FROM THE PREFACE

ΤΟ

THE FOURTH LONDON EDITION.

In preparing this Edition for the press, the system adopted by the Author has been followed as nearly as could be; and the Statutes and Cases have been introduced in a manner similar to that which the Author himself pursued in preparing the Second Edition; but although the Editor has used his best endeavors to keep the work within as narrow limits as were consistent with giving a full and correct statement of the Statutes and Cases since the last Edition, yet the number of these is so great as to render a third volume unavoidable. This the Editor extremely regrets, but he felt himself bound to adhere to the plan of the Author, and the more especially as that plan affords to the reader the fullest and most useful view of the enactments and decisions.

Great difficulty has been experienced in many instances in giving a faithful representation of the decisions. The marginal notes have been so rarely found to be warranted by the cases themselves, that they have been omitted: and the Editor has endeavored, so far as the reports enabled him, to give such a statement of the facts, the decision, and the grounds of it, wherever they appeared, as to enable the reader to understand what the decision, as reported, really is; but many cases are so loosely and inaccurately reported that this has been no easy task, and very probably the Editor has not always succeeded in his attempt.

As the work is confined to indictable offences, and does not treat of criminal procedure, the Statutes relating to the summary conviction of offenders have not been introduced.

The

cases,

which were decided too late to be inserted in their proper places in the body of work, will be found in the Appendix in the Third Volume. Their names are inserted in the Table of Cases in that Volume, and they are also referred to in the General Index.*

At the beginning of the First Volume a chapter has been introduced which contains certain general provisions applicable to many of the offences treated of in the work. This has been done in order to facilitate the reference to these provisions

wherever it may be necessary.

The cases marked MSS. C. S. G." are from the Editor's collection.

The Editor would be doing great injustice to himself if he were not to express the very deep sense he entertains of the great honor which was done to him by the very flattering manner in which his labors in the last Edition were appreciated, not

*In this American Edition these cases have been incorporated in the body of the work.

only in Her Majesty's dominions, but also in the United States. He has endeavored in this edition to show the sense he feels of the honor done to him by rendering it as complete and perfect as he was able.

It has been also a matter of great gratification that during the time this work has been passing through the press, the Editor has been able to lend his humble assistance towards the completion of the new Code of Criminal Law for the State of New York; for which he has received as flattering an acknowledgment as possible from the Commissioners, who have shown so much ability in the preparation of that great work. The Editor cannot but express the hope that such mutual interchange of goodwill in the endeavor to ameliorate the law, may exert a strong tendency to promote those feelings of amity which ought ever to subsist between the kindred nations of Great Britain and the United States; nor can he help thinking that they who, amid the din of arms, where generally the laws stand in abeyance, have sedulously devoted themselves to the amendment of their laws, must be deeply impressed with the truth contained in the beautiful lines

Pax optima rerum

Quas homini novisse datum est; pax una triumphis
Innumeris potior.

PREFACE

ΤΟ

THE SECOND EDITION.

A SECOND EDITION of this Treatise has long been delayed by the pressure of professional engagements, and by the changes effected in the criminal laws during several successive sessions of Parliament. It has of course been an object that it should embrace, as far as possible, the statutes of consolidation and improvement, for which the country is so much indebted to the able and judicious exertions of Mr. Peel.

"The crime of high treason was not originally included in the plan of this work, on account of the great additional space which the proper discussion of that important subject would have occupied; and because prosecutions for that crimehappily not frequent-are always so conducted as to give sufficient time to consult the highest authorities." These reasons, which were given in the Preface to the First Edition, have still been allowed to operate; and the crime of high treason is not, therefore, one of the subjects discussed in the following pages. The law upon all other indictable offences will, it is hoped, be there found in an appropriate arrangement: and a chapter or book upon the Law of Evidence in criminal prosecutions, which formed a part of the original plan of the work, has now been supplied by the kind assistance of my friend, Mr. E. Vaughan Williams, whose professional attainments abundantly assure the value of the addition.

WM. OLDNALL RUSSELL.

LINCOLN'S INN: May 1826.

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE

NINTH AMERICAN EDITION.

The American profession is now presented with a new edition of RUSSell on CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, reprinted from the last London edition. The work, as will be seen, has been very much enlarged. In conformity with the principle heretofore adopted and acted upon by the American publishers, it is presented entire and unmutilated, for though there is much statute law inapplicable to this country, yet the cases decided on the construction of these statutes are very interesting, and of use as illustrating the canons of interpretation. RUSSELL ON CRIMES has long been a standard work, and has commended itself to practitioners in every part of the United States for its fullness and accuracy. The leading American cases have been brought up to the present time.

NOVEMBER, 1876.

G. S.