PREFACE. To the many existing works on the Law of Notes and Bills, I have added another, in which I endeavor to cover a wider ground. I have tried to present, in the text, every important question in relation to this topic which has been considered in the courts of England or any of the United States, with the best conclusions I could form. In the notes, I have cited very fully the cases hearing upon these questions, much the larger part of them by name, volume, and page only, that those who wish to do so may pursue the investigation through the original authorities. I have also quoted, freely, apposite passages from the most important or instructive decisions, with the purpose of meeting, so far as that is possible, the growing difficulty of accumulating in our libraries a complete series of all the published Reports; a difficulty which is so great, and increases so rapidly, that it will compel a reform. It is not desirable that this reform should be accomplished by withholding the decisions, but by compressing them. Some of the learned essays which our Reports contain are very valuable. But it might be a benefit to the courts, to the profession, and to the community, if an avoidance of diffuse and discursive argumentation should give to the decisions point, precision, and weight, and permit a single volume to contain, and to express distinctly, all the law which must now be sought in very many, with much labor, and sometimes imperfect success. CAMBRIDGE, September, 1862. T. P. |