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the powers conferred on the courts of common law to grant injunctions against the repetition or continuance of private injuries, to give relief to parties exposed to adverse claims, and to order the examination of witnesses, and of the parties themselves, on interrogatories, and the issuing of commissions for examination of witnesses abroad; the many important and elaborate improvements in the forms of process and pleading, both as regards the courts of common law and of equity; the reformation of the law of evidence and the establishment of the new courts of bankruptcy, of the vice-chancellors and of the lords justices in equity, of the judicial committee of the privy council, of the new county courts, of the court of probate, and of the court for divorce and matrimonial causes.

And, lastly, with respect to the administration of criminal justice, we may refer to the salutary repeal of many antiquated statutes; the consolidation of the law relating to most of the principal offences; the abolition of the benefit of clergy, and of appeals; the better regulation of the law of principal and accessory, of commitment and bail, and of venue; the introduction of a variety of provisions tending to simplify the course of proceeding, and to deliver it from technical difficulties; the allowance of counsel to address the jury for the prisoner, in felony as well as in other cases; and the remarkable mitigation which has generally taken place in the antient severity of our criminal punishments.

Thus therefore, for the amusement and instruction of the reader, have been delineated [some rude outlines of a plan for the history of our laws and liberties, from their first rise and gradual progress among our British and Saxon ancestors, till their total eclipse at the Norman conquest, from which they have gradually emerged and risen to the perfection they now enjoy, at different periods of time.] It has been shown that the rules of law which

regard the rights of each member of the community, whether considered in an individual, a relative, or a social capacity, the private injuries which may be committed in violation of these rights, and the wrongs which affect the public, or crimes, [have been and are every day improving, and are now fraught with the accumulated wisdom of ages;] that the forms of administering justice have also, (particularly in our own times,) received the assiduous care of the cultivators of legal science; and that our religious, civil, and political liberties, so long depressed in popish and arbitrary times, and occasionally threatened with absolute extinction, have since, in a constant course of progressive development, commencing at the happy era of the Revolution, been effectually vindicated and established. [Of a constitution so wisely contrived, so strongly raised, and so highly finished, it is hard to speak with that praise which is justly and severely its due; the thorough and attentive contemplation of it, will furnish its best panegyric.]

The admiration that it is calculated to inspire should lead to some reflection on the duties which attach to citizens born to so noble an inheritance. It was the stern task of our forefathers to struggle against the tyrannical pretensions of regal power: to us, the course of events appears to have assigned the opposite care, of holding in check, the aggressions of popular licence, and maintaining inviolate the just claims of the prerogative. But, in a general view, we have only to pursue the same path that has been trodden before us,-to carry on the great work of securing to each individual of the community, as large a portion of his natural freedom as is consistent with the organization of society, and to increase, to the highest degree that the order of divine Providence permits, the benefits of his civil condition. A clearer perception of the true nature of this enterprise, of the vast results to which it tends, and of the obligations by which we are

bound to its advancement, has been bestowed on the present generation, than on any of its predecessors. May it not fail also to recollect, amidst the zeal inspired by such considerations, that the desire for social improvement degenerates, if not duly regulated, into a mere thirst for change, that the fluctuation of the law, is itself a considerable evil;-and that, however important may be the redress of its defects, we have a still dearer interest in the conservation of its existing excellencies.

END OF THE WORK.

VOL. IV.

RR

GENERAL INDEX.

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Absconding debtor, iii. 593, n.
of defendant in chancery,
iv. 51

Absolute, how far the king is, ii. 504
Abstract of title, i. 491, n., 499, n.
Abuse and damage of chattels, iii. 544
Abuser, ii. 644

Abusing children, iv. 175
Accedas ad curiam, iii. 392
Acceptance of bills, ii. 53, 116
of goods, ii. 69

Accession, property by, ii. 22
Accessory, iv. 122

after the fact, iv. 126, 128, n.

punishment of, iv. 128,

n.

arraignment of, iv. 474
before the fact, iv. 125

punishment of, iv. 128,

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