ufe; they are purchased trom abfolute neceffity; this obligation operates as ftrongly with regard to every new edition, as to the original work. The law is a branch of knowledge that is varying continually; every term, every fitting after term, every circuit, produces fomething new: thefe novelties equally interell the whole profeffion; they are fought with eagerness; and are transferred from one manufcript note-book to another, with the warmeft thanks for the communication. If, therefore, any one will be at the trouble to edite an old work with the accellion of fuch new materials as are applicable to the fubject of it, he does a fervice, that is received with gratitude by the profellors of the law, and very rarely fails of being rewarded by a general fale. We think this will be the fentiment, more efpecially, with refpect to the work before us. Bacon's Abridgment is, according to our judgment, by much the most valuable book of this fort. Others have their diftin&t merits, which render them perhaps more reforted to, under particular circumstances. Comyns's Digeft may present a plain propofition for the immediate application of the practifer, without the difficulties of refearch requifite in other works. Viner's Abridgment may furnifh fo fuli a ftatement of a cafe, as to render it unneceffary to recur to the original report. But bo h these works are limited in their utility; they are fitted only for the practifing lawyer, and not at all for the ftudent. On the contrary, Bacon's Abridgment feems to comprehend all the qualities that make it ufeful both for ftudy, and for reference; for the perfon who is in fearch of first principles, and the one who is to apply them to practice. In thort, Bacon's Abridgment is a collec tion of treatifes, upon all branches of the law, written in the ftyle of differtation; a fort of fecond, Blackstone's Commentaries, where the different fubjects of that excellent institutional work are enlarged upon, and purfued through their various details; and this is executed in fuch a manner, as to form a book, that may be taken up and read with faristation, which cannot truly be faid either of Comyns, or of Viner. It is well known, that this work was compofed from papers which Lord Chief Baron Gilbert left behind him, and which Mr. Bacon digefted into the prefent form. It may be more fatisfactory to the reader to hear what Mr. Gwillim has faid upon the original compofition of the work, in bis Preface to the prefent edition. "It was the hard fate of the excellent writings of the late Chief Baron GILBERT, to lofe their Author, before they had received his laft corrections and improvements, and in that unfinished state to be thrust into the world, without even the common care of an ordinary editor. Thofe Thefe invaluable tracts were for the most part published not only with all their original imperfections, without any attempt to fupply their defects, or explain or correct what feemed in them perplexed or erroneons, but with all the improprieties and inaccuracies which the ig norance and neglect of the amanuenfes, whom the Author's infirmities, compelled him to employ, could accumulate upon them. "Some of those tracts, it is well-known, fell into the hands of the compiler of the prefent work, and from them the materials of the greater part of it, as far as the title "Simony," were collected. Unfortunately, our Compiler had not the most happy difpofitions for the work he had undertaken, nor were thofe parts of the learned Judge's writings which appeared in the New Abridgment much better prepared to meet the publick eye, than the other tracts which had been published by perfons to whom chance or an undistinguishing choice had committed the infpection of the prefs. "In the courfe of the work, Mr. Bacon feems to have made different ufe of the materials that lay before him, fometimes taking the tracts at length, fometimes giving only extracts from them: but whether he inferted the whole of any tract, or only a part of it, we have reafon to think he inferted it just as he found it. If the Author in different treatifes, in order to make each treatise perfect within itself, introduced the fame matter conveyed in the fame expreffion, the Compiler implicitly copied it, and under different titles of his work introduced the fame pallages to the extent of feveral pages. If the manufcripts were in any part defective, if the fubjects were but partially treated of in them, the titles which related to thofe fubjects were left equally defective in the Abridgment. The Compiler feemed to have as little inclination to fupply the deficiencies of his Author, as he had fagacity to mark or correct his errors. "With thefe defects and redundancies the work has paffed through, three fubfequent editions; the only anxiety difcoverable in the later editors being to crowd it with references to cafes inappofite to the point in the text, and which, at the beft, had only fome relation to remote branches of the general fubject.” P. iii. After this account of the work before it came into Mr. Gwillim's hands, he goes on to acquaint us with the method he purfued in preparing the prefent edition. "In preparing the prefent edition for the prefs, it has been the first care of the editor to retrench what was redundant in the work, and to expunge what appeared to him impertinent. In retrenching, he has fubitituted reference for repetition, and where the fame matter which had occurred under one title feemed naturally to fall under and belong to another, he has referred to the preceding title inftead of introducing it again. In expunging, he has not indulged himfelf in any arbitrary or capricious licence; nor has he prefumed to ftrike out one fupervenient authority of a later editor, before he had fatisfied himfelt by careful examination that it had no pretenfions to the place it affected to Occupy. "In the original text he has rarely ventured to make any alteration, except where it was manifeftly corrupted by the careleffness of the copyift, or of the prefs, or rendered perplexed by the want of due at tention tention to punctuation. One or two paffages indeed, where the meaning could not be collected either from the expreffion or the references, he thought himself at liberty to expunge. Conjectural emendation is not admiffible in a work of this kind; and, he trufts, no man will complain of the lofs of nonfenfe. "He has attempted to mark, and guard his readers againft, the mistakes of the author: but he is fenfible that many, too many, erroneous paffages have been fuffered to pafs without obfervation. In the courfe of fo long a work it cannot be expected that the exertions of the mind fhould be always equal, or that it fhould always be alike difpofed to proceed in the task it had undertaken. It muft occafionally ficken at fome parts of the labour as beneath its attention, and fhrink from others as beyond its powers. It is well known that the moft obvious errors fometimes moft eafily efcape detection. In reading, every man must have felt that his mind is fometimes more attentive to its own preconceptions on the fubject, than to the ideas of the author, and the better it is fatisfied with the rectitude of the former, the more fteadily it purfues them, and the lefs fenfible it is of the aberrations of the latter. The form too in which error prefents itself to us may help to facilitate its efcape: it is more likely to pafs filently and unobferved when propofed in the form of a fimple affirmation, than when it challenges our inquiry in that of an interrogation. We often readily admit upon a statement what we should instantly deny, if it were offered to us in the way of queftion. "It should be obferved, that even where the Editor has detected error, he has not always immediately apprised his reader of it: he has fometimes fubjoined his remarks upon the erroneous paffage at the end of the divifion where it has occurred: he has at other times left its confutation to its inconfiftency with the better confidered and more recent determinations which he has afterwards introduced. "In the additions he was to make, he found it neceffary to prescribe to himself fome limitations: he therefore in general attempted no more than to fill up the chafms that were left under those general divifions into which he found the work already difpofed, and then to engraft upon the whole the later decifions. He has indeed given two new titles, viz. “ Pischary" and " Set-off" and he knows that he might have given others, as the work is at prefent far from a complete Abridgment of the Law. But he had neither time nor encourage. ment to go farther. Befides, much of the learning which is wanting, is to be met with in books that are in every one's hand: and what was to have been gleaned from other writings of the fame kind, though it might have increafed the bulk of the work, would not have added to its intrinfic value, or have done any credit to the industry or integrity of the Editor. If there fhould be fome who complain that more might have been done, there will be others, he fears, who will fay, perhaps with more juftice, that much of that which has been done might have been spared. As the Abridgment is written in the ftyle of differtation, he has in his additions availed himself largely of thofe tracts which have been published upon different parts of the Law, and received the approbation of the Profeffion, He has been in general careful, when ever he has made an extract from any of thofe tracts, to acknowledge the obligation by reference to the work itfelf. If he has in any initance (and he may have done fo in many) neglected to make such reference, the author may be affured, that it was by mere accident or inadvertency, and not from any defign to take to himself the credit of another man's labours. But wherever fuch omiflion may have been made, let not the author be under any uneafinefs: the world will too cafily diftinguith what properly belongs to the Editor. "He thought himfeif at full liberty to tranfplant into the work as much of the Chief Baron Gilbert's tracts as he had occafion for: it was in truth only re-uniting disjointed members, many parts of the work itself being only parts of feveral of thofe tracts. One of the learned Judge's treatifes, viz. the Treatife upon the Doctrine of Remainders, from which the collections in the Abridgment under that title were extracted, he has been enabled to give entire by the kindness of Mr. Hargrave. The manufcript had been purchafed by that gentleman at no inconfiderable price; but, difdaining all private confiderations where the interefts of that profeffion, of which he is fo diftinguished an ornament, feemed in any degree concerned, he made a voluntary tender of it to the Editor, as foon as he was informed that he was engaged in preparing another edition of the prefent work. By this generous act, Mr. Hargrave has highly flattered the editor, and has added one more to the many obligations his Profeflion was already under to him. The Editor has been anxious to feparate his own additions, and thofe of preceding editors, from the original work. Whatever, therefore, he is refponfible for is included between crotchets, thus []; whilft the infertions of the other Editors are diftinguished by one or other of these marks, *, †, ‡. It is well known, that Mr. Bacon did not live to carry the work any farther than to the title "Sheriff," inclufive, and that the remainder was added by Mr. Serjeant Sayer and Mr. Ruff head. It was not thought neceffary to give any distinguishing marks to this latter part: it feemed fufficient to give this intimation of it." P. v. We shall referve to a future occafion the examination of what the editor has done towards performing the promises held out in his Preface. (To be continued.) OUR ART. XII. Pennant's View of Hindooftan. (Concluded from our laft, P. 149.) UR diligent and entertaining enquirer into the Natural Hiftory and local rarities of Hindoftan having finished his tour through its western provinces, commences his progrefs through through its eastern divifion, at the extreme point of Comorin; and, continuing his courfe along the coaft, prefents his readers with a rapid but correct sketch of what is moft remarkable in the natural appearance of the country, noticing, as he proceeds, the principal cities, the most celebrated pagodas, and moft diftinguithed palaces of the Rajahs who prefide in the diftricts. Some of his defcriptions are accompanied with engravings of the objects defcribed, and, among others, we have a picturesque view of the rock and fortrefs of Dindigul. The wild and favage race inhabiting the woods and mountains along this vast tract, are properly defcribed as " Sylveftres Homines," and the Calleries are probably defcendants of those mountain Satyrs, which, from the very circumftance of their fylvan refidence, mythologized under the name and character of apes, are faid to have accompanied the great RAM in his conqueft of Ceylon, in the first ages of the world (p. 12). Great and deep rivers, lofty and extenfive mountains, form the natural barriers of provinces and kingdoms, and, as both abound in India, their courfe and extent are traced by our geographer with accuracy and precifion. The noble river CAVERI, which feparates the fouth-eastern diftrict of the peninfula from the Carnatic, and flows by Seringapatam, is (tated to run a courfe of three hundred and fifty miles from its head, in the Ghauts, to the dif charge of its waters into the ocean. The next great river is the COLEROON, over which we enter the Carnatic, a tract of country which being, as Mr. P. obferves, more peculiarly interesting to the British nation, is more minutely confidered by him; and his account, containing a fummary of both its natural and political hiftory, cannot fail of being an ufeful and inftructive companion to thofe who may hereafter travel over it, either from curiofity, or in a military capacity. His defcrip tion of the magnificent pagoda of Chilambaram will afford our readers a fpecimen of the author's agreeable mode of diverfifying his page, and enlivening his geography with the hiftory of the mally monumental remains of India. In the mid "The pagoda of Chilimbaram is the most celebrated for its fanctity of any in India; it is placed a little to the fouth of Porto Novo, in lat. 11. All thofe on this coaft are built on the fame plan; a large area of a fquare form, bounded by a wall fifteen or twenty feet high; within are feveral temples or chapels, inferior in height to the precinct, as if they were meant to be concealed from vulgar eyes. dle of the fides of the wall is one or more gateways, over which is built a lofty tower, of a pyramidal form. That at Chilambaram is truncated at top, and finishes with an ornament. The fronts of the towers are adorned with infinite numbers of sculptures, ufually of the deities, and their wild history, and oftentimes with animals of various kinds, fuch as in that at Madura. I have feen at Mr. Anfon's of Shug borough |