Library of American Law and Practice: Personal property. Contracts ...

GEORGE T. BISPHAM

Late Professor of Equity Jurisprudence, University of Pennsylvania.

Author of " Bispham's Principles of Equity."

C. C. LANGDELL

Late Dean of the Law School and Dane Professor of Law, Harvard University. Author of "Langdell on Equity Pleading, ""Langdell's Cases on Contracts," "Summary of the Law of Contracts, 'Langdell's Cases on Sales."

JOHN M. GOULD, Ph. D.

Author of "Gould on Waters, Joint Author of "Gould and Tucker's Notes on the United States Revised Statutes, Editor of "Last Editions of Kent's Commentaries, and 'Daniell's Chancery Practice, etc.

THOMAS A. STREET, A. B., A. M., LL. B.

Professor of Equity, University of Missouri School of Law; Consulting Editor, American and English Encyclopaedia of Law and Practice.

Author of "Foundations of Legal Liability," "Federal Equity Practice," etc.

FRANCIS M. BURDICK, A. B., LL. B., LL. D.

Dwight Professor of Law, Columbia University.

Author of "The Essentials of Business Law," "Cases on Torts," "Cases on Sales," "Law of Sales,' "Law of Partnership," "Cases on Partnership," etc.

WILLIAM L. CLARK, JR.

Author of "Clark's Hand Book of the Law of Contracts," "Clark's Hand Book of
Criminal Law," "Clark's Hand Book of Criminal Procedure."

JOSEPH H. BEAL, JR., A. M., LL. B., LL. D.

Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence Harvard University.

Author of "Criminal Pleading and Practice," "Cases on Carriers," "Cases on Damages," 'Cases on Conflict of Laws,' 'Cases on Public Service Corporations," "Forcign Corporations," etc.

EUGENE D. SAUNDERS

Professor of Common Law and Equity, Tulane University; United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Author of "Saunders on Taxation,” “Saunders Edition of the Civil Code of Louisiana, etc.

JOSEPH R. LANG

Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University.

Author of "The Law of Domestic Relations."

JOEL PRENTISS BISHOP

Author of "Bishop's New Criminal Procedure," "Commentaries on the Criminal Law," "The First Book of the Law," " 'Law of Marriage and Divorce."

Preface

́N a government of law rather than of men, a knowledge of the law is not only desirable but necessary for intelligent citizenship. Any increase, therefore, of the means of acquiring legal knowledge is in the direction of public service. Sociology is revealing human society as a social organism, with inter-related and mutually dependent members, governed by law in its broadest sense.

The law deals with man in all his relations except those strictly social or religious. No one today can live outside the law any more than he can outside the atmosphere. As an instrument in the hands of society, the law is becoming the most potent agency in the reform of the social order.

But apart from this value of the law as part of a liberal education, is the fact that a knowledge of the law may be a means of livelihood, or may be used in connection with almost every form of business. The profession of the law has always attracted the best and ablest men in the race, and its representatives fill the highest positions in State and Nation. It has long been classed among the learned professions and indeed has been clothed with a degree of mystery, and its knowledge regarded as in some way beyond the layman. We do not have to go back to the early history of Rome and the Twelve Tables for an illustration of the jealousy with which the knowledge of the law has been guarded in the past. In our own country, in early Virginia, we find that in 1682 one John Buckner was arrested for publishing the laws of Virginia, and news of his grave offense was transmitted to the king who issued an order that the thing must not occur again.

Today, however, all this is changed and at least in this country the laws are not only published by private persons but

by the States, and given the largest and widest distribution. Moreover, the universal education and enlightenment of the people has made the law now an accessible and intelligible subject. No country in the world has a larger number of legallytrained men than the United States. Of this number many are engaged in the practice of the law as a profession, but perhaps a larger number are engaged in commercial and mercantile pursuits using their legal knowledge in the advancement of their business. The heads of many of the large corporations of the country today are former lawyers. All this goes to show that the law is becoming a practical branch of study.

It is to meet this need and to provide ample material for legal acquisition to both the student of law and to the layman shrewd enough to appreciate the value of law in business affairs that this Library of American Law and Practice has been prepared. The different treatises composing the Library have been written by some of the ablest lawyers and law teachers in the country. In every case the effort was made, and it is believed successfully made, to secure as a writer an author of special knowledge in the subject. The writers represent men prominent in the profession and in the work of teaching law in all parts of the country, and the Library has thus been kept, as far as practicable, free from considerations of local law, the object being to give to the student a knowledge of those principles of the law prevailing in all parts of the country. Each writer has been permitted to develop his subject and to treat it substantially in his own way. No Procrustean bed has been applied to authors. If, therefore, there should be found in a particular article a topic appropriately touched upon in another article, it is hoped that such repetition will not be found unprofitable reading. It is believed that the contents of these volumes will give to students who master and digest them the elements of a sound legal education, and to the layman a safe guide in the routine of business matters wherein ordinary questions of law may enter.