PRINTED FOR JOSEPH BUTTERWORTH AND SON, AND JOHN COOKE, ORMOND QUAY, DUBLIN. 1824. PREFACE. THE Science of Pleading, though vying with most other branches of our law, in antiquity, and always among the highest in professional estimation, has been among the last to receive satisfactory illustration from the press. It is true, that at early periods there were treatises on this subject, but their plans were confined and defective. The most important of these is the Doctrina Placitandi, published in the reign of Charles II.; a work, which, though extremely learned and elaborate, and, for a long time, justly considered as the capital source of information upon Pleading, amounts, after all, to no more than an extensive collection of adjudged points, classed without any skill of arrangement, under titles in alphabetical series. In more modern times, the Digest of the Laws of England, by Lord Chief Baron *b Comyns, presented, under the title "Pleader," a more systematic compilation upon this subject, than had previously appeared-comprising the substance, not only of the authorities collected in the Doctrina Placitandi, but also of the cases subsequently decided, and reducing the whole, under different heads, upon a plan peculiarly scientific and masterly. It is, however, in its nature, only a Digest of authorities, and better adapted, therefore, to the objects of the practitioner than of the student. Afterwards appeared the edition of Saunders's Reports, by Mr. Serjeant Williams-the notes in which, comprise a mass of most valuable explanatory matter on the subject in question-but, at the same time, consist only of detached commentaries, on such different points of inquiry as happen to be suggested by the text, without aiming at the character, or possessing the advantages, of a regular treatise. It is to a writer of our own day, that the honour is due of having first thrown effectual light upon the science of Pleading, by an elaborate work, in which all its different rules are collected, arranged in convenient divisions, and illustrated by explanation and example. The work here mentioned, is the well known treatise on Pleading, by Mr. Chitty; which no person competent to appreciate the difficulty of the task performed, can ever peruse without high admiration of the learning, talent, and industry of the author. This has been since followed by an able publication of Mr. Archbold, on " the Law relative "to Pleading and Evidence;" comprising another regular treatise on Pleading, compiled on a plan in the nature of a Digest (a). The two works last mentioned, have left very little to be added to the stock of practical information on the subject of which they treat. But neither in these nor in any other publication, has any attempt been hitherto (a) The preceding enumeration has been intentionally confined to the principal publications on this subject. There have, however, been several treatises of minor bulk, containing general information on pleading. Among these ought to be noticed, The Summary of Pleading, and An Elementary Treatise on Pleading in Civil Actions; the latter by Mr. E. Lawes. They are both of date prior to Mr. Chitty's work. |