Excerpt from Principles of Pleading in Civil Actions: Under the Common-Law System and as Modified and Applied Under Modern Codes and Practice Acts, Introduced by a Summary View of the Proceedings in Legal Actions Stephen on Pleading is one of the great works in English law. Common-law pleading stands forth in it in its finished form. It places Mr. Stephen in the foremost rank of juridical thinkers. Besides its theoretic excellence, exhibiting the principles of pleading cohering in a logical system, the work is rendered eminently practical by introducing a summary and connected account of the whole proceedings in a suit, in which the end that pleading subserves in litigation, and the forms through which it works, are distinctly presented. This edition of the work has been prepared especially for American students of law. It is, nevertheless, as will be presently seen, the best edition for the practicing lawyer. In the year 1824 Mr. Stephen published the first edition of his work. In the year 1827 he published the second edition; and in the advertisement to that edition says: "This work, as its title imports, is in its main design elementary and institutional, and intended for the use rather of those who are exploring the principles, than of those who are engaged in the practice of pleading. But as there is reason to believe that it has proved in some measure acceptable to the latter class of readers also, the author has endeavored to adapt it better to their purposes, by introducing into this second edition some additional matter of a practical kind. This is contained, however, for the most part, in notes at the foot of the page, and does not at all derange or in any degree affect the original plan of the work. "With the same view the index has been considerably enlarged and a table of cases prefixed." In this second edition Mr. Stephen gave his matured view of the system of common-law pleading, and never attempted to do anything more towards making it more complete. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.