TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR CHARLES ABBOTT, &c. &c. &c. MY LORD, THIS, the First Volume of the Essay on the Quantity of Estates, a Work written with the express object of facilitating the Study of the Law, is dedicated to your Lordship as a sincere tribute of respect and esteem for those talents, persevering industry, and unblemished integrity, for which your Lordship was so eminent at the Bar, and which have raised your Lordship to the high situation you now fill, as the Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench. It is gratifying to me to add, that from the examples of patient investigation and sound judgment, your Lordship has exhibited in that important office, the most lively hopes are entertained, that your Lordship's name will be enrolled among the names of those great men who have been the ornament and the pride of the profession of the Law. I have the honour to be Your Lordship's Obliged and obedient Servant, RICHARD PRESTON.. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. ON the new Edition of the Essay on the Quantity of Estates, and of the View of the Rule in Shelley's Case, it is not necessary for me to say more than that, during a period of thirty years, I have continually been endeavouring to render it more worthy of that recep, tion which it originally experienced from the most éminent characters in the Law. It has never escaped my recollection, that to this work, the fruit of my most early studies, I am indebted for a large portion of the success with which my exertions have been honored. The most mature reflection, and the unerring guide of experience in the education of pupils, have brought the fullest conviction to my mind (a conviction originally impressed by the example of Littleton) that the knowledge of the Quantity or Measure of Estates, ought to be with every person, anxious to become acquainted with the rules of Property, either as a Barrister, a Conveyancer, a Pleader, or a Solicitor, the foundation of his studies. Every branch of the Law, on Rights and Titles; on Remedies; on the Power of Alienation; on the Modes of Conveyance, &c. &c. and the Forms of Action concerning the Title, or the Right to the Possession, and frequently to relief in Equity, must be deduced from the previous |