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A TREATISE ON THE

PRINCIPLES OF OBLIGATIONS ARISING FROM CIVIL

WRONGS IN THE COMMON LAW:

TO WHICH IS ADDED THE

DRAFT OF A CODE OF CIVIL WRONGS

PREPARED FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.

BY

SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK, BART.

OF LINCOLN'S INN, BARRISTER-AT-LAW;

CORPUS PROFESSOR OF JURISPRUDENCE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD;

LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; AND

HONORARY DOCTOR OF LAWS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.

Author of "Principles of Contract," "A Digest of the Law of Partnership," &c.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

STEVENS AND SONS, LIMITED,

119 & 120, CHANCERY LANE,

Law Publishers and Booksellers.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY C. F. ROWORTH, GREAT NEW STREET, FETTER LANE-E.C.

TO THE MEMORY

OF

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

SIR JAMES SHAW WILLES, KNT.

SOMETIME A JUSTICE OF THE COMMON BENCH,

A MAN COURTEOUS AND ACCOMPLISHED,

A JUDGE WISE AND VALIANT.

TO THE HONOURABLE

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JUNR.,

A JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT OF THE

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.

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MY DEAR HOLMES,

A preface is a formal and a tedious thing at best; it is at its worst when the author, as has been common in law-books, writes of himself in the third person. Yet there are one or two things I wish to say on this occasion, and cannot well say in the book itself; by your leave, therefore, I will so far trespass on your friendship as to send the book to you with an open letter of introduction. It may seem a mere artifice, but the assurance of your sympathy will enable me to speak more freely and naturally, even in print, than if my words were directly addressed to the profession at large. Nay more, I would fain sum up in this slight token the brotherhood that subsists, and we trust ever shall, between all true followers of the Common Law here and on your side of the water; and give it to be understood, for my own part, how much my work owes to you and to others in America, mostly citizens of your own Commonwealth, of whom some are known to me only by their published writing, some by commerce of letters; there are some also, fewer than I could wish, whom I have had the happiness of meeting face to face.

When I came into your jurisdiction, it was from the Province of Quebec, a part of Her Majesty's dominions

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