Pamis is. Collier 1850 AN ESSAY ON THE LEARNING OF CONTINGENT REMAINDERS AND EXECUTORY DEVISES. BY CHARLES FEARNE, Esq. BARRISTER AT LAW, OF THE INNER TEMPLE. FOURTH AMERICAN, FROM THE TENTH LONDON EDITION; CONTAINING THE Rotes, Cases, and other Matter added to the former Editions OF LINCOLN'S-INN, BARRISTER At law. WITH AN ORIGINAL VIEW OF EXECUTORY INTERESTS IN Real and Personal Property, COMPRISING THE POINTS DEDUCIBLE FROM THE CASES STATED IN THE AS WELL AS STATEMENTS OF, AND THE CONCLUSIONS FROM, THREE HUNDRED ADDITIONAL MODERN CASES, TOGETHER WITH REFERENCES TO NUMEROUS OTHER DECISIONS, AND SO CONNECTED WITH THE TEXT OF FEARNE, AS TO FORM BY JOSIAH W. SMITH, B. C. L. OF LINCOLN'S-INN, BARRISTER AT LAW. IN TWO VOLUMES.-VOL. I. PHILADELPHIA: ROBERT H. SMALL, MINOR STREET. 1845. SCIRE AUTEM PROPRIE EST, REM RATIONE ET PER CAUSAM COGNOSCERE. PHILADELPHIA: PRINTED BY WM. S. MARTIEN. THE EDITOR'S PREFACE* TO THE PRESENT EDITION. THE present Edition of the justly celebrated Treatise of the profound Fearne, is reprinted verbatim from the Ninth Edition, with the addition of the Appendix No. IX., and of numerous references, in the inner margin, to the passages or sections of the "Original View of Executory Interests," which constitutes the Second Volume of this Edition. More than three years ago, the Editor of the present Edition wrote an Essay embracing the First Part of the "Original View." He intended to prefix this to Fearne, as an Introduction; purposing to add the modern decisions upon Contingent Remainders and Executory Devises, in the form of notes. But when he had abstracted the cases from the Reports, he found it utterly impossible to attempt, with any prospect of success, to do justice to the subject, without writing a distinct Essay which should embody the points to be collected from the cases stated in Fearne, so far as they are directly connected with the subject, as well as the statements of and the conclusions deducible from the mass of later cases, and from some earlier cases not noticed in Fearne, and relating to chattels personal. He has therefore added an Original View of Executory Interests; dividing the whole of it into passages or sections, by means of figures in the inner margin thereof; and then introducing, in the inner margin of Fearne, numerous references to those passages or sections. So that the Original View, while it possesses the advantages peculiar to a distinct Essay, forms, at the same time, a large body of notes to Fearne, if the reader chooses first to repair to Fearne. Or, if he prefers to resort to the Original View in the first instance; then, as the cases stated in Fearne are referred to in the Original View, they will serve as illustrations and authorities in support of the definitions, rules, and propositions contained in the Original View. Or, if he has not the leisure or inclination to peruse the admirable Treatise of Fearne, the Original View will form a substitute for that more lengthy but less comprehensive work. Those practitioners who are accustomed to Fearne, may find it most convenient first to have recourse to Fearne, and then to consult the references to the Original View, contained in the inner margin of Fearne. But the Editor would at any rate recommend the Student, and those persons who may not be well acquainted with Fearne's Treatise, to repair to the Original View, in the first instance, as the shortest way of arriving at a knowledge of the law as it now stands. To have added 452 pages, in the form of notes, to a work which itself only occupies 569 pages, would have been very inconvenient. And if such * See Preface to the " Original View of Executory Interests," in the Second Volume. |