Encouraged by the success of this work, the author has endeavored to render this edition as perfect as it was possible for him to make it. He has remoulded very many of the articles contained in the former editions, and added upwards of twelve hundred new ones.
To render the work as useful as possible, he has added a very
copious index to the whole, which, at the same time that it will
assist the inquirer, will exhibit the great number of subjects
treated in these volumes.
As Kelham's Law Dictionary has been published in this city, and
can be had by those who desire to possess it, that work has not
been added as an appendix to this edition.
Philadelphia, November, 1848.
ADVERTISEMENT
TO THE FOURTH EDITION
Since the publication of the last edition of this work, its author, sincerely devoted to the advancement of his profession, has given to the world his Institutes of American Law, in 4 vols. Svo.
Always endeavoring to render his Dictionary as perfect as possible, he was constantly revising it; and whenever he met with an article which he had omitted, he immediately prepared it for a new edition.
After the completion of his Institutes, in September last, laboring to severely, he fell a victim to his zeal, and died on the 18th of November, 1851, at the age of sixty-four.
In preparing this edition, not only has the matter left by its
author been made use of, but additional matter has been added, so
that the present will contain nearly one-third more than the last
edition.
Under one head, that of Maxims, nearly thirteen hundred new articles have been added.
The book has been carefully examined, a great portion of it by two members of the bar, in order that it might be purged, as far as possible, from all errors of every description.
The various changes in the constitutions of the states made since the last edition, have been noticed, so far as was compatible with this work; and every effort made to render it as perfect as a work of the kind would permit, in order that it might still sustain the reputation given to it by a Dublin barrister, "of being a work of a most elaborate character, as compared with English works of a similar nature, and one which should be in every library."
That it may still continue to receive the approbation of the
Bench and Bar of the United States, is the sincere desire of the
widow and daughter of its author.