nearly all over our broad land, that the con sideration for a sealed instrument is conclu sively to be presumed. Well did the court in Jones i Logwood (i Washington Va., 42,) say that "there is neither an act of Parliament nor an adjudged case" to substantiate this position. "It was his (Lord Coke's) opinion, merely founded on the practice of that day, and if it gives a binding rule, we may, by going further back, discover a period of time when the impres sion was made with the eye tooth. There was some utility in that custom, since the tooth impressed was the man's own, and fur nished a test in case of forgery. But both are founded on the usage of the time." Justice, however, became bound and fet tered. Then the harshness of the conven tion became apparent, and one by one the perquisites of this so-called "solemn" piece of impressed wax have been taken away. Its conclusiveness has been lost in Equity. Its distinctiveness faded when many were permitted to use the same design, and van ished with the adoption at a later day pf the words of Baron Clark, who thought that "twentie men may seal with one seal . . . upon one piece of wax onely." (i Leonard, Pt. 2, P. 2i.) The learned baron was in the minority of the court in 1659, though unknown to him he was supported by Justinian. (Inst, Lib. 11; Tit. x. 5.) He would have added a row of curls to his wig if he knew how the world was to come to his opinion. Later, the necessary impres sion has become so slight that a Supreme Court in bane seriously declared that, in the case of our little piece of paper with scal loped edges, the act of causing cohesion
made " a sufficient impression to comply with the requirements of the law." (33 Mo. 3S-)
Lo! the iconoclast has been studying iconography. The seal has seen it and shuddered, liver and anon it has parted with the variegated and distinctive garments which are its ancient heritage; for from time immemorial it has been the object of the j keenest scrutiny and the subject of the most searching criticism, of the profoundcst ju dicial reasoning, and' of refinement of dis tinctions. But the iconoclast has found it and it is doomed. It is such unhealthy growths upon the body of the law which give irrefutable occasion for the contemptuous remarks of laymen. And when by skillful surgery we remove these excrescences which burden the law but do not benefit it, its devotees will value it more, and the public will value it more, because divested of refinements that impede the righteous administration of jus tice. Soon may we have occasion in every state to carve that epitaph which may be found in Mississippi, "Beneath this lies all that remains of Locus Sigilli, a character of ancient date, whose mission was to give peculiar solemnity to documents. Emigrat ing to this state in its earliest days, he served his day and generation to a good old age and was gathered to his fathers, generally mourned by the members of the legal pro fession. He has left surviving only one relative, who is now in the keeping of cor porations. His last request was that his epitaph should be under seal." (Miss. Anno. Code, Ch. 40, Note. [4079])
