During a long period the criminal laws of our country have grown up, as it were, with the necessities of our advancement and progress. Many interesting points have been argued by eloquent and able advocates, and decided by learned and enlightened judges; and the recent legislative effort to assimilate the criminal laws of the Confederated Provinces, has made them such as to induce an expression of my earnest hope that the excellent Code of laws which has been extricated from the discursive mass by which they were encumbered, digested by experience, and methodized by reason, forming a lucid and harmonious whole, may long remain as a monument to our Confederated Provinces, paying a homage to reason and to right; and that our Sister Provinces may profit by the example of our own, for whom the codifiers of our Criminal Law may be truly said not to have laboured in vain. Criminal Jurisprudence has not hitherto fallen within the scope of Canadian legal authors; and, although the practising lawyer may, perhaps, be more disposed to refer to my work than to peruse it, I trust that, at least, his frequent references to it, guided as he is by a copious Index readily to what he may require, will induce a favourable reception of my undertaking, which has been to furnish the Profession with a volume on Criminal Law and Practice, at once compendious and useful. Relying on the kindness of those who may peruse this book with a friendly disposition to its author, and the candour of those who may refer to it for the sake of information alone, I now offer it to the Public, and to the Profession, of which I am a member, with a sincere desire that it may be useful to both. OSGOODE HALL, TORONTO, 13th May, 1872. S. R. C. |