TO THE RIGHT HONBLE. SIR JOHN JERVIS, KNT. LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF HER MAJESTY'S COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, THESE PRESENTS COME Greeting. 1, INNER TEMPLE LANE. MY LORD, Many years ago I resolved that I would, if spared, attempt to restore "Park on Marine Insurance," and "Abbott on Shipping," to their original simplicity and design. The result of this resolve is now before you, under one cover and under one title, namely, "The Shipping Laws of the British Empire." To effect this, I chose an early edition of each work; which, as you know, were small 8vos sold at a few shillings, and so simple that he who ran could read them. I have religiously kept them, as they originally were, works on general principles; being well persuaded of this, that whoever attempts to make a law-book serve at once the threefold purpose of a treatise on general principles, statutes at large, and law reports, must fail to make it good for anything. Do not misunderstand me in saying so. I have omitted no Act of Parliament, nor any reported case that I know of. I have done this-where either the one or the other interfered with the original text, there I have introduced it— not in extenso (a system no less derogatory to learning than injurious to the utility of a book) but analysed, abridged, and incorporated with the text. The way in which I have introduced the different Acts of Parliament is exemplified by the Pilot Acts (6 Geo. 4, c. 125; 16 and 17 Vict., c. 129); the Mercantile Marine Act 1850 (13 and 14 Vict., c. 93); the Mercantile Marine Act Amendment Act (14 and 15 Vict., c. 96); the Steam Navigation Act 1851 (14 and 15 Vict., c. 79); the Passengers Act 1852 (15 and 16 Vict., c. 44); the Customs Consolidation Act 1853 (16 and 17 Vict., c. 107); the Consolidation Register Act (8 and 9 Vict., c. 89); the Navigation Acts (12 and 13 Vict. c. 29, and 16 and 17 Vict., c. 131); the Wreck and Salvage Consolidation Act (9 and 10 Vict., c. 99); and the like. There is, at this moment, a Bill before Parliament for throwing open to the foreigner our Coasting Trade; but as it has not yet received the Royal assent I cannot treat it as part of the law of the land. The way in which a judicial decision is introduced is exemplified by the case of Irving v. Manning in the first page of the work. I have drawn largely upon the learning and industry found in the reports in the Admiralty Courts and in the Privy Council-upon arguments and judgments equal to, if not surpassing, in excellence, those in the time of the great Lord Stowell. I have not overlooked foreign codes and ordinances. The ordinances of Louis XIV., although no longer the law of France, are so frequently referred to and quoted by Lord Tenterden, that I could not strike them out and substitute the Code de Commerce; I have, therefore, left them as they were ; |