BY WILLIAM SELWYN, Esq. OF LINCOLN'S INN, ONE OF HER MAJESTY'S COUNSEL, LATE RECORDER OF PORTSMOUTH. Quilibet scriptor adeo anxiè sit solicitus, ut ad veritatem dicat, perinde ac si totius operis fides uniuscujusque periodi fide niteretur. PRÆF. 6 REP. NINTH EDITION, WITH ALTERATIONS AND ADDITIONS. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. AND W. T. CLARKE, LAW BOOKSELLERS, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN'S INN. 1 ADVERTISEMENT TO THIS NINTH EDITION. THE CLAUSES in the several important statutes made for the amendment of the law since the last Edition, have been inserted under the proper heads, together with the modern decisions, except in a few instances, which coming too late for insertion there, will be found in the Appendix. This Edition incorporates also the New Rules, more especially those made in Hilary Term, 4 W. 4. The object of these Rules, framed under the sanction of the legislature, and which have the force and effect of an Act of Parliament*, is to diminish the expense of suits in the superior Courts, and, by compelling defendants to put their defences specially on the record, to leave questions to be tried by the jury less at large than they were formerly, according to the ancient course and practice of pleading. Several cases having occurred upon the construction of these rules, the determinations thereon have been carefully noticed, as being of great importance to special pleaders and other practitioners. The inconvenience arising from references to other parts of this work or to other books has been, as * 5 Ad. and Ell. 158. far as was practicable, obviated, though at the risk of some repetition. The Compiler, however, being fully aware of the justice of the complaints, so frequently made of the great and increasing prolixity of modern law books, and anxious to preserve the original design and character of these volumes, has expunged all those portions of the work, which were inconsistent with the law as it stands at present; excepting only those statutes and decisions, which are necessary for the explanation of the new law, and those to which the later statutes have reserved a temporary or partial operation. Some cases have been inserted for the first time in the present edition, transcribed from a valuable collection of MSS.* lately presented to the library of the Society of Lincoln's Inn by the munificence of John Lucius Dampier, Esq., Vice Warden of the Stannaries of Cornwall. * These MSS.consist of the paper books of Ashhurst, J., Buller, J., Lawrence, J., and Dampier, J., in an uninterrupted series from T. T. 9 Geo. 3. to M. T. 56 Geo. 3. They are referred to in the following pages as P. B. Dampier MSS. L. I. L., preceded by the initial of the Judge. PREFACE. THE object of the following work is to investigate and explain that branch of jurisprudence, which teaches the nature and extent of the remedies prescribed by the law of England for the redress of private wrongs, or, as they are frequently termed, civil injuries. Considering the utility and importance of the subject, it cannot fail to excite the surprise of the reader, when he is informed that a well digested treatise on the law of actions remained for so great a length of time a desideratum in the profession, that it was not until the year 1767, that an anonymous compilation (the first deserving any notice,) entitled "An Introduction to the Law relative to Trials at Nisi Prius," was published. The same work was republished by the late Mr. J. Buller, in the year 1772. Although the title page is silent as to this being a second edition, yet, from an examination of the contents, it appears very clearly that Mr. J. Buller's book is merely a republication of the anonymous treatise published in 1767. It is very remarkable, that so many different opinions should have existed as to the real author of this compilation; some persons having ascribed it to Mr. Ford, others to the late Mr. J. Clive, and others to Mr. Bathurst. It was the received opinion at the bar, ut ego audivi, upon the first appearance of this work, that it had been compiled by Mr. Bathurst, (who was created Lord Apsley in 1771, and succeeded his father Allen, Earl Bathurst, in 1775), for his own private use but the dedication by Mr. Buller to Lord Apsley, prefixed to the edition in 1772, which must have escaped the notice of those persons who ascribed this |