ON AMERICAN LAW BY JAMES KENT, LL. D. Chancellor of the State of New York IN ONE VOLUME EDITED BY WM. HARDCASTLE BROWNE, A. M. Of the Philadelphia Bar Author of an edition of Blackstone's Commentaries; also of a Commentary ST. PAUL, MINN. 1894 Entered according to Act of Congress by WEST PUBLISHING COMPANY In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, 1894. PREFACE. Nov. 1914. No legal publication in this country has attained equal popularity with the commentaries on American law, written by Chancellor Kent nearly seventy years ago, and embraced in a course of lectures delivered before the students of Columbia College. The thorough compilations of law made by Blackstone and Kent are the first legal works purchased by the student as the nucleus of a library, and in after years usually occupy a prominent place on the well-filled shelves of the successful practitioner. The present age is prolific in the production of law books; hence the busy lawyer seeks for brevity as well as accuracy in the pages of the volumes he is about to examine. Professors of law in our colleges frequently confine their lectures to the text of the elementary works studied, adding their own notes and suggestions, in lieu of the notes of the author or editor. Impressed with a belief that the presence of copious notes to these commentaries confuse the student and general reader, and tend to divert and lessen their interest in the subject, the present editor has almost entirely refrained from annotations, and has confined his table of cases to the decisions of American tribunals as cited by Chancellor Kent himself. He is sustained as to the advisability of such a course by the receipt of numerous letters from professors in a majority of the law schools of the country, commending his edition of Blackstone's Commentaries, and his efforts to condense in one volume all the material in those compilations of present value, or of historical interest, as well as omitting the aggregated notes of previous editions. The system of prefatory catch words to each paragraph in the entire work has been adopted by the editor from his previous legal publications, and has met with the approval of members of the profession, as tending to disclose at a glance the subject matter of each sentence. Philadelphia, 1894. (iii)* |