Dugald M'Kechnie, Advocate, editor of the third edition; and the pages on the Employers' Liability Act, of Mr. John David Sym, Advocate, author of a Handbook of the Act. To these gentlemen the Editor begs to acknowledge obligation. It has been found necessary again to alter the numbering of the sections. The new matter will be found bracketed [ ] as in the previous edition. 26 NORTHUMBERLAND STREET, December 1884. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. WH HEN a popular book on a professional subject is presented to the public by a professional man, it is usual for him to preface it with an apology for its existence; and were his object either to diminish the scientific exactitude of professional study, or to open the practice of a profession to those who have received no special training, there would be reason for an apology, if indeed any apology could avail. But the case, I trust, is very different where all that has been attempted, as regards practice, has been to furnish the means of encountering, with confidence and serenity, those occurrences in which the non-professional person must act without professional aid; and as regards study, to afford a general view of the subject, and a guide to more recondite sources of information. These are the objects which I have endeavoured to keep exclusively in view in the preparation of this work; and I therefore believe with some confidence, that whatever may be its other defects, it will not be found to have overstepped the legitimate province of the class of works to which it belongs. In a book intended for practical application in emergencies, the first requisite is, that the rules enunciated shall be safe; and this I have endeavoured to ensure by drawing only from acknowledged sources. To have enumerated my authorities in every instance would have been needlessly to encumber the pages of a popular treatise. Who they are, and where their dicta are to be found, my professional brethren will discover without difficulty, and the non-professional reader will not care to know. It may be proper, however, to state, that wherever I have adopted the opinion of an individual, however eminent, I have mentioned him by name; and where I am silent as to authority, the reader may assume, either that the doctrine as stated has been formerly affirmed by a decision, or that it is recognised as trite law by text-writers of unquestionable reputation. The second requisite in such a work is, that the doctrines shall be stated with such precision and brevity as to exclude the possibility of misapprehension. Of the success with which the requirement of precision has been satisfied, I can express no opinion; but, as regards brevity, I may mention, that in an undertaking of which the sole object was utility, and in which originality would have been a fault, I have endeavoured to earn such credit as it might yield by condensing, on almost every occasion, even where I have not otherwise altered, the expressions of former writers. In addition to the two classes of persons whose requirements I have had primarily in view-viz. the general non-professional public on the one hand, and students on the other, there is a third to whom I hope this little work may not prove unacceptable-I mean strangers and foreigners who visit Scotland, and Scotchmen whom long or early absence from the country may have prevented from acquiring the knowledge of our legal arrangements usually possessed by intelligent persons. With a view to their service I have been careful to point out, in so far as the nature of the work permitted, in what respects the law of Scotland differs from that of England, and resembles the systems of Continental Europe, from which, up to the period of the Union, and indeed for half a century later, it was mainly derived. Though exclusively popular in character, it is hoped that in one respect the work may not be without utility even to lawyers, the very extensive changes in the Law of Scotland of late years having rendered a Treatise, embracing the whole subject and bringing down the Law to the latest date, a desideratum in professional literature. The only novelty in form which the book presents, so far as I am aware, consists in the division which I have adopted; which, though suggested by, does not correspond to, that of the Institutes of Justinian, and is wholly different from that of our own text-writers. That the distribution of our whole legal rights and obligations into those which, arising from the family tie, exist between parents and children of the same house, and into those which, springing from the human or citizen relation, subsist between those who are merely brother men, possesses the charm of simplicity at least, will not be contested. To what extent it is inferior to more complicated arrangements, either in philosophical accuracy or practical usefulness, it is for others to determine. Before concluding, I must avail myself of this opportunity to express my very sincere thanks to those friends who have lent me their encouragement and their aid. To Mr. Fraser, Advocate, I am indebted not only for originally suggesting the undertaking, but for much valuable advice and assistance during its prosecution; and Mr. Sheriff Hallard, and Mr. J. R. Stodart, W.S., by giving me the benefit of their knowledge and experience, the one as a Magistrate and the other as an Agent and Practical Conveyancer, have enabled me to present it to the public, if not with confidence, at least with far less hesitation than I should otherwise have felt. ADVOCATES' LIBRARY, July 1859. |