ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Business Law and Forms For Business Men, Farmers, Mechanics, Landlords, Tenants, Working Men, Capitalists, and all who have Business Transactions of any kind, as well as for LAWYERS AND CONVEYANCERS. REPRESENTING THE STUDY AND DECISIONS OF MOST ABLE LAW. YERS AND SUPREME JUDICIAL AUTHORITIES. FOR ALL THE STATES AND CANADA. WITH NOTES AND AUTHORITIES. BY HON. HUGH M. SPALDING, Author of Spalding's Treatise upon the Law of Personal Property, Practice, etc., for the State of Ohio;-Treatise for the State of Indiana;-Treatise for the State of Kentucky; Treatise for the State of Kansas, etc. ;-Civil Service of the State of Penn- PREFACE. No species of knowledge is more in demand, or confers more real and constant usefulness than that of the law and its practical application in both the private and public affairs of each individual:-and no species of knowledge is more difficult to obtain at the desired moment. There are times and circumstances when the necessary legal counsel cannot be had; and times and circumstances which render it advisable to be one's own legal counsellor; there are matters of minor importance which may not justify or require the expense or formality of a legal consultation; there are private affairs which it may be neither prudent nor desirable to disclose, but which require some legal light for satisfactory solution or adjustment; there are business difficulties, enterprises, ventures, controverted and vexed questions, which constantly demand some knowledge of the law to successfully master, and which are otherwise fruitful of annoyance, distress and doubt. These and many other examples demonstrate the utility of a work of this character, a book which enables one to combine practical law with personal knowledge and experience. The primary necessity of convenient reference to legal subjects is demonstrated by the well-known and univer. sal rule of law that "ignorance of law is no excuse;" every one is presumed to know the law; hence the defence of ignorance avails nothing: one must suffer for every infraction, and know better afterwards. In this work will be found a very complete law library, compiled with much care, and containing the essence of the various subjects of the law compressed into a comprehensive and convenient form, with its value greatly enhanced by footnotes to leading authorities, to which, when necessary, easy reference in any law library may be had. Forms are given in great profusion and variety; they have been selected and framed with the utmost care and simplicity, and adapted to the practical and common necessities of actual, every-day use. 1 H. M. S. |