"I wish every man knew as much law as would enable him to keep himself out of it."-LORD BACON. LONDON; MAY 1871 LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND DYER. 1871. PREFACE TO THE TWENTY-THIRD EDITION. THE twenty-second edition of the CABINET LAWYER consisted of fifteen hundred copies, and was published little more than four years ago; that edition, however, has been for some time exhausted, and the unabated demand for the work renders the publication of a twenty-third edition requisite. No similar instance is believed to have occurred of a Law-book proving so acceptable to the general public. In preparing the present edition, care has been taken to incorporate in the text, with as much accuracy and minuteness as circumstances would admit of, the numerous changes that have been made in the Law since the publication of the last edition. The Editor desires to call particular attention to the articles on Bankruptcy and Stamps, in which the provisions of the important Consolidation Acts on those subjects that have been passed in 1869 and 1870, are given, it is believed, with greater detail than in any similar publication. It would, no doubt, be vain to expect that a book of this description should be entirely free from errors or omissions; but the Editor ventures to hope, that if any such should be found to exist, they will not be of a nature to impair the substantial usefulness of the work, which is sufficiently evidenced by the rapid sale of so many successive impressions. March, 1871. |