AN

A BRIDGMENT

OF

THE AMERICAN LAW

OF

REAL PROPERTY.

BY FRANCIS HILLIARD,

COUNSELLOR AT LAW.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

BOSTON:

CHARLES C. LITTLE AND JAMES BROWN.

1838.

L11992

SEP 1 0 1003

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1838, By FRANCIS HILLIARD,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.

BOSTON.

PRINTED BY FREEMAN AND BOLLES,

WASHINGTON STREET.

PREFACE.

THE following work is designed to be for the American lawyer what Cruise's Digest hitherto has been for him, and still continues to be for the English lawyer. Cruise, although undoubtedly one of the best elementary law books that England has produced, and although hitherto an indispensable part of the library of an American practitioner, has been extensively used in this country, not because it is the book which is wanted, but because it is the only one, in any degree answering the purpose, which could be had. It is believed that the present work is the first attempt to compile a book, upon the important subject of Real Property, corresponding in extent and general plan with the English text-book, and at the same time thoroughly American in the materials of which it is composed. It may be stated in few words, what are the chief characteristics which distinguish this work as strictly American, from the popular Abridgment above referred to.

1. Cruise's Digest contains a large amount of matter which is of no practical use whatsoever to the American lawyer. It treats at great length of subjects, which either never existed, or have become entirely obsolete in this country. That an occasional illustration or analogy of some value, may be derived from principles which have no longer any direct practical applicability, is not denied. But it is

obvious, that portions of the law, which are useful only in this incidental way, ought to be treated with proportional brevity, and not with the minuteness of detail which is demanded in relation to topics in their nature of immediate practical use. Now, as an example of the character of Cruise's Digest in this particular, it may be mentioned, that in this work the three titles of Advowson, Tithes and Dignities, occupy 150 closely printed pages; Fine, Recovery and Alienation by Custom, about 400 pages; Copyhold, 60 pages, &c. &c. It is not too much to say, that no such titles as these are known to American law. Upon a strictly scientific American plan, they would find no place in a work upon the American Law of Real Estate. But supposing them, though now obsolete or never adopted in this country, to be so closely connected with other titles which are in force, that they cannot with propriety be wholly passed over; still there is no propriety in filling up a large space with the intricate decisions, formal classifications, and nice distinctions, which appertain to them as subsisting branches of the English law. It is certainly within bounds to say, that in purchasing Cruise for the sake of the matter which he does want, the American lawyer must pay one third of his money for matter which he does not want.

2. While Cruise's Digest is thus ill-adapted to the American lawyer by reason of surplusage or excess, its defectiveness is equally striking and apparent. It is obvious that in the course of forty years, an immense mass of decisions must have been accumulating in the United States, upon subjects pertaining to Real Estate. Even where these substantially corroborate the principles of the English law, they are of paramount importance to the American lawyer.