Dedication to the Second Edition. ΤΟ K.C. JOHN BELL, ESQ., K. C. SIR, IF the author presumes to hope that this volume may supply, in some degree, the acknowledged want of elementary works on a branch of Legal Science deeply interesting to a wealthy state, your favourable opinion of the former edition will more than excuse his vanity. By labouring to correct and extend his views, of both the old and the new law, he has endeavoured to prove himself not insensible of the value of such approbation. The profession, whose respect and esteem have followed you into your retreat, will learn with pleasure that those studies which formed so long the business of your life, are still the objects of your care; that the most important of the Real Property Statutes of the present reign received some valuable touches from your experienced hand; and that to the merit of having taught the student how to win the steep ascent to legal eminence, and the rarer merit of having shewn how that eminence is best adorned by unaffected learning and unassuming manners, you are willing to add the enduring honour of having contributed to amend the laws of your country. Permit me to unite with those associates of your former toil who are still bound to the oar, in hoping that leisure so well earned and so usefully employed, may be long and uninterrupted;-cheered by the consciousness of living in the grateful recollection of the Equity Bar, which your professional character has exalted, and of the many friends whom your kindness has attached. CLOISTERS, TEMPLE, March 24, 1835. I am, Sir, Your very obliged and obedient, WILLIAM HAYES. ADVERTISEMENT ΤΟ THE PRESENT EDITION. THE rapid recurrence of the demand for a new Edition of this Work, has not been favourable to the only process by which any legal writer can hope to advance beyond crudity and error-patient revision. Nevertheless, it will be found, that the alterations and additions, whatever may be their value, are not inconsiderable in amount. The fifth chapter has been enlarged, particularly those portions of it which treat of the new Acts relating to Fines and Recoveries, to the Limitation of Actions, and to Wills. The additions include some further discussions on points noticed in the recent edition (the tenth) of the Treatise of the Law of Vendors and Purchasers: of these the most important, perhaps, is the discussion respecting the proper period for the deduction of titles, To the disquisition on the Wills Act, is now subjoined a practical essay on the modes and forms of testamentary disposition. But a subject so vast as Wills demands a separate canvass, and the pencil of a master. The writer |