thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, die seised of or entitled to any Estate or Interest in any Land or other Hereditaments which shall at the Time of his Death be charged with the Payment of any Sum or Sums of Money by way of Mortgage, and such Person shall not, by his Will or Deed or other Document, have signified any contrary or other Intention, the Heir or Devisee to whom such Land or Hereditaments shall descend or be devised shall not be entitled to have the Mortgage Debt discharged or satisfied out of the Personal Estate or any other Real Estate of such Person, but the Land or Hereditaments so charged shall, as between the different Persons claiming through or under the deceased Person, be primarily liable to the Payment of all Mortgage Debts with which the same shall be charged, every Part thereof, according to its Value, bearing a proportionate Part of the Mortgage Debts charged on the whole thereof: Provided always, that nothing herein contained shall affect or diminish any Right of the Mortgagee on such Lands or Hereditaments to obtain full Payment or Satisfaction of his Mortgage Debt either out of the Personal Estate of the Person so dying as aforesaid or otherwise: Provided also, that nothing herein contained shall affect the Rights of any Person claiming under or by virtue of any Will, Deed, or Document already made or to be made before the First Day of January One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.

CAP. 125.

An Act to amend the Law of Procedure.

XXVII. Comparison of a disputed Writing with any Writing proved to the Satisfaction of the Judge to be genuine shall be permitted to be made by Witnesses; and such Writings, and the Evidence of Witnesses respecting the same, may be submitted to the Court and Jury as Evidence of the Genuineness, or otherwise, of the Writing in dispute.

[22 & 23 VICT. CAP. 35. [A.D. 1859.]

An Act to further amend the Law of Property, and to relieve Trustees.]

23 & 24 VICT. CAP. 38. [A.D. 1860.]

An Act to further amend the Law of Property.

VI. Where any actual Waiver of the Benefit of any Covenant or Condition in any Lease on the Part of any Lessor, or his Heirs, Ex

ecutors, Administrators, or Assigns, shall be proved to have taken place after the passing of this Act in any one particular Instance, such actual Waiver shall not be assumed or deemed to extend to any Instance or any Breach of Covenant or Condition other than that to which such Waiver shall specially relate, nor to be a general Waiver of the Benefit of any such Covenant or Condition, unless an Intention to that Effect shall appear.

VII. Where by any Instrument any Hereditaments have been or shall be limited to Uses, all Uses thereunder, whether expressed or implied by Law, and whether immediate or future, or contingent or executory, or to be declared under any Power therein contained, shall take effect when and as they arise by force of and by relation to the Estate and Seisin originally vested in the Person seised to the Uses, and the continued Existence in him or elsewhere of any Seisin to Uses or Scintilla juris shall not be deemed necessary for the Support of or to give Effect to future or contingent or executory Uses, nor shall any such Seisin to Uses or Scintilla juris be deemed to be suspended, or to remain or to subsist in him or elsewhere.*

[27 & 28 VICT. CAP. 112. §§ 1, 4. [A.D. 1864.]

An Act to amend the Law relating to future Judgments, Statutes, and Recognizances.]

28 & 29 VICT. CAP. 86. [A.D. 1865.]

(Chief Justice Bovill's Act.)

An Act to amend the Law of Partnership.

Whereas it is expedient to amend the Law relating to Partnership: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows:

I. The Advance of Money by Way of Loan to a Person engaged or about to engage in any Trade or Undertaking upon a Contract in Writing with such Person that the Lender shall receive a Rate of Interest varying with the Profits, or shall receive a Share of the Profits arising from carrying on such Trade or Undertaking, shall not,

* See the Act generally on Judgments.

of itself, constitute the Lender a Partner with the Person or the Persons carrying on such Trade or Undertaking, or render him responsible as such.

II. No Contract for the Remuneration of a Servant or Agent of any Person engaged in any Trade or Undertaking by a Share of the Profits of such Trade or Undertaking shall, of itself, render such Servant or Agent responsible as a Partner therein, nor give him the Rights of a Partner.

III. No Person being the Widow or Child of the deceased Partner of a Trader, and receiving by way of Annuity a Portion of the Profits made by such Trader in his Business, shall, by reason only of such Receipt, be deemed to be a Partner of or to be subject to any Liabilities incurred by such Trader.

IV. No Person receiving by way of Annuity or otherwise a Portion of the Profits of any Business, in consideration of the Sale by him of the Goodwill of such Business, shall, by reason only of such Receipt, be deemed to be a Partner of or be subject to the Liabilities of the Person carrying on such Business.

V. In the event of any such Trader as aforesaid being adjudged a Bankrupt, or taking the Benefit of any Act for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors, or entering into an Arrangement to pay his Creditors less than Twenty Shillings in the Pound, or dying in insolvent Circumstances, the Lender of any such Loan as aforesaid shall not be entitled to recover any Portion of his Principal, or of the Profits or Interest payable in respect of such Loan, nor shall any such Vendor of a Goodwill as aforesaid be entitled to recover any such Profits as aforesaid until the Claims of the other Creditors of the said Trader for valuable Consideration in Money or Money's Worth have been satisfied.

VI. In the Construction of this Act the Word "Person" shall include a Partnership Firm, a Joint Stock Company, and a Corporation.

32 & 33 VICT. CAP. 46. [A.D. 1869.]

An Act to abolish the distinction as to priority of payment which now exists between the specialty and simple contract debts of deceased persons.

Whereas it is expedient to abolish the distinction as to priority of payment between specialty and simple contract debts of deceased persons:

Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by

and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

I. In the administration of the estate of every person who shall die on or after the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and seventy no debt or liability of such person shall be entitled to any priority or preference by reason merely that the same is secured by or arises under a bond, deed, or other instrument under seal, or is otherwise made or constituted a specialty debt; but all the creditors of such person, as well specialty as simple contract, shall be treated as standing in equal degree, and be paid accordingly out of the assets of such deceased person, whether such assets are legal or equitable, any statute or other law to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided always, that this Act shall not prejudice or affect any lien, charge, or other security which any creditor may hold or be entitled to for the payment of his debt.

CAP. 68.

An Act for the further Amendment of the Law of Evidence.

Whereas the discovery of truth in courts of justice has been signally promoted by the removal of restrictions on the admissibility of witnesses, and it is expedient to amend the law of evidence with the object of still further promoting such discovery: Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

I. The fourth section of chapter ninety-nine of the statutes passed in the fourteenth and fifteenth years of Her present Majesty, and so much of the second section of The Evidence Amendment Act, 1853, as is contained in the words "or in any proceeding instituted in consequence of adultery," are hereby repealed.

II. The parties to any action for breach of promise of marriage shall be competent to give evidence in such action: Provided always, that no plaintiff in any action for breach of promise of marriage shall recover a verdict unless his or her testimony shall be corroborated by some other material evidence in support of such promise.

III. The parties to any proceeding instituted in consequence of adultery, and the husbands and wives of such parties, shall be competent to give evidence in such proceeding: Provided that no witness in any proceeding, whether a party to the suit or not, shall be liable

to be asked or bound to answer any question tending to show that he or she has been guilty of adultery, unless such witness shall have already given evidence in the same proceeding in disproof of his or her alleged adultery.

IV. If any person called to give evidence in any court of justice, whether in a civil or criminal proceeding, shall object to take an oath, or shall be objected to as incompetent to take an oath, such person shall, if the presiding judge is satisfied that the taking of an oath would have no binding effect on his conscience, make the following promise and declaration :

'I solemnly promise and declare that the evidence given by me to the court shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.'

And any person who, having made such promise and declaration, shall wilfully and corruptly give false evidence, shall be liable to be indicted, tried, and convicted for perjury as if he had taken an oath.*

37 & 38 VICT. CAP. 37. [A.D. 1874.]

An Act to alter and amend the Law as to Appointments under powers not exclusive.

Whereas by deeds, wills, and other instruments, powers are frequently given to appoint real and personal property amongst several objects in such manner that no one of the objects of the power can be excluded, or some one or more of the objects of the power cannot be excluded by the donee of the power from a share of such property, but without requiring a substantial share of such property to be given to each object of the power, or to each object of the power who cannot be excluded:

And whereas instruments intended to operate as executions of such powers are frequently invalid in consequence of the donee of the power appointing in favour of some one or more of the objects of the power to the exclusion of the other or others, or some other or others of such objects, and it is expedient to amend the law so as to prevent such intended appointments failing:

Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal,

*For a full list of Statutes bearing on the subject of Evidence, see Stephen, Dig. of the Law of Evid., Note xlviii.