Law Miscellanies: containing an introduction to the study of the law; notes on Blackstone's Commentaries, shewing the variations of the law of Pennsylvania from the law of England, and what acts of assembly might require to be repealed or modified; observations on Smith's edition of the Laws of Pennsylvania; strictures on decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and on certain acts of Congress, with some law cases, and a variety of other matters, chiefly original. By Hugh Henry Brackenridge, a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: P. Byrne, 1814. —Judge Brackenridge writes with the clarity and style we expect from the author of Modern Chivalry.

The New Clerk’s Magazine; containing all the most useful forms, which occur in business transactions between man and man. Comprising many valuable forms not before given in any one collection. Calculated for the use of the citizens of the United States, and made conformable to law. By a Member of the Massachusetts Bar. Boston: Lilly, Wait, and Company, 1833.

Sensational Trials

In the nineteenth century and before, sensational trials often produced what our modern publishing industry would call “instant paperbacks,” short books cheaply printed and filled with the most lurid details of the crimes. Historical novelists will find a wealth of material in them. We have arranged them chronologically.

Trial of Henry Phillips for the Murder of Gaspard Dennegri. January 2, 1817. Printed by Thomas G. Bangs, No. 7, State-Street.

The Trial of Henry Hunt, Esq., [et al.], for an alledged conspiracy to overturn the government, &c., before Mr. Justice Bayley, and a Special Jury, at the York Lent Assizes, 1820.

The Boston Slave Riot, and Trial of Anthony Burns. Boston: Fetridge and Company, 1854.

The trial of William Palmer for the Rugeley Poisonings. London: Henry Lea, 1856.

The Trial of James H. Johnson, at the March term, 1859, of the Circuit Court of Rappahannock County, Va., charged with the poisoning of his wife, by administering to her Strychnia. Together with a short biography of the criminal, the evidence adduced at the trial, his liaison with his wife’s niece—the murder of their offspring, the letters of his paramour, and the medical evidence adduced on the occasion, including that of Prof. R. E. Rogers, of the University of Pennsylvania. Also, an account of the execution. By a member of the Rappahannock bar. [No publisher noted.]

The Trial of Oscar Wilde, from the shorthand reports. Paris: Privately Printed, 1906.