BY WILLIAM WARD, ESQ. LONDON: HENRY BUTTERWORTH, LAW BOOKSELLER AND PUBLISHER, N° 7, FLEET STREET, NEAR TEMPLE BAR. 1826. PREFACE. THE following work is the result of an attempt to collect and arrange in a systematic view the cases relating to bequests of personal property. Few subjects can perhaps be found, upon which the authorities are more numerous, or, to all appearance, more frequently contradictory. In many of them also the decisions, grounded upon the special language of each particular will, have afforded little or no illustration of any general principle. Of the most important of these, however, the author has given a short statement, in the hope of rendering his book as practically useful as possible; while he has contented himself with merely referring his reader to those others, which he thought least likely to be of any service as a precedent or guide in future. It is scarcely to be expected that any practical work should be altogether free from errors or imperfections: should any be found in the present treatise, the author has only to plead in excuse the labour consequent upon the extent of his task, and the difficulty arising from the contrariety of judicial opinions. 2, PUMP COURT, TEMPLE, May, 1826. |