LEGAL RECREATIONS.
VOL. IV.
THE
LAW OF THE ROAD;
OR,
WRONGS AND RIGHTS OF A TRAVELLER.
BY
R. VASHON ROGERS, Jr.
A BARRISTER AT LAW OF OSGOODE HALL.
SAN FRANCISCO:
SUMNER WHITNEY AND COMPANY.
NEW YORK: HURD AND HOUGHTON.
Cambridge: The Riverside Press.
Copyright, 1876,
By SUMNER WHITNEY & CO.
RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY
H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.
[Pg v]
This little work does not aspire to compete with the learnedproductions of Redfield, Chitty, or Story, but merely to supply a want,felt by many to exist in this age of perpetual motion, of a plain andbrief summary of the rights and liabilities of carriers and passengersby land and by water.
An attempt is made in the following pages to combine instruction withentertainment, information with amusement, and to impart knowledgewhile beguiling a few hours in a railway carriage, or on a steamboat.Whilst it is hoped that the general public will peruse with interestthe text, containing elegant extracts from ponderous legal tomes—gemsfrom the rich mines of legal lore—and where in many cases the lawis laid down in the very words of learned judges of England, Canada,and the United States; the notes—a cloud of authorities—the indexand the list of cases are inserted for the special delectation of theprofessional reader.
[Pg vi]
Though written in Ontario, the book will be found applicable to allparts of the Dominion, as well as to the United States and England.
The author, even if the style is deemed novel, does not seek the praiseof originality for the substance of the following chapters, as thegreater portion of the text, and well nigh all the notes, have beentaken from the works of others, to whom all due thanks are now rendered.
How far the book is likely to be of use to the seeker afterknowledge, or of assistance to those desiring to kill time, is forothers to determine. If mistakes be discovered it is hoped that thereader—professional or otherwise—will bear with them, “for if thework be found of sufficient merit to require another edition, theywill probably be corrected, and if no such demand is made the book hasreceived as much labor as it deserves.”
The author is very “’umble, coming of an ’umble family,” like thecelebrated Uriah—not the Hittite, but he of the Heap tribe—and hewill be quite content and satisfied if every reader, after havingperused this work, says of him as Lord Thurlow said of Mansfield: “Asurprising man; ninety-nine times out of a hundred he is right in hisopinions and decisions, and when once in a hundred times he is wrong,ninety-nine men out of a hundred would not discover it.”
[Pg vii]