LEGARE 31T ate, but the payment postponed, it is contin- gent, and will fail if the legatee die before the time of payment arrives; but when the pay- ment is postponed merely in regard to the convenience and circumstances of the person and estate charged with the legacy, and not on account of the age, condition, or circumstances of the legatee, it will be vested, and must be paid although the legatee should die before the time of payment. Finally, legacies may be lost not only by ademption and lapse, but also by abatement. In the administration of the estate by the executor, legacies must be applied to the payment of debts, if other property is insufficient. General legacies are to be applied before specific, the whole if all be needed, or pro rata if the aggregate thus obtained will suffice. But general legacies given for any valuable consideration, as for the relinquish- ment.of dower by the widow, or for a debt actually due, will receive consideration and in- dulgence before all others. The same remark is true when it is the declared or evident in- tention of the testator to prefer one legatee to another. Specific legacies suffer abatement only after complete exhaustion of general and residuary legacies. In England, those to whom specific and demonstrative legacies are given can compel the devisees of land not charged to contribute with them pro rata toward the pay- ment of debts. This rule is not generally ad- mitted in the United States, though general residuary devisees of land have been charged in the marshalling of assets for contribution to payment of debts before specific legatees. On the testator's death the entire personal property vests in the executor, who holds it in trust for the payment of debts and other claims. No legacy can be received by the legatee without the assent of the personal rep- resentative, though if he withholds this im- properly he may be compelled in a court of equity to give it. Probably, under the usual statutes in force in this country, this assent cannot be given until the receipt of letters testamentary from a probate court or other competent jurisdiction in the premises. Stat- utes generally . make legacies payable a year from the time of issuing the letters of admin- istration. If however the will directs the bequest to be paid earlier, the administrator must comply, and may take for his security a bond of indemnification in case of failure of assets. In general interest is not payable on legacies unless payment is delayed beyond a year, or unless given in satisfaction of a debt, or, in special cases, when ordered by the court. A legacy payable to an infant can only be paid to his guardian unless statutes make other pro- vision, as they do in some states in case of small legacies. At common law a bequest to a married woman must be paid to the husband, but this is in many states changed by statutes. LEG ARE, Hugh Swinton, an American states- man, born in Charleston, S. C., Jan. 2, 1797, died in Boston, June 20, 1843. On the fa- ther's side he was of French Huguenot stock ; on the mother's Scottish. Inoculated with smallpox when a child, the disease fastened on his lower limbs, impaired their growth, and crippled for a time their development. Books were his only refuge from his physical infirmi- ties. At the age of 14 he entered the South Carolina college, where he devoted himself mainly to classical literature and philosophy, and eagerly practised in the debating societies. To become an orator was the chief object of his ambition, and he made great acquisitions both in the classics and modern languages and literatures, though chiefly after leaving college. He graduated in 1814, studied law for three years, and in 1818 went to France. Thence he proceeded to Edinburgh, and entered the classes of civil law, natural philosophy, mathe- matics, and chemistry, but attended mainly to the civil law. He afterward visited London, made a tour through France, the Low Coun- tries, and the Alps, and returned to Charleston after an absence of two years. He now under- took the care of his mother's cotton plantation on John's island, and was elected to the lower house of the general assembly for its biennial term from 1820 to 1822. In 1822 he removed to Charleston, and engaged for the first time in the practice of his profession. But the very reputation which he had already won as a man of letters was a barrier to his success as a practitioner, and he had the mortification of feeling that he made no progress in the profes- sion to which he had dedicated his life. In 1824 he was chosen from the city a representa- tive in the legislature, and thus continued till 1830, when he was elected attorney general. During the nullification excitement he ardently supported the cause of the Union in public speeches. Pending this conflict, the " South- ern Review," a quarterly magazine, was estab- lished, ostensibly under the supervision of Stephen Elliott. Legar6 was his coadjutor, and the writer upon whom he mostly relied. He wrote the initial article of the first number, on " Classical Literature," and continued to write in each successive number one, two, three, and sometimes more articles, on some of his favor- ite subjects. On certain occasions when the usual contributors failed, he furnished half the contents of the " Review." It was suspended after the eighth volume, Legar6 having been the editor after the death of Elliott. Mean- while Legare" ably maintained his position as attorney general. In 1832 he was appointed charg6 d'affaires at Brussels, where he re- sumed his varied studies. In the autumn of 1836 he made a tour among the seats of learning in northern Germany, and then re- turned home. In his published remains, the "Diary of Brussels," &c., will afford some idea equally of his travels, studies, and expe- riences. Almost immediately after his arri- val at Charleston he was elected to congress, taking his seat in the extra session of 1837, called to deliberate on the financial embarrass-
