136 GIBSON'S CASE.—1 BLAND.

allowed. Dulany v. Brice, MS. 27th December, 1794; Dowig v.
Marrel, MS. 16th October, 1789; Anderson v. Anderson, MS. 17th
April, 1789: Dorsey v. Croke, MS. 16th October, 1789; Taylor v.
Casanave, MS. 11th March, 1819; Mildred v. Neil, MS. 26th Feb-
ruary, 1788.

But this Act of Assembly authorizing the allowance of a com-
mission, as well as this rule by which that commission was gradu-
ated into the form of poundage fees, allowed to a sheriff for the
sale of property taken in execution, it is evident, were both con-
fined to sales made "for the purpose of payiug the debts of de-
ceased persons, or others;" and consequently, although they ap
plied as well to sales of mortgaged property as to sales in credi-
tors' suits, and the like; yet they did not extend to any case of a
sale made of leal, or personal property, because of its indivisible
nature, for the purpose of dividing the proceeds among those by
whom it was held jointly or in common; nor do they apply to the
case of a sale made, pending a suit, of the property in litigation,
because of its perishable nature, for the purpose of preserving its
value to him to whom it may be determined to belong, by the final
decree. Yet in these, as well as in all other cases, whether em-
braced by the Act of Assembly or not, the trustee has been allowed
a commission, or compensated for his trouble in one form or other.
But by the existing standing order passed at March Term, 1817, it
is declared, that "on sales under decrees or orders of the Court,
the following allowances to be made to trustees, &c. On the first
three hundred dollars, seven per cent.; on the second, six per cent.,
one the third, five; on the fourth, four; on the fifth, three and a
half; on the sixth, three and a half; on the seventh and eighth,
three; and on the ninth and tenth hundred dollars, two and a half
per cent. And three per cent on all above three thousand dollars;
besides an allowance lor expenses not personal. The above allow-
ance subject to be increased in cases of postponement, at the re-
quest of the defendants, or of extraordinary difficulty of trouble
from other circumstances; and to be lessened in case of negligence,
&c. at the discretion of the Chancellor." This rule is expressed
in the most comprehensive terms, and embraces all sales made by
a trustee, under the authority of the Court, for any purpose what-
ever.

The commission allowed to a trustee is given to him as a com-
pensation for his trouble and risk in making the sale, bringing the

* money into Court, and paying it away in the manner

147 directed; or, in other words, for the performance of all the
duties specified in the decree, and the subsequent orders in relation
to the sale and its proceeds. It is sufficiently evident, from the
language of the rules, graduating the rate oi the commission into
the form of poundage fees, that the commission allowed to a trus-
tee has never been considered, in any respect, as a commission in