ADVERTISEMENT

In the first design of the present Publication, little more was contemplated than a pretty full digest of the leading acts, which might serve as a supplement to the books published in England upon the law of landlord and tenant (*), and, with the aid of a few practical notes, render them available to the Irish reader. But to this there were objections. A digest, however carefully executed, must always be imperfect; no lawyer will be satisfied with it: neither can others safely rely upon it; for the very expressions, omitted for the sake of brevity, often become essential in the cases which arise in practice. A similar objection applied to the omission of any of the

(*) Chambers's Treatise on the Law of Landlord and Tenant, compiled in part from the notes of the late Sir W. D. Evans, &c.: Comyn's Treatise on the Law of Landlord and Tenant: Woodfall's Law of Landlord and Tenant: Adams's Treatise on the Principles and Practice of the Action of Ejectment, &c.: Bradby's Treatise on the Law of Distresses: Lord Chief Baron Gilbert's Law and Practice of Distresses and Replevin, &c. &c.

acts upon the subject, as tending to leave the collection defective. Further, a complete collection of the statute law affecting landlord and tenant was a desideratum in England as well as in Ireland. To add notes to the statutes, without endeavoring to collect all the cases upon their construction, was less than the public were entitled to expect in a work of the kind; an examination of the construction, too, almost necessarily leads to an investigation of the previous state of the law which called for the the interposition of the legislature; and thus, from these various considerations, has the compass of the work been extended.

It embraces all the enactments upon the subject from Magna Charta to the present time. With a few exceptions the acts are given in full, the only general omissions consisting in leaving out, after the words "be it enacted," the formal expression "by the king's most excellent

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majesty by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal and commons in the present par"liament assembled, and by the authority of the same;" and other like formal words, as "by the authority aforesaid;" for which a line or rule, -, has uniformly been substituted. In editing the text, recourse has been had to the most authentic sources hitherto accessible to the public. The English statutes (3), as far as the end of the reign of

(a) The 1, 2 Ph. & M. Eng. c. 12, Nos. 135, 139, and 152, pp. 143, 146, 147, 167, and the 2 Will. & M. Eng. Sess. 1, c. 5, No. 149, p. 160, are, accidentally, exceptions. See the commentary on those acts, where the omission, which is, however, not material, will be corrected.

queen Anne, are taken accurately from that great, and indeed, magnificent national work, "The Statutes of the Realm, from original records and authentic manuscripts printed by order of parliament." The subsequent acts are from the common printed editions by Raithby, &c. The Irish acts are taken from the folio edition by Grierson, occasionally compared with the small duodecimo collections of acts on particular heads, published at the same office. It is much to be lamented that although a commission, for editing the acts of the parliament of Ireland from the original records, has been appointed, and the gentlemen, to whom the work was entrusted, have proceeded diligently to execute the impor tant task confided to them, the public, for some unexplained reason, has not hitherto been furnished with any of the results of their labors on this head. After a portion of these sheets had gone through the press, I was kindly favored with an offer of access to the manuscripts of the sub-commissioners as prepared for publication; but as a good many of the Irish acts were then actually printed, and as an objection might arise to publishing for use anything varying from what had previously been printed under the proper authority, I thought it better not to avail myself, for the present, of the privilege offered to me. It certainly appears astonishing, that any considerations should have interfered with the undoubted right of the public to be put in possession of the parliamentary records of the country; that the intentions of parliament, so carried into effect in England, should have been frustrated in Ireland;—and that, after the expense incurred by the

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nation in the commission, which has existed for several years, it should, thus, prove abortive by the suppression of a material portion of the fruits of its labors.

Some of the Irish acts, which I have published, must be mere translations; for we are told, (Irish Statutes, vol. I. p. 41,) that the first acts in the English language were passed in the parliament held 10 Hen. VII. In some, too, there are, obviously, many inaccuracies; but I have not thought myself at liberty to correct them.

At the same time that I have applied the utmost attention to minute accuracy in editing the statutes, I trust I shall not be thought to have neglected other matters not less important. In the Commentary, I have endeavored to bring together every thing, from the earliest to the latest authorities, which could illustrate the statute law to which it is appended: in some instances-as, in the case of the law of conditions, in the important action of ejectment for nonpayment of rent, &c.-where the existing treatises were defective, I have attempted a more full discussion of the subject. I have also, uniformly, consulted the original sources of information. Practical directions will be found embodied in the Commentary, and the arrangement of the acts themselves, it is hoped, is such as the reader may soon become perfectly familiar with. The enactments were so various, at times so scattered, and often so mixed up together, that it was difficult to make anything like a satisfactory analysis; and, perhaps, it can only be said that the present is as little objectionable as any compilation of them could be rendered. To those who prefer reading the provisions of