OF THE INNER TEMPLE AND WESTERN CIRCUIT, ESQUIRE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW AUTHOR OF A Treatise on the Criminal Evidence Act, 1898, etc. PREFACE. The present work is founded on a course of lectures delivered at the request of the Council before the Institute of Bankers in November and December, 1901. The course was limited to four lectures, each of which was delivered before the members of the Institute in London and also at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and published in the Journal of the Institute early in the present year. It was originally intended to deal with the whole subject in four lectures, but it soon became evident that this could not be done. At the end of the earlier lectures various questions were asked by members of the Institute, many of the questions relating to matters of great practical importance to bankers, and a good deal of time was occupied in answering them. This method of putting questions by those who have a practical acquaintance with the difficulties that arise possesses several advantages. It enables the lecturer to explain points which he may have left somewhat obscure, and to enlarge on those which he may have treated in too summary a manner. It also increases the interest of the listener to realise that the legal principles discussed are not altogether "in the air," and that if he is in doubt as to what principle governs some particular transaction within his own experience, the lecturer will at least make an attempt to solve his difficulty; and it is in applying legal principles, not in ascertaining them, that difficulties mainly arise. |