Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, BY CONWAY ROBINSON, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States PRINTED AT RICHMOND: BY JOHN NOWLAN, SOUTH ELEVENTH STREET. PREFACE TO THE SECOND VOLUME. Since the publication of the first volume of this work, I have had the pleasure of receiving from several distinguished jurists, letters expressing an earnest approbation of the plan of the work, as well as of the arrangement and execution of that volume, and a cordial 'God-speed' in my future labours. If I have not allowed these testimonials to be published, through the book-sellers, in the mode now so common, it has been from motives of delicacy rather than the want of a grateful feeling. I could not but be gratified when such letters came from JOHN TAYLOE LOMAX, Esq., who has long adorned the Virginia bench, and whose valuable Digest of the law of real property in the United States has entitled him to a reputation as extended as the states of the confederacy; from the Hon. Sir JOHN B. ROBINSON, whose talents and accomplishments grace the office of chief justice of Upper Canada; and from JAMES WILLES, Esq., Barrister of the Inner Temple, London, whose high legal qualifications having been proved in the foremost rank at the English bar, are destined, it is said, to shine also on the bench. Gratifying as it was, to be thus encouraged by the gentlemen whom I have named, and by others of juridical fameappreciating the opinions of those whose opinions are of value-I yet thought the most proper use that could be made of them was to increase my efforts to make the work valuable, for the use of the student, the lawyer and the judge; I strove to make the second volume an improvement on the first. The treatise in the first, as to the place and time of a transaction or proceeding, is now followed by one relating to the circumstances of the transaction or the subject matter of the proceeding. This second volume-devoted entirely to personal actions-treats of their subject matter, in other words of the Right of action; 1. On a sealed instrument; or upon a judgment or decree; 2. On bills of exchange, promissory notes and other unsealed instruments; 3. On promises generally; express and implied; 4. By owner of goods and chattels against an adverse claimant, or against a bailee; 5. Against a wrong-doer. There being a separate index to each volume, each is so far an independent treatise that a person who desires it may procure any one volume without the others, and make it useful though he should never obtain the rest. And yet the different volumes have a material connexion with each other. If in the second, one sees what circumstances give a right of action, he sees also that the effect of those circumstances is different in different states; he may be counsel for the assignee of a simple bond; it is not negotiable in Virginia but he finds in the second volume (p. 267, 269), that it is negotiable in North Carolina; it may be material then to know the rule laid down in the first (p. 74), as to the place whose law determines as to the liability of the endorser or assignor. When too it has been ascertained by what law the transaction is governed, and that according to that law there was at one time a right of action, it may be important to learn from the first volume within what time the action is to be brought and how the time is to be computed. He who is well grounded in the principles expounded in these two volumes, may be expected to comprehend, and make a proper application of, what will be found in the third; which will treat of the parties who may sue and be sued, the form of action, the frame of the declaration and the rules generally of pleading and proceeding. CON. ROBINSON. Richmond, November 21, 1855. CONTENTS. THE SUBJECT MATTER OF PERSONAL ACTIONS, IN OTHER WORDS, 2. Opinions of Judges Pendleton, Kent and Nott, contrasted, 3. A scroll, by way of seal, is sufficient in South Carolina, Vir- 4. In New York, Vermont and Massachusetts, there must be an impression on wax, wafer, or some tenacious substance, 5. In Pennsylvania, though a scroll is allowed, an incision in the paper, with a riband through it, is not sufficient; there must be a seal, or a scroll by way of seal, 6. How several may use the same seal, 7. What recognition of the seal or scroll is required in the body 4. Delivery may be valid, though not in presence of grantee or 6. Whether an instrument under seal, which at the time of its being parted with by a party, is so imperfect that if then de- livered it would be of no effect, can by being filled up and delivered under a parol authority, become a valid obligation, 7. Instrument fully written, and sealed, may be delivered as an 8. Whether there may not be a conditional delivery of a bond to CHAP. 3. What is deemed part of the instrument; how it is affected by an alteration or addition, 7. Whether adding the name of a subscribing witness as to a party who did not acknowledge the instrument before him, will 8. Whether bond is vitiated by expunging a credit on it, CHAP. 4.-On a sealed instrument, though without con- 5. How far one covenant or clause is qualified by another, 6. Of conditions and exceptions; how construed; and the rules 8. Rules as to covenants prescribed by the statute of 8 & 9 Vict.; 9. What is included in a covenant extending to the property con- veyed; whether there is a warranty of the quantity of land, 10. Of covenants in a lease; how far lessee is liable under a co- venant to pay taxes, &c.; effect of disturbing his quiet en- joyment; when rent is apportionable, 11. How covenant to repair must be performed, when the house |