BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the fourteenth day of November, A. D. 182, in the fifty-second year of the Independence of the (L.S) United States of America, James Kent, of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words following, to wit: "Commentaries on American Law. By James Kent. Volume II." In conformity to the Act of Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled, An Act, supplementary to an Act, entitled, an Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." FRED. I. BETTS, Clerk of the Southern District of New-York. C. S. Van Winkle, Printer. PREFACE. WHEN the first volume of these Commentaries was published, it was hoped and expected that a second would be sufficient to include the remainder of the lectures which have been delivered in Columbia College. But in revising them for the press, some parts required to be suppressed, others to be considerably enlarged, and the arrangement of the whole to be altered and improved. A third volume has accordingly become requisite, to embrace that remaining portion of the work which treats of commercial law, and of the doctrine of real estates, and the incorporeal rights and privileges incident to them. It is probable that, in some instances, I may have been led into more detail than may be thought consistent with the plan of the publication. My apology is to be found in the difficulty of being really useful on some branches of the law, without going far into practical illustrations, and stating, as far as I was able, with precision and accuracy, the established distinctions. Such a detail, however, has been, and will hereafter be, avoided as much as possible; for the knowledge that is intended to be communicated in these volumes, is believed to be, in most cases, of general application, and is of that elementary kind, which is not only essential to every person who pursues the science of the law as a practical profession, but is deemed useful and ornamental to gentlemen in every pursuit, and especially to those who are to assume places of public trust, and to take a share in the business and in the councils of our country. New-York, November 17th, 1827. |