THE

LAW JOURNAL

FOR 1804;

CONSISTING OF

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS ON

LEGAL SUBJECTS;

OPINIONS OF COUNSEL;

ACCOUNT AND ANALYSIS OF NEW LAW BOOKS;

Ancient Readings;

MEMOIR ON THE MANUSCRIPT OF

LORD COKE's COMMENTARY UPON LITTLETON,

WITH

NOTICES OF HIS LIFE BY HIMSELF, &c. &c.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR W. CLARKE AND SONS, PORTUGAL-STREET,

LINCOLN'S INN.

W. Flint, Printer, Old Bailey.

THE EDITORS of the LAW JOURNAL, in offering the miscellaneous part of the work to the public in a separate volume, return thanks to their Correspondents, by whom they have been chiefly supplied with the articles of which it is composed. In the merit which belongs to that part of it, they have no share, they have only been the means of introducing several fugitive pieces to the public, and their only care is to select such as are of most utility, and most worthy of notice. The nature of the work is such, that its character must necessarily be various, but they trust, that a perusal even of this short specimen will evince that with attention and an honest desire to promote the true interest of the profession, particularly of the more inexperienced members of it, this publication may be so conducted as to render it a useful vehicle of miscellaneous information relative to the profession, in which may be preserved many pieces that could not have been published in another form without loss to the authors who would probably, in a separate publication, have found a less speedy and extensive circulation for their observations. In the public libraries, and in the collections of private individuals there are still preserved many unpublished Readings, Treatises, or Essays by the most celebrated lawyers of their times, which could only be communicated to the public in such a work as the present; and whenever the Editors can procure them, they will be happy to insert them. In this design they have had the approbation of those whose sanction is to them the greatest encouragement. The promises of assistance which they receive are daily augmented, and, they trust, will still increase as their plan is more generally known and more fully understood.

In the accounts of books, they have endeavoured to be just without severity, and have always afforded their readers sufficient opportunities of judging for themselves.