NOTE TO THE FIFTH AMERICAN EDITION. THE notes of the American editors are distinguished by Arabic figures, with the exception of the five notes at the conclusion of Chapter III., which are distinguished by the first five letters of the alphabet, in capitals. The annotations of the English editors are distinguished by the letters of the alphabet. In presenting to the American bar the fourth edition of the London work, the American editors have given the text and notes of the London edition verbatim, and it has therefore seemed desirable to preserve in this edition the brackets in the text and notes, which have been used by the English editors to distinguish their additions to and alterations of the original work of Mr. Jarman, PREFACE TO THE FIFTH AMERICAN EDITION. THE new American edition of JARMAN ON WILLS, for which the notes, (by the American editors,) in the following volumes were prepared, was about to be published more than a year since, when the announcement of the fourth English edition made further delay expedient. The American Editors are now able, by arrangement with the English publisher, to print the present edition from the advance sheets of the fourth London edition, and thus to put it into the hands of the American bar as soon as it reaches their English brethren, or The two English volumes will appear together toward the end of the winter, and simultaneously with the third and last American volume. The second volume is now in press, and should appear early next year. sooner. The additions and changes made by the editor of the fourth English edition have added much to the high value of the original work, and keep it, what it has always been, the great model and quarry from which all other recent works on wills have been cut. The aim of the American editors has been to add to this most excellent book a complete array of American decisions. In this effort they have not spared pains nor expense. They have endeavored to examine and note every reported case in every state and federal report. This has required great labor, and has been done honestly and carefully. In some parts of the book, where the English writers have only touched on an important subject, (like TESTAMENTARY CAPACITY,) or where there is no recent text book including American cases, (as in the matter of CHARITABLE USES,) large additions have been made by long and full citations from important cases, in the hope that in this shape the book may better serve those who have not within their reach all other books. No one can justly withhold his praise and admiration from the splendid work of the learned author and his English editors. If the ever increasing labors of American lawyers are in some degree made lighter by these annotations, they will look, perhaps, indulgently upon the unknown American workmen, and not call their additions to such a book presumption. JERSEY CITY, N. J., December, 1879. JOS. F. RANDOLPH, WM. TALCOTT. PREFACE TO THE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. SIXTEEN years have now elapsed since the writer diffidently presented to the profession his first publication on Testamentary Law, in the form of an edition of Powell on Devises, with a supplementary treatise on the Construction of Devises. The reception given to this work was such as abundantly to compensate for the severe labor which it exacted, and under which the health of its Editor more than once sank. This was followed, after the interval of a few years, by the Tenth Volume of the Precedents in Conveyancing, being the portion of that work which was devoted to the same subject. The materials afforded by these publications have been freely used in the present work; but considering the very large accessions since made to the adjudications on testamentary law, and that it has not escaped the activity of modern legislation, it will be obvious that many of the various subjects embraced by so extensive a range of disquisition, now present themselves under a different aspect, requiring, not only very large additions to the matter which composed the former works, but the rejection of no inconsiderable portion of that matter; and the writer is not ashamed to avow, that another, though certainly a less extensive, head of alteration arises from the changes which experience has wrought in some of the opinions of his earlier days. The result is, that probably more than one-half of the present treatise is entirely original; and the writer therefore feels that he has to subject his performance (as partially new) to the criticism of his professional brethren, whose kind consideration he again bespeaks, convinced that those who are the most competent to detect error, will be the most generous and indulgent in the apprecia tion of the difficulties which beset the inquirer into the principles of one of the most intricate branches of the law. To those difficulties have been added the daily interruptions of professional avocation, which have long delayed, and have sometimes threatened wholly to prevent, the present publication. The recent act has created some additional embarrassment to a writer on wills, by introducing new principles of construction, partial in their application; for by drawing a line between wills of an earlier and those of a later date, the legislature has diminished the importance, without permitting the rejection or the neglect of the old law. On these subjects, conciseness and compression have been specially aimed at, and some additional labor has been willingly incurred, in order to avoid encumbering the present work unnecessarily with matter which every passing day tends to render less practically useful. NEW SQUARE, LINCOLN'S INN, THOMAS JARMAN. |