A GENERAL VIEW

OF THE

CRIMINAL LAW OF ENGLAND.

A GENERAL VIEW

OF

THE CRIMINAL LAW

OF

ENGLAND.

BY

JAMES FITZJAMES STEPHEN, MA.

OF THE INNER TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW,

RECORDER OF NEWARK-ON-TRENT.

London and Cambridge:

MACMILLAN AND CO.

The Right of Translation is reserved.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR,

BREAD STREET HILL.

PREFACE.

The object of this work being somewhat peculiar, a few words in explanation of it may be permitted. Almost all English law books are written for purely practical purposes. A few are intended for the education of students, the great majority are digests or indexes intended to be consulted in chambers or in court. Each of these classes contain so many works upon the Criminal Law admirable for their clearness and learning that it would be needless to try to add to their number. Each class, however, is marked by peculiarities which leave room for a work of another kind.

Books

intended for students (like the fourth volume of Serjeant Stephen's Commentaries) furnish a complete and exact map of a country which the reader is assumed to mean to inspect in detail for himself. Works intended for reference in business are unavoidably crowded with details to such an extent, that to try to get out of them any general notion of the law is like looking at a landscape through a microscope.

The present work is intended neither for practical use nor for an introduction to professional