PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. THE author's aim in the present work has been to furnish, within the limits of a volume of modest bulk, a concise but complete statement of all points of law and practice affecting Arbitrations, from the inception to the final determination of the fate of the award. The necessity for such a book is sufficiently evidenced by the constant complaint of professional men engaged in references, that they have no portable work on the subject. That the author has performed the task of condensation and selection to the satisfaction of all he cannot hope, but he does trust that he has performed it in such a manner as to make the result generally useful. In the Appendix precedents have been given applicable to the most frequently recurring references; at the same time considerable pains have been taken to frame them so as to be easily adapted to references, where the subjectmatter, or the relation of the parties, is different. Seeing that the subjects of reference are as multifarious as the causes of civil litigation, it would have necessitated a volume more than double the size of the present to have given forms of awards applicable to all possible varieties of circumstances; the forms contained herein will, however, serve as guides where they cannot be exactly followed as precedents. When the draftsman can find no precedent for the award he wishes to make, he should define clearly to himself what he wishes to direct, ascertain that it is within the limit of his authority, and then direct it to be done in such language as a man of ordinary common sense can understand, and with such exactness that a dishonest party cannot say that it leaves him any doubt as to the how, when, and where of performance. J. H. R. March, 1872. |