PRINCIPLES OF EQUITY. BY THE HONOURABLE HENRY HOME OF KAMES, ONE OF THE MEMBERS OF THE COLLEGE OF JUSTICE, AND ONE OF THE A NEW EDITION. EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR BELL & BRADFUTE, MANNERS & MILLER, a. constable & co., AND JOHN FAIRBAIRN. 1825. LETTER ΤΟ LORD MANSFIELD. AN author, not more illustrious by birth than by genius, says, in a letter concerning enthusiasm, "That he had so much need of some considerable 66 66 66 66 presence or company to raise his thoughts on any "occasion, that, when alone, he endeavoured to supply that want, by fancying some great man of superior genius, whose imagined presence might inspire him with more than what he felt at ordinary "hours." To judge from his Lordship's writings, this receipt must be a good one. It naturally ought to be so; and I imagine that I have more than once felt its enlivening influence. With respect to the first edition of this Treatise, in particular, I can affirm with great truth, that a great man of superior genius was never out of my view; will Lord Mansfield relish this passage? How would he have expressed it ?— were my constant questions. But though by this means I commanded more vigour of mind, and a keener exertion of thought, than I am capable of at ordinary hours; yet I had not courage to mention this to his Lordship, nor to the iv world. The subject I had undertaken was new: I could not hope to avoid errors, perhaps gross ones; and the absurdity appeared glaring, of acknowledging a sort of inspiration in a performance that might not exhibit the least spark of it. No trouble has been declined upon the present edition; and yet that the work, even in its improved state, deserves his Lordship's patronage, I am far from being confident. But however that be, it is no longer in my power to conceal, that the ambition of gaining Lord Mansfield's approbation, has been my chief support in this work. Never to reveal that secret, would be to border on ingratitude. Will your Lordship permit me to subscribe myself, with heart-satisfaction, August 1766. Your zealous friend. HENRY HOME. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. AN author who exerts his talents and industry upon a new subject, without hope of assistance from others, is apt to flatter himself; because he finds no other work of the kind to humble him by comparison. The attempt to digest equity into a regular system, was not only new, but difficult; and for these reasons, the author hopes he may be excused for not discovering more early several imperfections in the first edition of this book. These imperfections he the more regretted, because they concerned chiefly the arrangement, in which every mistake must be attended with some degree of obscurity. No labour has been spared to improve the present edition: and yet, after all his endeavours, the author dare not hope that every imperfection is cured: that the arrangement is considerably improved, is all that with assurance he can take upon him to say. For an interim gratification of the reader's curiosity before entering upon the work, a few particulars shall here be mentioned. The defects of common law seemed to the author so distinct from its excesses, that he thought it proper to handle these articles separately. But almost as soon as the printing was finished, the author observed, that he had been obliged to handle the same subject in different parts of the book, or at least to refer from one part to another; which he holds to be an infallible mark of an unskilful distribution. This led him to reflect, that these defects and excesses proceed both of them equally from the very constitution of a court of common law, too limited in its power of doing justice; whence it appeared evident, that they ought to be handled promiscuously as so many examples of imperfection in common law, |