Page:Halsbury Laws of England v1 1907.pdf/217

 Introduction.

ccxiii

judicial decisions, they calculated that the judicial decisions

were included in thirteen hundred volumes, exclusive

hundred and

of a

and they calThey culated the number of cases at a hundred thousand. recommended a digest, which they defined as a condensed

summary

of the

under proper

volumes

fifty

law as

of Irish reports,

exists arranged in systematic order

it

and subdivisions, and divided into

titles

definite

statements or propositions, which should be supported by the law

references to the sources of

and might be

severally derived,

whence they were

illustrated

by

citations of

the principal instances in which the rules stated have been

discussed or applied.

The commission very

remarkable

first

report,

and took some evidence

sat

the

only one

but

made no

allusion

that

appeared,

they

that



ever

in to

it

is

their

the

exhaustive and complete Index to the Statutes, and the edition of them down to the reign of Queen Anne, which was prepared by very distinguished commissioners in answer to addresses of the House of Commons. Both the index and

the edition of the statutes are a marvellous exhibition of

painstaking labour and

The various

profound learning.

volumes when published were deposited in the Parliament

and received

Ofiice,

this inscription

This book



perpetually preserved in, and for the use

of,

is

to be

the Parliament

Office."

It

may be

truly said that so great a

both legal and archaBological,

where



and

it

is

is

monument of

learning,

hardly to be found else-

most unfortunate that the edition

of

the statutes does not go beyond the reign of Anne, and

does

not,

Eaithby's

own death

indeed,

reach

the

end

of

that

reign.

Mr.

index goes down nearly to the period of his in 1826, but

and continued since

many

his

indices have been completed

time.

Nevertheless,

both for

design and execution, Mr. Eaithby's index deserves to be

remembered.