Page:Marvin, Legal Bibliography, 1847.djvu/95

BAG BACHE, RICHARD. The case of Alien Enemies considered and decided, upon a writ of habeas corpus, allowed on the petition of Charles Lockington, an alien enemy, by the Hon. W. Tilghman, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. 8vo. Philadelphia. 1813. Pamphlet. BACKUS, JOSEPH. A Digest of Laws relating to the affairs and duties of SherifT, Coroner, and Constable, in Connecticut. 2 vols. Bvo. New York. 1812. BACON, SIR FRANCIS. Reading upon the Statute of, Uses. (27 Hen. YIII. c. 10.) A new edition, with notes, explanations, and a copious table. By W. H. Rowc, 8vo. London. 180-1. This is a very profound Treatise on the subject of Uses, and has always been highly esteemed by the profession, though evidently left by its great author in an unfinished state. The early editions of this Read- ing are full of typographical mistakes, which render many passages of it quite unintelligible. In 1804, Mr. Rowe edited the work with great care and industry, explaining the obscurities of the text and remarks of former editors and adding other valuable annotations. 51 Month. Rev. •2d ser. 208; Bridgman's BibJio. 7; 4 Kent, 291 ; Co. Lit. 130, n. 2. . Law Tracts, viz : I. Proposition for compiling an amendment of our laws. II. Offer of a digest of the laws. III. Elements of the common law. ^ <^Ae»-f ',vv««4 IV. Use of the law. V. Cases of treason. VI. Arguments in law in certain great and difficult cases. VII. Ordinances in Chancery. VIII. Reading on the Statute of Uses. 8vo. 2d ed. London. 1741. Most of these small treatises have been separately published. The Elements of the Common Law was one of the earliest, if not the first, published collection of Maxims of the English Law. It appears that the author had collected several hundred maxims, but only twenty-five were ever published. Had his proposition for amending the law been favorably received by James I., Bacon would doubtless have collected and illustrated most of the settled rules and maxims of the Common Law, for he considered such a work to be an essential basis upon which the law should repose. Those published are to be regarded as a specimen of what he intended to do, for he says : " I thought good before I brought them all into form to publish some few, that by the taste of other men's opinions, in this first, I might receive either appro- bation in mine own course, or better advice for the altering of the others 83