NEW COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND. (PARTLY FOUNDED ON BLACKSTONE.) BY HENRY JOHN STEPHEN, SERJEANT AT LAW. 44 "For hoping well to deliver myself from mistaking, by the order and perspicuous expressing of that I do propound, I am otherwise zealous and affectionate to recede as little from " antiquity, either in terms or opinions, as may stand with truth, and the proficience of know"ledge."-Lord Bac. Adv. of Learning. Fifth Edition. PREPARED FOR THE PRESS BY JAMES STEPHEN, Esq., LL.D., OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, BARRISTER AT LAW, PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LAW AT KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON, BUTTERWORTHS, 7, FLEET STREET, Law Publishers to the Queen's most excellent Majesty. HODGES, SMITH & CO., GRAFTON STREET, DUBLIN. DEDICATION (ON PUBLICATION OF THE FIRST EDITION). ΤΟ THE QUEEN. MADAM, THE eminent person upon whose Commentaries on the Laws of England this Work is partly founded, had the honour to obtain for his labours the patronage of a Queen Consort; but the present Writer has to congratulate himself upon the yet more distinguished fortune of being permitted thus to dedicate his pages to a reigning Queen,-under whose gracious and beneficent sceptre the administration of the |