A Treatise on the Practice of the Court of Chancery

The original plan of this work has been extended, by the addition of an appendix of Forms, and precedents of Bills of Costs, adapted to the alterations made by the New Orders. I have been induced thus to extend my treatise, at the request of several of my professional friends, as well as in consideration of the importance of technical accuracy, in of the formal promany ceedings of a suit. An apparently trifling mistake often involves most serious results, as, for example, by an error in an affidavit of service, a party may escape an attachment, while an irregularity in the caption of an answer may expose a defendant to the consequences of a contempt. In selecting the forms, I have confined myself chiefly to those where accuracy is of paramount importance, and where the adaptation of such forms to ordinary cases is simple, and have preferred those which are required by solicitors in the country, as their facilities for information are abridged by their distance from the Courts. With this view I have inserted the forms of the different captions to answers sworn before commissioners in the country; the returns to commissions to assign a guardian, or for the examination of witnesses, or to take the examination of a party; the headings of depositions and examinations; the forms of affidavits of services of process, and the returns to writs issuing out of Chancery. To secure accuracy in these forms I have submitted them to the

different officers of the Court whose duty it is to examine into their correctness, before they are acted upon. The bills of costs have been prepared with a view of assisting the junior members of the profession in making out their charges, and for that purpose are accompanied with explanatory notes. The kindness of my professional friends has enabled me to publish several recent unreported cases, the fidelity of which may be relied upon, as they have been abstracted from the papers in the cause, or from the registrar's book.

In concluding a work which has occupied a considerable portion of my leisure for the last five years, it is not amongst the least of my pleasures, to reflect upon the kind assistance which I have received from every branch of the profession, and the facilities which have been afforded me by all the officers of the Court. To select individuals is generally invidious, but I cannot, without ingratitude, pass over in silence, and without acknowledgment, the important assistance afforded me by some of my friends. To Mr. Bedwell and Mr. Walker, I am indebted for much valuable communication on points of practice connected with their department; and particularly to Mr. Bedwell, for referring me to several unreported cases, which his industry, and the zealous discharge of the duties of his office have enabled him to preserve for the benefit of the profession. To Mr. Kensit and Mr. Jones, I am obliged for information

relative to the proceedings in the Master's office. To the friendship of Mr. John Wainewright I am indebted for a repetition of the same persevering and unremitted assistance, which he afforded me during the progress of my first volume through the press, and for many of the explanatory notes added to the bills of costs.

I now submit this volume to the indulgent consideration of the Profession, fully sensible that a work composed in the intervals of business is unequal to the test of rigid criticism. If I have been sufficiently fortunate to afford to the inquiring practitioner the means of obtaining accurate information, and have contributed in any degree, to establish that a settled and uniform course of practice directs and regulates the proceedings of a chancery suit, the object of my labours has been attained.

Six Clerks' Office, 4th July, 1835.