A Treatise on Crimes and Misdemeanors, Vol. 1 of 3 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from A Treatise on Crimes and Misdemeanors, Vol. 1 of 3

IN preparing this Edition for the press, the system adopted by the Author has been followed as nearly as could be; and the statutes and cases have been introduced in a manner similar to that which the Author himself pursued in preparing the Second Edition; but although the Editor has used his best endeavours to keep the work within as narrow limits as were consistent with giving a full and correct statement of the statutes and cases, which the twenty-two years since the last Edition have produced, yet the number of those stat utes and cases is so great as to render a third volume unavoidable. This the Editor extremely regrets, but he felt himself bound to adhere to the plan of the Author, and the more especially as that plan affords to the reader the fullest and most useful view of the enactments and decisions.

Great difficulty has been experienced in many instances in giving a faithful representation of the decisions. The marginal notes have been so rarely found to be warranted by the cases themselves, that they have generally been omitted; and the Editor has endeavoured, so far as the reports enabled him, to give such a statement of the facts, the decision, and the grounds of it wherever they appeared, as to enable the reader to understand what the decision, as reported, really is; but many cases are so loosely and inaccurately reported that this has been no easy task, and very probably the Editor has not always suc ceeded in his attempt. Nor can it be doubted that, in some instances, the reports themselves neither fully nor faithfully represent the facts or the decision.

As the work is confined to indictable offences, and does not treat of criminal procedure, the statutes relating to the summary conviction of offenders have not been introduced.

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