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INTENDED NOT ONLY FOR USE IN THE OFFICE OF THE MORE EXPERIENCED
PRACTITIONER, BUT SIMPLIFIED IN SUCH A MANNER AS TO ENABLE A
TOWN OR COUNTRY SOLICITOR, PREVIOUSLY UNACQUAINTED WITH
COPYHOLD OR COURT-KEEPING PRACTICE, TO TRANSACT
WITH EASE ALL THE GENERAL BUSINESS IN

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LAW BOOKSELLERS AND PUBLISHERS, 194, FLEET STREET;

AND SOLD BY SHERWOOD AND CO., PATERNOSTER ROW; ADAM AND CHARLES
BLACK, EDINBURGH; AND HODGES AND SMITH, DUBLIN.

Spettigue, Printer, 67, Chancery Lane.

PREFACE

A WORK on Practice is useful to two classes of professional men :-to the experienced, in lessening fatigue, by allowing business to be transacted by clerks, which would otherwise require personal attention, and by facilitating the instruction of articled clerks; and on the other hand, to practitioners having attention but seldom drawn to any particular branch of Practice, a work on that branch will be useful in affording the means of transacting any business connected with it, easily and accurately,

The present treatise has been prepared under the belief that Copyhold and Court-keeping Practice is most peculiarly within the principle of the above observation; and that methodising and simplifying the Practice, and embodying a full collection of precedents, would not only be found useful in business, but would dispel the prejudice which has long existed in the minds of many professional men, that Copyhold Practice is of a complicated nature, and cannot be understood without long study.

The object has been to treat of each branch of Practice in such a manner that reference need only be made to the part expressly relating to the point requiring attention; and such reference will at once give the Practice generally, each step to be taken according to its order and reference, by a number to the precedents in the Appendix. The plan of sections has also been adopted throughout the work, as affording much greater facility of reference than when merely given generally, or even if given by pages. A subdivision of such of the precedents as may be sometimes only wanted in part is also given, and will be found serviceable in instructing clerks to draw the more special documents or courts.

The following example will show the advantages of the system adopted.—Suppose a solicitor, previously unacquainted with Copyhold Practice, to receive instructions to act on behalf of an intended purchaser; he has merely to refer to the head "Purchase," and he will find under that head and the parts of the appendix referred to in it, all the Practice and Forms: comprising suggestions previous to the contract; the terms and form of contract; the abstract, its examination and sufficiency; requisitions on title; preparing and completing conveyance; obtaining admission, and adjusting the steward's fees; with forms of agreements, notices, conveyances, &c. The same observation applies to Mortgages, Leases, &c., &c.

In like manner all the information in Court-keeping

will be found under that head, with a full collection of Forms; so that a professional man, without having previously turned his attention to the subject, may be enabled, on obtaining a stewardship, to transact the business, make out his bills of fees, and enter his courts, with the ease and correctness of the more experienced practitioner.

The experienced Court-keeper will also be enabled by mere reference to numbers of sections, and the addition of a few words, to give such instructions to his clerk that all the general business of the court may be transacted without his being obliged to give his personal attention, except to the mere examination of the draft and entries; and he will also possess greatly increased facilities in making his articled clerks acquainted systematically with Copyhold and Court-keeping Practice.

Very great care has been taken in selecting the Precedents; and many points are suggested both as to the Practice and Forms, which have never been given in any work hitherto published on Copyholds, and which are also, many of them, applicable to freehold practice.

The rule for value of Copyhold Enfranchisements has never before been published; and attention is particularly directed to the suggestions on Purchase Contracts; the forms of such contracts; the practical suggestions on abstracts, requisitions, and replies; the peculiar arrangement of the Conveyancing Forms; the suggestions connected with Mortgage Securities, and the more special forms; the forms and points as

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