The Sun.
London, England, 1824-12-29 00:00:00

In the Press,
To be published by BALDWIN,- CRADOCK, and JOY,
London,
A PRACTICAL and ELEMEN'fARY
L 1 ABRIDGMENT of the OASES argued and deter-
mined in the Courts of KING'S BENCH, COMMON
?LEAS, EXCHEQUER, and at NISI PRI US ; and of
the RULES of COURT, from the Restoration in 1660, to
Michaelmas Term, 4 Geo. IV. With important Manuscript
Cases, . Alphabetically, Chronologically, and Systematically
Arranged and Translated ; with copious Notes and Refer-
ences to the Year Books, Analogous Adjudications, Text
Writers, and Statutes, specifying what decisions have been
Affirmed, Recognised, Qualified, or Over-ruled ; compris'.ng
ender the several Titles a Praitical Treatise on the different
Branches of the Comtnon Law.
• By CHARLES PETERSDORFF, EsQ.
OE the Inner Temple.
A practical and elementary abridgment of the COMMON
haw ItEroaTs, from the period they assumed a useful and
litelligible form, has for a series of years been an increasing
xlesideraturn.
Myles of Law are never universal. There are always some
limits affixed to their specific application. An acquintance
With the first principles which constitute the basis of our sys.
tern of jurisprudence, without a corresponding knowledge of
the facts and circumstances which gave rise to their establish-
ment and promulgation, has been, therefore, at all times con-
sidered rather a source of difficulty and embarrassment than of
utility to the practitioner. A comprehensive knowledge of the
important qualifications engrafted upon those primary rules,
When applied to particular facts, can alone be attained by con-
sulting either the delusive reports of the cases themselves in
which the doctrines were originally propounded, or those in
which they have been subsequently confirmed, or by having
recourse to a concise yet accurate, abridgment, in which the
material facts, the pleadings, and the judgments, are faith-
fully developed. To practitioners of learning and expe-
rience, who by their constant and regular attendance
in the Courts are acquainted with every new modifi-
cation or extension of the Law produced by each succeeding
decision, the Report Books are the inostsatisfactoryand authen-
tic medium of reference. But to the majority of the profession,
to whom thu opportunities of acquiring legal knowledge have
been limited, and whose practice has been circumscribed, no
,node of obtaining information can be more uncertain or dein-
8' we than the perusal ofany particular decision unconnected with
the prior or subsequent cases and analogous adjudications.
A knowledge of the peculiar bearing of each case, can at present
be acquired only by consulting the works of numerous elemen-
tary or text writers, who, from being rigidly obliged to observe
a trees condensation of their materials, are necessarily compelled
to class a variety of cases analogous in their leading and predo.
Thinant thcts, but dissimilar in their minor details ; thus ex-
tracting front an accumulated mass of contradictory matter a
general rule of law, without being enabled to explain and illus-
trate its applicability to particular facts or to point out its
lighter tiliudes of difl'etence when contrastedl with cases posses.
311114 an apparent similitude.
But independently of the inconvenience ever attendant upon
such an unqualified classification, another difficulty impedes
the progress of the inquirer. He cannot, after the perusal of the
'works of a text writer, confidently depend that the author has
included all the cases connected with his researches. There is
no pledge that every decision shall be inserted. He gives the re-
sult of his investigations, but not invariably the particular
wound or basis from which his inferences and deductions are
sierived.
In addition to the elementary writers there is another class of
publications, the Digested Indexes to the Reports, which have.
been long held in estimation. But all the works of this de.
acription are on a scale too contracted to render them of mate-
Cal assistance, being confined either to a few Reporters, to a
Stated period, or to some particular Courts. Nor do they in
rieQra refer to the alterations in the law occasioned by Par.
ainentary enactments, or facilitate anacCeam•to the analogous
cases, or show what decisions have been affirmed, recognized,
qualified, or over-ruled. They profess to be Indexes, and aim
at nothing more. They are of -little or no value unless
, the inquirer has the original Reports ire his possession._.
They collect the rules deducible from the judgments of the
Courts, but almost uniformly exclude a statement:of the facts.
They Inlay be described as possessing all the objectionable
characteristics of an elementary treatise, without the counter-
balancing advantage of the author's sentiments, and an arrange-
ment of the cases determined during any other period than that
allotted to the particular Index.
It is under- these impressions that the work now announced
for publication has been prepared; and from the increased
business of our Tribunals, and the amplified and extended re-
ports of their proceedings, it is presumed that an attempt to re-
:no, ve these obstacles to an acquirement of a competent know-
ledge of the Judgments of our Courts, will be found acceptable
everY branch of the Profession.
A concise statement of the mode in which the materials are
the
collected and arraned, will perhaps more satisfactorily evince
expediency
of the publication. In detailing the structure of
the work it will be proper to consider, Ist. Its general arrange.
anent and principal divisions. The internal or subordi.
nate arrangement of those divisions. 3dly. The manner of ab-
stracting or abridging the judicial determinations.
1. The general arrangement will be alphabetical, practical
utility being the primary object of the work. Every case will
be inserted under that division, which will conduce to the most •
Prompt and ready reference, and which will most probably
oc-
cur to the mind either of he most experienced or unitiated
member of the Profession.
Although the principal divisions will be taken alphabeti-
cally, their internal arrangement or subordinate parts will be
framed, and die materials consolidated analytically, according
to the models of the most approved writers upon each particu-
lar subject.
The cases in each subdivision of a title wiltbe inserted chrono-
logieally, with the view of more effectually showing and illus-
trating Me Radual progress of our judicial polity. Where,
however, a particular class of decisions consist of a variety of
• abstracts or
arranged so as 's4btid4ments those most intimately connected will
,tobviotts. to render their relative application more
When the same point has been determined in a se-
, ries of cases, the one first mentioned is only abridged, and the
others are referred to as confirmatory of the same principle.—
To increase the value of the work, and add to its general
utility, several distinct species of reference or notes will be
'subjoined to each decision. •
lat. A:reference to the different books in which the same
ease is reported.
•2d. A reference to the cases in which the same point has
_ u•en determined or affirmed.
.e 34. A reference to such cases or elementary writers in which
10, lame rule or ptineiple is recognized or adverted to.
4th, A reference to those cases which are at variance with
the I
decision abridged, or to such •as have expressly over-
ruled it.
6,th. A reference to the Acts of Parliament connected with
CUM case.
NI. A series of copious noted connecting the ems with the
Present practice, and explanatory of their general effect ; corn-
riatn gsuch principles of the law, or essencence of the cases, as
ate not included within the scope of the generatabridgement.
m
_ UN it has been attempted to make the whole as complete
OsSible, so that on the one hand the 'present practice may
ae?tdily ascertained, whilst, on the other, the ancient adju-
;le polls will admit of an immediate access. The latter will
1,3111,114 elucidate, and exemplify the former; anti the reader
have in one connected view the various modifications
wilf-h.the law has undergone.
04(1)1 It has been e.ndevoured to frame the abstract of the de-
rx3rtina on a plan simple, plain, and perspicuous. The Re-
st, themselves generally contain a copy of the pleadings, a
;lc statement of all the facts, the argument of Counsel at
i:u 11, and almost every sentence uttered by the several Judges
noouncing their opinions. In the present publication so
Loons j of the pleadings, the facts, and the arguments of
1,17,111;e1 will be given as may beneeeesery to connect the facts
the decisions of the Courts ; and the Judgments will be
~,,`,9ressed into one concise statement, including the most ini-
:;4"'Aaell observations, unless there he a difference of opinion
,„er!° , bench, in which case the individual opinions will be given
;atm,.
gulped arginal epitomes will be found to contain a concise,
arras C detail of the essence of the cases, and will be so
ticili_g_ed, as to form distinct and connected treatises on each par-
e,yuttle or diyision..
I 1140. obviate the objection, that an abridgtnent of the Reports
eit`i;valiable of' being referred to with facility in consequence
' Paging . not corresparlding .with the original works, it is