Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book the First

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Transcriber's Notes: Sir William Blackstone's
Commentaries on the Laws of England was first
published in 1765-1769. It contains a number of
archaic
spellings
(including
"goaler"
for
"gaoler" and "it's" for "its") that have been
preserved as they appear in the original. All
such spellings have been verified using the
Oxford English Dictionary. Inconsistencies in
spelling,
punctuation,
hyphenation,
capitalization, and italicization have also been
preserved. Obvious printer errors have been
preserved
and
marked
with
red
dotted
underlining. Hover the mouse over the underlined
text to view a Transcriber's Note. Errata in the
original are hyperlinked to the Errata section.
Long s (ſ) in the original has been modernized
as modern s. The archaic convention of placing
quotation marks at the beginning of each line of
a quotation has also been modernized so that
quotation marks appear only at the beginning and
end of the quotation.
This e-book contains a few phrases in ancient
Greek, which may not display properly depending
on the fonts the user has installed. Hover the
mouse
over
the
Greek
phrase
to
view
a
transliteration, e.g., βιβλος.
CONTENTS
COMMENTARIES
ON THE
LAWS

OF
ENGLAND.
BOOK THE FIRST.
BY
WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, Esq.
VINERIAN PROFESSOR OF LAW,
AND
SOLICITOR GENERAL TO HER MAJESTY.
OXFORD,
PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.
M. DCC. LXV.
TO
THE QUEEN’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY,
THE FOLLOWING VIEW
OF THE LAWS AND CONSTITUTION
OF ENGLAND,
THE IMPROVEMENT AND PROTECTION OF WHICH
HAVE DISTINGUISHED THE REIGN
OF HER MAJESTY’S ROYAL CONSORT,

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