, it is hoped that this edition—the fruit of much care and toil, as much in rejecting (which does not appear) as in adopting (which does)-may meet the approbation of the profession and the public. PPILADELPHIA, June, 1859. G. 8. iii |