426 HIGH COURT OF CHANCERY.

terms of the contract of partnership, or amongst the legal rep-
resentatives of a deceased partner, according to their legal
rights and interests.

"And the parties are hereby authorized and allowed to take
testimony in relation to such accounts, before any justice of the
peace, on giving three days notice as usual; provided, that
such testimony be taken and filed in the chancery office, in this
case, on or before the tenth day of April next."

[From this order the complainants took an appeal under the
act of 1845, chapter 367, which having been argued before the
Court of Appeals, MARTIN J. at June Term, 1847, delivered
the following as the opinion of the Court:]

This is an appeal from the order of the Chancellor, of the
19th of January, 1846, instructing the Auditor as to the prin-
ciples upon' which he was to state the account between the
parties.

By this order the Chancellor has determined :

First, That the partnership in which Samuel Hayes was con-
cerned, was to be treated as subsisting until the 31st of Au-
gust, 1841, when it was dissolved by the decree passed in the
case of the creditor's bill; and that the accounts of the part-
nership were to be brought down to that period.

Secondly, That the entire estate of the partnership, compris-
ing both its real and personal property, was to be regarded as
a fund applicable exclusively, and in the first place to the pay-
ment of the debts of the partnership in preference to all other
claimants.

And thirdly, that the real estate held and owned by the part-
ners, and used by them in the business of the partnership, was
to be considered as converted for all purposes into personalty—
as possessing, in all respects, the qualities and incidents of
personal property, and therefore not subject to the claim of
dower.

The appeal has been prosecuted at this stage of the cause,
in pursuance of the act of Assembly of 1845, ch. 367, enlarg-