In prosecution of the object of the present undertaking, it was found absolutely necessary to advert to the general rules of evidence in the common law courts of the country, and to the more prominent features of the criminal law of England, which, by the operation of the hundred and second Article of War, Courts Martial have frequently to dispense in places beyond the seas, where there may be no form of British civil judicature in force. To this end, the author has consulted, with what attention he could, such works on evidence and jurisprudence as came within his reach. That his enquiries have been conducted with the judgment and exactness of a practised lawyer, he dares not flatter himself; and if he be arraigned with presumption, in attempting a subject confessedly beyond his grasp, the only plea he can advance against the accusation is, that, in the discharge of his military duties, he felt it necessary to make some enquiries into the law of evidence, and the criminal law of England, and the result he arranged into the present form, and is induced, by the observations of some brother officers, to offer to the army; not by any means, as a complete summary of all that may be requisite to be known on the subject; but as embracing the most obvious points, which, in the course of his reading, appeared to a soldier to be connected with, or throw light on, the adminis

tration of Military Law; and which may be most required in cases where Courts Martial have to supply the place of courts of civil judicature of the country.

If a good lawyer could be grafted on a soldier of common observation, and possessing a certain experience in the army, a perfect treatise on Military Law might be produced; but as to the separate efforts of the lawyer and the soldier, it is to be apprehended that the legal faults which must exist in the essay of the one, would be more than equalled by the unmilitary feeling which would inevitably insinuate itself into and pervade the work of the other. Nor is it probable that these defects would be overcome by combining, in a joint treatise, the knowledge and experience of both the precision and deep research of the lawyer would ill accord with the unavoidable laxity and desultory habits of the soldier; and the parts would be so incapable of amalgamation, that the work itself, however valuable intrinsically, would yet be too discursive for the purpose of general information,—not readily made use of as a book of reference, and consequently, as a practical work, of little utility. A perfect treatise on Military Law cannot, for these reasons, well be expected: it would be necessary that acquirements should be combined in the same individual, which perhaps are in themselves incompatible and inconsistent. A

military life would scarcely admit of that intense application, which must be sustained in acquiring an ordinary proficiency in jurisprudence.

The author is very far from supposing that his work will be free from errors and imperfections: he has no doubt but that, in its limited degree, it will tend to strengthen the opinion entertained by some since the time of Tacitus: "Militaribus ingeniis subtilitatem deesse, quia castrensis jurisdictio secura et obtusior, ac plura manu agens, calliditatem fori non exerceat:" yet he confesses that if he anticipated severity of criticism, he should be much more solicitous as to the opinion which may be entertained of the military, than of the legal part of the work: upon the one subject, he ought to be well informed, or the experience of twenty-four years must have been indeed abortive; on the other, his information must be secondary; and if adequate to the duties of a British Officer, and proportioned to the general knowledge required in an English gentleman, it is all that can be fairly expected.

Utility, not novelty, a practical compilation, rather than an original essay, being the object of the author, he has not scrupled to adopt whatever matter he could find applicable to his purpose. In every case, he has, so far as he is aware, acknowledged the extent of the obligation; yet, as parts of this work were compiled

from notes made at different periods, and without any view to publication, it is very possible that, in some instances, he has omitted to make due acknowledgment.

With respect to the manner and arrangement of this essay, essentially imperfect as the author well knows it to be, if it be calculated to convey, with tolerable distinctness, his meaning to the minds of those for whom it is intended, it is all that has been aimed at it pretends neither to logical precision, nor to adventitious ornament. For the army the work was undertaken; and to the younger part of the army, the author fancies it may not be without its use: whether he is deceived or not, remains to be proved. One point is very certain; if the essay be productive of utility, it will ultimately need no apology; if not calculated to be of service, no apology can extenuate its defects; though, perhaps, integrity of motive may be received in palliation of the erroneous judgment which the author had formed of the utility of his performance.