Excerpt from The Law Relating to Engineering: A Course of Six Lectures Delivered at Caxton Hall, Westminster, in 1910-1911, Before the Society of Engineers (Incorporated), And the Junior Institution of Engineers (Incorporated)

Courts act, which are wide reaching and rest for the most part on the obvious necessities of the case viewed generally, though the consequences may be strange and even hard when applied to some par ticular and unusual state of facts. He will find himself more at home in applying principles such as these than in speculating on the interpretation which a Court will place on the specific lan nage of a clause in a code which was probably dra ed without any reference to such a case as that to which it is to be applied and to which its language must at any cost be made to fit.

But how is a man to acquire this familiarity with the principle of law which will be needful to him in his profession It is a thoroughly practical question. He does not seek to become a legal expert but to keep himself and his employers safe. The best motto for him to bear in mind is, F ore warned is forearmed. Let him learn into what troubles others have come in the past, and how, if at all, the Courts have helped them. He will thus learn the dangers that beset him, the pitfalls of which he must beware. Like a sailor who knows all about the wrecks on a dangerous coast he will be aware of the rocks that have been most fatal and will avoid them. To give to him a judicious selec tion of the decided cases bearing on the matters with which one in his profession will have to deal - such cases being arranged in such wise that those that relate to each point come together - will be to help him in the best possible manner. He will, no doubt, be dismayed at learning of the countless possibilities of going wrong, but he will also learn what are the principles which, if faithfully adhered to, will lead him unharmed through them all.

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