PREFACE TO THE SECOND VOLUME. WHEN the first volume of these Commentaries was published, it was hoped and expected that a second would be sufficient to include the remainder of the Lectures which had been delivered in Columbia College. But in revising them for the press, some parts required to be suppressed, others to be considerably enlarged, and the arrangement of the whole to be altered and improved. A third volume has accordingly become requisite,a to embrace that remaining portion of the work which treats of commercial law, and of the doctrines of real estates, and the incorporeal rights and privileges incident to them. It is probable that in some instances I may have been led into more detail than may be thought consistent with the plan of the publication. My apology is to be found in the difficulty of being really useful on some branches of the law, without going far into practical illustrations, and stating, as far as I was able, with precision and accuracy, the established distinctions. Such a detail, however, has been, and will hereafter be, avoided as much as possible; for the knowledge that is intended to be communicated in these volumes, is believed to be, in most cases, of general application, and is of that elementary kind which is not only essential to every per This appeared in 1828, and a fourth volume was required, and appeared in 1830. son who pursues the science of the law as a practical profession, but is deemed useful and ornamental to gentlemen in every pursuit, and especially to those who are to assume places of public trust, and to take a share in the business and in the councils of our country. NEW-YORK, NOVEMBER 17th, 1827. NOTE BY THE AUTHOR.-When the N. Y. Revised Statutes are cited in this work, the first edition of 1829 is generally referred to; and if the last edition of 1846 be referred to, it is cited as New-York Revised Statutes, 3d edition; and if the citation of the 3d edition be by the page, the reference is to the new paging at the top of each leaf. Whenever I have had occasion to refer, in this new edition of the Commentaries, to any of the New-York statutes, I have always cited from the 3d edition; but, in other respects, the reference to the 1st edition of the NewYork Revised Statutes remains undisturbed, and I have not thought it worth the trouble of altering that reference, inasmuch as the paging to the first edition of the statutes is preserved in the margin to the 3d edition. CONTENTS. LECTURE II.—Of the Rights and Duties of Nations in a State of Peace,. 1. Right of interference with other states,.. 2. Jurisdiction over adjoining seas,. 4. Right of passage over land,. 1. Assistance to allies in war, . 3. Protection to enemy's property.. |