PUBLISHED BY W. P. FARRAND AND CO. AND BY FARRAND, MALLORY AND CO. BOSTON. 1808, 122 DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, TO WIT: BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the thirteenth day of July in the thirty-third year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1808, William P. Farrand and Co. of the said dis**** trict have deposited in this office, the title of a book the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit: SEAL. "The American Law Journal and Miscellaneous Repertory. Containing Adjudged Cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, Adjudged Cases in the District and State Courts of the United States, Opinions of Eminent Counsellors, Notices of New Publications, Essays on Legal Questions, Biographical Memoirs, Congressional and Parliamentary Debates, on momentous questions, Legal Information respecting the most important Laws of the different States. By John E. Hall, Esq. of Baltimore. "Seu linguam causis acuis, seu civica jura In conformity to the act of the Gongress of the United States, intituled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned:" And also to the act, entitled, " An act supplementary to an act, entitled, ' An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching historical and other prints." D. CALDWELL, Clerk of the District of Pennsylvania. TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. WE regret our inability to furnish an abstract of the acts of Congress passed at the last session, occasioned by the great delay in printing them at Washington. They will probably be published in time for the third number of our Journal. To prevent any mistakes, it is to be understood that all additions which the Editor may take the liberty of making to any communications, will be distinguished by brackets, [thus]. Gentlemen who are preparing reports for the press will confer a favour upon the Editor and promote their own views, by communicating some of the most important cases to him. An offer of this nature, of extracts from the MS. Reports of the Honourable Judge Bay, of Charleston, South-Carolina, is very cordially received. Booksellers are requested to apprize the Editor or Publishers of new works. The different agents of the Law Journal are requested to transmit lists of subscribers obtained by them, to the Publishers, at Philadelphia, on or before the 1st of December next. They will distinguish the names of professional gentlemen from others, so that the list of subscribers, which will accompany the fourth number, may exhibit some view of the number of attorneys in this country. PREFACE. IN almost every department of science its professors have established periodical journals to aid them in the prosecution of their various inquiries; but until very recently, the Bar has been entirely without this assis tance. In the year 1803, a Law Journal was commenced in London by John Morgan and Thomas Walter Williams, Esqrs. which has been found of eminent utility, not only to the profession, but to the community at large. The frequent recurrence of publication enabled the editors to give the earliest intelligence of new and important decisions on points in which the commercial world was deeply interested; while the immunities of invisibility offered a fair opportunity to professional gentlemen, to prosecute their researches by anonymous communications. The first law characters of Great Britain entered the lists in that field, while those of less knowledge silently contemplated the controversy and acquired experience from the ingenuity which the disputants displayed. If a Law Journal have been found to be so useful and necessary in Great Britain, where notoriety and uniformity may be established by an appeal to one supreme tribunal, how important would such a publication be, in our country, governed as it is by the various and conflicting laws of different states, which are yet |