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264 WILLIAMS' CASE.
annual public taxes seem to have been thus assimilated to the an-
nual interest of mortgages, and other real incumbrances, which
must be kept down by the tenant for life in possession, upon the
principle that the annual profits should alone bear the burthen not
only of the annual interest of all mortgage debts, but also of all
other annual charges, as well public as private. And upon this
principle, as it would seem, the collectors of the tax for some
counties were authorized to sell timber suitable for cord-wood, or
fence-rails, growing on land belonging to non-residents, to satisfy
the taxes due thereon. (6) Hence as there is not, in such cases,
any apportionment of the burthen of interest or taxes between the
particular tenant and the remainderman or reversioner, the putting
of a present value upon such estates is not called for, or ever
made. But those legislative enactments which formerly, for the
purposes of taxation, required a present value to be put upon
estates for life, or during widowhood, and on terms for years, in
such a variety of forms, and which must have been attended with
much difficulty, to say nothing of the injustice of the operation of
some of them, although now abrogated, are yet well worthy of
attention in so far as they illustrate and afford evidence of the va-
rious bearings, and great importance of the matter now under con-
sideration.
In England, as it would seem, few cases arise in which a widow
may have a proportion, or the annual interest on a share of the
purchase money of an estate awarded to her in lieu of her dower;
and therefore, there is little or nothing to be found in the English
books as to what should be considered as an equivalent for such a
life estate, (e) But here, where it so frequently becomes neces-
sary, under the act to direct descents, to have lands, of which par-
tition cannot be made without disadvantage, sold in order to effect
a division of the proceeds of sale among the heirs; and also to
make sale of the real estates of deceased persons for the payment
of their debts, it often happens, that a widow may be called on to
allow the estate to be sold free of her claim to dower, and to
accept an equivalent portion of the purchase money in lieu of it.
In these and a variety of similar cases where relief has been
sought by means of special legislative enactments, it appears that
what should be deemed the present value of a life interest in land,
has been in a great many instances submitted to the consideration
(b) 1826, ch. 170; 1827, ch. 110,114,—(c) Mole v. Smith, 1 Jac. & Walk. 653.
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