Excerpt from The Doctrines of the Law of Contracts: In Their Principal Outlines, Stated, Illustrated, and Condensed But why refer to so many cases? Because, first, the foot-notes are in nobody's way, -they do not injure the book for those who do not wish to use them. Secondly, those who have occasion to look beyond the general doctrines, which the text supplies, into their minuter forms, or to see further illustra tions of them, have here the directions provided for ready use. Thirdly, practitioners who, in arguing before a court, desire to rely on a proposition in the book, have thus the means in hand for making the proposition good. The references are mostly, but not exclusively, to our own, American cases. In determining what ones and how many to make, I have not been guided by a general rule, but by the differing requirements of the several paragraphs. At one place, the authorities would be conflicting; hence many cases should be referred to, and they should be chiefly American. At another place, the sub-doctrines, under the general one in the text, would be numerous; therefore cases representing each minor form should be cited, - a proposition which I had not always the audacity to carry out in full, so multiplied were the citations which occasionally would have been necessary. At another place, the doctrine of the text would be a con densation from many authorities, no one of which sus tained it alone, but all in combination did; therefore these must all be cited. Such are some of the vary ing reasons; but, where no special reason impelled, the citations have been sparse. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.