TO

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

THOMAS LORD MANNERS,

BARON MANNERS OF FOSTON, IN LINCOLNSHIRE ;

LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF IRELAND,

&c. &c. &c.

THIS TREATISE

IS,

WITH HIS LORDSHIP'S PERMISSION,

MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE present Edition differs so materially from the last, that it is deemed right to apprise the Profession of the particulars in which this difference consists. The quantity of its matter is greater by at least one half, although the more compressed form of the printing has prevented an excess to the same extent in the number of its pages. This additional matter is composed, not only of the new cases brought down to the present time, upon the subjects of which the Second Edition treats, but also of sixteen chapters, containing topics altogether new. The plan also of the work has been altered and enlarged. In the last Edition, the Author confined his views solely to the rights of the wife, as they are administered in a court of equity, and to the doctrine which allows her separate property, and a separate character. The present Edition, extends to both the legal and equitable rights, not only of the wife, but of the husband also, in which the duties and liabilities which flow from this relation are fully discussed. The Work is divided into Five Books; the first treats of the respective interests of husband and wife in the personal property of each other, the husband's liability, and the duration and extent of it, for the debts of his wife contracted before and during the marriage, her power of charging him with her

engagements contracted during the marriage and the extent of it, and also the right she may have after the marriage by survivorship in her own personalty. The second book treats of the respective rights of husband and wife in the real property of each other, during and after the marriage, viz. Curtesy, and Dower, the Jointure before marriage which will bar the right of dower, and the provisions made during marriage which will put the wife to her election. The third, fourth and fifth books contain the subjects which were considered in the last publication of the work, with this addition, that the fifth book is not confined to the peculiar doctrine of the wife's equity, but embraces all the equities which both husband and wife may be entitled to, as such, arising from the property of the wife alone.

King's Inns, Henrietta Street, Dublin.

May 18, 1827.