Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, BY CALLAGHAN & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. INTRODUCTION. BY HON. THOMAS M. COOLEY, LL.D. If it were in my power fitly to introduce to the legal profession of the country a treatise on Proceedings in Rem, it would give me great pleasure. The need of such a treatise has long been felt, and the law has been falling into disorder and confusion or perhaps it should be said has never emerged from it— for the want of a systematic and careful examination and arrangement of the authorities which would naturally and necessarily come under review in the preparation of such a treatise. Fortunately, as I trust will appear, this labor of examination and arrangement has been undertaken by one whose long professional service has in large degree been given to such proceedings, and whose analytical and logical mind well fits him for the very important work of classification and arrangement. The result appears in the following pages. On referring to these it will be found that the arrangement is simple and readily understood; but it is also entirely new. Things which may be the subject of proceedings in rem are classified as Things Guilty, Things Hostile and Things Indebted. At first it may strike the mind that this arrangement is rather fanciful than substantial; but this is far from being the case. It has been made as the result of a careful consideration of the whole subject, and because in the nature of things it is needful and scientific. Different principles to some extent are found to be applicable according as cases arrange themselves under one or another of these heads, and the judicial decisions need to be |