uttermost, and which no one of proper feeling will meddle with inconsiderately. It is easy to point out their faults; and their general merits of lucid order, sound and clear exposition, and a style almost faultless in its kind, are also easily perceived, and universally acknowledged: but it requires perhaps the study necessarily imposed upon an editor to understand fully the whole extent of praise to which the author is entitled; his materials should be seen in their crude and scattered state; the controversies examined, of which the sum only is shortly given; what he has rejected, what he has forborn to say, should be known; before his learning, judgment, taste, and above all, his total want of self-display, can be justly appreciated. If, in the present attempt, I have failed to add utility to this great work through ignorance or inadvertence, I shall very thankfully receive all candid correction, and strive to profit by it upon any future occasion which may be afforded me, TEMPLE, June 20, 1825. ΤΟ The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, THE FOLLOWING VIEW OF THE LAWS AND CONSTITUTION OF ENGLAND, THE IMPROVEMENT AND PROTECTION OF WHICH HAVE DISTINGUISHED THE REIGN OF HER MAJESTY'S ROYAL CONSORT, IS, WITH ALL gratitude AND HUMILITY, MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY HER DUTIFUL AND MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT, WILLIAM BLACKSTONE. |