PREFACE TO THE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION OF THE FIRST VOLUME. THERE are few opinions more unfounded than those which seek to throw a doubt upon the existence of a settled, well understood, and uniform course of practice, directing and regulating the proceedings of a Chancery suit. The patient and candid investigator will find that the practice of the Court of Chancery, founded on reason, has been faithfully preserved and transmitted by the officers of the Court. To collect and preserve the received opinions of practical men on the different proceedings of a Chancery suit; to point out the recognized distinctions in proceedings of an apparently similar nature; and to lay a foundation for a digest of practice to which the accumulating experience of every year will add improvement and stability, is the object of the following treatise. Situated as the author is in a public office where knowledge on points of practice is called into daily exercise; in constant communication with all the practitioners of the Court; acting himself as a solicitor by virtue of his privilege, he seemed to himself to possess advantages eminently favourable to such a design. These advantages are mentioned to justify the undertaking, not to recom mend its execution, for some of the defects of which, the author trusts his other avocations will plead his excuse. The following treatise was composed from notes and memoranda accumulated during an extensive practice for the last ten years. In order to render it of more authority, the author, before commencing his work, carefully digested the reported cases on practice throughout upwards of seventy volumes, and from such digest, and his previously collected notes and memoranda the present treatise was written. The source from whence each authority is derived has been conscientiously acknowledged. Of modern books of practice the author has not availed himself, having always at hand a readier means of information in the experience of Mr. Jackson, whose intimate acquaintance with every subject connected with the Court of Chancery, is only surpassed by the kindness and urbanity with which he communicates his knowledge to every individual who seeks it. The Author flatters himself that the part of his treatise more particularly practical will be found accurate; and he throws himself upon the indulgence of the Profession, if, in treating upon subjects not so immediately within his province, he has, in quoting any of the numerous cases cited by him, either mistaken, or failed in giving full force to the decision of the Court. The first The work is divided into two Volumes. volume, comprising the proceedings of a Chancery suit, before decree, is subdivided into two books. The first book contains the mode of instituting and defending a suit in Chancery, giving an unbroken outline of the progress of a cause from its commencement to a decree: the second book contains interlocutory applications and other proceedings incident to a cause. The second volume will treat of appeals, rehearings, bills of review, further directions and exceptions to the Master's report, and other proceedings subsequent to the decree, embracing the different subjects of inquiry prosecuted in the Master's office. The complaints of authors, of the irksome duty of correcting the press, and their prayers for plenary indulgence against typographical errors, are too common to command attention. Engaged as the Author has been in his profession, he fears he shall have to draw largely in this respect on the forbearance of the reader. He cannot conclude without expressing his sense of the zealous and friendly assistance of Mr. John Wainewright, during the progress of his treatise through the press, from whose suggestions and corrections he has derived the most essential service. PREFACE TO THE SECOND VOLUME OF THE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. In the first volume, I have traced the progress of a Chancery suit, from its commencement to a decree, noticing such interlocutory matters as usually arise during that period of a cause. The present volume explains the manner in which a decree is varied or corrected, and the several proceedings necessary to satisfy the inquiries directed by it, and to bring the suit to a conclusion. In investigating these subjects, I have been led to consider the course of proceeding on a petition of appeal; or of rehearing; on an appeal to the House of Lords; on a bill of review, or on a bill in the nature of a bill of review; also the steps necessary to be taken where an issue, a case, or an action has been directed, and the proceedings of the most frequent occurrence in the Master's office, together with the manner in which a Master's report may be excepted to, or confirmed; and the suit heard on further directions. To these I have added a chapter on the practical part of the subject of an award. The original plan of this work has been extended, by the addition of an appendix of Forms, and precedents of Bills of Costs, adapted to the alterations made by the New Orders. I have been induced thus to extend my treatise, at the request of several of my professional friends, as well as in consideration of the importance of technical accuracy, in many of the formal proceedings of a suit. An apparently trifling mistake often involves most serious results, as, for example, by an error in an affidavit of service, a party may escape an attachment, while an irregularity in the caption of an answer may expose a defendant to the consequences of a contempt. In selecting the forms, I have confined myself chiefly to those where accuracy is of paramount importance, and where the adaptation of such forms to ordinary cases is simple, and have preferred those which are required by solicitors in the country, as their facilities for information are abridged by their distance from the Courts. With this view I have inserted the forms of the different captions to answers sworn before commissioners in the country; the returns to commissions to assign a guardian, or for the examination of witnesses, or to take the examination of a party; the headings of depositions and examinations; the forms of affidavits of services of process, and the returns to writs issuing out of Chancery. To secure accuracy in these forms, I have submitted them to the different officers of the Court, whose duty it is to examine into their correctness, before they are acted upon. The bills of costs have been prepared with a view of assisting the junior members of the profession in making out their charges, and for that purpose are accompanied with explanatory notes. The kindness of my professional friends has enabled me to publish several recent unreported cases, the fidelity of which may be relied upon, as they have been abstracted from the papers in the cause, or from the registrar's book. In concluding a work which has occupied a considerable portion of my leisure for the last five years, it is not amongst the least of my pleasures, to reflect upon the kind assistance which I have received from every branch of the profession, and the facilities which have been |