OF AMERICAN LAW. BY JOHN BOUVIER. Lew Edition BY DANIEL A. GLEASON. In Societate civili, aut lex aut vis valet.—BACON IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by JOHN BOUVIER, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by ROBERT E. PETERSON, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. TO THE HONORABLE ROGER B. TANEY, LL.D. CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, This IS, WITH HIS PERMISSION, MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, AS A TOKEN OF the great REGARD ENTERTAINED For his integRITY AS A JUDGE, HIS LEARNING AS A JURIST, AND HIS VIRTUES AS A MAN By the Author. PREFACE. IN preparing the present edition of this work, the editor has not had the vanity to suppose that he could improve the general arrangement and classification of subjects. He has endeavored to apprehend thoroughly the plan of the author, and to make such additions only as in the lapse of time have become necessary to fully carry out the original design. The increase in size which would have resulted from this cause, however, rendered an increase of space necessary, which has been gained by placing a complete analysis at the commencement of the work and removing the titles of the various sub-divisions to the head of the chapters into which the books are divided. The very full and accurate list of abbreviations given in Bouvier's Law Dictionary seemed to render the reproduction of such a list here unnecessary. The system of citation of text-books and reports adopted in that work has been adhered to in the present book. By the adoption of a smaller-sized type and a closer arrangement, each page of the new edition is made to contain a much larger amount of matter than the old, without any sacrifice of clearness and convenience. The more perceptible changes are rather in mechanical details than in matters of substance, and have been intended to secure economy of space without loss of convenience in perusal. Such subjects as, from their increasing importance, seemed to demand a fuller consideration than they formerly required, have been more fully developed; and it is hoped that the great aim of the author, that of usefulness to the reader, and especially to students of the science of law, may be more fully secured by the work in its present form. ix |