OF THE DECISIONS OF THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT, OF THE STATE OF MAINE, CONTAINED IN GREENLEAF'S, FAIRFIELD'S, APPLETON'S, AND SHEPLEY'S REPORTS; AND COMPRISING TWENTY-SIX VOLUMES OF THE MAINE REPORTS. -By PHILIP EASTMAN. HALLOWELL: MASTERS, SMITH & CO. 1849. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by MASTERS, SMITH & Co., and PHILIP EASTMAN, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Maine. MUSEUM PREFACE. SINCE the preparation of this work was commenced, various unexpected hindrances have delayed its completion to a period much later than was anticipated. As a Digest of our Reports has long been urgently desired, by members of the profession, as well as others, this delay has been regretted, but was unavoidable. In referring, in the Digest, to the Volumes of the Reports, I have not given the name of the Reporter, but simply the number of the Volume, in the order in which they were published, commencing with the first of Greenleaf. This mode of numbering was probably intended by the Legislature, when they directed, that the subsequent volumes should "be entitled, MAINE REPORTS, and that the first volume, subsequent to the third volume of Fairfield's Reports, should be numbered the thirteenth volume of the Maine Reports." And it is believed, that the volume referred to, by this mode of numbering, will be recognized more readily, than by giving the name of the Reporter, and his number of the volume. The three volumes of Fairfield's Reports constitute the 10, 11, and 12, of the whole series. In the plan and arrangement of the work, and the divisions and subdivisions of subjects, it was intended, generally, to follow that of Mr. Minot; both from its intrinsic excellence, and from the fact, that the use of his Digest was more general, and his plan and arrangement more familiar than any other, to the members of the profession in this State. In endeavoring to give, as briefly and explicitly as possible, the points or principles in each case, and in connexion with, or close proximity to, the abstracts of other cases of the same class, it was often found |