Entered according to the Act of Congress, this eighteenth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, for the COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, In the Clerk's Office of the Eastern District of Virginia. PREFACE. With the present volume commences the report of the decisions of the Supreme court of appeals organized under the constitution of 1851. In this court is now vested the supreme appellate jurisdiction in both civil and criminal causes. By the thirteenth section of the sixth article of the constitution it is provided, that "When a judgment or decree is reversed or affirmed by the Supreme court of appeals, the reasons therefor shall be stated in writing, and preserved with the record of the case. This provision has necessarily introduced a considerable change in the mode of expressing the decision of the court. For some years past, with special exceptions, the court has been content simply to express in its judgment or decree the grounds on which its decision was made, without giving the reason for it. Under the present provision of the constitution, the judges have deemed it their duty to set out fully the reasons on which their opinions are founded. A consequence of this change and the number of cases directed to be reported, have rendered it impossible to give the arguments of counsel, and bring the reports for the year within the compass of one volume, which is all that by the statute is authorized to be published in one year. Indeed, this volume does not contain the decisions of one year, but terminates with the 1st of April 1853; that being the regular time for commencing and concluding the volume. The reporter has deemed it improper to make a second statement of the case, when, as is frequently done, the judge delivering the opinion of the court, or delivering an opinion in which the other judges concur, has made a full statement of the facts in his opinion. |