THE NOTARY'S MANUAL, CONVEYANCER'S ASSISTANT: CONTAINING PRECEDENTS OF ALL THE ORDINARY FORMS OF ASSURANCES, AND *ITH PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR DRAWING DEEDS, WILLS, AND Cumin C 1840 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. AFTER the favourable reception which this work has met with from the Public, the Editor of the present edition feels that some apology is due from him, for the many alterations and additions he has made in it-changes which he has perhaps been tempted to carry further than he otherwise might have done by that leisure which is common to the commencement of practice in the profession of which he is a member, as well as by the unlimited licence allowed him by the Publisher, to make any variations from the previous edition calculated to render the work more perspicuous and useful. With that view, the Editor has ventured to omit several forms which appeared to him both imperfect, and of a character for which it was improbable that a work of this nature would be consulted, in order to make room for others of a more general practical utility. With this exception, the Editor has few acts of mission to acknowledge; those of commission are much nore numerous. The work will be found to contain upwards of 200 pages, for which he is solely responsible, n addition to which, he has been enabled, through the Endness of one of the Secretaries* to the Poor Law * William Golden Lumley, Esq. of the Middle Temple. Commissioners, to insert a chapter on Parish Property, and to the chapter on Notarial Forms very extensive additions have been made, for which the reader is indebted to the kindness of a gentleman thoroughly conversant with the law on that subject. The Editor has thought, that the subject of Stamps and Marriage Settlements would be a valuable addition to the work, and has inserted chapters on those heads. He has also added many additional forms, and made such alterations in the language and arrangement in those previously given as they seemed to require. In his emendations and additions to the former edition, the Editor has been guided chiefly by the desire to make the work useful to the practitioner in the preparation of those common assurances which occur in the ordinary course of a Solicitor's practice, and for which he may not think it necessary to have recourse to the aid of those whose sole attention is devoted to the subject of conveyancing; he has therefore not introduced any forms, used only in instruments of a complicated or difficult nature. The Editor found the task of arranging and correcting the few notes and observations that were scattered over the work so difficult, that, after one or two fruitless attempts, he abandoned it altogether, and finding the labour of composition much more easy and agreeable to himself, and likely to be productive of what would prove more useful to the reader, he has been induced to adopt that course. For almost all the observations, therefore, on the different heads, (those on Purchase Deeds, p. 389, besides several foot notes scattered throughout the work, and a few others of little importance only excepted,) the Editor must take upon himself the whole responsibility; but it is due to himself at the same time to state, that though the greater portion of the matter so introduced by him is entirely new, he has anxiously studied to omit nothing that had found its way into the first edition, even though he may sometimes have been under the necessity of giving insertion to that which he felt to be out of place. The several chapters which have been introduced on subjects not before noticed have in the latter pages of the work been distinguished by an asterisk, but as the propriety of so distinguishing the matter introduced into this edition from that contained in the original work, did not in the first instance occur to the Editor, he thinks it due to the Author to take. this opportunity of stating, that, besides many other parts of the present edition which he has not thought it necessary more particularly to notice, his pen is solely responsible for the forms given under the heads of "Uses," "Trusts," and "Powers," pp. 50-72, for the whole of the Chapters on Answers in Chancery, the Protectorate, Marriage Settlements, Stamps, and Statu→ tory Declarations, (Chapters 9, 31, 35, 36, 37,) the Observations on Perusing Deeds, and other introductory notes, comprising the first 16 pages, the Preliminary Observations on Abstracts of Title, (Chap. 3,) the Observations on Agreements for Purchase-Assignment of Choses in Action-Attorneys' Lien for their CostsTaxation Professional Communications, (p. 300310,) Observations on Leases, (428,) Mortgages, |