Α SELECTION OF LEGAL MAXIMS, Classified and Ellustrated. BY HERBERT BROOM, Esq., OF THE INNER TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW. "MAXIMS ARE THE CONDENSED GOOD SENSE OF NATIONS." Sir James Mackintosh. LONDON: A. MAXWELL & SON, 32, BELL YARD, LINCOLN'S INN, AND HODGES & SMITH, GRAFTON STREET, DUBLIN. 1845. 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 |