the bulk of the work. The increased utility of the work will, I trust, be a sufficient apology for the increase in size.

I cannot forego this opportunity of acknowledging publicly my obligations to Mr. Baron VAUGHAN, by whose indulgence I have been enabled to insert, in the body of the work, many cases decided by the twelve judges, which are not reported.

NEW COURT, MIDDLE TEMPLE.

Feb. 1831.

J. J.

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE

SECOND EDITION.

THIS little work has been some time out of print. An unusually rapid sale of a very large edition of it has rendered a second edition necessary, much sooner than I had any reason to anticipate. Short, however, as the time is since the first edition of it was published, several most material alterations in the Criminal Law of the country have, even during that short period, been made by the Legislature; and this has made it necessary for me to revise the whole work, to strike out some of the precedents in it, and add others, and to make many other material alterations and additions. The pains I have taken in doing this will perhaps best evince my sense of the liberal and flattering manner in which this work has been received by the Profession and the Public.

6, Symond's Inn.

J. F. A.

PREFACE

TO THE FIRST EDITION.

IN the year 1812, I collected all the authorities upon the Pleas of the Crown, to be found in the text books, the books of reports, &c. : all that could elucidate the subject in Bracton, Britton, Fleta, and the Mirror; the substance of Hale, Hawkins, the Third Institute, Dalton, Foster, and East; all the cases upon the subject in the Year Books, the old reports, and in the modern and recent reports; and all the statutes upon the subject, down to the period at which I made the collection. Of these materials, I framed, with infinite pains, a Digest in three volumes; one of which was actually published in the year 1813.

When I contemplated the publication above mentioned, works upon the Pleas of the Crown were extremely scarce; those of repute, upon the subject, were rarely to be had, even at most extravagant prices. But immediately upon the publication of my first volume, two other works were announced upon the same subject: one of which was published very shortly after it was announced; the other, not for nearly two years afterwards. Their being announced, however, had the effect of deterring me from proceeding

with my work: I thought they would amply supply the deficiency of works upon the subject; and I felt too much diffidence in my own ability, to enter into competition with the writers of them. Another, and a very elaborate work, has since been added, which has fully confirmed me in my determination not to publish the work I originally contemplated.

As the subject of Evidence in criminal cases, however, had not been treated of by any of these writers, and as some book upon the subject was extremely desirable, I thought I might select from the work I originally compiled, such part of it as related to evidence in criminal cases, and publish it, without subjecting myself to the imputation of wishing to enter into any competition with the learned writers of the works already extant upon the Pleas of the Crown. I have made this compilation; I have added to it all the cases since decided, and the statutes since enacted, upon the subject; and I have compressed the whole into the smallest compass that appeared to me to be practicable, consistently with perspicuity. I have also added precedents of indictments and other criminal pleadings-not from any idea that this part of the work was required by the profession, there being already one or two collections of great repute upon the subject-but merely because I found it impracticable to give the evidence in particular cases, in the simplified form I was anxious to give it, without also giving, in each case, the particular indictment or pleading the evidence was intended to