41. What are assets?—510.

Whatever is recovered of the goods and chattels of a de ceased person, that is of a salable nature and may be converted into ready money, is called assets in the hands of the executor or administrator.

42. In what order of priority must the debts of the deceased be paid?-511.

They must be paid in this order: 1st. All funeral charges, and the expenses of proving the will, and the like. 2d. Debts due to the king on record or specialty.

3d. Such debts as are, by particular statutes, to be preferred to all others.

4th. Debts of record; as judgments, statutes, and recogni

zances.

5th. Debts due on special contracts; as for rent, or upon bonds, covenants, and the like, under seal.

Lastly. Debts on simple contract, viz., upon notes unsealed, and verbal promises.

43. What if a creditor constitutes his debtor his executor ?—512. This is a release or discharge of the debt, whether the executor acts or no, provided there be assets to pay the testator's debts.

44. Is the executor or administrator allowed to pay himself first, by retaining in his hands so much as his debts amount to?-511, 512. Among debts of equal degree, he is so allowed; but an executor of his own wrong is not.

45. What is a legacy?-512.

A legacy is a bequest, or gift, of goods and chattels by testament the assent of the executor is necessary to its perfection.

46. Who is capable of being legatee?-512.

Every person, unless particularly disabled by the common law, or by statute.

47. In case of deficiency of assets, what legacies must abate ?— 612, 513.

All the general legacies must abate proportionably, in order

to pay the debts; but a specific legacy (of a piece of plate, a horse, or the like) is not to abate at all, unless there be not sufficient without it.

48. When is a legacy lapsed?—513.

If the legatee dies before the testator, the legacy is a lost or lapsed legacy, and shall sink into the residuum.

49. What legacies, contingent as to time, are liable to lapse?-513.

A legacy left to any one when he attains, or if he attains the age of twenty-one, and he dies before that time lapses; but a legacy to one, to be paid when he attains the age of twentyone, is a vested legacy, or interest, which commences in præsenti, although it be solvendum in futuro.

50. But what if such legacies be charged upon a real estate ?—513. Then, in both cases, they shall lapse for the benefit of the

heir.

51. When do legacies carry interest?—514.

In case of a vested legacy, due immediately, and charged on land or money in the funds, which yield an immediate profit, interest shall be payable thereon from the testator's death; but if charged only on the personal estate, it shall carry interest only from the end of the year after the death of the testator.

52. What is a donation causa mortis ?-514.

A death-bed disposition of property; that is, when a person in his last sickness, apprehending his dissolution near, delivers, or causes to be delivered, to another, the possession of any personal goods, to keep in case of his decease.

53. What are incidents of this gift causa mortis ?—514.

If the donor dies, it needs not the assent of his executor, yet it shall not prevail against creditors; and is accompanied with this implied trust, that, if the donor lives, the property thereof shall revert to himself, being only given in contemplation

of death.

54. When shall the residuum go to the executor ?—514, 515.

When the executor has no legacy at all, the residuum shall, in general, be his own; yet whenever there is sufficient, on the face of a will, to imply that the testator intended his executor should not have the residue, the undivided surplus of the estate shall go to the next of kin, the executor then standing upon exactly the same footing as an administrator.

55. What are the customs of the city of London and the province of York, as to the distribution of the intestate's effects?-518.

There, though the restraint of devising is removed by statutes, their ancient customs remain in full force, with respect to the estates of intestates. The effects of the intestate, after the payment of his debts, are divided according to the ancient universal doctrine of the pars rationabilis.

BOOK III.

OF PRIVATE WRONGS.

CHAPTER I.

OF THE REDRESS OF PRIVATE WRONGS BY THE MERE ACT OF THE PARTIES.

1. Into what sorts are wrongs divisible?——2.

Into two sorts: private wrongs and public wrongs.

2. What are private wrongs, as distinguished from public wrongs? --2.

Private wrongs are an infringement or privation of the private or civil rights belonging to individuals, and are frequently termed civil injuries. Public wrongs are a breach and violation of public rights and duties, which affect the whole community, considered as a community, and are distinguished by the appellation of crimes and misdemeanors.

3. For what are courts of justice instituted ?—2.

They are instituted in order to protect the weak from the insults of the stronger, by expounding and enforcing those laws by which rights are defined and wrongs prohibited.

4. How is the remedy of private injuries principally to be sought? -2, 3.

By application to the courts of justice; that is, by civil suit or action.

5. Into what species may the redress of private wrongs be dis tributed?-3.

Into three species: 1. That which is obtained by the mere act of the parties themselves.

2. That which is effected by the mere act and operation of law.

3. That which arises from suit or action in courts; which consists in a conjunction of the other two, the act of the parties co-operating with the act of the law.

6. Of what two sorts is that redress of private wrongs which is ob tained by the mere act of the parties?—3.

It is of two sorts: 1. That which arises from the act of the injured party only.

2. That which arises from the joint act of all the parties together.

7. What species of remedy are there by the mere act of the party injured ?—3-15.

There are six species: 1. The defense of one's self, or the mutual and reciprocal defense of such as stand in the relations of husband and wife, parent and child, master and servant. 2. Recaption or reprisal.

3. By entry on lands and tenements, when another person, without any right, has taken possession thereof.

4. The abatement or removal of nuisances.

5. That of distraining cattle or goods for non-payment of rent, or other duties; or distraining another's cattle damage feasant, that is, doing damage, or trespassing upon land.

6. The seizing of heriots when due on the death of a tenant.

8. When is self-defense permitted ?-3.

If the party himself, or any of these his relations, be forcibly attacked in his person or property, it is lawful for him to repel force by force; and the breach of the peace, which happens, is chargeable upon him only who began the affray.

9. Why is it permitted ?-3, 4.

The law, in this case, respects the passions of the human mind, and, when external violence is offered to a man himself, or those to whom he bears a near connection, makes it lawful in him to do himself that immediate justice to which he is prompted by nature, and which no prudential motives are strong enough to restrain. It considers that the future process of law