PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. The editors of a legal periodical have said, they were "almost ready to lay it down as a general principle that reporters are wholly unable to write prefaces; "* so habitual is the negglect to give any information of the laws under which the reports are made. The Virginia reporters form no exception to this remark. The reports of one are the result entirely of individual enterprise, while those of another are made under authority of law and by virtue of judicial appointment: yet we are wholly uninformed by the reporters, of any difference between them. Mr. Gilmer does, it is true, mention that some of the cases in his volume were argued before his appointment as reporter; but he is altogether silent as to any legislation on the subject. Some mention of that legislation, with an enumeration of the reporters, prior and subsequent thereto, and a brief notice of the grade and authority of the courts whose decisions are reported, may not be wholly inappropriate now. From a very early period there existed in Virginia, besides the Monthly or County Courts, composed of persons commissioned by the governor and council, a higher tribunal, to which appeals might be taken from the County Courts. (a) This tribunal was composed of the governor and council, who held four Quarter Courts yearly at James City, in September, December, March and June. (b) Afterwards, December term was changed to November, (c) and June term was abolished.(d) The name Quarter Courts was now considered altogether unsuitable, because there were but three in the year, and they * American Jurist, vol. 6, p. 493, 4. (a) 1 Hen. Stat. at Large p. 125. (b) Id. p. 174. (c) Id. p. 271. (d) Id. p. 524. were "not equally distributed into the quarters of the year, September and November being too near, and March too long from them, to admit of that title." It was therefore enacted that the said courts should be no longer styled the Quarter Courts, but should be called General Courts, a name deemed "more suitable to the nature of them, as being places where all persons and causes have generally audience and receive determination." This name was given at the session of the assembly in 1661-2.(e) And thenceforward until the period of the revolution, the court thus established by the name of the General Court of Virginia, and consisting of the governor or commander in chief and the council, was "the principal court of judicature for the colony and dominion of Virginia,”(ƒ) liable, however, in certain cases, to an appeal from its judgment, decree or sentence to the royal power in England.(g) Some of the cases decided by the General Court from 1730 to 1740 were reported by Sir John Randolph, Edward Barradall, Esquire, and Mr. Hopkins; and others decided from 1768 to 1772 were reported by Mr. Jefferson. Since the death of Mr. Jefferson a small volume has been published, containing the cases reported by him, and also such of the cases reported by the three first named gentleman as arose under our own peculiar laws. Most, perhaps all, of the other cases reported by them may still be seen in manuscript. But in the volume entitled "Jefferson's Reports" are contained all the decisions prior to the revolution which have yet appeared in print. After the revolution, there was established a High Court of Chancery, a General Court, and a Court of Appeals; all held by judges chosen by the general assembly. The High Court of Chancery, when first established, consisted of three judges,(h) but the number was afterwards reduced to one.(i) George Wythe, who had been one of the three, became the sole chancellor. He published in 1795 a volume of his decisions, with remarks upon decree by the (e) 2 Hen. Stat. at Large p. 58. (ƒ) 3 Id. p. 288; 5 Id. p. 468; 6. Id. p. 326. (g) 3 Id, p. 489–90. (h) 9 Id. p. 389. (i) 12 Id. p. 767. |