A COLLECTION OF STATUTES CONNECTED WITH THE GENERAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE LAW; ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF SUBJECTS, WITH NOTES, BY WILLIAM DAVID EVANS, ESQ. VICE-CHANCELLOR OF THE COUNTY PALATINE OF LANCASTER. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. BUTTERWORTH AND SON, FLEET-STREET, 1817. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES BATHURST, CHANCELLOR OF THE DUCHY OF LANCASTER, &c. &c. &c, THIS WORK IS MOST GRATEFULLY AND RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. PREFACE. In this collection it is endeavoured to bring together, in a moderate compass, the several Statutes which are connected with the ordinary course of professional and magisterial practice, accompanied by a very few others which appeared to possess an interest as matter of historical curiosity. In order to accomplish this purpose, it was necessary to exclude all Statutes relating to the functions of the different officers of government-to matters of revenue to naval and military subjects, and other objects of partial and limited interest. The Statutes relating to elections of members of parliament might have been included consistently with the general plan of the work, but as they are already contained in different publications appropriated to the particular subject, it was thought, upon the whole, more eligible to include those only which may be regarded as forming a branch of criminal law. The land revenue of the crown has been admitted as an exception from the general subject of revenue so far as it is connected with the private titles of individuals, but not as it merely forms a matter of official regulation. The Statutes relating to the clergy-those concerning ship owners, with some of the leading acts of navi |