Excerpt from Mr. Serjeant Stephen's New Commentaries on the Laws of England, Vol. 1 of 4: Partly Founded on Blackstone

Of the plan and principle of my own work, and of the views on which it was undertaken, it may be right here to give some farther explanation. Though the celebrated Treatise of Blackstone still remains without a rival, as an introductory and popular work on the Laws of England, the positions which it contains have been nevertheless so trenched upon by recent alterations in the law itself, that if the student were to rely upon its text, as containing an accurate account of our present system of juris prudence, he would be led continually astray. The later editions have consequently comprised a copious accompaniment of corrective and supplementary notes at the bottom of the page: but it is not in the nature of such a method (with whatever ability pur sued) to give entire satisfaction, because it obliges the reader to transfer his attention incessantly, 'from the text to the commentary, and augments also, to a considerable degree, the bulk and consequent ex pense of the volumes. These considerations led me to conceive that a work might prove acceptable.

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