Maxims and rules of pleading, in actions real, personal and mixt, popular and penal describing the nature of declarations, pleas, replications, rejoynders, and all other parts of pleading, shewing their validity and defects, and in what cases they are amendable by the court, or remediable by the statute-law, or otherwise : likewise, which of the parties in his plea shall first offer the issue, and where special matter may be given in evidence upon the general issue : of demurrers upon evidence, of verdicts, general and special, and of bills of exceptions to the same, of judgments, executions, writs of error and false judgment, and of appeals, indictments, and informations and the pleadings relating thereunto / published from the manuscript of Sir Robert Heath ... ; with additions of new matter to every title, from all the reports since his time.

TO THE READER.

THE Author of this Incom∣parable Treatise, made the Sentiments of the Great Littleton his Rule, in Chusing that Subject He so much Commendeth in his Te∣nures, viz. The Science of good Pleading, as the most Nice and Cri∣tical Part in the Study of the Law; which He hath Manag'd in such an Extraordinary Method, that all Men of Sense, of that Profession, cannot sufficiently enough Admire

and Value this His most Excellent Discourse of Pleading, suitable to the Greatness of his Performance therein

To do him Iustice, No Person (among the Writers of the Common Law) hath been more happy in the Contrivance of his Design, being so Concise, and his Matter so hand∣somly Couch'd, that I must beg the Reader's Pardon, if I confess it to be very difficult to Imitate him, without taking up as much Time, as He was pleased to allow himself; which, by the way, was not within the Limits of my Province: However, I have so far taken Care to come near him, that the Author himself, if he were alive, would not, I presume, altogether dislike what I have done.

But the greatest Obstacle I am to remove, is, what some Persons, who have seen the Original, do Object,

That it is only taken from the Year-Books, Plowden's Commentaries and Dyer's Reports; Things proba∣bly good in their Times: But alas! (say they) what's that to the most Refin'd, Polite, and never enough Valued, Equalled, much less Out∣done, Reports, Abridgments, Tracts, &c. since their Times? (Tho' these are not wanting in our Composition) I think to all this I may modestly Answer:

That the Year-Books are the very Foundation of the Law; Plow∣den and Dyer perhaps Inimitable; and, I hope, this may be further said, without Offence, That had it not been for the Clear, Pespicuous Light of the Year-Books, the later Reporters would have but grop'd (as it were) in the Dark, and been beholden too much to that incertain Goddess, Ex∣perience (the Mistress of Fools, as accounted by the Learned) which,

how far Experimental Knowledge differs from Right Reason, drawn by Succession of Time, from the Maxims and Rules of the Ancients, in all Ages, I leave the Reader to guess at; and, if he Doubts, to Consult his Coke upon Littleton.

W. B.