II.-Will giving all to two Persons III.-Will giving all to Trustees in trust to sell and divide proceeds. IV.-Will of Married Man, with trust for conversion and usual pro- V.—Will bequeathing Personal Estate to Wife, and devising certain VI.-Will of a Yeoman. Special provisions for Wife, limitations to Son and his issue, and devise over (in default of issue) to Testator's Daughters. Trustees to carry on Farm until Son attains twenty-five, and raise money by sale or mortgage, in case Personal Estate insufficient to pay Debts, &c., also for VII.-Will of Retired Gentleman. Provision for Wife and three Chil- dren, one under age. Income of certain property to be ac- cumulated; other income to be divided between Wife and Children during widowhood of Wife; and on her death or marriage, Capital to the Children. Daughter's share to be in sonalty; Trusts, Brother for life, then Children of Sister X.-Will of Widow. Certain Real Estate to be sold. Legacies. XIV.-Will of Widower. Devise and bequest of Freeholds, Lease- XV.-Will of Retail Trader. Trustees to carry on Business. Trust for Wife during Widowhood, then for Children XVI. Will devising Freehold Farm to two for their joint lives, with XVII.-Will of Manufacturer. Real Estate to Eldest Son; provision for Wife by Annuity; Business to be carried on by the Trustees of the Will, with Testator's partners; and, on 145 153 171 172 173 182 195 WILLS. INTRODUCTION. TION. WE shall not follow the example of others who INTRODUChave written on the preparation of wills, in expatiating on the difficulty of this branch of professional work; since, if we adopt the famous definition of a difficulty as "something to be overcome," then the greater the difficulty so much the more desirable is it for the practitioner to have a reasonable confidence in his own powers, accompanied by that kind of caution which shows itself in practical vigilance, not in an apprehension of incompetence for his task, which is in itself one of the greatest of disqualifications. If an experienced practitioner were asked, how skill in the drafting of wills can be acquired, his answer would, no doubt, be somewhat to this effect"by practice and experience, engrafted upon a previous knowledge of legal principles: " and from a certain point of view it may be said that these qualifications contain in themselves both the bane and the antidote; for the man who has no legal knowledge whatever will draw what a lawyer would B INTRODUC TION. consider a difficult will, without hesitation or doubt; while he, who has theoretical knowledge merely, will have skill to see the difficulties, but not to surmount them. The former incedit per ignes Suppositos cineri doloso, perfectly happy so long as not actually scorched; the latter shrinks back in nervous apprehension of the thousand dangers to which knowledge has opened his eyes. It is only he who combines theory, practice, and experience who can at once avoid the surrounding perils and trace out for himself a path of safety. Although solicitors are, for the most part, amply endowed with theoretical knowledge, we yet venture to think that this advantage is too often suffered to "rust in them unused;" and that it is their custom to rely too implicitly on precedents, only taking the trouble to satisfy themselves that the precedent chosen was framed with a view to a similar state of facts to that with which they now have to deal, and then adopting it without much inquiry as to the necessity of its various clauses, or any endeavour to criticise and modify it in harmony with more recent practice, and with a view to what the law and the special circumstances really and essentially require. It is with a view therefore to promoting the study of the various forms used in the preparation of wills, with reference as well to legal principles as to the practical requirements of particular cases, that we have adopted the plan of adding, at the foot of each precedent, notes explaining the meaning and object |