The grantee of an annuity usually insures the life of the grantor, and will not advance the money till he is certain some insurance office will insure the life; and he usually adds the amount of the annual insurance to the annual interest, and makes the grantor pay both in one entire sum of, perhaps, £15 per cent.; so that in truth the grantee is, out of the pocket of the grantor, indemnified from all risk, and clears eleven or twelve per cent. To place some check upon improvident transactions of this kind, which are usually carried on with privacy, various acts of parliament have been passed.

Under 10 G. 4, c. 24, and other statutes, the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt may grant life annuities payable out of the consolidated fund, either on one or two lives, or on the continuance of two joint lives, and in general any description of annuity, either to commence immediately or at a future period, or for any term of years. Annuities granted under this act are proportioned to the duration of human life, as ascertained by tables of observation approved by the Treasury. The purchase is to be made either by the transfer of not less than £100 stock, or by the advance of money, or by the payment of any sum yearly not less than £5. Annuities will not be granted in any case where the commissioners may think fit to decline.

CHAPTER XIII.

Deeds-Assignment-Composition and Inspectorship— Warrant of Attorney-Covenant-Promise.

A DEED is an instrument in writing, on parchment or paper, signed, sealed, and delivered by the parties. It may be written in any hand, or in any language; and, if it be made by more parties than one, it was formerly said that there ought to be as many copies of it as there were parties, and each should be cut or indented at the margin, to tally or correspond with the other; which deed so made was called an indenture. The name still remains, though the practice of corresponding copies is obsolete. A deed made by one party only is not indented, but polled, or cut even, and therefore called a deed poll, or single deed. Indenting, however, is not indispensable to the validity of a deed.

It seems that there are seven things necessary to a valid deed. 1. The parties must be able to contract, and there must be a subject to contract for; all which must be expressed by sufficient names. 2. The deed must be founded upon a valuable or good consideration, not upon fraud or collusion, to deceive purchasers or

just and lawful creditors. But, in this case, though the deed will be void, as against bona fide purchasers and lawful creditors, it will not be void as between the parties themselves, that is, the grantor or grantee cannot vacate his own act. 3. The deed must be written or printed, and on a stamp where required by law, otherwise it cannot be given in evidence. But now unstamped deeds may be given in evidence on payment to the officer of the court of the amount of stamp duty and penalty. 4. The matter of the writing must be legally, orderly, and intelligibly set forth. 5. The deed must be read to any of the parties, if required. If read falsely it is void; and if any of the parties cannot read, it must be read to them. 6. It must be sealed and signed; though it seems sealing and delivering without signing is sufficient, unless in deeds executed under powers, 6 Mudd. 116. 7. The last requisite to a deed is the attestation, or execution of it, in presence of witnesses; though this is in most cases proper rather for preserving the evidence than for constituting an essential part of the deed.

Bad grammar will not make a deed void; but erasure, or interlineation in a material part, may have that effect, and it is usual in such cases that some memorandum thereof be made on the back of the deed, testifying that it was done before sealing.

When the seal has been affixed, and afterwards broken off, or defaced, by accident, the deed is still valid. If, however, a person to whom another is bound, intentionally break off the seal, it is said to destroy the instrument, but not so if the party who is bound break off the seal.

It is not essential to the validity of a deed that it should be dated; when no date is inserted, the time will be reckoned from the delivery, 2 Raym. 1076.

Personal property will pass by delivery from hand to hand, but no real property, land or houses, can pass otherwise than by grant by deed, or by descent or devise.

In relation to conveyances by deed for charitable uses, the 24 & 25 V. c. 9, enacts that no future deed or assurance of any hereditaments, or of any estate or interest therein, made for charitable uses shall be void by reason of not being indented; nor from such grant containing any specified stipulation for the donor's benefit; nor, in case of copyhold, from such grant not being made by deed; and that all reservations shall be continued to the representatives of the donor for their benefit. By s. 2, where the charitable uses of a deed are declared in a separate deed or instrument, it is not necessary to enrol the deed of gift as prescribed in 9 G. 2, c. 36, but the separate or other deed will be null and void unless enrolled in the Court of Chancery within six calendar months of its being perfected; and no past deed, by which any estate or interest is held for valuable consideration is to be considered void if duly enrolled in the Court of Chancery, or be so enrolled within twelve months from the passing of the act. By s. 4, where the charitable uses of

any past deed, under which possession is now held, have been declared by any other deed which has been enrolled, such enrolment shall be deemed sufficient; but where neither deed has been enrolled, the enrolment of such separate deed within twelve months from the passing of the act is requisite to prevent the deed becoming void. Act not to invalidate or extend to deeds already made good and valid under the provisions of the 9 G. 4, c. 85, nor to deeds already aided by any suit in law or equity; nor to prejudice any suit actually commenced; nor any deed or instrument thirty years old; and no deed or instrument, heretofore executed, as to which it shall be proved to the satisfaction of the clerk of enrolments that the acknowledgments of the grantor cannot be obtained within twelve calendar months, shall need such acknowledgment prior to enrolment. Act does not extend to Scotland or Ireland, or to the prejudice of the universities of Oxford or Cambridge, or to the colleges of Eton, Winchester, or Westminster.

By an act of 1863, the 28 & 29 V. c. 106, every deed or assurance by which land has been demised for any term of years for charitable uses is, for all the purposes of the acts 24 & 25 V. c. 9, and 9 G. 2, c. 36, deemed to have been made to take effect for the charitable use intended immediately from the making thereof, if the term for which such land has been demised was made to commence and to take effect in possession at any time within one year from the date of such deed of assurance.

By a subsequent act, 29 & 30 V. c. 57, trustees or managers of charities may at any time procure the enrolment of deeds on application to the Court of Chancery.

II. ASSIGNMENT.

An assignment is a deed or instrument of transfer, the operative words of which are to "assign, transfer, and set over to another some right, title, or interest in real or personal property. A possibility, right of entry, title for condition broken, a thing in action or cause or suit, cannot be granted or assigned over. An office of trust is not assignable, neither is a personal trust, nor trusteeship, nor executorship, assignable. Arrears of rent, and the like, as things in action, are not assignable. Several things are assignable by custom, or act of parliament, which seem not assignable in their own nature; as promissory-notes, bills of exchange, bail-bonds by the sheriff, and the effects of a bankrupt.

The subjects most usually assigned are leases and terms of years, legacies, mortgages, goods, and interests in funded property: transfers of goods, furniture, and ships are generally styled bills of sale. In the transferring of property, in general terms, contingencies will not pass, until particularly mentioned. An assignment of debt to another may be effected by mere words; but the

assignee's assent, and of all parties interested in the transfer, is requisite.

An assignment for the benefit of creditors is generally of the whole of the debtor's property, which assignment the creditors accept in lieu of their respective claims. Unless, however, all the creditors assent, such assignment may be a fraud on the bankrupt laws, by disabling an insolvent from carrying on business; and by the Bankruptcy Act, 1869, a fraudulent assignment is an act of bankruptcy.

An assignment by joint traders must have the assent of all the separate creditors, as well as the joint creditors, or the assignment will be void as to the separate creditors who may not assent.

A deed of trust for the payment of debts extends only to debts which had been contracted at the time of executing the deed.

A deed of assignment, if not executed at the period agreed upon by the creditors, is void in law; but if it be afterwards executed by all the creditors, it is valid in equity, Coop. 102.

If a person, after assigning his property, embezzle any portion, he is disqualified from deriving any benefit from such assignment. By 13 Eliz. c. 5, all gifts, grants, and assignments of property, with the intent of delaying or defrauding creditors or others of their just claims, are void; and principals and accomplices in such fraudulent conveyances to forfeit one year's value of the land, and the whole value of the goods, and suffer six months' imprisonment. Act does not extend to conveyance or assignment on good consideration; nor to persons not privy to the fraud or collusion.

In the construction of this statute it has been held, that the retention by the debtor of the possession of goods after assignment is prima facie evidence of fraud. Nor will it alter the case, that the creditor had reserved to himself the liberty of taking possession within a stipulated time, or that he had conditioned that the profits should be accounted for to himself from the date of the assignment, if the party making the assignment has been allowed to have possession of the property assigned.

III. COMPOSITION AND INSPECTORSHIP.

In

Composition is when creditors agree to accept part of their debts in full discharge of the whole, either by the payment of a certain sum in the pound at one time, or by instalments, guaranteed or not by a responsible person, or by an assignment of securities. law, an agreement for composition not under seal is not binding on a creditor, even after acceptance of the composition, unless there is some consideration for it, either by an assignment of goods or the responsibility of a third party.

When a creditor executes a composition deed, although he does not set the amount of his debt opposite to his name, yet he is

bound by the terms of the composition to the whole amount of his then existing debt.

It is incumbent on an insolvent to fulfil the terms of the com. position, or the creditors will be released from their obligations to accept it. To entitle himself to the full benefit of the bond, be must not practise any fraud, but give a fair representation of his affairs; for if any misrepresentation has been used to obtain the creditor's consent, the creditor will not be bound by the instrument, although he may have executed it.

A private agreement between a creditor and insolvent for additional security, though not for more than the amount of the com position, is fraudulent and void. So, also, in any private agree ment with a creditor to pay him in full, or more than the other creditors. But a partial agreement with a creditor to pay his full debts does not invalidate the bond; provided such agreement is not secret, but made with the full knowledge and assent of the other creditors, 13 Ves. 586.

A creditor may be bound by a composition deed, although he has not actually signed it. For if a creditor acts under a composition agreement, a court of equity will act under it also, and the creditor's assent to the arrangement will be equally implied as if he had formally assented to and executed the bond.

If the holder of a bill of exchange or promissory-note agree to accept a composition from the acceptor of the bill or drawer of the note, he will discharge all the others, who are subsequent parties, unless the composition is entered into with their consent.

A Deed of Inspectorship is sometimes entered into by an insolvent, which appoints certain persons inspectors of his dealings for a limited period, or until he has paid the whole, or such composi tion for his debts as is agreed upon. Such a deed should give power to the trustees to stop the insolvent if he commit any breach of the agreement, but should avoid making such a disposi tion of the property, or any part thereof, as to constitute an act of bankruptcy.

See further the Bankruptcy Act, 1869, post.

IV. WARRANT OF ATTORNEY.

This instrument is sometimes incautiously given by person who are sharply pressed by their creditors; both a warrant attorney and cognovit authorize the creditor to enter up judgmen and levy execution, either instantly or within a certain time speci fied in the instrument; the party giving such instrument is liable after the same is due and in operation, at any moment to ba perhaps, all his property taken from him and sold at ruinous price thereby curtailing, if not entirely destroying, his future prospect: Moreover, the debtor is placed in a painful state of incertitude an