THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. ON reading lately a collection of celebrated Speeches of the Master of the Rolls of Ireland, when at the bar in that country, where he so long maintained the highest reputation, the Editor was forcibly struck with the following passage in the Preface to the Second Edition, published at Dublin last year: "It is much to be regretted that Mr. Erskine's Speeches, as an Advocate, have not been yet published "in a separate volume. They are only to be found "in printed reports of the trials in which he was en"gaged; and from the difficulty which the Editor of "the present volume has experienced in collecting "those of Mr. Curran, it is probable that, in a few 66 years, to procure Mr. Erskine's Speeches will be impossible." This suggestion determined the Editor no longer to delay the publication of as many of the genuine Speeches of Lord Erskine as he could collect, which he had long intended to do, and which indeed he had begun several years ago, but found difficulties in the way. It is indeed surprising how very few of the real Speeches of eminent Counsel have been preserved. Many of the printed Trials in circulation are the abridged reports of persons not acquainted with short-hand writing, and contending besides for the earliest publication, on occasions interesting to the Public, and do not convey any idea of the eloquence of the English Bar, the monuments of which, more especially in cases connected with the constitution of the government and with public liberty, ought to be carefully preserved as part of the history and cha racter of our country. It is much to be regretted that English State Trials are so little known: they have hitherto been printed in folio, and are only to be found in the posses sion of lawyers, or in great libraries; whereas they ought to be universally circulated throughout the country, where the prudent assertion of invaluable privileges depends so much upon a perfect acquaintance with the principles on which they rest, and where the common classes of the people are called upon daily to assist in the administration of criminal justice, in cases too where the stability and security of the government on the one hand, and the lives and liberties of the subject on the other, may depend upon an enlightened judgment. On this account we have seen, with much satisfaction, the progress of Mr. Cobbett's edition of the State Trials, now printing in octavo; which appear, from the notes, to be superintended with very great legal information and remark, and which we hope will in the end embrace all the important proceedings in our courts of criminal justice. We cannot better illustrate what we have before observed, of the scarcity of genuine Trials, than by saying, that the Speeches of Lord Erskine, when at the Bar, which we now publish, together with another volume in the press, do not fill up the pleadings of THREE WEEKS, out of a life of nearly THIRTY YEARS incessant occupation in all our courts of justice throughout the kingdom. We have taken the assistance of a Gentleman well acquainted with legal proceedings, to state the occasions on which the Speeches collected were delivered, with as much of the circumstance, and of the evidence upon the trials, as was thought necessary to illustrate the argument. It was our original intention, in pursuing this course, to have printed only the Speeches of Lord Erskine, which it was our sole object to collect; but as we advanced to occasions very near our own times, we were desirous to avoid even the appearance of supporting or qualifying the foundations and merits of public prosecutions of a peculiar class; and in, those cases, therefore, we have printed also the Speeches of the Advocates, which have indeed tended further to illustrate the arguments which it was our design to preserve. In preparing the Prefaces to the Speeches, the Editor has carefully abstained from all observations upon their merits or character, wishing that every reader should be left to judge for himself, assisted as the Public now are by the many able and independent criticisms, which contribute so much to the advancement of learning in this island. |