tion of the ſtatute 43 Eliz. c. 4. it is held, that a deviſe to a corporation for a charitable uſe is valid, as operating in the nature of an appointment, rather than of a bequeſt. And indeed the piety of the judges hath formerly carried them great lengths in ſupporting ſuch charitable uſes[1]; it being held that the ſtatute of Elizabeth, which favours appointments to charities, ſuperſedes and repeals all former ſtatutes[2], and ſupplies all defects of aſſurances[3]: and therefore not only a deviſe to a corporation, but a deviſe by a copyhold tenant without ſurrendering to the uſe of his will[4], and a deviſe (nay even a ſettlement) by tenant in tail without either fine or recovery, if made to a charitable uſe, are good by way of appointment[5].
With regard to deviſes in general, experience ſoon ſhewed how difficult and hazardous a thing it is, even in matters of public utility, to depart from the rules of the common law; which are ſo nicely conſtructed and ſo artificially connected together, that the leaſt breach in any one of them diſorders for a time the texture of the whole. Innumerable frauds and perjuries were quickly introduced by this parliamentary method of inheritance: for ſo looſe was the conſtruction made upon this act by the courts of law, that bare notes in the hand writing of another perſon were allowed to be good wills within the ſtatute[6]. To remedy which, the ſtatute of frauds and perjuries, 29 Car. II. c. 3. directs, that all deviſes of lands and tenements ſhall not only be in writing, but ſigned by the teſtator, or ſome other perſon in his preſence, and by his expreſs direction; and be ſubſcribed, in his preſence, by three or four credible witneſſes. And a ſimilar ſolemnity is requiſite for revoking a deviſe.
In the conſtruction of this laſt ſtatute, it has been adjudged that the teſtator's name, written with his own hand, at the beginning of his will, as, "I John Mills do make this my laſt will
