jurisdictions to which they relate. What was needed was a book of modest compass, published at a reasonable price, which would put a student, whether from South Africa, Ceylon, or British Guiana, in the way of acquiring a knowledge of the general principles of the Roman-Dutch Law as it exists at the present day in Africa, Asia, or America. Such a work would supply an historical background; would refer the reader to the original sources and teach him to distinguish in them what is obsolete from what is of living interest. These, therefore, are the objects which I have set before me. I have aimed at producing not a treatise on the Law of South Africa, or of Ceylon, or of British Guiana in particular, but rather an exposition of the principles of the Roman-Dutch Common Law, which forms the historical basis of all those systems, and which, however much abrogated, limited, or transformed by legislation, by judicial decision, or by custom, is still in greater or less measure the substance of which they consist. It is for the student, principally, that the book is intended and for any other person who may care to have before him a general picture of the Roman-Dutch Law at the present day. The practitioner, should he happen to glance at my pages, may find that I have here or there supplied a reference or suggested a point of view.
Though the book is not bulky, I may perhaps be permitted to say that its composition has involved considerable labour. Research in Latin and Dutch folios and quartos of bygone centuries takes time and the results are not always immediately apparent.
