of the same kind, though it might have incrcased the bulk of the work, would not have added to its intrinsic value, or have done any credit to the industry or integrity of the editor.

The abridgment being written in the style of dissertation, the editor, in his additions, availed himself largely of those tracts, which had been published upon different parts of the law, and received the approbation of the profession. In general, where any such extract has been made, the editor has been careful to acknowledge the obligation by reference to the work itself. In making these additions, however, the editor considered himself at full liberty to transplant into the work as much of the chief baron Gilbert's tracts as he had occasion for; this being, in fact, nothing more than a reunion of disjointed members, many parts of the work itself being only parts of several of those tracts. One of the learned judge's treatises, namely, that upon the doctrine of remainders, from which the collections in the abridgment under that title were extracted, the editor was enabled to give entire by the kindness of Mr. Hargrave. The manuscript of the work had been purchased by that gentleman at no inconsiderable price; but, disdaining all private considerations, where the interests of the profession, of which he was so distinguished an ornament, seemed in any degree concerned, he made a voluntary tender of it to the editor, as soon as he was informed that he was engaged in preparing another edition of the abridgment.

The following paragraphs, from the preface, will explain the editor's views in regard to that most important part of his labors, the correction of his author's mistakes:

"He has attempted to mark, and guard his readers against the mistakes of the author: but he is sensible that many, too many, erroneous passages have been suffered to pass without observation. In the course of so long a work, it cannot be expected that the exertions of the mind should be always equal, or that it should always be alike disposed to proceed in the task it had undertaken. It must occasionally sicken at some parts of the labor as beneath its attention, and shrink from others as beyond its powers. It is well known that the most obvious errors sometimes most easily escape

detection In reading, every man must have felt that his mind is sometimes more attentive to its own preconceptions on the subject, than to the ideas of the author; and the better it is satisfied with the rectitude of the former, the more steadily it pursues them, and the less sensible it is of the aberrations of the latter. The form, too, in which error presents itself to us, may help to facilitate its escape : it is more likely to pass silently and unobserved when proposed in the form of a simple affirmation, than when it challenges our inquiry in that of an interrogation. We often readily admit upon a statement what we should instantly deny, if it were offered to us in the way of question.

"It should be observed, that, even where the editor has detected error, he has not always immediately apprized his reader of it: he has sometimes subjoined his remarks upon the erroneous passage at the end of the division where it has occurred: he has at other times left its confutation to its inconsistency with the better-consid ered and more recent determinations which he has afterwards introduced."

The fifth edition above described, which was prepared by Mr. Gwillim, was published in 1798; the sixth, which was a mere reprint, was published in 1807. The seventh, which was not wholly published until 1832, was the joint editorial work of Mr. Gwillim and Mr. Dodd. In this last edition, therefore, it became necessary to incorporate into the various titles of the work the decisions and statutes, which, during thirty-three years, had so materially qualified, confirmed and reversed the law as laid down in the last corrected edition. The second, third, and fourth volumes were prepared by Mr. Gwillim, above ten years previous, and were then printed; but his ill state of health preventing his proceeding with the work, the completion of it was undertaken by Mr. Dodd, who prepared the first, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth volumes, and also the Addenda, which it had become indispensable to append to the three volumes printed by sir Henry Gwillim. The improvements made by the latter, in the edition of 1798, in correcting and verifying the references in retrenching repetitions and redundancies, in expunging unintelligible passages, and, generally, in purifying and perfecting the text, left comparatively little to be done

by the editors of the seventh edition, except (what indeed was of itself difficulty and toil sufficient) the introduction into the work of the decisions pronounced by the several courts and of the statutes enacted since the edition of 1798. In executing his part of the work, Mr. Dodd states, that he endeavored to adapt the new matter to the old text, in the most convenient and suitable shape, so that the text and notes might present a connected and accurate view of the former state of the law, of the changes it had undergone, and of its then present condition on the various subjects treated of. Where the new matter introduced is short, where it forms a concise qualification, confirmation, or contradiction of the old text, it is generally inserted in the shape of a note, in which form all observations or inferences not resting on the certain authority of adjudged cases are also printed. Where, however, the additions, whether of decisions or statutes, are of considerable extent, it seemed more convenient to engraft them into the text than to crowd them into the less convenient form and the minute type. Like his predecessor, Mr. Dodd availed himself, in some instances, of extracts from treatises of acknowledged accuracy or authority, on the subjects under consideration. Where the result of a series of decisions had been concisely stated by a text writer intimately acquainted with the particular branch of law, the editor did not undertake to improve on such an abridgment.

Mr. Dodd, also, did not consider it within the scope of his duty, as an editor, to render the work a complete modern abridgment of the law, desirable and useful as such a work undoubtedly would be to the profession. With these views, therefore, he forbore, on the one hand, from adding new titles to the work, and, on the other, from expunging matter on the ground of its having grown obsolete and useless, or of its being only useful to the historical and curious inquirer. Of the latter description, must be considered a great part of titles Appeal, Papists and Popish Recusants, Præmunire, Scandalum Magnatum, Summons and Severance, Wager of Law, Warranty. In respect to titles like these, the editor conceived himself to stand in a very different situation from the author of an original work.

Though this editor introduced no new titles, he inserted subdivisions of some of the heads, and also, in some instances, (as in titles Agreement, Annuity, Bankrupt, Legacies and Devises, Stamps,) occasionally transferred and rearranged the matter, for the sake of greater perspicuity and facility of reference. Although the editor endeavored, as he states, to consult brevity in the additions, as much as was consistent with perspicuity, and with the style of dissertation in which the abridgment is written, the work was necessarily enlarged by the addition of a volume, and by much increasing the bulk of all the volumes. The extent of the additions may be estimated from the fact, that the cases in the index are about twice the number of those in the former edition, and there is an increase of about fifteen hundred pages.

The following is the concluding paragraph of Mr. Dodd's preface: "The editor cannot send the work forth to the profession without earnestly bespeaking their candid indulgence for its errors, omissions, and imperfections. He can hardly venture to hope that these are not numerous in a work so extensive, so difficult, and sc multifarious, which has often exceeded the editor's powers and has always tasked his industry, and which has been necessarily completed in the intervals of his professional avocations as a special pleader and a barrister."

It only remains for us to say a word of the American editions, of which, the first was reprinted from the sixth English edition and was published at Philadelphia, in 1811 and 1813, with notes by Bird Wilson. The second is now reprinting from the seventh English edition, of which we have above spoken at considerable length, under the editorial supervision of Mr. Bouvier. The first volume is published and now before us. In preparing this edition for the press, the editor informs us, that his labors have extended no farther than the addition of the principal American cases to the English copy, with the occasional introduction of extracts from acts of congress, and the insertion of judge Wilson's notes, where the matter of them had not already been embodied in the work by the English editors. He has also made a most important and acceptable addition to the volume, in the form of an index; the want

of which, notwithstanding the alphabetical arrangement of the titles, every one at all used to Bacon's abridgment must have felt. At the end of the last volume, he proposes to give a general index to the whole work. It is hardly necessary, but may be proper to add, that the additions of the several editors are indicated by ap. propriate signs, which those who have occasion to consult the work can ascertain without trouble.

In concluding this notice, we have only to say, that we are very glad the work has been undertaken; and we hope that the editor and his publishers will receive an adequate reward, for preserving to the profession, in so valuable and attractive a form, a work, which, with all its defects, we hold in high estimation.

2.- An Elementary Treatise on the Structure and Operations of the National and State Governments of the United States. Designed for the use of Schools and Academies and for general readers. By CHARLES MASON, A. M., Counsellor at Law; Boston, DAVID H. WILLIAMS, 1842.

Our readers will recollect, in a late volume of the Jurist, two articles on Mistakes of Law, written in a clear and concise style, and signed by the initials of the gentleman, whose first publication we are about to introduce to them. The volume before us is quite different in its character from the articles alluded to, being written for the purposes of general reading and elementary instruction, and being also didactic rather than argumentative. We cannot explain the author's design, in its preparation, in any better way, than by quoting his preface, which, as it is short, we extract entire.

"The design of this work is, to exhibit a summary account of the forms, and modes of administration, of our National and State Governments. Avoiding all general disquisition, it aims to give a concise, yet clear and exact statement of the actual construction of our political and civil institutions, in all their various branches, and of the processes and means by which they are, in fact, conducted and sustained. Its essential object is, to furnish information upon matters relating to government and civil polity, with which every person, considered as a citizen, living under a free govern.