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Observations. continued.
[on a Personal Estate . . . O.] One could wish to know What one wishes to know here is whether it was the compiler's meaning of the compiler of this clause.
(such as is (for instance that Chattels Real, are estates
for years in land) for instance should reckon into Personal Estate: or not if it
was not, the his intent would
certainly be frustrated, because the term in question expression being at least equally
susceptible of that sense which includes such estates, as of that which does not, v. Bacon Abridgmt. in a penal law, like this, the
former construction as being the most favourable would be adopted: if it was, then a mixture qualification
thus composed being as much a mixed one as any, it is plain one can hardly suppose, but that the omitting to allow of as many other mixed
ones as could be composed out of the simple ones admitted, was by oversight & not design. Indeed it would have
been as strange thing to have happen'd by design, that an estate for ever should stand excluded, while a momentary
one to so greater an amount is excluded. The consequence however of the omission, oversight that a man estate is accepted <add>accepted of, a perpetual one to equal amount should stand excluded. Be this as it may, one sees the conseq</add>
of the omission to be, that a man may be excluded who possesses a property to three times the value within a trifle of that which is
deemed necessary sufficient; when it is plain evident that as clear a responsibility may be constituted out of a mixture of the 3
different kinds of property specified,
as by any one of them singly. If it were not so, such a mixture
would hardly have been admitted in so much more important a trust as that of a command in the Militia. by Stat. 9. G. 3. c. 42 § 3
This is not the only occasion one has to lament that point especially which concerns the divisions of property in particular the ambiguity of legal language; a defect an evil fatal to all
the purposes of language while where it subsists, & for which nothing but a system of well-digested definitions
is the cure.
[... Possessed of or entitled to Personal Estate ..... O.] The purpose in view for in the words ["entitled to"] was apparently
the including an income arising out of money lent, out at interest which cannot (in the strictest sense narrowest sense of the word)
cannot b be said to be in possession: the inconvenience to be apprehended in them is, their being laid hold of by persons
whose title not substantiated by possession enjoyment exists only in their own persuasion. The only use for which they could have been calculated, is the
obviating of the of tender consciences, not the solving of any doubts liable to be entertained by any Court
of Judicature: a court of judicature could never have a doubt between of which a
---page break---
equally susceptible, the one conformable the other repugnant to the spirit of the Law.
[...Clear yearly value ... O.] Clear of what? nothing in particular being expressed, the natur obvious and natural
the answer that first offers itself is and obvious answer is, "clear of all deductions in general: and yet, I am apt to suspect, there is good reason to believe that of Taxes was
never intended to be one: 1st, because in the common way of estimating of a person's income, no such deduction
is made; 2dly, because it never being ascertained for more than a year together what it shall be, or whether it
shall be at all, - able for any longer term than a year what it shall amount to or whether it shall amount to any thing it 40£ pr year (meaning 40£ for every year that the estate lasts) can hardly be said to be
render'd less than 40£ pr year, the by a charge which continues but for one. As these considerations however, are not
altogether obvious, nor perhaps may appear, perhaps, to every one decisive, it might be of use to put an end to all
doubt by some such exposition as the following — "By clear is meant over and above what is sufficient
to satisfy all debts and incumbrances, except Public Taxes."
[...(not being such Heir apparent as aforesaid)... O.] As the requisition of the Oath exposes an unqualified
person to no other consequences penalty than he was exposed to otherwise, the only effect it can have is that of to put it into
the power of any other Trustee to fix a suspicion upon him by proposing tendering to him the Oath take it: now even that
effect is destroy'd by this exception in the case of all those those every such person that may happen to have a parent living
to whom he may be heir. A person thus circumstanced is enabled to disengage himself from the test at the
expence of a simple falshood. contrary to the general policy which gave birth to this expedient. What gave occasion to this exception was probably some scruple about
obliging subjecting of a man to the double obligation of pronouncing positively concerning the circumstances of another, & at the same time
of making profession of a that wisdom point of knowledge which the proverb intimates to be rare. It seems by this to have been taken
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