BAR of Eliot V. Merryman, on which conveyancers have at all times relied as very material to the law affecting the case now before the court, which is in Barnardiston's Reports." Lord Lyndhurst: " Barnardiston, Mr. Preston! I fear that is a book of no great authority; I recollect, in my younger days, it was said of Barnardiston, that he was accustomed to slumber over his note book, and the wags in his rear took the opportunity of scribbling nonsense in it." Mr, Preston : " There are some cases in Barnardiston, which, in my experience, and having had frequent occasion to compare that re- porter's cases with the same cases elsewhere, I have found to be the only sensible and intelligent reports, and I trust I shall show your lord- ship that it may be said of Barnardiston, non omnibus dormio.^ Lord Manners, relying on a case in these reports, says : " Although Barnar- diston is not considered a very correct reporter, yet some of his cases are very accurately reported." And Lord Elden, in reference to the same work, observed: "I take the liberty of saying, that in that book there are reports of very great authority." The doubts as to the accuracy of the reporter, have led, in several instances, to a comparison of the volumes with the register's book, which proves that Barnardiston, for the most part, has correctly reported the decisions of the Court. His reports have a peculiar value, from the fact of containing the decisions of the great Lord Hardwicke, and if the author has occasionally fallen into slight errors, they are neither so glar- ing or numerous as to detract much from their merits, or render them unworthy of a place in every lawyer's library. 2 Bur. 1142; 13 A. J. 483 ; 2 B. & B. 386 ; 1 Bligh. N. S. 538 ; 1 East, 642 ; 8 D. & E. 48 ; 2 Bro. C. C. 36; 4 Ves. jun., 488, n. ; 4 D. & E. 57 ; 1 Dow. & CI. 11 ; Gres. Eq. Evid. 301, n. BARNARDISTON, THOMAS. Reports of Cases in the Court of King's Bench, together with some other cases from T. T. 12 Geo. L, to T. T. 7 Geo. H., from 1726-31. 2 vols, folio. Lon- don. 1744. These volumes have been repeatedly denounced, and yet they are fre- quently cited. The cases, for the most part, are briefly reported, and were taken between the years 1726 and 1734, in the early part of Bar- nardiston's professional life. However, the accuracy of some of the reported cases is corroborated by a comparison of contemporary reporters, and Lord Kenyon appears to have given them their true value when he observed that they were not " of much authority in general." 8 D. & E. 48 ; 1 East, 644, n. ; Dang. 333, 689, n. n. BARNES, HENRY. Notes of Cases in points of practice, taken in the Court of Common Pleas, from M. T. 1732, to H. T. 1756, 94
