CT 1 8 1966 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one BY LEWIS H. BOND, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 55984 PREFACE. THE liberal encouragement proffered by a number of his professional brethren, in advance of the publication of these volumes, and the assurance of the co-operation of the learned Judge whose decisions are herein presented, induced the Reporter cheerfully to enter upon the labor of preparing them for the press. The six volumes of Judge MCLEAN'S Reports include the period dating from his appointment to the bench of the Supreme Court, in 1829, to the year 1855. Since the last-named year, with the exception of decisions occasionally appearing in law periodicals and newspapers, there have been no reports of cases in the courts for the Southern District of Ohio. It occurred to the Reporter that it could not be otherwise than acceptable to the profession to present, in an enduring form, a portion of the numerous cases before Judge LEAVITT from 1855 to the spring of 1871, when he retired from the bench, after his long judicial service. And in this view, the Reporter is gratified in knowing he had the cordial concurrence of many prominent members of the bar with whom he conferred. After the division of the State of Ohio, in 1855, into two judicial districts, and the establishment of the courts for the Southern District at Cincinnati, there was a rapid increase of business in both tribunals. For a few years prior to the death of Judge MCLEAN, in the spring of 1861, his duties in the Supreme Court, and his failing health, prevented his regular |