A TREATISE ON THE LAW OF INSURANCE, IN FOUR BOOKS; I. OF MARINE INSURANCES, II. OF BOTTOMRY AND RESPONDENTIA, III. OF INSURANCE UPON LIVES, IV. OF INSURANCE AGAINST FIRE. By SAMUEL MARSHALL, IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. Laudo mercatorem, qui fidem,, etiam contra leges datam, fervat; fed, Bynk. Quæft. jur. priv. lib. 4. c. 5. LONDON: PRINTED BY A. STRAHAN, LAW-PRINTER TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY, FOR J. BUTTERWORTH, FLEET-STREET. PREFACE. HE defign of the following work has been THE to collect from every authentic source, and to afcertain, with as much precifion as the fubject would admit of, the genuine principles of the law of infurance; and fo to arrange and methodise them, that not only lawyers, but merchants and others, might, without much difficulty, acquire a competent knowledge of them. It is now many years fince I first conceived the idea of attempting fuch a work. But after I had made fome progrefs in it, I perceived that, if completed upon the plan I had adopted, it would be found too abstract and elementary, to afford that afliftance to the commercial world, or even to the profeffion of the law, which it was my ambition to render to both.-I perceived that the leading principles which govern contracts of infurance lie within a narrow compass; and that it is only the application of those principles to particular cafes, that could form a work of general utility. My averfion to retrace my former fteps, and to go again over the ground I had fo recently trodden, concurring with other circumstances, induced me, at that time, to lay afide my defign; and it was not till lately that I determined to refume it. But though, in my new undertaking, I have adopted a different plan, and made a new arrangement of the fubject, ftill I found that my former |