Form 201.- Agreement between Author and Publisher; short Form CHAPTER XXXV. PAGE . 591 . 592 . 594 . 596 . 596 . 598 Form 204.- . 603 . 604 . 604 Notice under Mechanic's Lien Law. 209. Declaration for obtaining a Widow's Army-Pension Pensions 625 626 628 211.- Declaration for Mother's or Father's Application for Army- - - 217. - 219. Declaration for Arrears of Pensions. 220.- Declaration for Increase of Pension . 221. Surgeon's Affidavit. Navy Claims CHAPTER XXXVIII. Form 223.-Petition to be appointed Executor, without further Notice 224.-Executor's Bond. . 648 . 649 225. Bond of Executor, who is also Residuary Legatee - 227.— Administrator's Petition for leave to sell a Part of the Real Administrator's Petition for leave to sell the Whole of the . 652 229.- Bond of Administrator licensed to sell Real Estate CHAPTER XL. GUARDIANS. The rights and duties, powers and liabilities, of Guardians CHAPTER XLI. . 655 STAMP ACT. Schedule of Stamps required on different Instruments . 657 . 663 My first chapter will state the purpose for which I have made this book, and the use I hope it will perform. I first attempted to make such a book, compiling it from the law-books I had already made for the profession; and, adding a few Forms, published it in 1857 as "The Laws of Business for Business-Men, in all the States of the Union." I became satisfied that this book was open to three important objections. One, that it contained very much of argument, and the consideration of minute questions, which were out of place in a book intended not for the profession, but for the community. Another objection was, that very many more Forms were necessary to make the book as useful as it might be. The third objection was, that as that book was entirely compiled from my other books, and contained no topic not embraced in them, it did not cover all the ground that the public had a right to expect that a book of this kind would occupy. I proposed, from time to time, to make a new edition of this work, and, indeed, made a beginning of this; but I became satisfied that this would not suffice, and that nothing would suffice but A NEW BOOK. This I have now made, and offer it to the community. I have retained in this book a part of the title, and so much of the text, of the former work as I thought would be useful; rewriting it with such changes as might make it more easily understood, and more useful. I have added many chapters on new topics; and I have multiplied the Forms tenfold. Of these Forms some are entirely new, composed by me for this book; others are selected with great care, from the widest collection I could make of Forms sanctioned by use in various parts of the country. In these I have made changes and additions, with directions for use. Some of these Forms will be found brief and simple; others of them, especially those in relation to real estate, are full and minute. No one but a lawyer knows how necessary it is to use the technical, customary, and established language of Forms, every phrase of which has been through repeated litigation, and has thus acquired a certain meaning. Much in such Forms will seem, to those ignorant of law, to be wordy and with much repetition; but, if the Forms are made apparently more simple by omissions and abbreviations, they may be good, and they may not: and whether they are or not cannot be known except by litigation. And he must be a bold lawyer who would undertake to prefer Forms of his own make to those which the Courts and common use have sanctioned. This I have not done, because the very object of this book is to enable persons who use it to conduct their business-affairs with ease, safety, and certainty. I think such a book possible, and I venture to hope that I have made such a book. I know only that whatever labor and care could do to make the book useful and safe has been done. I have not made my law-books with the efforts which each required, and then cast off this book for more general use, lightly; for in nothing that I have published have I labored more strenuously to make my work satisfy the just requirements of those to whom it is offered. THEOPHILUS PARSONS. THE LAWS OF BUSINESS. CHAPTER I. THE PURPOSE AND USE OF THIS BOOK. THE title of this work indicates, to some extent, its purpose and character; but, as they are in certain respects peculiar, it is thought that some remarks respecting them may make the volume more useful. Twenty years ago, after more than twenty-five years of practice at the bar, I accepted the office of Dane Professor in the Law School of Harvard University. I have employed whatever leisure the duties of that office have left me, in preparing a series of text-books on Commercial Law. I have published many volumes; and the manner in which they have been received by my brethren, calls for my most grateful acknowledgments. One of those works was entitled "The Elements of Mercantile Law," and was intended. as a general epitome of all Commercial Law. I began it mainly for the use of lawyers, but at the same time hoping that it might be so written as to be useful to others who were not lawyers. Before I had made much progress in it, the hope that one book could answer these two purposes faded away; and I finally made that work exclusively for lawyers. But the circumstance that many persons who were not lawyers, and did not intend to be, have bought my works, the remarks that have reached me in relation to them, and particularly in reference to that above mentioned, from such persons, and many other kindred facts, have given additional strength to a belief that has led me to prepare this volume, for wide and general use. That belief is, that there is a strong and growing disposition, |