INTRODUCTION. My connexion with the public Press for a period of nearly ten years, during which I edited two weekly Journals, whose columns were chiefly devoted to the localities of the Island, and in which the proceedings of the Legislature and Court of Justice, formed a leading feature, enables me, perhaps, without much ostentation, to lay claim to some knowledge of the laws, customs and privileges of the country, and to form a tolerably correct judgment of the manner in which they are administered. These matters have, with me, been the subject of very considerable research. I have had some of the most valuable manuscripts in the Island at my disposal, to collect materials from, as well as the Code of Laws, sundry Orders in Council, Acts of the States, judgments of the Court, &c., which I have translated into the English language, and to these I may add, numerous Acts of Parliament, that apply to the Island, and decisions of English Courts, on points of foreign and international law; all of which are now brought together in a popular form, with occasional remarks. I have made the matter thus varied, in order that this Book should be the more serviceable, for I found it necessary to explain the English laws which bear on the Island, to the Jersey reader, as well as the Jersey laws to the English reader; and having made the former my study as well as the latter, I have endeavoured to point out their difference, so as to simplify a comprehension of both in their relative bearings. In prosecuting my editorial labours, I was accustomed to collect laws and decisions, as facts and data, on which I made notes, and kept them in reserve, to use as oppor tunities should offer or circumstances require. In course of time, these notes became so numerous, that on referring to them, to satisfy enquiries on given points, it was repeatedly suggested to me, that I should confer a great service on the public, if I would occasionally publish a column or so, and which I did many weeks following, in the News and Patriot |