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Reports of Cases in the High Court of Chancery of Maryland 1846-1854
Volume 200, Volume 4, Page 486   View pdf image (33K)
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486 HIGH COURT OF CHANCERY.
parents or the survivor of them. All the rest of my books,
with my household furniture, to be preserved by my wife for
her own use during her life, as hereinbefore mentioned, or to
be sold or given to our children or grandchildren in such man-
ner and proportions as she may think proper. All my manu-
scripts concerning law or any other subject, to be burnt as being
of no value, and utterly unfit for publication."
The other facts of the case are fully stated in the following
opinion of the Chancellor.]
THE CHANCELLOR:
Upon carefully reading the will of the late Chancellor Bland,
and examining the authorities applicable to the subject, I am of
opinion that the bequest to his wife in the first clause, is gene-
ral and not specific, and the authorities are, in my judgment,
equally clear to show that the bequest to his daughter in the
second clause is specific.
The cases which are collected and reviewed by Mr. Roper in
his treatise on the law of Legacies, at page 184, et seq. of the
first volume, seems to me to be quite conclusive upon the subject.
There may, perhaps, be more difficulty in determining the char-
acter of the bequest to the testator's wife in the 5th clause. In
that, after giving to Captain Isaac Mayo, the husband of his
daughter, "all his books, historical or biographical, of Greece, of
Rome, of Great Britain or Ireland, of the United States, and of
the several states, and Rees' Encyclopedia, as a token of his res-
pect," he directed all the rest of his books, with his household
furniture, to be preserved by his wife for her own use during her
life, as thereinbefore mentioned, or to be sold or given to their
children or grandchildren in such manner and proportions as his
wife should think proper.
It has been strongly urged by the counsel for Mrs. Bland,
that with regard to these books and household furniture, she
must be considered as a specific legatee, but I do not think he
is sustained by the authorities, or the principle upon which the
distinction between general and specific legacies is founded.
The bequest of all the testator's personal estate is certainly not

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Reports of Cases in the High Court of Chancery of Maryland 1846-1854
Volume 200, Volume 4, Page 486   View pdf image (33K)
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