COMMENTARIES

ON

523

AMERICAN LAW.

BY JAMES KENT.

VOLUME I.

SIXTH EDITION.

NEW-YORK:

PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM KENT,

AND SOLD BY THE PRINCIPAL LAW BOOKSELLERS THROUGHOUT

THE UNITED STATES.

M DCCC XLVIII.

1848

Southern District of New-York, ss.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-fifth day of November, A. D., 1826, in the fifty-first year of the Independence of the United States of America, JAMES (L. S.) KENT, of the said district, has deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words following, to wit:

"Commentaries on American Law. By JAMES KENT. Vol. 1.”

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled, An Act, supplementary to an Act, entitled, An Act for the encourage. ment of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching historical and other prints. JAMES DILL,

Clerk of the Southern District of New-York.

Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, by JAMES KENT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New-York.

Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty, by JAMES KENT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New-York.

Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, by WILLIAM KENT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New-York.

VAN NORDEN & AMERMAN, Printers, 60 William-st.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE printing of the sixth edition of "KENT'S COMMENTARIES was commenced in October, 1847, during the life of the author. His death, on the 12th of December, in the same year, devolved upon another the task of supervising the edition, and correcting the press.

It will be seen, on examination, that the present edition contains some alterations of the text, and many and important additions to the notes. It contains the last corrections by the author, which were continued till within a very short period of his lamented death.

NEW-YORK, JANUARY 17, 1848.

ΤΟ

WILLIAM JOHNSON, Esq.

DEAR SIR,

In compiling these volumes, (originally intended, and now published, for the benefit of American students,) I have frequently been led to revisit the same ground, and to follow out the same paths, over which I have so often passed with you as a companion to cheer and delight me.

You have reported every opinion which I gave in term time, and thought worth reporting, during the five and twenty years that I was a Judge at Law and in Equity, with the exception of the short interval occupied by Mr. Caines' Reports. During that long period, I had the happiness to maintain a free, cordial and instructive intercourse with you; and I feel unwilling now to close my labours as an author, and withdraw myself finally from the public eye, without leaving some memorial of my grateful sense of the value of your friendship, and my reverence for your character.

In inscribing this work to you, I beg leave, sir, at the same time, to add my ardent wishes for your future welfare, and to assure you of my constant esteem and regard.

JAMES KENT.