THE Grays Im A TABLE of the TITLES of all the Publick and Private With a CO PIOUS INDE X. AND An APPENDIX, confifting of OBSOLETE and CURIOUS ACTS, The EDITOR to the READER. I N the Preface to the First Volume, the Editor hath endeavoured to explain the Method of paffing our antient Acts of Parliament, and to reconcile fome contradictory Authorities on that Subject. He hath likewife offered fome general Obfervations on the Statute Laws of this Kingdom; and concluded with specifying the Plan he proposed to pursue throughout the Courfe of the Work: From which he hath found no Reafon to make any Deviation. It now only remains therefore to take Notice of fuch Matter as hath fince occurred in his Progrefs through thefe Volumes; as alfo more particularly to explain the Method which hath been purfued in the Arrangement of the Table; and laftly, to give fome Account of the Statutes which are printed feparately in the Appendix. SINCE the Preface was written, it hath occurred that in the fourth Section of the 18 Ed. I. ftat. 4. there is an Error in the Tranflation which runs through all the Editions now extant; wherein the Conufors are made to acknowledge the Mannor of B. with the Appurtenances, to be the Right of our Lord the King, which he hath of their Gift, &c. Whereas it ought to be that the Conufors acknowledge the Manor, &c. to be the Right of R. that is, of Sir Robert the Conufee.By this Statute, which prescribes the Method of paffing Fines, the first Thing to be done is for the Pleader to ask of the Juftice Conge de accorder, or Licence to agree. To which the Justice answers, naming one of the Parties, What will Sir R. give*? (that is, what will he pay for the Fine to the King?) "Then when they be agreed of the Sum of Money "that must be given to the King, the Justice fhall fay, Cry the Peace: And after the "Pleader fhall fay, Infomuch as Peace is licensed unto you, that W. S. and A. bis Wife, (the Conufors) that here be, do acknowledge the Manor of B. with the Appurts, to * In the old Editions it is printed, What faith Sir R? which is not reconcileable with any Meaning whatever. This grofs Inaccuracy was corrected by Mr. Cay, who altered it to Who will give? and his Correction is retained in the Margin of the present Edition. But on farther Confideration, it is fubmitted to the Reader's Judgment whether the above Translation WHAT will Sir R. give? is not nearer to the true Sense. In the Original French it is to be obferved, that the Pronoun relative que is used, Que donera Sir R? but if we render it Who will give? it should be the Pronoun perfonal qui. There is another Circumftance in favour of this Tranflation, which is that the Verb nomera in grammatical Order, refers to the Juftice who names the Party, and not (as Lord Coke fupposes) to the Pleader or Serjeant; who must name him if the Question: ftands who? Befide, the Question What will Sir Robert give? seems more naturally to precede the next Section; which fuppofes the Sum given to be agreed on, in consequence of that Question: And it may be added, that this is the Question now afked on acknowledging a Fine at Bar. A 2 "be |