THE dictionarynow offered to the profession is the result ofthe author's endeavor A B toprepare aconcise andyet comprehensive book ofdefinitions ofthe terms,phrases, C andmaxims used in American andEnglish lawand necessaryto be understood by the working lawyer and judge, as well as those important to the student of legal history or comparativejurisprudence. Itdoes not purport tobe anepitome orcompilation of the body of the law. Itdoesnot invade the provinceof the text-books, D nor attempt to supersede the institutional writings. Nor does it trench upon the field of the English dictionary, although vernacular words and phrases, so far as construed by the courts, are not excluded from its pages. Neither is the book encyclopædic in its character. It ischiefly required in adictionary that itshould be E comprehensive. Its value is impaired if any single word that may reasonably be soughtbetween its covers is not found there. But thiscomprehensiveness ispossible (within the compass of asingle volume) only on condition that whatever is foreign to the true function of a lexicon be rigidlyexcluded. The work must therefore containnothingbut thelegitimate matter of a dictionary, or else it cannot include all the necessary terms. This purpose has been kept constantly in view inthe preparationof thepresent work. Of the most esteemed lawdictionaries now in use, each F will be found to contain a very considerable number ofwords not defined in any G other. None isquite comprehensive in itself. The authorhas made it his aim to include all these terms and phrases here, togetherwith some not elsewhere defined. For the convenienceof those who desiretostudy the lawin its historical development, aswell as in its relations to political and social philosophy, place has been found for numerous titles of the old English law, and words used in old European and feudal law, and for the principal terminology of the Roman law. And in view ofthe modern interest in comparative jurisprudence and similar studies, it has seemednecessary to introduceaconsiderablevocabularyfromthecivil,canon,French, Spanish, Scotch, and Mexican law and other foreign systems. In order to further adapt the work to the advantage and convenience of all classes of users, many terms of political or public law are here defined, and such as areemployed in trade, bankH ing, and commerce, as also the principal phraseology of international and maritime J law and forensic medicine. There have also been included numerous words taken from the vernacular, which, in consequence co of their interpretation by the courts or instatutes,have acquired aquasi-technical meaning, or which,being frequently used inlaws orprivate documents, have oftenbeen referred to the courts for construction. Butthemainbodyofthe work is given to the definition of the technical terms and K phrases used inmodern American and Englishjurisprudence. Insearching for definitions suitable tobe incorporated in the work, the author has carefully examinedthe codes, and the compiled or revised statutes, of the various states, and from these sources much valuable matter has been obtained. The L definitions thus enacted by laware for the most part terse,practical,andofcourse authoritative. Most, if not all, ofsuch statutory interpretations ofwords and phrases will be found under their appropriate titles. Due prominence has also been given to definitions formulatedby the appellate courts and embodiedinthereports. Many M (iii)iv PREFACE of these judicial definitions havebeen literally copied and adopted as the author's definition of the particular term, of course with aproperreference. But as the constant aim has been to present adefinition at once concise, comprehensive, accurate, and lucid, he hasnotfeltboundtocopy the languageof thecourts in any instance where, in hisjudgment, abetter definition could be found in treatises of acknowledged authority, orcould be framed by adaptation or re-arrangement. But many judicial interpretations have been added inthe way of supplementary matter to the various titles. The more important of the synonyms occurring in legal phraseology have been carefully discriminated. In some cases, ithas only beennecessary to point out the correct and incorrect uses of these pairs and groups of words. In other cases, the distinctions were found to be delicate or obscure, and a more minute analysis was required. Acompletecollection of legal maxims has also been included,comprehending as well those in English and Law French asthose expressed in the Latin. These have not been grouped in one body, but distributed in their proper alphabetical order through the book. This is believed to be the more convenient arrangement. It remains to mention the sources from which the definitions herein contained have beenprincipally derived. For the terms appertaining to old and middle English law and the feudal polity, recourse has beenhad freelyto the older English law dictionaries,(such as those of Cowell, Spelman, Blount, Jacob,Cunningham,Whishaw, Skene, Tomlins, and the "Termes de la Ley," ) as also to thewritings ofBracton, Littleton, Coke, and the other sages of the earlylaw. Theauthorities principally relied on for the terms of the Roman and modern civil law are the dictionaries ofCalvinus, Scheller, and Vicat, (with many valuable suggestions from Brown and Burrill,) and the works of such authors as Mackeldey, Hunter, Browne, Hallifax, Wolff, and Maine, besides constant reference to Gaius and the Corpus Juris Civilis. In preparing the terms and phrases of French, Spanish, and Scotch law, much assistance has been derived from the treatises of Pothier, Merlin, Toullier, Schmidt, Argles, Hall, White, and others, the commentaries of Erskine and Bell, and the dictionaries of Dalloz, Bell, and Escriche. For the great body of terms used in modern English andAmerican law, the author, besides searching the codes and statutes and the reports, as already mentioned, has consulted the institutional writings of Blackstone, Kent, and Bouvier, and averygreat number of text-books on special topics of the law. An examination has alsobeen made of the recent English law dictionaries of Wharton, Sweet, Brown, and Mozley & Whitley, and of the American lexicographers, Abbott, Anderson, Bouvier, Burrill, and Rapalje & Lawrence. In each case where aid is directly levied from these sources, a suitable acknowledgment has been made. This list of authorities is by no means exhaustive, nor does it make mention of the many cases in which the definition had to be written entirely de novo; but it will suffice to show the general direction and scope of the author's researches. Н. С. В. WASHINGTON, D. C.,August 1, 1891..