ON THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF THE ACTION OF EJECTMENT, AND THE RESULTING ACTION FOR MESNE PROFITS. BY JOHN ADAMS, SERGEANT AT LAW, PAT: PRE: AND ASSISTANT JUDGE OF THE MIDDLESEX SESSION. WITH COPIOUS NOTES AND REFERENCES TO THE AMERICAN AND ENGLISH DECISIONS. BY MESSES. JOHN L. TILLINGĦAST, THOMAS W. CLERKE AND WILLIAM HOGAN. WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES OF DECISIONS IN THE COURTS OF THE SEVERAL UNITED STATES TO THE PRESENT TIME. BY THOMAS W. WATERMAN, COUNSELLOR AT LAW. FOURTH EDITION. NEW YORK: BANKS, GOULD & CO., 144 NASSAU STREET. ALBANY : GOULD, BANKS & CO., 475 BROADWAY. Entered according to the act of Congress in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-four, by BANKS, GOULD & CO., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. BANKS, GOULD & Co., Law Printers, 144 Nassau Street. PREFACE. THE desire to acquire and to hold property is one of the strongest of the human feelings. It might, perhaps, be better called a passion: so deeply rooted is it, so ardent, and so engrossing. To gratify it, hardships are patiently endured, dangers cheerfully and heroically braved, and even life risked, and sometimes sacrificed. It is founded partly upon the necessity which renders some acquisitions indispensable; partly upon the love of the power and influence which possessions confer; and partly on the avarice which enjoys riches for their own sake. This impulse is towards all material things: in short, towards everything that can become the subjects of ownership. But, the more fixed forms of property, as they are the least perishable, minister most permanently to the gratifications and the pride of man, and are susceptible of being transmitted to remote posterity, are the most highly esteemed and the most eagerly sought after by him. This, at all events, has always been the case in civilized life. The only exceptions to the rule are to be found among wandering and savage tribes, whose rude tastes and unsettled lives limit them to whatever is present and fleeting. From the earliest ages, therefore, exclusive title in the soil has been among the primary objects of man's ambition. Nations, as well as individuals, have coveted and sought to obtain extensive landed possessions. Nearly all the wars with which the earth has been scourged, though ostensibly owing to other causes, were, in fact, originated by this desire for territorial acquisition. The conquests of Alexander the Great, ending in lamentation that there were no more worlds to conquer, might very well be taken for a splendid allegory, truly illustrating this morbid and insatiable longing of man. The Roman Empire grasped after territory until its very expansion brought weakness and decay. And in more modern times, down to the present day, nations, regardless of the solemn lessons of the past, have continually striven, and are |