Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1839, BY JOHN BOUVIER, in the office of the Clerk of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. JIMU TO THE HONOURABLE JOSEPH STORY, L. L. D., ONE OF THE JUDGES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, THIS WORK IS, WITH HIS PERMISSION, MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, AS A TOKEN OF THE GREAT REGARD ENTERTAINED FOR HIS TALENTS, LEARNING AND CHARACTER, BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. To the difficulties which the author experienced on his admission to the bar, the present publication is to be attributed. His endeavours to get forward in his profession were constantly obstructed, and his efforts for a long time frustrated, for want of that knowledge which his elder brethren of the bar seemed to possess. To find among the reports and the various treatises on the law the object of his inquiry, was a difficult task; he was in a labyrinth without a guide, and much of the time which was spent in finding his way out, might, with the friendly assistance of one who was acquainted with the construction of the edifice, have been saved, and more profitably employed. He applied to law dictionaries and digests within his reach, in the hope of being directed to the source whence they -derived their learning, but he was too often disappointed; they seldom pointed out the authorities where the object of his inquiry might be found. It is true such works contain a great mass of information, but from the manner in which they have been compiled, they sometimes embarrassed him more than if he had not consulted them. They were written for another country possessing laws different from our own, and it became a question how far they were or were not applicable here. Besides, most of the matter in the English law dictionaries will be found to have been written while the feudal law was in its full vigour, and not fitted to the present times, or calculated for present use, even in England. And there is a great portion which, though useful to an English lawyer, is almost * * As proof of this, it may be mentioned that the first twenty articles of the most modern English Law Dictionary, will be found to be the following: Ab, Abacot, Abactors, Abacus, Abacista, Aballaba, Abandum, Abarnare, Abatamentum, To Abate, Abatement, Abator, Abatuda, Abbacy, Abbandunum, Abbas, Abbat, Abbatis, Abreviate of Adjudication, Abbroachment. In the place of these the following will be found in this work: A, A mensa et thoro, A prendre, A rendre, A vinculo matrimonii, Ab initio, Ab irato, Abandonment, Fr. law, Abandonment, contracts, Abandonment, mar. law, Abandonment, torts, Abatement, contracts, Abatement of a legacy, Abatement of a nuisance, Abatement, pleading, Abatement of a freehold, Abator. 139856 |