PREFACE. The jurisdiction of courts of equity by the writ of injunc tion, though of English origin, is largely the result of American growth and development. Perhaps no branch of equity jurisprudence owes more to the decisions of American courts, and the growing frequency of the use of this writ, of late years, has invested the subject with a new importance. Of the more recent text-books upon the Law of Injunctions, that of Mr. Hilliard, professing to be purely American, contains, of course, but few citations of English cases, while the English treatises of Mr. Kerr and Mr. Joyce, though complete and exhaustive so far as regards the English authorities, contain but few references to the opinions of our courts, and leave the rich field of American decisions almost untouched. And the fact that very many of the English authorities, noticeably those of recent date, are modified by statutes which are inapplicable here, has seemed to the author to create an additional necessity for a work which should be based upon the decisions of both countries, and which should present the general principles governing courts of equity, both in England and America, in the administration of preventive relief. In the preparation of this work, the cases cited have been carefully and patiently studied, from beginning to end, without regard to the head notes, and the author has constantly en deavored to present the principles underlying the actual decis ions of the courts upon the points actually involved in the cases. To analyze and weigh these decisions, and to deduce therefrom the principles underlying them all, is the work which he has attempted. Believing it to be the proper function of legal authorship to state the law as it is, rather than as it ought to be, he has studiously refrained from the obtrusion of his own theories, not merely because they would carry little weight of themselves, but because in these days of multiplied book making, the tendency among lawyers is to use text-books merely as guide-posts, to direct them to the fountain head of our jurisprudence, the reports. But he has written in the firm conviction that the beneficent system of equity, whose "strong right arm" constitutes the subject matter of this work, is destined to outlive the iconoclasm of modern law reformers and codifiers, and to constitute for all time an integral part of our jurisprudence. That his work is without blemishes, he has not dared to hope; but that it will be found to have some merits, he confidently believes, otherwise it would never have been submitted to the verdict of a critical profession. CHICAGO, January 1, 1873. J. L. H. III.-Of Judgments obtained through Fraud, IV. Of Accident, Mistake, Ignorance and Surprise, 119-128 |