show how necessary it is for every person who has property to leave, whether its amount be small or great, to have an accurate knowledge of the law relating to Wills and intestacies, in order that if he have any obligations to discharge, which the law alone will not fulfil, he may take the proper steps for that purpose while it is in his power so to do.

The present work is composed with a view to supply this knowledge, in a form that will render it practically useful to the great majority of the public. A very large proportion, perhaps as many as one third, of all the Wills proved throughout England and Wales, are made, either by the testators themselves, or by other persons not belonging to the legal profession; and it would be a severe satire on the legislature, after the passing of an act, the professed object of which was to resolve doubts, explain ambiguities, remove incon

sistencies, and render simple and uniform that which was previously complex and various, if it could be justly said to be more necessary now than heretofore to have recourse to professional assistance in making a Will. No professional man need take alarm at this, or any similar attempt to render the subject intelligible to the unprofessional portion of the public. The advantages of professional assistance are sufficiently obvious to prevent any person from neglecting to have recourse to it in difficulties, and when time and opportunity permit, and the property is sufficiently valuable: but there will always be at least as many cases as there have hitherto been, in which professional assistance is either not desired, or is not to be had; and in such cases, it is hoped that this little work will be found useful.

PLAIN DIRECTIONS

FOR

MAKING WILLS.

OF THE PERSONS COMPETENT TO MAKE WILLS, AND THE FORMALITIES NECESSARY THERETO.

ONE of the important provisions of the late act, effecting an alteration of the law, and rendering it uniform as to every variety of property, is, that no Will, made by any person under the age of twenty-one years, shall be valid. A Will, therefore, to be valid, as the law now stands, must be made by a person of the age of twenty-one years, and of sound mind; not attainted of treason; not a felon, or an outlaw. In the case of a female, she must be unmarried, unless she make a Will by the consent of her husband, or under a power

especially given to her for that purpose by some other Deed or Will, or merely for the purpose of appointing an executor of a Will, of which she is the executrix.

The next important point is, that every Will must be written in the lifetime of the Testator. The words of the late act (clause the 9th) are, "That no Will shall be valid unless it shall be in writing, and executed in manner hereinafter mentioned; (that is to say,) it shall be signed at the foot or end thereof by the Testator, or by some other person in his presence, and by his direction." Nuncupative Wills, therefore, which are memorandums, written after the Testator's death, of verbal directions for the disposal of his property, given by him while in expectation of death, are henceforth abolished.

Every Will, whatever may be the description of the property of which it attempts to dispose, must have two witnesses. The following are the