(222) stake, a heap of stones, &c. See 1 Jones' Law R. 111. See a description of the boundaries of the State of New-York, as declared in the Revised Statutes, Part I. Chap. I. Tit. I. (223) prudence. This great work is divided into five books, and these into tracts (tractatus), and chapters; embracing the whole civil and criminal law and practice of the kingdom, as it existed at the time it was written. The author, Henry de Bracton, was one of the king's justices, and is said by some to have been chief justice, by others a justice in eyre. 1 Spence's Chancery, 119, and note (a). The work itself is supposed to have been written or completed about A. D. 1270. Id. ibid. note (b). 2 Reeves' Hist. Eng. Law, 90. It was first published in 1569, and a second edition in 1640; but neither of these is free from corruptions and imperfections of the text, which render the author's meaning occasionally obscure. Bracton is called by Mr. Spence a doctor of the civil law, and is supposed to have been the same person with Henry de Bracton who delivered law lectures in the University of Oxford, towards the middle of the thirteenth century. 1 Spence's Chancery, ub. sup. His intimate acquaintance with the Roman law sufficiently appears from the frequent references to the Code, Institutes and Pandects, scattered through his work, (in addition to large extracts without reference,) and which have led some to suppose it to have been almost entirely compiled from these sources. It was this feature which, from an early period, detracted so much from Bracton's authority in the common law courts of England. Thus we find him cited in Plowden, "not as an author in the law, but as an ornament to discourse where he agrees with the law." Saunders, C. B. arg. Plowd. 357. Catlin, C. J. arg. Id. 358. This opinion included Glanville and Fleta, of whom it is said that they "were never taken for authors [authorities] in our law." 1 Show. 121, arg. In another case, Bracton and Glanville are called actores non authores legis. Periam, arg. 1 Leon. 82. But see Vaugh. 96, 141, 142, 201. In later times, the merits of Bracton were more adequately appreciated, and his authority acknowledged by eminent judges and writers, such as Staundford, Lord Bacon, Sir William Jones, Lord Holt and Selden. Lord Bacon quotes Bracton as "an author of great credit." Arg. case of the Postnati of Scotland, Works, iv. 358. Lord Coke himself made free use of Bracton in all his writings, and a large proportion of the Latin quotations with which the Institutes abound is taken from this source. Sir William Blackstone also frequently refers to Bracton, and always in terms of peculiar respect. Bracton continues to be cited by the best writers on English and American law, and is sometimes quoted in argument in the English courts. 15 Mees. & W. 60. Although most of the treatise De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Anglia has necessarily become obsolete, it will probably never lose its interest as the most complete repository of ancient English jurisprudence, and a principal source of the learning of later times. 1 Kent's Com. 499-501. Indeed, of late years, the attention of English jurists, especially the civilians, has been drawn to it in a very particular manner. Mr. Long, in a "Discourse" delivered in Middle Temple Hall (and published in the Law Library, new series, vol. 44,) goes into an examination of a considerable part of "this comprehensive Institutional Treatise," as he terms it, and observes of it, (p. 106,) "this book is certainly the foundation of our system." Mr. Spence, in his valuable treatise on The Equitable Jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery, has made very copious use of it, in illustration of what may be considered his theory of the almost entire derivation of the English from the Roman law. Not a few portions of Bracton continue to be law in the United States at this day. The great interest with which this venerable work is invested, arises from the circumstance of its having been written at the time when the common law was in process of formation. Bracton himself expressly speaks of the law as then unwritten, and made up of customs which often differed in different places. Sola Anglia usa est in suis finibus, jure non scripto et consuetudine.** Sunt in Anglia consuetudines plures et diversa, secundum diversitatem locorum. Bract. fol. 1. These discordant materials were, however, beginning to be amalgamated and reduced to uniformity, principally from the effect of the decisions of the King's courts, which are here referred to systematically for the first time. Nearly five hundred references are made to adjudged cases of this description, some of them before the King, others in the Bench, but most of them before the justices in eyre, especially before Martin de Pateshull, whose opinions seem to be regarded as of paramount authority. This work of Bracton, like the older treatise of Glanville, and the productions of the