PREFACE.

THE increase of reports in our own country, is greater than it ever was in England. We have, already, upwards of seven hundred volumes of decisions. This increase is looked upon as objectionable.

It is true that a tax is thus imposed upon the lawyer. But there are some taxes which it is good to pay.

The number of such books with us arises, not from an over eagerness to report, for it is far from a thankful office, but on account of the changes and improvements in our state codes. The use of reports is not sufficiently appreciated. Statutes and local rules and common law notions must require illustration and explanation; and they can only be tested through the ingenuity of counsel and the opinion of presiding officers. Digests cannot keep pace with the courts. Cases are the alembics of the lawyer-the means of distilling what is of practical use.

It has been the study of the present reporter to obtain this essence: and not to fill page after page with the ordinary details of every case.

The bar may be thought to be somewhat sacrificed. He will risk all this. Reports of decisions are not expected to contain forensic displays of counsel. In some of our States, the law appointing a reporter binds him not to publish the arguments of the legal gentlemen employed on either side.

In putting forth a volume of the decisions of Vice-Chancellor McCoun, the reporter feels confident he is serving the profession; and he is eager to hang upon this sentence an acknowledgment of the kindness he has received at his hands.

New York, December, 1833.

C. E.