LATE READER AT THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, AUTHOR OF COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
OF ENGLAND, COMMENTARIES ON THE MODERN CIVIL LAW, A DISSERTATION ON

THE STATUTES OF THE ITALIAN CITIES, ETC.

LONDON:

V. & R. STEVENS AND G. S. NORTON,
Law Booksellers and Publishers,

(Successors to the late J. & W. T. CLARKE, of Portugal Street,)
26, BELL YARD, LINCOLN'S INN.

MDCCCLI.

LONDON:

STEVENS AND CO., PRINTERS, BELL YARD,

LINCOLN'S INN.

TO

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

JOHN LORD CAMPBELL,

BARON CAMPBELL OF ST. ANDREWS, IN THE
COUNTY Of Fife,

LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENGLAND,

A Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords,

AND ONE OF THE LORDS OF THE JUDICIAL COMMITTEE OF HER
MAJESTY'S MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY COUNCIL,
ETC. ETC. ETC.

THESE READINGS

ARE,

BY HIS LORDSHIP'S PERMISSION,

DEDICATED AND INSCRIBED.

PREFACE.

THE principal object of these Readings was to show the connection of the branches of Jurisprudence one with another, and their place in the general system of moral science, and, at the same time, to teach leading principles and classifications, important not only to lawyers, but also to all who are concerned in legislation and government. With these things I have combined a good deal of historical matter and legal learning, which is scattered about in various books, some of them not easily obtained nor usually read.

In the execution of this task, I have been careful to keep in view what is practical, avoiding vague generalities and mere hypothetical theories, and always citing authorities in support of the chief propositions and principles, so as to enable the reader to test what I have said, and pursue his researches further on any point that he may desire to investigate. And I have endeavoured to illustrate and explain our own national law by means of the greatest legal writers of other countries.

The general heads of the Readings will show that I have taken a sufficiently wide range. And even while treating subjects apparently of a confined nature, such as the Construction of Statutes, I have brought to bear on them the portions of various branches of jurisprudence scientifically connected with the particular matter in hand.

The course of Readings concludes with a general view of the whole system of the Canon Law, which did not previously exist in the English language. This subject is important, not only because the