PREFACE. SHORTLY after the passing of the Stannaries Act, 1869, the author of this little work was asked to write a commentary on it. The request was, that a short practical guide-book should be compiled, which might be of daily use to pursers, members of managing committees, and other persons engaged in the actual working of mines, and that it should be only in a secondary sense a book for lawyers. The author is particularly anxious that professional readers should bear this in mind, as he can well conceive them charging him here and there with an omission or a want of elaboration. To give a single instance of his meaning, the author anticipates that a professional man reading the notes to sec. 35, might expect a collection of all the cases which have been decided at common law or in equity as to the rectification of the register of a company, which would be, in fact, equivalent to asking for a new book on partnership generally. The notes have, in fact, been written only with the intention of making the meaning of the Act intelligible, and no more legal disquisition has in each instance been entered upon than has seemed to be desirable for this purpose. The matter contained in the three Introductory Chapters seemed to be of too universal a character to be embodied in any note, or series of notes, upon the Act. Since several of the sections of the Act must be read consecutively to be understood, it was found in practice impossible to write a separate note on each section commented on reddendo singula singulis: and the author has grouped sections and notes as seemed to him most convenient, not necessarily following the grouping of the Act. The forms contained in the Appendix have been kindly supplied to the author by a gentleman who has had a long experience as a solicitor in mining law and the customs of the Stannaries. They have been employed by him on various occasions, and, it is submited, will be found to be of general utility. The composition of this little work would have taken place some time ago, were it not that the author was deterred by the uncertainty which ap peared to exist in the Stannaries as to what the exact nature of the custom was in various matters relating to Cost-Book Companies; an uncertainty which comparatively recent cases have done much to dispel. 2, New Square, Lincoln's Inn, 1st January, 1873. TABLE OF CASES. A. Accidental and Marine Insurance Corporation In re ex parte Briton Medical and General Life Assurance Association ............ B. Bailey v. the Birkenhead Lancashire and Cheshire .......... .......... Birmingham, Bristol, &c., Company v. White PAGE 100 81 75 ....... 100 24-45 36 88 39 ...... Blakely Ordnance Company In re, Brett's Case...... Cork and Bandon Railway Company v. Goode 85, 86, 87 Costello's Case. D. De Pass's Case Dickinson v. Valpy.... E. Exhall Mining Company, Limited, In re the......... General Rolling Stock Company In re, the Chapman's German Mining Company In re the, ex parte Chip- Great Wheal Busy Mining Company In re the, |