An institute of the laws of England: or, the laws of England in their natural order, according to common use. Published for the direction of young beginners, or students in the law; and of others that desire to have a general knowledge in our common and statute laws. In four books. By Thomas Wood, L.L.D. and barrister at law. The tenth edition, revised, corrected, and enlarged by considerable additions from the new reports and manuscript cases, as also from the statutes, which are brought down to the present time, and by upwards of one thousand additional references: by a serjant at law.

London: London: printed by W. Strahan, and M. Woodfall, law-printers to the King's most excellent Majesty. For J. Whiston, J. Beecroft, W. Strahan, W. Johnston, J. Rivington, L. Hawes, T. Longman, B. Law, P. Uriel, T. Caslon, S. Crowder, W. Owen, T. Payne, B. White, J. Johnson, T. Pote, Z. Stuart, W. Flexney, W. Nicholl, T. Lowndes, J. Robinson, T. Cadell, B. Tovey, and R. Baldwin. M.DCC.LXXII. [1772], 1772. Leather. Very Good. Description: Folio (14½ × 9¾ in): t-p., x, 657, [40] p. Contemporary calf, red morocco label. · Register: 2º-form 4º: [a]² b-c² B-8O² 8P1. · Condition: Joints cracked, chipped at head and tail, boards rubbed with some scrapes; armorial bookplate on front paste-down; light damp-stain in lower margin of early leaves. · Comments: Tenth and final edition, the first to published after Blackstone's Commentaries. In fact, it seems that the anonymous revisor mentioned in the title thought very highly of the Commentaries, for he says in a footnote to the last paragraph of the introduction, concerning the objects of the law (p. 11): "Under these four large Heads, the learned Judge has with the greatest Perspicuity arranged his most elegant Commentaries on the Laws of England, which will be read, not only by Lawyers, but Englishmen of every Degree, Rank or Profession, who have any Regard for the Preservation of the Laws and Constitution of the British Empire, with infinite Pleasure and Delight, so long as those Laws and Constitution endure. Faxit DEUS in Secula Seculorum!" A casual perusal shows that a great many references to books published in since the prior edition have been added in the margins in this edition, including Blackstone's Commentaries, Burn's Justice in four volumes, Burrow's Reports, Wilson's Reports, and Vesey's Chancery Reports, as well as to the newly-fashionable seventeenth-century work, Sheppard's Touchstone of Common Assurances. · References: Johnson 207 (8 copies); Bridgman 367; Worrall 84; Marvin 743; S&M 1:38(88); Holdsworth, HEL 12:418-419; ESTC T101118.