278 REBECCA OWINGS' CASE.—1 BLAND.

demands. Where the relief asked is maintenance; a subsistence
for one who is utterly unable to take care of herself; and it is de-
termined to be equitably due; the Court should, if practicable,
leave no room to escape from or palter with its mandates. When
helplessness is to be furnished with bread, the judgment which
awards it should be clear, prompt, and easily enforced.

According to the common law, if a party brought his writ of
annuity, and obtained judgment, that judgment stood as a security
as well for the amount then due as for that which should thereafter
* become due; and the payment of the future instalments
297 might be enforced by fieri facias sued oat within the year
after every day of payment, though it might be many years after
the judgment. 2 Inst. 471; Gilb. Excu. 12. And in an action of
debt upon a bond conditioned for the payment of certain sums of
money on certain days by way of instalments; or upon a bill in
equity for the arrears of an annuity: under a judgment for the
penalty, or decree for the annuity, it was ruled, that the plaintiff
should be allowed to levy by execution the sum found due at the
trial; and that the judgment or decree should stand as a security
for the future arrears, with liberty to apply from time to time to
sue out fresh executions thereon. Ridgely v. Lee, 3 H. & McH. 94;
Marshall v. Thompson, 2 Man. 412; Sparks v. Garriguett, 1 Bin.
152; Ranelaugh v. Hayes, 1 Vern. 190. So in this Court, where
alimony, or the payment of a certain sum annually had been de-
creed; the payments as they became due were enforced on petition
and order in a, summary way. Darne v. Cfttlett, 6 H. & J. 476;
Hewitt v. Hewitt, ante, 101. And where an estate has been mort-
gaged, the tenant for life in possession will be ordered to keep
down the interest; and if he does not do so, a receiver may be put
upon the estate with directions to take, and apply the rents and
profits to the interest as it becomes due on the mortgage, and to
pay the surplus to the tenant. Pow. Mort. 300, note.

Upon these suggestions and analogies, I shall decree, that Wil-
liam Owings forthwith bring into this Court, or pay to the plaintiff
John Cromwell, the whole amount now due, with interest on each
annual sum as it became due until brought in or paid; and iet the
decree stand as a security for what may hereafter become due.
The payment of the several sums, as they may hereafter become
due, may, on petition, be enforced by a summary proceeding,
either as against the person or personal property of William
Owings; and should he fail to pay the whole amount now decreed,
or which may hereafter become due, I may be induced, on a proper
application, to put a receiver upon the estate devised to him, with
authority to take and apply the rents and profits of it under the
directions of the Court.

The devise gives sixty pounds a year; but does not distinctly
say from what date it is to be computed. This charge, from its