Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by

JOHN CAMPBELL & SON,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

HENRY B. ASHMEAD, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER,

1102 & 1104 Sansom Street, Philadelphia.

PREFACE.

THE Pittsburgh Legal Journal first appeared in April, 1853, and has continued with but little interruption to the present time, having been most generally under the editorial care and management of T. J. KEENAN, Esq., the well known and efficient Prothonotary of the Supreme Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Throughout its volumes, a complete set of which cannot now be obtained, are scattered many cases of great value, especially to the younger members of the Bar. Mr. Brightly, in the notes to his last edition of Purdon (1861), makes frequent reference to this Journal; and doubtless many an argument before the Court could have been made more forcible and effective by the production of the case itself referred to, than was possible by a mere statement of its principle.

At the suggestion of the publishers, and encouraged by the opinions of many of his professional friends, the editor, though conscious of his inability to make the work what it ought to be, has undertaken to collect into two or three volumes all the cases, not elsewhere reported, contained in the first sixteen volumes of the Journal.