LAW OF LIBEL: IN WHICH IS CONTAINED A GENERAL HISTORY OF THIS LAW IN THE ANCIENT CODES, AND OF ITS INTRODUCTION, AND SUCCESSIVE ALTERATIONS, In the Law of England. COMPREHENDING A DIGEST OF ALL THE LEADING CASES UPON LIBELS, FROM THE EARLIEST TO THE PRESENT TIME. BY FRANCIS LUDLOW HOLT, ESQ. OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, BARRISTER AT LAW. SECOND EDITION, WITH CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS. Eadem famæ quam vitæ est habenda ratio, fama vitaque hominis iisdem legibus nituntur. London: PRINTED FOR J. BUTTERWORTH AND SON, LAW BOOKSELLERS, FLEET ΤΟ THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDWARD LORD ELLENBOROUGH, LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENGLAND, &c. &c. MY LORD, As the design of the following Treatise is to explain a very material part of the Criminal Law of the Land, it naturally suggested itself to me, that your Lordship, as being at the head of that Law, had a kind of ONUS attached to your office, and personal eminence, of becoming the refuge of all such attempts. My Lord, it has been my effort to point out the conformity of the doctrine and practice of the Law of Libel with the acknowledged Common Law of the Land; to shew that this Law has very few peculiarities, and that these peculiarities are rather necessary properties of the nature of the subject, than arbitrary deviations from the general principles of the law. This is another reason, therefore, why the present publication naturally betakes itself to your Lordship. To whom can the Law of the Land so |