Book excerpt: Reprint of first edition (1896). "The following pages contain a condensed statement and exposition of the accepted canons and rules for the construction and interpretation of the written laws, whether constitutional or statutory. In accordance with the general plan of the Hornbook Series, these rules have been formulated somewhat after the manner of a code, expressed in brief black-letter paragraphs numbered consecutively throughout the book, and explained, developed, and illustrated in the text." --Preface, iii. HENRY CAMPBELL BLACK [1860-1927] was also the author of the standard American law dictionary, A Dictionary of Law Containing Definitions of the Terms and Phrases of American and English Jurisprudence, Ancient and Modern Including the Principal Terms of International, Constitutional, and Commercial Law, first published in 1891, and other works.