BY WILLIAM SELWYN, Esq. OF LINCOLN'S INN, BARRISTER At law, and recorder OF PORTSMOUTH. Quilibet scriptor adeò anxié sit solicitus, ut ad veritatem dicat, perinde ac si PRÆF. 6 REP. SIXTH EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. AND W. T. CLARKE, LAW BOOKSELLERS, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN'S INN. 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 at this day so many different opinions should exist as to the real author of this compilation; some persons ascribing it to Mr. Ford, others to the late Mr. J. Clive, and others to Mr. Bathurst. Unquestionably it was the received opinion at the bar, upon the first appearance of this work, that it had been compiled by Mr. Bathurst, afterwards Lord Apsley, 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 have so confidently ascribed this work to a different author, places the question beyond the reach of controversy. That dedi cation expressly recognises this treatise as owing its origin to a collection of notes formerly made by Lord Apsley for his own private use. Mr. Bathurst's book, having passed through several editions*, was succeeded by a similar work, entitled "A Digest of the Law of Actions and Trials at Nisi Prius," by Mr. Espinasse, of which there have been four editions. : The compiler of the following pages conceived that a treatise, intended as a companion at the sittings in London and Middlesex, and on the circuit, might be cast into a more convenient form than that adopted by either of the former writers and that the cases might be abridged with greater accuracy and precision. Under this impression, the Abridgment of the Law of Nisi Prius was prepared and published in three parts successively, in the years 1806, 1807, 1808. The second, third, fourth, and fifth editions followed, in the years 1809, 1812, 1817, and 1820. The sixth edition is now submitted to the candour of the Profession. Second edition, 1775; third edition, 4to. 1781; fourth edition, edition, 8vo. 1790; sixth edition, 8vo. 1817. Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn, Feb. 1824. ; fifth |