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WILLIAMS' CASE. 277
for the Chancery rule. This therefore is another element in which
it must be considered as materially erroneous.
It appears, that the present value of a widow's dower was calcu-
lated for the Chancery rule at compound interest; because in Eng-
land the present value of such estates, it is said, is calculated upon
the ground of compound interest. But then it is laid down in an
English adjudication, that as the computation of compound inte-
rest proceeds upon the idea, that the interest is paid upon the
exact day and immediately laid out, which is impossible, it is suf-
ficient to compute compound interest at four .per cent, or at some-
thing less than the legal rate of interest, (z) The calculations for
the Chancery rule have, however, been made upon the ground of
compound interest at the fall legal rate of six per cent.; which, if
wrong in England, where there are so many ways of making im-
mediate and safe investments of money, must be much more so
here. This, therefore, is a third element in which that rule is
substantially erroneous.
It has been shewn by reference to good authority, that the
observations of the rate of mortality at Breslaw, from which Dr.
Railey constructed his tables of the probability, and of the expec-
tation of human life, have been found to be so entirely inaccurate,
that they have never, in any case, been resorted to for many years
past. And it has also, in like manner, been shewn, that the ob-
servations of the waste of life in London, from which Mr. Simp-
son formed his tables, were, in so many respects, erroneous, that
they have been considered as very unsafe guides in calculating the
value of human life even in London itself; and as totally unfit for
use, in making an estimate of the value of life any where else.
But it appears, that all the calculations for the Chancery rule were
taken from the observations of London, and the tables of Mr.
Simpson founded on those observations. This therefore is a fourth
element in which that rule is essentially wrong.
It is well known, that in our country early marriages are com-
mon; and it appears from the observations of Dr. Grenville, that
even in England, of eight hundred and seventy-six females, thirty
of them had been married at or before fifteen years of age. There-
fore as it may fairly be presumed, that there must be a great num-
ber of instances of widows under thirty years of age; and as ac-
cording to Finlaison's tables, the expectation of female life, between
(z) Nightingale v. Lawson, 1 Bro. C. C. 443.
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