CLARK'S LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. EDINBURGH, 38. GEORGE STREET. HIGH AND CIRCUIT COURTS OF JUSTICIARY. In Royal Octavo, Price 7s. 6d. No. I. of REPORTS of CASES before the HIGH COURT and CIRCUIT COURTS OF JUSTICIARY, (from 16th Nov. 1835, to 18th March 1836.) By ARCHIBALD SWINTON, Esq., Advocate. The THE want of any record of the Decisions of the Supreme Criminal Court in Scotland has, of late years, been a source of considerable inconvenience. Since 1829, when Mr. SYME's Reports closed, no adequate attempt has been made to furnish the Profession with full and regular infor. mation of the points of Law decided in the Justiciary Court; much less to afford to the public any account of the evidence in such interesting and important trials as occasionally occur. present work is intended, in some degree, to supply this deficiency. The design of its publication, originated in the suggestions of Members of the Bar, who have experienced the evil which it is designed to remedy. And it is undertaken with the concurrence and approbation of those most conversant with the practice of the Criminal Court, and without whose countenance it could have pretended to no authority. It is proposed to report, as fully as may be necessary, the discussions of strictly legal questions which take place, and the decisions which are pronounced, either in the High Court of Justiciary, or on the Circuits. And, occasionally, in cases in which, from the nature of the crime, or the circumstances attending its perpetration or detection, any interest may be supposed to attach to the evidence, the trial will be given at some length. It is believed also, that some benefit may be derived from Reports of Cases which come before the Court in the form of Suspensions of the Judgments of Inferior Judicatories. It was once contemplated, that these Reports should have commenced from the period where Mr. SYME'S volume closed, or at least, with the Cases decided since the publication of Mr. ALISON'S work. This design has been abandoned on account of the delay which it would have occasioned to the publication of the more modern Decisions. But a separate Series, embracing the unreported Cases, will probably be commenced immediately, compiled from the Records of Court, and other authentic sources, to which ample access has been obtained. These, however, will form a distinct volume from that now commenced, of which two, or at most three, numbers will be published annually. The size of each number must, of course, depend upon the materials afforded by the proceedings before the Court. May, 1836. CRITICAL NOTICES. "This is the first number of a set of Reports, which we have no doubt will prove highly valuable to the legal profession, and which have for some time been a great desideratum. The cases appear to us to be very well selected, to be reported with great care, accuracy, and distinctness, and condensed as far as consistent with giving the full merits of each question. wish Mr. Swinton success in the prosecution of a work so creditable to himself, and likely to prove of such utility to the public."-Caledonian Mercury. We cordially "At the present time, when the science of jurisprudence is cultivated with such care and success among us, and when all its most important branches and sub-divisions have been dignified and enriched by the publication of separate treatises, it is not a little remarkable that there should have been no regular record of the proceedings of our supreme criminal tribunals laid before the profession and the public for a considerable number of years. The want of such Reports falls, it is true, in the first instance, most heavily on the Legal Profession itself; the knowledge of our criminal law, as in daily active efficiency among us, being thus made to fall behind that of our civil practice, more lucrative it may be to the practitioner, but certainly not superior in real importance. But these are not all the disadvantages attendant on the want of such a work. If any of our institutions ought in a more especial manner than others to be subjected to the scrutinizing eye of impartial publicity, it is unquestionably that portion of our jurisprudence on the state of which our lives and liberties, our dearest rights and interests depend." "It is, accordingly, with great satisfaction that we have seen the first number of a regular series of Reports by a talented Member of our Bar, exclusively devoted to the cases tried before the High Court and the Circuit Courts of Justiciary. The learned author, as he has had the fullest access to all the materials necessary for rendering his labours complete and authoritative, so in the execu tion of this part of his work he has proved himself worthy of the opportunities afforded him, by the approbation and countenance of those in the highest quarters, and eminently displayed his full qualifications for carrying on such a work with success. This praise we do not bestow rashly; for the fidelity and accuracy of many of the Reports contained in this first fasciculus. we can take it upon ourselves to speak, and the style and manner of reporting apparent in them all are excellent. The author has, with much propriety, given those cases at length which are of a nature more peculiarly interesting from their magnitude or attendant circumstances. "Of these we may instance the trial of the Glasgow incendiary, Arthur, which Mr. Swinton has reported at full length, and in a manner which must be highly interesting to the general reader. On the whole, we cordially recommend this publication to the notice of every one in any way connected with the legal profession. And we anticipate that its authority will, ere long, be so fully recognised in every Criminal Court throughout Scotland, that it will be an indispensable addition to the library of every practitioner both in town and country."—Edinburgh Advertiser. THE METAPHYSIC OF ETHICS; BY IMMANUEL KANT, PROFESSOR OF LOGIC AND METAPHYSIC IN THE UNIVERSITY OF TRANSLATED OUT OF THE ORIGINAL GERMAN, WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND APPENDIX, BY J. W. SEMPLE, ADVOCATE. EDINBURGH: THOMAS CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET; HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO. LONDON; AND M.DCCC.XXXVI. |