A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE LAW OF PRINCIPAL AND SURETY, PARTICULARLY WITH RELATION TO MERCANTILE GUARANTIES, Bills of Exchange, and Bail Bonds. BY WILLIAM THEOBALD, ESQ. OF THE INNER TEMPLE. LONDON: S. SWEET, CHANCERY LANE; STEVENS AND SONS, BELL YARD; AND MILLIKEN AND SON, GRAFTON STREET, DUBLIN. 1832. PREFACE In the spring of last year, the liberality of Mr. Amos, the learned Professor of English Law in the University of London, afforded me the opportunity, during his absence from town, of delivering, at that institution, a short course of lectures on the Law of Principal and Surety; the favourable reception of which by the class, as well as some testimonies of approbation from friends who had read a brief sketch of them in the Legal Observer, encouraged me to attempt the more important task of this publication. Sensible of its defects, I intreat for it, from the learned, that generous consideration which well becomes readers, who cannot but be aware of the difficulty of the subject. Besides the defects, however, arising from this cause, there are others to which no favour is due, and I will myself unmask them, preferring any blame to the imputation of incapacity, which I should think I incurred, were I really, or did I seem blind to them;-I allude to defects of arrangement, or a confusion, occasionally, under one title, of topics dissimilar. The defects of this kind have arisen from additions made after the manuscript was sent to the printer; but I trust |