ADVERTISEMENT.

THE Author trusts, that when the time necessary to pass through the press a Volume requiring so much accuracy, and containing so many references, and the number of cases which are daily occurring upon the subject of Practice are considered, the Profession will appreciate his motive for publishing the following Treatise in separate portions. As little delay as possible will occur in bringing out the remainder of the Work; and in the meantime, it is hoped that the copious Index which is added to the present Volume will in some measure prevent the inconvenience which might otherwise be experienced from the delay.

PREFACE.

WHATEVER apology may be due to the Profession for the manner in which the work has been executed, the Author does not conceive that he is called upon to offer any for the publication of a new Treatise on the Practice of the Court of Chancery. The want of such a Treatise, on a more extended scale than those hitherto published, has long been acknowledged; and the writer feels, that in undertaking one, he is only complying with the wishes of the Profession. Whether the ensuing pages will supply the want which has been felt, is not for him to say; indeed, when he compares what he has accomplished with the previous notions which he had formed in his own mind as to the requisites of a good book of practice, it is with unfeigned diffidence that he commits his work to the Public. He trusts, however, that if he has not performed all that he aimed at, his endeavours to throw light upon this complicated subject will not have proved entirely ineffectual.

The object which the Author has had in view has been to lay before the reader, not merely the abstract rules of practice, collected from the text-books and marginal notes of reports, but to show, as far as could be done, the principles upon which the various rules have been framed, and to point out how far those principles have been followed up in the decisions to be found in the reported cases. He has also endeavoured to bring under the eye of the practitioner the several alterations and modifications which have been made, in the course of proceeding, by the numerous Statutes and Orders of Court which have, of late years, been framed, and to show how far those alterations and modifications are consistent with the ancient practice and the principles by which it was governed. In doing this, he has drawn largely from the excellent work of Lord Chief Baron Gilbert, and from the older text-books and the modern editions of them, as well as from several of the more recent publications. In referring to text-books for information, he has been careful to avoid citing them in any case where the authorities upon which they proceeded were accessible, without a careful inspection and collation of such authorities; and he can venture to assure the Profession that there are few, if any, of the numerous cases cited and referred to in the following Treatise