THE GROTIUS SOCIETY,

2. KING'S BENCH WALK,

THE TEMPLE, E.C.4,

ON

THE INTERPRETATION OF

STATUTES.

OF

STATUTES.

BY

TEMPLE, E.C.4,
DENON WALK,

SIR PETER BENSON MAXWELL,

LATE CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

66

Dig. 1. 3. 18.

Benignius leges interpretandæ sunt, quo voluntas earum conservetur.'

LONDON:

WILLIAM MAXWELL & SON, 29, FLEET STREET, E.C.
Law Booksellers and Publishers.

HODGES, FOSTER, & CO., AND E. PONSONBY, DUBLIN ;
THACKER, SPINK, & CO., CALCUTTA; CHARLES F. MAXWELL,

MELBOURNE.

1875.

LONDON:

BRADBURY, AGNEW, & Co., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

PREFACE.

As two important books on the Interpretation of Statutes are already in the hands of the legal profession, some apology may seem required for the following pages. But as more than a quarter of a century has elapsed since the last edition of the work of Sir Fortunatus Dwarris was published, and the treatise of the American jurist, Mr. Sedgwick, is based in great measure on American decisions, which, however valuable, are not actually authoritative in this country; it has been thought that such a work as the present would not be inopportune. Its object is to present in some order the leading principles which govern our Courts in the interpretation of statutes, with illustrations of their application selected as much as possible from recent decisions, and in sufficient number to explain and give precision to their meaning and scope; in the hope that it may be useful not