Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by

LEWIS & BLOOD,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

PREFACE.

THIS is the second of a series of five or more works, upon the same plan, intended for the use of students of the law chiefly, which it is the purpose of the writer to complete without unnecessary delay.

The first of the series, entitled "The Most Material Parts of Blackstone's Commentaries reduced to Questions and Answers," appeared last year. There is already ample reason to believe that it has proved serviceable, and has supplied a want of the profession.

Blackstone's great work must ever continue a vade mecum, indispensable to all students and practitioners of the common law, yet a large portion of the learning in the Commentaries on the Laws of England has become, in this country, obsolete or inapplicable. Indeed, if we compare the works of Blackstone and Kent, in their relation respectively to the existing state of the law with us, the superiority of the American commentaries is manifest. The works differ widely, not only in their plan, but in their mode of treating the various topics embraced in them. The first three volumes of Kent are devoted to subjects which, although mostly included in the plan of the English commentator, he has treated superficially or failed altogether to consider. The principles and rules of law set forth in the American commentaries are living truths here, of daily and constant application.

A distinguished American jurist, recently deceased,*

*Chief Justice Duer.