A COMPENDIUM OF THE LAW OF MARINE INSURANCES, BOTTOMRY, INSURANCE ON LIVES, AND OF INSURANCE AGAINST FIRE: IN WHICH THE MODE OF CALCULATING AVERAGES IS DEFINED, AND ILLUSTRATED BY EXAMPLES. BY ALEXANDER ANNESLEY, OF THE INNER TEMPLE, SOLICITOR. Nihil legebat quod non excerperet.....Plin. Epist. PREFACE. WHEN the vast extent and increase of the commerce of Great Britain and its dependencies are considered; and when that important branch of commercial enterprise, “ Marine Insurance," is adverted to, a Compendium, embracing the law and doctrine on the subject, tending to a solution of the doubts and removal of the difficulties which hourly occur in the intercourse between the assured and assurer, cannot prove unacceptable to the persons principally interested in those commercial contracts. The present excellent system of maritime jurispru dlence, so enlarged in principle, and liberal in practice, is detailed in works too voluminous to afford a ready and practicable reference to the merchant, the broker, or the underwriter; the Compiler, therefore, has abridged the law and the dieta on adjudged cases of insurance, arranging the whole under distinct heads, to serve as a vade mecum to every class of readers, |