24/4/76 A COMPENDIUM OF The Law OF DJC4 REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY PRIMARILY CONNECTED WITH CONVEYANCING: DESIGNED AS A SECOND-BOOK FOR STUDENTS, AND AS A DIGEST OF THE MOST USEFUL LEARNING BY JOSIAH W. SMITH, B.C.L., Q.C., JUDGE OF COUNTY COURTS. (EDITOR OF FEARNE'S CONTINGENT REMAINDERS AND EXECUTORY DEVISES, AND MITFORD'S COMMON LAW, AND A MANUAL OF BANKRUPTCY; AND ONE OF THE CAUSED THE GREATEST AND MOST BENEFICIAL AMENDMENTS TO BE EFFECTED IN THE PROCEDURE OF THE COMMON LAW COURTS; GAVE SUCH INCREASED EFFICIENCY TO THE COURT OF CHANCERY, AND EXERCISED HIS JUDICIAL FUNCTIONS WITH TRULY CONSCIENTIOUS AND LABORIOUS CARE, WITH DIGNITY AND URBANITY, AND WITH ACCURATE DISCRIMINATION AND SOUND JUDGMENT. THIS ATTEMPT TO FACILITATE THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LAW OF PROPERTY CONNECTED WITH CONVEYANCING, IS, BY PERMISSION, MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. 1855. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. THERE are "First-Books" of established reputation (such as the works of Mr. Justice Blackstone, Mr. Serjeant Stephen, and Mr. Joshua Williams, Q.C.), and various general treatises connected with precedents, besides a host of works on particular subjects. But it appeared to the Author, when he first published the present work, that a well-arranged and comprehensive, a concise and yet clearly and accurately expressed Second-Book for Students, on Real and Personal Property, and a Digest of the most useful learning for Practitioners, was much needed. And this is the kind of book which he has attempted and laboured to supply. In the first instance, the materials were collected for his own use, under an oppressive sense of his own personal responsibility as an equity and conveyancing counsel; and the book was afterwards published in the belief that the same want which he had experienced must have been felt by others. It was intended as a text-book of a general, but not of a merely elementary character, for the use of students, and as a help to practitioners upon the |