Fitz Gibbons's Reports. 1732.

Fleta, by Selden. 4to. 1647.

Fortefc. de Laud. Leg. Angl. Lord Chancellor Fortefcue de Laudibus Legum Angliæ, i.e.

Hardr.

H.

Har. Hift. Ir.

Har. Juftin

Hawk. Pl. Cr.

in Praife of the Laws of England. 1741.

Lord Fortefcue's Reports. 1748.

The late Mr. Juftice Fofter's Reports of Crown Law Cases. 1762.

Freeman's (Lord Chancellor of Ireland) Reports. 1742.

The London Gazette.

Lord Chief Baron Gilbert's Cafes in Law and Equity. 1760.
His Lordship's Law of Evidence. 1760.

His Lordship's Hiftory and Practice of the Court of Come
mon Pleas. 1761.

Mr. Juftice Godbolt's Reports. 4to. 1653.

Mr. Serjeant Hardres's Reports. 1693.

Harris's Hiftory and Antiquities of Ireland. fol. 1764.
Doctor Harris's Juftinian. 4to. 1756.

Mr. Serjeant Hawkins's Pleas of the Crown. fol. 1762.

Hawl. Rem. Steph. Col. Tri. Mr. Solicitor General Hawles's Remarks on Stephen Col

ledge's Trial. fol. 1689.

Lord Chief Juftice Hobart's Reports, fol. 1724.

Jacob's (a) Cafes in the Time of Lord Chief Justice Holt.

1738.

Horace's Art of Poetry.

Id eft, That is.

Sir Thomas Jones's (Lord Chief Juftice of the Common
Pleas) Reports. 1695.

The Court of King's Bench.

Keble's Reports. 3 vol. fol. 1685.
William (b) Kelynge's Reports.

L.

Lord Chief Juftice.

Laco Sigilli, i. e. instead of a Seal.

Lambard's Saxon Laws, in his APKAIONOMIA. fol. 1644.

The Lawyer's Magazine, 2 vol. 8vo. 1761.

Mr. Juftice Levinz's Reports. 2 vol. fol. 1762.
Lilly's Practical Regifter. 2 vol. fol. 1735.

(a) Pref. to Tab. of Ref. to L. C. J. Holt's Arg. and Ref. iv. Note (b).

(b) One of His Majefty's present Juftices of the Peace for the City and Liberty of Westminster and County of Middlesex.

M.

N.

Nom. Cap. Juftic.

P.

Nomina Capitalium Jufticiariorum, i. e. The Names of the
Chief Justices.

P. & M. or Ph. & Mar, King Philip and Queen Mary.

Palm.

Mr. Attorney General Palmer's Reports. fol. 1688.
Philipps's Grandeur of the Law. 12mo. 1685.
Mr. Serjeant Plowden's Commentaries. fol. 1761.
Lord Chief Juftice Popham's Report's. fol. 1656.
Preface to Table of References to Lord Chief Justice Holt's
Arguments and Refolutions in the Reports, at the End of
his Lordship's Life. 1764.

The Queen's Bench.

Lord Chief Justice Raymond's Reports. 2 vol. fol. 1765.
Sir Thomas (a) Raymond's Reports.

Readings upon the Statute Law. 5 Vol. 8vo. 1725.
Regiftrum Brevium, i. e. Register of Writs. 1687.
Lord Chief Justice Coke's Reports. 7 vol. 8vo. 1738.
Lord Chief Juftice Rolle's Abridgment of the Law. 2 vol.
fol. 1668.

His Lordship's Reports. 2 vol. fol. 1676.

Rufbworth's Hiftorical Collections. 1680.

Ruffhead's Preface to 9th vol. of Statutes at large. 4to. 1765.

Seffions Cafes, 2 vol. 8vo. 1760.
Same Point.

Mr. Recorder Shower's Reports.

Siderfin's Reports. 1714.

Sidney on Government. fol. 1751.

Mr. Serjeant Skinner's Reports. 1728.

(a) One of the Juftices of the Court of King's Bench in Charles the Second's Reign, and Father to the late Lord Chief Juftice Raymond.

(b) The two firft Volumes were published by the late Lord Chancellor Hardquicke.

Spelv.

Water. Fortefc. Illuftr.

W. & M.

Spelman's Gloffary, 1687.
Star-Chamber.

State Trials.

Strange's (late Mafter of the Rolls) Reports. 2 vol. fol. 1758.
Doctor Strahan's Domat's Civil Law, 2 vol. fol 1737.
Swinburn's Teftaments and Laft Wills. fol. 1743.

The Table of Judges.

Theory of (a) Evidence. 1761.

Trials per Pais by Duncombe 1739

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Mr. Juftice Ventris's Reports. 1696.

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Verfus, i. e. Against. Verle..

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dibus Legum Anglice (in Praife of the Laws of England)
illuftrated. fol. 1663.

King William the Third, and Queen Mary the Second, his
Queen

Weft's Dif. Treaf. & At- Weft's (Lord Chancellor of Ireland) Difcourfe concerning

taind.

Whit. Lift.

Wilk. Leg. Angl. Sax.
Wood's Inft.

Wood's Civ. Law.

Treafons and Bills of Attainder. 1716.

Whitworth's Lift of Lord Chancellors, Judges, Barons of

the Exchequer, Matters of the Rolls, Attornies, and Solicitors General. 8vo. 1765.

Doctor Wilkin's Leges Anglo Saxonicæ. fol. 1721.

Doctor Wood's Inftitute of the Common Law. fol. 1763.
His new Inftitute of the Civil Law. fol. 1730.

(a) Wrote by one of the prefent learned Judges.

N. B. The Figure preceding the Book referred to alludes to the Volume of the Work; if the Reader finds no Figure prefixed, the Volume alluded to is to be understood the firft.

A DIGEST

A

DIGEST of the LA W

CONCERNING

LIBEL S.

A

it

CHAP. I.

DEFINITION.

mation in

&c.to black

putation of

LIBEL is (a) defined a malicious Defamation, Libel a maexpreffed either in Printing or Writing, or by Signs, licious Defa Pictures, &c. tending either to blacken the Memory of Writing or one who is dead, or the Reputation of one who is alive, Printing, or and thereby expofing him to public Hatred, Contempt and by Signs, Ridicule, and may be as well against a private Man as en the Me against a Magistrate; if it be made against a private Man, mory of the may excite the Libelled, or his Friends to revenge, and Dead,or Rebe the Cause of Blood-fhedding. If it be against a Ma- the Living. giftrate, it is a Scandal to the Government, A Libel is punishable, tho' the private Man or Magiftrate is dead at well as Ma the Time of making the Libel; for others of the fame giftrates. Family are alfo provoked to a Breach of the Peace; and in the Cafe of a Magistrate deceased the Government is alfo traduced, which never dieth. Swinb. 375. Part. 5. traduced. Sect. 10. 4. Read. Stat. Law 149, 155. Wood's Inft. 444. Hawk. Pl. Cr. 193. B. 1. Chap. 73. Sect. 1. 5. Co. 125. 12. Mod. 221. Ld. Raym. 418. Sce 2 Salk. 419.

(a) Juftinian's Definition of a Libeller exactly correfponds with our Laws at this Day, viz. He who fhall, to the Infamy of another, write, compose, or publish a Book, Song, or Fable, or maliciously procure any of these Acts to be done, is guilty of a Libel. Har. Juftin. 22. Lib. 4. Tit. 4. Sect. 1.

Against pri

vate Men as

Government

1

An Offence

Termed Li- It is termed (a) Libellus famofus feu infumatoria fcrip
bellus famo-
fus, feu in- tura, and from its pernicious Tendency has been held a
famatoria public Offence at the Common Law; for Men not being
fcriptura. able to bear the having their Errors expofed to public View,
at Common were found by Experience to revenge themselves of those
Law. who made fport with their Reputations; from whence arose
Labels occa Duels and Breaches of the Peace: And hence written Scan-
fion Duels
and Breach- dal has been held in the greatest Deteftation, and has re-
es of the ceived the utmoft Difcouragement in the Courts of Juf-
Peace. tice. Wilk. Leg. Angl. Sax. 78. pl. 4. Lamb. Sax. Law
Scandal moft 64. pl. 4. Bract. Fol. 153. Lib. 3. Cap. 36.

Written

detested.

be in Writ

ing.

TH

A Libel muftHIS Species of Defamation is ufually termed written Scandal, and thereby receives an Aggravation, in that it is prefumed to have been entered upon with Cool. nefs and Deliberation, and to continue longer, and propogate wider and farther than any other Scandal. 3 Bac. Abr. 490. Lord Raym. 416. 12 Mod. 219.

Quære,
Whether

abufive Let

It feems to be a Matter of Doubt, whether the fending an abufive Letter, filled with provoking Language, to anfending an other, will bear an Action as for a Libel, because here is ter will bear no Publication. But it seems to be clearly agreed, that the an Action fending fuch Letter, without other Publication, is an (b) for Want of Offence of a public Nature, and punishable as fuch, in as but fuch much as it tends to create ill Blood, and caufes a DisturbLetter, with- ance of the public Peace; and if the bare making of a

Publication?

out other

Publication,

is punishable (a) Lord Chief Juftice Raymond, in Curl's Cafe, faid he did not think as a public that Libellus was always to be taken as a technical Word, and afked whether

Offence.

Trover would not lie de quodam Libello intitulat the New Teftament, and
whether the Spiritual Court did not proceed upon a Libel? Mr. Juttice For
tefcue faid, a Libel was a technical Word at Common Law. Mr. Justice Rey-
neld s faid, that Libellus did not ex Vi Termini import Defamation, but was
to be governed by the Epithet added to it.
2 Stra. 791.
(b) Indictment for a Mifdemeanor in fending libellous Letters to Corref
pondents by the Poft. 4 Read. Stat. Law 155.

Libel