Quilibet scriptor adeo anxiè sit solicitus, ut ad veritatem dicat, perinde ac si totius operis PRÆF. 6 REP, TWELFTH EDITION. CONTAINING A New Chapter on Bankruptcy UNDER THE RECENT STATUTE. BY DAVID POWER, OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, ESQUIRE, ONE OF HER MAJESTY'S COUNSEL, LONDON: V. & R. STEVENS AND SONS, 26, BELL YARD, LINCOLN'S INN. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE TWELFTH EDITION. A FEW lines will explain in what respects the present edition of 'Selwyn's Nisi Prius" differs from those preceding it. 66 I have omitted the chapters on "Consequential Damages,' "Tithes," and "Wagers," as being no longer of any practical utility; and I have added those on "Amendment" and Costs," as being likely to be useful at Nisi Prius. In former editions there were two sets of notes; one, numbered; the other, lettered. The numbered notes are now either incorporated with the text, or else take their place along with the other notes. By this means space has been saved, and the book, I hope, made more readable and easier of reference. The great changes, which have taken place in the Law during the interval which has elapsed since the publication of the eleventh edition, have rendered it necessary thoroughly to revise the text, and, indeed, to re-arrange and re-write a considerable portion of it: whilst, therefore, I have aimed at preserving the character and plan of the original work, I have not hesitated to make such alterations as in my judgment were requisite, in order to increase its practical usefulness. It remains for me to express my grateful thanks to my friends Mr. Wolferstan, of the Oxford Circuit, and Mr. Baugh Allen, the special pleader, for the material assistance which they have rendered me. Without the aid of their learning and industry I should have been unable to have prepared this edition for the press within any reasonable time. BRICK COURT, TEMPLE, May, 1859. DAVID POWER. PREFACE. THE object of the following work is to investigate and explain that branch of jurisprudence, which teaches the nature and extent of the remedies prescribed by the law of England for the redress of private wrongs, or, as they are frequently termed, civil injuries. Considering the utility and importance of the subject, it cannot fail to excite the surprise of the reader, when he is informed that a well-digested treatise on the law of actions remained for so great a length of time a desideratum in the profession, that it was not until the year 1767, that an anonymous compilation, (the first deserving any notice,) entitled "An Introduction to the Law relative to Trials at Nisi Prius," was published. The same work was republished by the late Mr. J. Buller, in the year 1772. Although the title-page is silent as to this being a second edition, yet, from an examination of the contents, it appears very clearly that Mr. J. Buller's book is merely a republication of the anonymous treatise published in 1767. It is very remarkable, that so many different opinions should have existed as to the real author of this compilation; some persons having ascribed it to Mr. Ford, others to the late Mr. J. Clive, and others to Mr. Bathurst. was the received opinion at the bar, ut ego audivi, upon the first appearance of this work, that it had been compiled by Mr. Bathurst, (who was created Lord Apsley in 1771, and succeeded his father Allen, Earl Bathurst, in 1775,) for his own private use; but the dedication by Mr. Buller to Lord Apsley, prefixed to the edition in 1772, which must have escaped the notice of those persons who ascribed this work to a different author, places the question beyond the reach of controversy. That dedication expressly recognizes this treatise as owing its origin to a collection of notes formerly It |