45331.1.15 16 Mar 1182 Southern District of New 10TK, 8. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-fifth day of November, A. D. 18, in the fifty-first [L. S.] "Commentaries on American Law. By JAMES KENT. Vol. I." Clerk of the Southern District of New York. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, by JAMES KENT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty, by JAMES KENT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, by WILLIAM KENT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, by WILLIAM KENT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, by WILLIAM KENT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, by WILLIAM KENT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty, by WILLIAM KENT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, by Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1878, by JAMES KENT, in the Office of the Libra- UNIVERSITY PRESS: JOHN WILSON & SON, 1 བ TU WILLIAM JOHNSON, Esq. DEAR SIR, IN compiling these volumes, (originally intended, and now published for the benefit of American students,) I have frequently been led to revisit the same ground, and to follow out the same paths, over which I have so often passed with you as a companion to cheer and delight me. You have reported every opinion which I gave in term time, and thought worth reporting, during the five-and-twenty years that I was a Judge at Law and in Equity, with the exception of the short interval occupied by Mr. Caines's Reports. During that long period, I had the happiness to maintain a free, cordial, and instructive intercourse with you; and I feel unwilling now to close my labors as an author, and withdraw myself finally from the public eye, without leaving some memorial of my grateful sense of the value of your friendship, and my reverence for your character. In inscribing this work to you, I beg leave, sir, at the same time, to add my ardent wishes for your future welfare, and assure you of my constant esteem and regard. JAMES KENT. PREFACE TO THE TWELFTH EDITION. I HAVE devoted more than three years to the attempt to bring this work down through the quarter of a century which has elapsed since the author's death. While it has been in progress I have tried to keep the various subjects before my mind, so far as to see the bearing upon them of any new decision in this country or in England. Almost all my more important notes have been partially or wholly rewritten - many of them more than once in the light of cases which have appeared since their first preparation; and every case cited has been carefully examined in the original report. In order to avoid encumbering the text with frequent interruptions and an unmanageable body of notes, the additions to each of the author's subdivisions have generally been compressed into one subordinate essay. Great care has been taken to insert nothing which does not contribute to the main current of the discussion, to condense as far as possible what has been inserted, and to make each of the more important notes a whole in itself when that could be done without repetition. The contents of the notes are indicated by italicized headings. The notes which have been added to former editions since the author's death have not been retained, with the exception of one by Mr. Justice Kent, the Chancellor's son, and several by the last and very able editor, Judge Comstock. These are enclosed in brackets, and marked with the initials of the authors. The large store of materials which has been collected since the sixth edition has not been neglected, however, and has often furnished valuable cases not to be found elsewhere. The great weight attaching to any opinion of Chancellor Kent has been deemed a sufficient reason for not attempting any alteration in his text or notes. To insure accuracy, this edition has been printed from the eleventh, and then read with the sixth, which contained the author's last correc |