done with intention to revoke, to prove which intention, evidence may be required; and consequently, it is strongly to be recommended, that whenever a testator resolves on the destruction of his will, he should perform the act of destruction in the presence of witnesses, though not required by the statute.

It may be added, that the easiest and safest mode of revoking a will, is to make a new one of a subsequent date, properly executed and attested; and the easiest as well as the safest way of making any alteration in the regulations or bequests in a will, is to add a codicil, or several codicils if necessary, properly executed and attested.

It is provided by the new statute, that no will shall in future be revoked by any presumption of an intention on the ground of an alteration in circumstances. (s. 19.)

Marriage and the subsequent birth of a child, were heretofore held to constitute such an alteration in a man's circumstances, as to justify the inference that he could not wish a will made by him while unmarried to stand good, to the prejudice of his wife and offspring, and consequently

the law presumed an intention to revoke. No such intention is in future to be presumed (s. 19); but marriage of man or woman is to revoke his or her will previously made, (s. 18.)

It is further provided, that no will or codicil, or any part thereof, which shall be in any manner revoked, shall be revived, otherwise than by the re-execution thereof, or by a codicil executed as before required, and showing an intention to revive the same; and when any will or codicil which shall be partly revoked shall be revived, such revival shall not extend to so much thereof as shall have been revoked before the revocation of the whole thereof, unless an intention to the contrary shall be shown. (s. 22.)

That no conveyance or other act made or done subsequently to the execution of a will, of or relating to any real or personal estate therein comprised, except an act by which such will shall be revoked as aforesaid, shall prevent the operation of the will with respect to such estate or interest in such real or personal estate as the testator shall have power to dispose of by will at the time of his death. (s. 23.)

CHAP. V.

WHAT MAY BE DISPOSED OF BY WILLS MADE

UNDER THE NEW ACT, AND HOW CERTAIN

WORDS AND GIFTS IN WILLS ARE TO BE

CONSTRUED.

A WILL, made and executed in conformity with the new act of Victoria, may dispose of every description of real and personal estate which the testator possessed, or was entitled to, either at law or in equity, at the time of his death, and which, if not disposed of by his will, would descend, if real estate, to his heir-if personal estate, to his executors or administrators. (1 Vict., c. 26, s. 3.)

This power of disposal is, by the act, extended to all real estate of the nature of customary freehold or tenant-right, or customary or copyhold, notwithstanding that the testator may not have surrendered the same to the use of his will; or, notwithstanding that, being entitled, as heir, devisee, or otherwise, to be admitted thereto, he shall not have been admitted thereto;

or notwithstanding that the same, in consequence of the want of a custom to devise or surrender to the use of a will, or otherwise, could not by law have been disposed of by will before the passing of the new act; or notwithstanding that the same, in consequence of there being a custom that a will, or a surrender to the use of a will, should continue in force for a limited time only, or any other special custom, could not have been disposed of by will according to the new act, if the said act had not been made. (Ib.)

And that the same power shall extend to estates pur autre vie (that is, estates held by one person during the life of another, or others) whether there shall or shall not be any special occupant thereof; and whether the same shall be freehold, customary freehold, tenant-right, customary or copyhold, or of any other tenure, and whether the same shall be a corporeal or an incorporeal hereditament; and also to all contingent, executory, or other future interests in any real or personal estate, whether the testator may or may not be ascertained as the person, or one of the persons, in whom the same respectively may become vested, and whether he may

be entitled thereto under the instrument by which the same respectively were created, or under any disposition thereof by deed or will; and also to all rights of entry for conditions broken, and other rights of entry; and also to such of the same estates, interests, and rights respectively, and other real and personal estate, as the testator may be entitled to at the time of his death, notwithstanding that he may become entitled to the same subsequently to the execution of his will. (s. 3.)

Under these clauses, therefore, there may be disposed of by wills made, or re-executed, or revived by a codicil, on or after the 1st of January, 1838;

Personal property of every description, under which term are comprised leasehold estates, bills of exchange, money in the funds and elsewhere, debts and securities for debts, household furniture, &c.

Real estate of every kind, whether acquired at or after the date of the will; and, as regards customary or copyhold estates, it is not necessary, as formerly, to surrender them to the use of the will; neither is it essential to the validity