SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, Knt. ONE OF THE JUSTICES OF HIS MAJESTY'S دا THE TWELFTH EDITION. WITH THE LAST CORRECTIONS OF THE AUTHOR; AND CONTINUED TO THE PRESENT TIME, BY JOHN WILLIAMS, Esq. DUBLIN: PRINTED FOR L. WHITE, WILLIAM JONES, AND JOHN RICE. PREFACE. THE following Sheets contain the fubftance of a course of lectures on the laws of England, which were read by the author in the univer fity of OXFORD. His original plan took its rife in the year 1753; and notwithstanding the novelty of fuch an attempt in this age and country, and the prejudices ufually conceived against any innovations in the established mode of education, he had the fatisfaction to find (and he acknowledges it with a mixture of pride and gratitude) that his endeavours were encouraged and patronized by thofe, both in the university and out of it, whofe good opinion and esteem he was principally defirous to obtain.. The death of Mr. VINER in 1756, and his ample benefactions to the univerfity for promoting the study of the law, produced about two years afterwards a regular and public establishment of what the author had privately undertaken. The knowledge of our laws and conftitution was adopted as a liberal Science by general academical authority: VOL. I. a 3 |