Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. ATOZIMMIM UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & Co., EDITOR'S PREFACE. THE Editor, in presenting his work to the profession and the public, feels it proper to state that it was undertaken at the instance of the owners of the Meteor, who have directed that no pains should be spared to give the most full and accurate report of all the legal proceedings. In preparing that part of the first volume subsequent to the one hundred and thirty-second page, the editor has had the assistance of a copy of the testimony, exhibits, and record, as printed for the use of the Circuit Court on appeal. In preparing the earlier portion of the volume he was obliged to rely, for the most part, upon the reports printed in the New York World, which were based upon the notes of a stenographer. In some instances, as in the case of the arguments on the question of bonding, the stenographer's report itself was placed in his hands. The opening statement of Mr. Webster on the merits, and the decision of Judge Betts, are given as printed by authority. In the second volume, the hearing on appeal is taken from the stenographic report, the arguments of counsel from authorized pamphlet issues, and the decision of the Circuit Court from the Boston Daily Advertiser. The materials being thus authentic, the Editor feels that for any inaccuracy he alone is to be held responsible. He hopes that he has fallen into no errors of sufficient importance to materially impair the value of the Report. The importance of the questions of law raised in this case can hardly be overestimated, and the able arguments of counsel upon those questions, give it a permanent value. The case was, however, finally decided on the ground that the evidence offered |