Entered according to act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, BY NATHAN HOWARD, JR., Esq., in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York. Rec. June 30, 1855 NAMES OF JUDGES. THE COURT OF APPEALS, organized under the amended constitution of 1846, and the judiciary act of 1847, at the Capitol, in the city of Albany, on the first Monday (5th) of July, 1847. The four justices of the supreme court, having the shortest term to serve in the first, third, fifth and seventh judicial districts, were designated, by law, as judges ex officio of the court of appeals. The court, as organized, which remained unchanged until the first day of January, 1849, was composed of the following eight judges: FREEBORN G. JEWETT, CHIEF JUDGE, Skaneateles, Onondaga County. GREENE C. BRONSON, City and County of Albany. CHARLES H. RUGGLES, Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County. ADDISON GARDINER, Rochester, Monroe County. FROM SUPREME COURT. SAMUEL JONES, City and County of New-York. PREFACE. In presenting this work to the profession, it may not be inappropriate, perhaps, to go back a little and give some of the circumstances which led to its production; as, also, those which induced the publication of the Special Term (now Practice) Reports. For twenty-two years of my life, it has fallen to my lot to act as Clerk of Courts: commencing in 1827, (when quite young,) with the clerk of Rensselaer County, Troy, New-York, under the direction of a good lawyer, and an excellent, welldisciplined clerk-Hon. ARCHIBALD BULL, afterwards judge of that county-I was placed as clerk of the Circuit and Oyer and Terminer, Common Pleas and General Sessions, and Troy Mayor's Court, where, during the rough and smooth (if any) of litigation in those courts, I remained eleven years. In January, 1839, I was admitted as attorney and counsellor at law of the Supreme Court, and solicitor and counsellor in Chancery, and entered upon the practice of the law, in which I continued for about three years. In 1842, I was called to act as clerk of the general and special terms of the late Supreme Court, at Albany-Hon. SAMUEL NELSON, Chief Justice, Hon. GREENE C. BRONSON and Hon. ESEK COWEN, Justices. In that capacity, I remained until July, 1847, when the courts in the state were organized under the amended constitution of 1846; and when, by a rather natural selection, perhaps, I was appointed to act as the clerk (in court) of the Court of Appeals; where I remained until the first day of January, 1854, when I retired from official duties. : It was during my official services in the special terms of the Supreme Court, that I discovered the want of the Special Term Reports; and in the fall of 1844, I issued the first number of that work. That I did not misjudge as to the necessity of those reports, may be fairly inferred, I think, from the universality with which they were taken by the profession and since the new organization of the courts, and under the Code, the value and circulation of these reports have largely increased. As a true and faithful reporter can have very little vanity to gratify in recommending his reports the materials and merits of which belong to others (the judges)—I think I may safely assert that "Howard's Practice Reports" have increased in interest and value, at every successive volume, since their publication commenced. It was during my clerkship in the Court of Appeals, that the present work was suggested; and it occurred something after this manner: counsel, attending court, would frequently call on me, and say,-"Howard, can't you save me an extra copy of the cases and points in the causes argued here? They would be very useful to me." The frequent reiteration of this, or a similar question, and my inability to comply with the request as there were generally presented to the clerk only those cases and points required by the rules of the court-led me to reflect upon the matter, and to devise some method and form in which they could be put in order, to make them avail |
