Page:Marvin, Legal Bibliography, 1847.djvu/97

BAG BACON, MATTHEW. A new Abridgment of the Law. With large additions and corrections, by Sir Henry GwiUim and C. E. Dodd, and with the notes and references made to the edition published in 1809, by Bird AVilson ; to which are added notes and references to American and English law and decisions, by John Bouvier. 10 vols. 8vo. Philadelphia. I842. This work is probably in more general use in the United States, than any other English Abridgment of the Common Law. The various titles being written in the form of dissertations, renders it quite a law library in itself. Bacon's Abridgment, as originally published, was for the most part composed of dissertations or treatises, more or less complete, written by Baron Gilbert. This distinguished author contemplated writing dis- tinct treatises upon all branches of the law, except the criminal, some of which he had completed and others were in an unfinished state at his death. These dissertations or treatises, were arranged for the press and published by Matlhew Bacon, who sometimes gave them at length, at others only making extracts from them, without attempting to correct the errors or supply the deficiencies of the manuscripts. " The compiler seemed to have as little inclination to supply the deficiencies of his author as he had sagacity to mark or correct his errors." Bacon died before completing his task, and the titles commencing with Simony and ending with Verdict, were added by Sergeant Sayer, and the residue of the titles by Owen Raffliead. Mr. Viner makes the following remarks respecting the sources from whence Bacon's Abridgment was originally compiled : " I take all the introductory and new parts thereof, and which are the recommendations of the work, to be a collection from the MSS. of the Ld. Ch. B. Gilbert, from the Lord Ch. J. Hale, Mr. Sergeant Hawkins' Pleas of the Crown, and Mr. Dawes' annotations on several acts of Parliament, which, with a transcript of several acts of Parlia- ment at large, for many pages together, and with a few new cases, amounting to a very few sheets in the whole, is almost the total of the work. These annotations of Mr, Dawes', (except, 1 think, in one place only,) together with the multitude of references from Mr. Serg. Haw- kins, are carried off in triumph, without any acknowledgment of the real author." In this state the work passed through four editions, with some slight additions by unknown hands. In 178G, Mr. Cunningham pre- pared and published a Supplement to Bacon's Abridgment. In 1798, the fifth edition of the Abridgment was published in 7 vols. 8vo., edited by Sir Henry Gwillim. This learned editor most carefully revised the whole text, omitting or pointing out such parts as were evidently wrong, and completing such titles as were imperfect. The editor added two more titles, viz: Pischary and Set-off; and published entire, from the original manuscript, Gilbert's Treatise upon Remainders, of which only extracts had been published in the previous edTtions of the Abridg- 85