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LATE ONE OF THE

ASSOCIATE JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME

COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND PROFESSOR OF LAW
IN THE COLLEGE OF PHILADELPHIA.

PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION

OF

BIRD WILSON, ESQUIRE.

LEX FUNDAMENTUM EST LIBERTATIS, QUA FRUIMUR.
OMNES SERVI SUMUS, UT LIBERI ESSE POSSIMUS.

VOL. I.

LEGUM

CIC.

PHILADELPHIA :

AT THE LORENZO PRESS, PRINTED FOR BRONSON AND CHAUNCEY.

1804.

(L. S.)

DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA:-TO WIT.

BE E IT REMEMBERED, That on the fifth day of July, in the twenty ninth year of the independence of the United States of America, BIRD WILSON, Esquire, of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit:

"The Works of the Honourable James Wilson, L. L. D. "late one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of "the United States, and Professor of Law in the College of "Philadelphia. Published under the direction of Bird Wilson, "Esquire. Lex fundamentum est libertatis, qua fruimur. "Legum omnes servi sumus, ut liberi esse possimus."

Cic.

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States entitled " An act for the encouragement of learning by securing the copies of maps, charts and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned; and also to the act entitled "An act supplementary to an act entitled “ An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

D. CALDWELL, Clerk of the
District of Pennsylvania.

PREFACE.

THE incomplete state of the lectures on law, notwithstanding the lapse of several years between the time at which those now published were delivered and the death of the Author, is a circumstance of which the publick will naturally inquire the cause. The circumstance itself is certainly much to be lamented; but its cause presents a subject of still deeper regret.

The law professorship, in the college of Philadelphia, was established in the year 1790; and the Author was appointed the first professor. The extent of his plan of lectures rendered it impossible for him to go through his whole subject in one season: three courses were necessary for the purpose. The first course, which was delivered in the winter of 1790-91, consisted of those lectures contained in what the Editor has entitled the first part. The second course, which was, in a great measure, delivered in the following winter, would have consisted of the remaining two parts now published. In April, 1792,

the college of Philadelphia and the university of Pennsylvania were, by an act of assembly, united into one seminary, under the latter title. A law professorship was erected in the new seminary, and the Author again appointed to fill the chair; but no lectures were delivered after the union. The preceding course had been interrupted and was not completed. The causes of these circumstances are not within the Editor's knowledge. He knows, however, that, though the delivery of the lectures was discontinued, the Author designed to complete his plan for publication. From this design his attention was drawn by another object of more importance, in which he was engaged.

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In March, 1791, the house of representatives in the general assembly of Pennsylvania, resolved to appoint a person to revise and digest the laws of the commonwealth'; to ascertain and determine how far any British statutes extended to it; and to prepare bills, containing such alterations, additions, and improvements as the code of laws, and the principles and forms of the constitution then lately adopted might require. The Author was unanimously appointed for that purpose. The nature of the plan which he formed in consequence of this resolution, will appear from the following letter on the subject, delivered to the speaker of the house of representatives on 24th August, 1791.

SIR,

WHILE I am employed in executing the trust committed to me by the house of representatives, it is, I conceive, my duty, from time to time, to inform them, through you, of the steps which I have taken, and of those which I mean to take, in order to accomplish the great end which is in contemplation.

From the records deposited in the rolls office, I have taken an account of all the laws made in Pennsylvania from its first settlement till the beginning of the last session of the legislature. They are in number one thousand seven hundred and two. Their titles I have entered into a book, in the order, usually chronological, in which they are recorded. On some of them, especially those of an early date, I have made and minuted remarks; and have left ample room for more, in the course of my further investigations... I have also reduced their several subjects into an alphabetical order by atering them regularly in a common place book. This process required time, and care, and a degree of minute drudgery; but it was absolutely requisite to the correct execution of the design. How can I make a digest of the laws, without having all the laws upon each head in my view? This view can in the first instance, be obtained only by ranging them in an exact common place.

But something more must still be done, To rank, in a correct edition, the several laws according to their seniority or to the order of the alphabet would, by no means, be correspondent to the enlarged plan signified by the resolutions of the house. It is obvious, and it was certainly expected, that, under each head, the dif ferent regulations, however dispersed, at present, among numerous laws, should, in the digest, be collected in a natural series, and reduced to a just form. This I deem an indispensable part of my business.

But the performance of this indispensable part gives rise to a new question. In what order should the methodised collections be arranged?

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