PREFACE. THE following Sheets contain the substance of a courfe of lectures on the laws of England, which were read by the author in the university 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 in-. novations 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 univerfity and out of it, whofe good opinion and esteem he was principally defirous to obtain. The death of Mr. VINER in 1756, and bis ample benefaction to the univerfity for premoting the study of the law, produced about two years afterwards a regular and public establishment of what the author had privately undertaken. The knowlege of our laws and conftitution was adopted as a liberal science by general academical authority; competent endowments were decreed A 4 decreed for the fupport of a lecturer, and the pers petual encouragement of ftudents; and the compiler of the enfuing Commentaries had the honour to be elected the firft Vinerian professor. In this fituation he was led, both by duty and inclination, to investigate the elements of the law, and the grounds of our civil polity, with greater affiduity and attention than many have thought it necessary to do. And yet all, who of late years have attended the public adminiAtration of justice, must be fenfible that a maf terly acquaintance with the general spirit of laws and the principles of universal jurisprudence, combined with an accurate knowlege of our own municipal conftitutions, their original, reason, and history, hath given a beauty and energy to many modern judicial decifions, with which our ancestors were, wholly unacquainted. If, in the pursuit of thefe inquiries, the author hath been able to rectify any errors which either himfelf or others may have heretofore imbibed, his pains will be fufficiently anfwered: and, if in fome points he is ftill mistaken, the candid and judicious reader will make due allowances for the difficulties of a fearch fo new, fo extenfive, and fo laborious. 2 Nov. 1765. POSTSCRIPT. NOTWITHSTANDING the diffidence expressed in the foregoing Preface, no fooner was the work compleated, but many of its pofitions were vehemently attacked by zealots of all (even oppofite) denominations, religious as well as civil; by fome with a greater, by others with a lefs degree of acrimony. To fuch of these animadverters as have fallen within the author's notice (for he doubts not but some have escaped it) be owes at least this obligation; that they have occafioned him from time to time to revife his work, in respect to the particulars objected to; to retract or expunge from it what appeared to be really erroneous; to amend or Supply it when inaccurate or defective; to illuftrate and explain it when obfcure. But, where he thought the objections ill-founded, he bath left, and fhall leave, the book to defend itfelf: being fully of opinion, that if his principles be falfe and his doctrines unwarrantable, no apology from himSelf can make them right; if founded in truth and rectitude, no cenfure from others can make them wrong. ΤΟ THIS EDITION. THE discharge of a duty fimilar to that to which the world is indebted for the Commentaries on the Laws of England, led the Editor to prefume, that in the course of his researches he might be able to collect fome obfervations which might be useful to the Public, and at the fame time it fuggefted the propriety of his exertions to contribute to the further improvement of that valuable production. The extenfive fale of the preceding Editions has abundantly proved that the design meets with general approbation. No alteration has been made in the Author's text; but the principal changes, which either the legislature or the decifions of the courts have introduced into the law fince the laft corrections of the Author, are specified and explained by the Editor in the notes *. The Commentaries on the Laws of England form an effential part of every Gentleman's library: the beautiful and lucid arrangement, the purity of the language, the claffic elegance of the quotations and The Editor's notes are feparated from the Text and notes of the Author, by a line, and are referred to by figures, thus (1); and the pages of the former editions are preferved in the margin. allufions, the clear and intelligible explanation of every subject, must always yield the reader as much pleasure as improvement; and wherever any conftitutional or legal question is agitated, they are the first, and, in general, the best authority referred to. What Pliny has faid of another eminent profeffor of Law may justly be applied to Sir William Blackstone: Quam peritus ille et privati juris et publici !· Quantum rerum, quantum exemplorum, quantum antiquitatis tenet! Nihil eft quod difcere velis, quod ille docere non poteft. Mihi certe, quoties aliquid abditum quæro, ille thefaurus eft. Plin. Epift. 1. 22. In order to add to the utility of the Commentaries, as a book of general reference, the Editor has annexed fuch exceptions and particular inftances as he thought would render the information ftill fuller and more complete. Where he has prefumed to question any of the learned Commentator's doctrines, he has affigned his reasons for his doubt or diffent; but where he has difcovered any inaccuracy arifing merely from inadvertence, he has ftated it without fcruple or ceremony. We fhould expect more than human excellence, if we imagined that a work, comprizing almost the whole fyftem of English jurispru dence, could be entirely free from mistakes. But it is a matter of great concern to the Profeffion and to the Public at large, that, in an Author fo univerfally read, so deservedly admired, and in whom fuch confidence is repofed, every fubject should be reviewed with fcrupulous and critical precifion. It has been, and |