PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

I ought not, perhaps, to say so; but I think that I deserve
some credit for the conception, if not the execution, of this book.
Although the British Statutes in force here form so large and
interesting a part of our law, and although we are instructed by
the highest authority, that it is "ever good to rely upon the
book at large," it may safely be said, that few have ever sought
any of those Statutes in their originals. Any such search
involved a double and, as it appears, a difficult reference; first,
to Kilty's Report of the Statutes which extended to the Prov-
ince, and then to the Acts themselves scattered through numer-
ous and expensive volumes; but, judging from my experience
and the large number of copies remaining unsold in the State
Library, Kilty's book is almost as rarely to be found on the
shelf as the Statutes at Large. The acquaintance, then, of
Maryland lawyers with the Statutes contained in this volume
must, generally, have been derived from text-books or the dif-
ferent abridgements, in which those Acts have been cited or
their contents collected, and, if I may say so without offence,
may be compared to the acquaintance of two individuals
through the description of a common friend; such, though in
some favored instances it may become absolute familiarity,
and in others may exercise itself in mutual offices, in the great
majority of cases but begets an expectation of intimacy in
the future — an expectation often interrupted by distance and
difficulty, often disappointed by accident, often postponed from
indifference, and oftener yet, when a meeting takes place, dissi-
pated by utter geniality. I will not pursue the figure.
But, that it is the bounden duty of every Maryland lawyer to
make himself familiar with these Statutes, I suppose no one
will deny; that some latitude is due to any one, who collects
them in an accessible and convenient form for the use of his
brethren, I am persuaded that all will admit; and that so