Excerpt from The Development of the English Law of Conspiracy The following pages contain the results of a study of the English law relating to criminal conspiracy, begun in the spring of 1906, and continued with little interruption until May, 1908. The author's purpose has been to present an exhaustive discussion of the subject based upon an examination of all the available material extant. Accordingly, he has considered every relevant statute and case, from the earliest to the latest, which a careful search through ancient and modern law writings has enabled him to bring to light. There is scarcely a more complex topic in the entire domain of British national jurisprudence than that of illegal combinations. The law relating to them has been more than ordinarily the creature of accident and special conditions. The resultant contradiction and confusion introduced into the cases renders extremely difficult the task of extracting the underlying principles, tracing their rise and growth, and giving an intelligible account of the causes which have determined their subsequent history. The author desires to acknowledge his indebtedness to Professor W. W. Willoughby for the inspiration which made the work possible, as well as for his helpful suggestions and unfailing friendly interest. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.