A

SELECTION

OF

LEGAL MAXIM S,

Classified and Illustrated.

L

BY HERBERT BROOM, Esq.,

OF THE INNER TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW.

"MAXIMS ARE THE CONDENSED GOOD SENSE OF NATIONS."

Sir James Mackintosh.

50

4

PHILADELPHIA:

T. & J. W. JOHNSON, LAW BOOKSELLERS,

No. 5 MINOR STREET.

(RECAP)

7893

213

2

NOTICE.

The Cases in this volume to which a dagger (†) is affixed, refer to the late series of English Exchequer Reports, now being reprinted in Full, with American Notes and References, by J. I. Clark Hare, Esq., and H. B. Wallace, Esq. They will be published at the Low Price of $2,50 per volume, by T. & J. W. J.

PREFACE.

In the Legal Science, perhaps more frequently than in any other, reference must be made to first principles. Indeed a very limited acquaintance with the earlier Reports will shew the importance which was attached to the acknowledged Maxims of the Law, in periods when civilisation and refinement had made comparatively little progress. In the ruder ages, without doubt, the great majority of questions respecting the rights, remedies, and liabilities of private individuals were determined by an immediate reference to such Maxims, many of which obtained in the Roman law, and are so manifestly founded in reason, public convenience and necessity, as to find a place in the code of every civilised nation. In more modern times, the increase of commerce, and of national and social intercourse, has occasioned a corresponding increase in the sources of litigation, and has introduced. many subtleties and nice distinctions, both in legal reasoning and in the application of legal principles, which were formerly unknown. This change, however, so far from diminishing the value of simple fundamental rules, has rendered an accurate acquaintance with them the more necessary, in order that they may be either directly applied, or qualified or limited, according to the exigencies of the particular case, and the novelty of the circumstances which present themselves. If, then, it be true, that a knowledge of first principles is at least as essential in Law as in other sciences, certainly in none is a knowledge of these principles, unaccompanied by a sufficient. investigation of their bearing and practical application, more likely to lead into grievous error.

In the present Work I have endeavoured, not only to point out the most important Legal Maxims, but also to explain and illustrate their meaning; to show the various exceptions to the rules which they enunciate, and the qualifications which must be borne in mind when they are applied. I have devoted considerable time, and much labour to consulting the Reports, both ancient and modern, as also the standard Treatises on leading branches of the Law, in order to ascertain what Maxims are of most practical importance, and most frequently cited, commented on and applied. I have likewise repeatedly referred to the various Collections of Maxims which have here

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