ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE

SECOND EDITION.

In the present Edition the Author has corrected some errors, and supplied some defects, which remained undiscovered until after the original publication of the Treatise; and has, also, added some new matter, which he trusts will render the work more complete. The Chapters on Evidence, and on the Action as between Landlord and Tenant, have been enlarged; and, in the practical part of the Work, several manuscript cases have been introduced. An alteration has also been adopted in the arrangement of the Chapters; and at the suggestion of several professional friends, and by the kind permission of Mr. Tidd, those practical forms, to which the Author referred in the Preface to the first edition, form an Appendix to the present volume. 10, CROWN OFFICE-ROW, TEMPLE,

May 1, 1818.

PREFACE

ΤΟ

THE FIRST EDITION.

It has been the Author's chief endeavour, in the following pages, to investigate the principles upon which the remedy by Ejectment is founded; to point out concisely the different changes which the action has undergone; and to give a full and useful detail of the practical proceedings by which it is, at this time conducted. To this end the later decisions have been very fully considered; whilst a slight mention only has been made of the more ancient cases, now, for the most part, indirectly overruled, or altogether inapplicable to the modern practice.

Before the time of Lord MANSFIELD, indeed, no regular system seems to have been formed for the government of the action; and that illustrious judge, considering an Ejectment as a fiction invented for the purposes of individual justice, endeavoured to mould it into an equitable remedy, and to regulate it by maxims, in some degree independent of the general rules of law, as well as of the practice in other actions. The erroneous principles on which this system was founded, were pointed out by the late Lord KENYON; and a material alteration, in the mode of conducting the action, took place from the time of his Lordship's elevation to the Bench. By his sound and luminous decisions, the remedy has been placed upon its true principles; and he lived to see a system nearly completed, which, uniting the equitable fictions of the particular action with the general principles of law, has preserved unbroken the great boundaries of our legal jurisprudence, and, at the same time, rendered the remedy most useful and comprehensive. The correct principles established by this great lawyer still prevail, having been uniformly maintained, and ably illustrated, by the more recent decisions of the different courts.

The Author has enlarged upon these circumstances, in order to account for the personal judgment, he has, in some instances, found it ne

cessary to exercise with regard to decisions anterior to the time of Lord KENYON; many cases being still extant as authorities, which seem wholly inconsistent with the modern principles of the action of eject

ment.

The application of the remedy as between landlord and tenant, forms also a material part of this treatise; and it has there been the Author's endeavour to give some useful practical directions respecting notices to quit, and the manner of proceeding on the forfeiture of a lease, at the same time explaining the principles upon which those directions are founded.

The evidence necessary to support and defend the action in common cases has also been considered; and instructions for proceeding according to the ancient practice have been added, as far as can be necessary at the present time.

For practical forms in ejectment, the reader is referred to those contained in Mr. TIDD's Appendix to his Practice of the Court of King's Bench: a collection, which appears to the Author, too complete to require addition, and too accurate to be susceptible of improvement.

5, SERJEANTS' INN,

May 1, 1812.

PREFACE,

ΤΟ

THE PRESENT EDITION.

Mr. Adams' valuable Treatise on the Action of Ejectment, being nearly out of print; and the Revised Statutes of New-York, having made numerous and important changes in the form and effect of that Action; it was believed, that a new Edition of Mr. Adams' Work, with Notes adapted to the Revised Statutes, and with References to the Decisions of the American Courts on the subject of Ejectment, and to those made in the English Courts since the publication of the last Edition of Mr. Adams' Treatise, would prove useful: Under that belief, the present Edition has been prepared and published.

The Text of this Edition has been carefully reprinted from the Text of a former Edition of Mr. Adams' Work, published in this Country several years since, with notes and references to some of the American Reports, by Philo Ruggles, Esq. With the paging of that Edition, the paging of the present has been made to correspond, in order to preserve uniformity in references; but no further or other use has been made of it, than is here mentioned.

It will be seen, upon examination, that All Mr. Adams' Treatise, including his Appendix, Index, Table of Cases, &c., is re-published in this Edition, entire. The additions now made, consist of Notes of American Decisions, extracted from the Reports of Cases in the Courts of the United

States, and in those of all the States in which Reports have been published; Notes of Decisions made in the English Courts, since the publication of Mr. Adams' third Edition, and some few of previous dates which had not been referred to in the Text; a Summary of the Provisions of the Statutes of Limitations of the several States, so far as they relate to Rights of Entry, and to Actions for the recovery of Land; the Statutory Provisions of the State of NewYork, in relation to Actions of Ejectment; A collection of Forms in Ejectment, adapted to the Revised Statutes of New-York, the most of which have been sanctioned by the Supreme Court, and inserted, as Precedents, in the Appendix to their Rules; A Digest of Judicial Decisions in relation to the Doctrine of "Adverse Possession;" Tables of English and American Cases cited, and Tables of English and American Reports examined in preparing this Edition; A Table of Abbreviations; and an Index of the additional matters contained in the present Work.

The Errata, contain corrections of typographical and other Errors.

With a hope, that it may serve to economise the time and labour of whomsoever may consult it, this Volume is now presented to the publick.

Albany, November, 1830.