You desire me to give you an idea of the Origin & Object of our court of Chancery . . . the power of that court, as acknowleged
at this day, is to relieve
1. where the Common law gives no remedy.
2. where it’s remedy is imperfect.
3. where it would do injustice by comprehending within its letter cases not within it’s reason, nor intended to have been
comprehended . . .
letter from
Thomas Jefferson
to philip mazzei, november, 1785.
J. 1
(a) Kaim’s Principles of Equity.
fol.
1
st.
edñ.
1815 Catalogue, page 71. no. 26, as above.
[HOME,
Henry, lord kames.]
Principles of Equity.
Edinburgh: Printed by
Alexander Kincaid His Majesty’s Printer. For
A. Miller,
London; and
A. Kincaid, and
J. Bell,
Edinburgh,
mdcclx
. [1760]
Law 270
First Edition. Folio. 164 leaves collating in twos.
Halkett and Laing IV, 430.
Marvin, page 394 (with date 1761).
Sweet & Maxwell V, page 44.
Catalogue of Lincoln’s Inn Library, page 432.
Calf; the upper margin cut off the title-leaf, probably with a name. Not initialled by Jefferson. With the Library of Congress
1815 bookplate.
This book was one of a catalogue of law books made by Jefferson to be ordered from Dublin (undated): “
The above catalogue to be first ordered from Dublin only directing the bookseller to give immediate notice to mess
rs. Donald & Burton of such of the books as he cannot procure in 8
vo. that they may order these from London . . .
"
The Irish 8
vos. are preferred to the English because cheaper.
”
In a letter to his nephew Peter Carr, concerning his legal studies, dated from Philadelphia, June 22, 1792, Jefferson wrote:
“
. . . your objection to L
d. Kaims that he is too metaphysical is just, and it is the chief objection to which his writings are liable. it is to be observed
also that tho’ he has given us what should be the system of equity, yet it is not the one actually established, at least not
in all it’s parts. the English Chancellors have gone on from one thing to another without any comprehensive or systematic
view of the whole field of equity, and therefore they have sometimes run into inconsistencies & contradictions . . .
”
More than twenty years later, in a letter to Thomas Law, written from Monticello on June 13, 1814, Jefferson described Lord
Kaims [sic] as “
one of the ablest of our advocates.”
Henry Home, Lord Kames, 1696-1782, Scottish judge. This first edition was published anonymously. In the second edition (see the following entry)
the preliminary letter to Lord Mansfield is signed
Henry Home. Lord Kames was also the author of works on agriculture, q.v.
[1716]
