rent-service exists, cannot be raised by a conveyance from one
subject to another, in fee-simple. In like manner, the explanation
of a recovery, of a fine, of a copyhold, of an estate in ancient
demesne, of an use, of a trust, would require a process of
historical deduction. But when the reader is told, that the drawer
of a bill of exchange is discharged, if timely notice be not given
him of its dishonour; because, without such notice, he might lose
the assets he had placed to meet it in the drawee's hands; or, that
if A hold himself out as B's partner, he will be liable as such,
because he might else enable B to defraud persons who had trusted
him upon the faith of the apparent partnership and joint
responsibility: when these reasons, and such as these, are given,
every man at once perceives their cogency, and needs not to be told
_how_, that he may know _why_, the law was settled on its present
footing. The fitness of this subject for compression is, therefore,
hardly questionable. The difficulty of compressing it is, however,
extreme. The author who attempts to do so, must continually keep in
view a triple object, must aspire at once to clearness, brevity,
and accuracy; a combination so difficult, that its difficulty may,
it is hoped, be fairly pleaded in excuse for some of the
deficiencies and imperfections which the reader may discover in the
following pages."

After a luminous and elegant introductory account of the rapid growth
and development of mercantile law, the author thus announces the
convenient and comprehensive plan of his work:--

"This treatise will be divided into four books. The first,
concerning Mercantile _Persons_; the second, Mercantile _Property_;
the third, Mercantile _Contracts_; the fourth and last, Mercantile
_Remedies_; a method which appears the simplest and most
comprehensive; since it includes, under a few heads, the
description of those by whose intervention trade is carried on; of
that which they seek to acquire by so employing themselves; of the
arrangements which they are in the habit of adopting, in order to
do so effectually; and of the mode in which the proper execution of
those arrangements is enforced."

A striking evidence of the value of this work, the soundness of his
opinions, and the importance attached to them i