PREFACE. Ar no former period in the history of civilization has the Law of Insurance assumed the importance, or awakened the interest, which belongs to it at the present time, in nearly every part of the civilized world. Especially is this the fact in the United States: for here not only is the practice of Insurance, in all its varieties, already very general, but it is rapidly extending to all classes of society, and is receiving the countenance and sanction of government. The author, therefore, deems no apology necessary for selecting FIRE and LIFE INSURANCE as the subject of the following treatise, however much he may crave the indulgence of the reader for the manner in which he has discussed it. The Contract of Insurance, as a genus, is peculiar; it being characterized by risk in one party, and premium, or price paid for indemnity against loss, in the other. These are the correlative conditions whose mutual operation constitutes the essence of the contract. In accordance with this fundamental idea, the author has commenced his work with a preliminary view of the nature and distinct aim of Insurance, in connection with an epitome of the history of its invention, adoption, and use; for it has ever been admitted that any one branch of knowledge is more rapidly and satisfactorily comprehended by the aid of a precise understanding of the conjecture which gave it an existence, and the benefits which afterwards assured its duration and extension. Moreover, it has, with entire truth, been asserted by an acute English writer,1 that "no chapter in the history of national manners in later times would perhaps test and illustrate the growth and spread of civilization, as that containing à development of Fire and Life Insurances." It is, in some measure, under the same idea, that the author has been induced to prefix to the discourse on each of those species of Insurance an account of its rise and progress, and its present well ascertained utility. The principles of law which govern Fire Insurance are so near akin to those which govern Life Insurance, that a wellknown writer 2 has treated of them in connection, or at least not in separate chapters; whereas the author of the following work has adopted the plan of first treating of each in separate chapters, and then, in accordance with the plan of the writer just referred to, of considering them more in their relations with each other. The author is well aware, that in his earnestness to suffer nothing of importance to be overlooked and omitted, he has afforded instances of repetition; but the fault of redundency is much more venial, especially in a practical law work, than the fault of omission, or even of too great condensation. With this brief exposition of his aims, he submits his work to the public, in the hope that it may contribute, in some humble degree, to the better understanding of the important subject of which it treats; and in doing this he ventures to adopt the words of the venerable Bracton, one of the very earliest writers on English Law: "Si quid superfluum vel perperam positum in hoc opere invenerit, illud corrigat et emendet, vel conniventibus oculis pertranseat, cum omnia habere in memoria, et in nullo peccare, divinum sit potiûs quam humanum." Bracton, lib. 1, fol. 1. 1 Dowdeswell on Life and Fire Insurance. 2 Beaumont on Fire and Life Insurance. For the particulars of the copious matter which constitutes the Appendix, the attention of the reader is invited to the Table of the Contents of the Appendix, which immediately follows the Table of Contents of the Treatise. The forms, tables, &c., to be found in the Appendix, are mostly taken from Ellis on Fire and Life Insurance, and James on Life and Fire Insurance. |