PREFACE. THE absence of decisions by Chief Justice Waite from this volume is due to the fact that his last two vacations have been given chiefly to the work of the Second Circuit in the city of New York, where the appointment of Judge Blatchford to the Circuit Court, and the illness of Mr. Justice Hunt, had caused an accumulation of business, which could only be dispatched by some other justice of the Supreme Court. Decisions of the Chief Justice in Circuit Court during the last two years are to be looked for, therefore, in the late volumes of Blatchford's Reports. The great importance of the question discussed in the Arlington Case, as reported in this volume, must be the excuse for inserting at such length the learned brief of the counsel who appeared for the United States in the case. In the important case of The Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad Company, the Bill, the Decree appointing Receivers, and the Decree for a Sale of the road, were thought to be of extraordinary value as precedents in Equity, and are for that reason inserted in full. The important decision of Judge Rives in the Reynolds Case is reported, in connection with a complete record of the evidence; so also is the charge of Judge Rives in the matter of the county judges given. In the Appendix is an exhaustive and valuable history of the jurisdiction of the class of Federal Courts known as District Courts with Circuit Court powers. There also appears in the Appendix a learned letter from a distinguished Western jurist, presenting views in regard to the Arlington Case which were not suggested at the trial of the cause. NORFOLK, VA., December, 1879. OMISSION. ON page 354, under the head of The Stewart Petition, the following Syllabus was erroneously omitted: An agreement that so-called preferred stock of a railroad company shall be a lien of a certain dignity, if brought to the knowledge of subsequent incumbrancers, or their agents, creates a valid equitable lien as against them, on the principle that equity considers that as done which ought to be done. Where mortgage bonds of a railroad company past due were funded by the company into registered certificates bearing a higher rate of interest and giving additional time for the payment of the bonds, and there was no agreement, express or implied, between the company and the bondholders that the acceptance of the certificates should operate as a waiver of the lien of the bonds, Held, Not to be a waiver of such lien, and not to operate as a novation. American Basket Company v. Farmville Insurance Company, 251 Arlington Case, The, Atkins & Co. et al. v. Petersburg Railroad Company, . 307 320 Charlottesville National Bank ads. Seligman & Co., Clarke, Dodge & Co. v. Gibboney's Executrix et al., . 276 249 . 576 1 647 657 . 391 509 Cobb et al. v. Globe Mutual Life Insurance Company, Dooley v. Virginia Fire and Marine Insurance Company, Dorr v. Gibboney's Executrix et al., Dunstan v. The Steamtug Kirkland, Durham Smoking Tobacco Case, The,. E. Floating-dock, A, . Frayser & Co. v. Russell, Collector, G. Gallagher & Co. ads. Dooley, Garnett, Assignee (ex parte), George Bell, The, Ellis v. The Steamtug Katy Wise, F. Farmville Insurance Company ads. American Basket Company, Farmville Insurance and Banking Company ads. Whittle, . Florida, The, 251 421 508 488 227 214 Gibboney's Executrix ads. Clark, Dodge & Co., |