TIBKVKA equip the student with an accurate general knowledge of the whole field. And since the solution of new questions must be sought, not alone in the application of precedents, but also in the settled rules and the accepted canons of interpretation, and since the mind is often best prepared for the investigation of a specific problem by a rapid synoptical review of the results already worked out by the courts in that department to which it belongs, it is hoped that general practitioners may find the book to possess a special value for themselves. It would have been undesirable, even if it were possible, to discuss in these pages all the thousands of reported cases which bear upon the subject of constitutional law. Such an accumulation of authorities would have cumbered the work to the. point of destroying its utility. But a very considerable number of the more important and valuable decisions have been suitably referred to, and more, perhaps, than any student would have time or occasion to read. But it was thought that both student and practitioner would appreciate the advantage of being directed to the principal authorities, especially as they may have occasion to study certain special topics with more detail and particularity than the handbook itself could undertake. The subject of constitutional law is not free from disputed and unsettled questions. In respect to these, the author has invariably stated what he conceives to be the sound rule or the best principle for their interpretation. If his disposition of such topics should at times appear summary, or even dogmatic, it must be ascribed to the necessity for condensation, not to any failure to appreciate the pos sible arguments on both sides of the question. Washington, D., C., January, 1895. H. C. B. |