30 ly the officers of state and the representatives of every Power in Europe.. il These visits arc optional. They are made without invitation. Between the hours of three and four every Tuesday, I am prepared to receive them. Gentlemen, often in great numbers, come and go, chat with each other, and act as they please. A porter shows them into the room, and they retire from it when they choose, and without ceremony.” — Vol. V. p. 165. Such was the practice of Judge Marshall in regard to omissions. But it should be observed, that the writer’s train of thought, as to the points intended to be presented by the selections from any letter, is nowhere interrupted. The parts retained have a clear connection. It would have added nothing to the reader’s instruction, if he had been informed at certain places, by a mark or otherwise, that passages were omitted. He might have gained more, if the whole letter in each case, instead of parts, had been printed ; but, as this was not consistent with the plan of the work, there seems no good reason why he should be told, that other parts were left out, which were irrelevant to the matter in hand. A letter frequently treats of topics totally distinct from each other, and in this respect it is the same as a collection of letters written upon different subjects. In such a letter, the omission of one or more topics has no effect upon the others, and
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=