PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

The favorable reception given in this country by the Bench and Bar to the several English editions of "Addison on the Law of Torts," renders an apology for offering to the profession an American edition of the work unnecessary.

In preparing the present edition for the press, it has been the aim of the editors to incorporate in the American notes, within as small a compass as was compatible with the necessary statement of the principles involved, all that was necessary or important to explain, modify or illustrate the text, and to present the rules of law as they at present exist in this country.

It has also been the intention of the editors to give full and copious references to the statutes of the several States, and to the reported decisions of the courts of last resort in this country.

In doing this work, we have used the latest English edition, and, for convenience of reference, have cited the American cases, under the same letters with the English, making no distinction between them.

This plan, we believe, will facilitate the examination of the cases; and while greatly increasing the labor, it has rendered that labor less perceptible to the casual reader.

The amount of labor will, however, be apparent, when the fact is remembered that in the English edition there are not half a dozen American cases cited.

In this edition we have cited more than six thousand American cases, besides the numerous references to statutes. The cases cited cover a period from the time of the earliest reports in our country down to the reports in press, when the manuscript of this edition was put into the hands of the printer.

F

We have also added to this edition the chapter on torts by municipal corporations. This seemed necessary to an American edition, as the subject forms an important element in a work on the law of wrongs, and is not treated at any length in the English work.

That other cases and decisions might have been added to the notes we are well aware; but with a text written by one of the ablest English authors, supported by a line of decisions extending from the Year Books down to the present time, and embracing more than twelve thousand reported cases, both English and American, we may be pardoned for assuming that the profession will find the work herewith presented a satisfactory, and, we venture to hope, a very useful and reliable treatise on the law of torts and their remedies. JAMES M. DUDLEY,

JOHNSTOWN, January, 1876.

EDWIN BAYLIES.

CHAPTER II.

OF INFRINGEMENTS UPON RIGHTS NATURALLY INCIDENT TO THE POSSESSION

AND OWNERSHIP OF LAND, 69-94.

SECTION I. Of the right and burthen of | Diversion of water for purposes of irri-

natural servitude, 69-84.