A.s. Carson

19854

A TREATISE

:

ON THE

PRINCIPLES OF PLEADING

IN CIVIL ACTIONS:

COMPRISING A

SUMMARY VIEW OF THE WHOLE

PROCEEDINGS IN A SUIT AT LAW.

BY HENRY JOHN STEPHEN

SERGEANT AT LAW.

..Res antiqua laudis et artis'

Ingredior, sanctos a sus recludere fortes.-VIRG.

NINTH AMERICAN EDITION

WITH NOTES: AND ADDITIONS FROM THE LONDON EDITIONS

BY

FRANKLIN FISKE HEARD,

OF THE BOSTON BAR.

PHILADELPHIA:

KAY & BROTHER, 19 SOUTH SIXTH STREET,

LAW PUBLISHERS, AND BOOKSELLERS.

BODLEIAN

31 MAY 1063

LIBRARY

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1867, by

KAY & BROTHER,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

PHILADELPHIA:

COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET.

PREFACE TO THIS EDITION.

"To those students," wrote Chancellor Kent, "who would wish to study Special Pleading thoroughly, I would recommend Stephen's Treatise on the Principles of Pleading as being the best book that was ever written in explanation of the science." This masterly Treatise on Pleading is divided into two parts. The first part is an elegant summary of the elements of Practice. The second part contains, in the language of the Author, "an entire, though general, view of the whole system of Pleading, and of the relations which connect its different parts with each other." Its arrangement is perfect, and its style of composition lucid and terse.

The Author, in his Preface to the first edition, says that the object of his work is "to develop systematically the principles of the science of Pleading, or in other words, to explain its scope and tendency, to

14 Comm. 544, note.