CONSISTING OF TRACTS RELATIVE TO THE LAW AND CONSTITUTION OF ENGLAND. VOLUME THE FIRST. SPARSA COLLIGIMUS. LONDON: PRINTED FOR E. AND R. BROOKE, BELL-YARD, TEMPLE-BAR. MDCCXCI. IT PREFACE. is generally known to thofe who are moft converfant with the materials of legal literature, that a confiderable portion of the labours of many eminent Lawyers of former times reinain in a great measure useless to the purposes of inftruction and improvement, for want of being diffufed by means of the prefs, fo as to meet the more general notice of the Profeffion. Some Treatifes of acknowledged excellence, and of great authority, which have formerly promoted the study of the Law*, and which have been occafionally confulted and relied upon in the compofition of fome of the most authentic books in that science, are now loft; and others, which at this time ferve to adorn the libraries and to gratify the curiofity of their poffeffors, may, probably from the fame caufe, be wholly loft, or remain useless to pofterity. Inftances of this kind occur frequently in going over the books A Reading on the important ftatute, Weftm. II. c. 1. De Donis Conditionalibus, by Sir Thomas Littleton, author of the Treatife on Tenures, quoted by Lord Coke in his Commentary as extant in his time, may probably be found in fome of our public libraries, and would be a defirable acquifition. of Reports now printed, wherein it appears that authorities formerly extant in folemn decifions of the courts, and accordingly quoted in fupport of later determinations, are now no longer to be found, from the very imperfect manner of collecting the Law Annals or Year Books, which, by whatever authority they may have originally been compofed, are come to our hands in a very imperfect and mutilated state, notwithstanding the very ample materials. which our public libraries afford of fupplying the deficiencies *. Among other inftances it is to be regretted, that a great part of the learned compofitions of that venerable ornament of the law Lord HALE have never yet reached the hands of the Public; a reasonable hope may however be entertained from the general eftimation in which, his writings are held, and the hands in which fome of them are faid to remain, that they will hereafter enlarge the stock of legal learning, and extend the reputation of their author. And, without recurring back to former times, it muft neceffarily happen under the prefent want of regulation for an authentic and a continued publication of the Adjudications of our * A confiderable feries of Law Annals, particularly of Edw. III. wanting in the printed edition of the Year Books, is extant in a very fair MS. in the Inner-Temple library. + Several valuable Tracts of this Author have been lately made public in Mr. HARGRAVE'S COLLECTION OF LAW TRACTS. Courts Courts of Law, that many important authorities will be left to float on the uncertain furface of tradition, which might prove of general utility and advantage, if properly recorded. This Publication is therefore intended to fupply, in fome degree, a repofitory for the prefervation of fuch portions of fcattered literature as relate to our Conftitution and form of Government, the Theory and Practice of the Law, the Jurifdiction of the feveral Courts, and of such Authorities and Determinations of the Courts as have wholly efcaped the attention of our Reporters, or which are but flightly or imperfectly recorded in their books; with other special Arguments and Opinions in Cafes of difficulty and importance. Of all these the prefent Volume will, it is prefumed, be found to contain inftances of fufficient weight and confequence to recommend it to the attention of the more ftudious and intelligent part of the profeffion, and to convey its own apology for extending the materials of the lawyer's library. The numerous acceffions of Law Books which are daily created by the accumulation of new ftatutes, with the many determinations upon them, and the rules of court regulating the practice therein, neceffarily demand the attention of the modern lawyer, to whom it is found to be effentially ufeful to be apprifed of the means of knowledge in the feveral branches. of the law, which are thus occafionally fupplied by the labour and industry of thofe, who |