CRO CROKE, SIR GEORGE. Reports of Select Cases in the Courts of K. B. and C. P., during the Reigns of Ellz., James I., and Charles I. ; revised and published in English. By Sir H. Grim- stone. 3d ed. 3 vols. fol. London. 1683 or 1685. 4tU.ed. with additions of marginal Notes and References to later authori- ties. By T. Leach. 4 vols. 8vo. London. 1790-92. See Hughes. The first and second editions are in law French. Besides these, Bridg- man observes : " There is also a very incorrect edition, varying in the numbers from the other editions, and the dates are printed in numerical letters, MDCL. Croke's Reports form a continuation of Dyer's, and are among the most esteemed of the elder determinations, and are to this day familiarly referred to as authentic repositories of the Common Lavs^." In a case in 2 Keble, 316, 3d Croke was cited, where the reporter says, " the Court took no regard to that book ; Keeling said it were bet- ter it had never been printed." Judge Pendleton also says, "that pre- cedents for almost any opinion may be found in Croke's Law Reports ;" but neither of these criticisms are sustained by quite as competent judges of their value, and" the general opinion of the profession. Master Phil- lips characterizes them as " Reports of as good matter and artificial brevity as any extant; yet so full, that scarce any thing worthy of note is omitted; especially the second Part, containing more matter of law than those that are of thrice the bulk ; and are the rather to be esteemed much of, because they are the product of critical times." The translator, Croke's son-in-law, had access to the original manuscript, and spared no pains in making the Reports worthy of their author's reputation ; for he says, " I have taken upon myself the resolution and task of extract- ing and extricating these Reports out of their dark originals ; they being written in so small and close an hand, that I may truly say they are folia syhilUna, as difficult as excellent ; and he gives as a reason for the undertaking, (having some family reputation at stake,) lest they should be obtruded to the public by an incurious hand, or, through the sordid ignorance of some others, be prostituted in the contemptible pamphlet dress and character of such of their blind and mis-shapen Reports, as some of our late justices and professors of the law are in their kind abused." The editor of the fourth edition is not celebrated for great accuracy in his references. Brooks' Bib. Leg. 212; Phillips' Studii Legalis Ratio, 116 ; 1 Kent's Law Com. 485 ; AVallace's Reporters, 23; Bridg. Leg. Bib. 89; 5 Reeves' Hist. 210; 8 Price, 59; Dan. 291 ; Eunomus, 28 ; Abbreviations, ante, 13, n. (") ; 27 Howell's Sta. Tr. 953. CROKE, ALEXANDER. Remarks on Mr. Schlegel's work upon the Visitation of Neutral Vessels under Convoy. 8vo. London. 1801. 240
