I have been the longer in the Argt [Argument] of this Cause not for the Importance of the Cause itself, for in itself it is infinitely little and contemptible, but for the Importance of its Consequences. These dirty and ridiculous Litigations have been multiplied in this Town, till the very Earth groans and the stones cry out. The Town is become infamous for them throughout the County. I have absolutely heard it used as a Proverb in several Parts of the Province, "as litigious as Braintree." And this Multiplicity is owing to the Multiplicity of Petty foggers among whom Captn. Hollis is one, who has  [illegible]  given out that he is a sworn Attorney till 9/ 10 of this Town really believe it. But I take this Opportunity, publickly to confront him, and undeceive the Town. He knows in his Conscience that he never took the Oath of an Attorney, and that he dare not assume the Impudence to ask to be admitted. He knows that the Notion of his being a sworn Attorney is an Imposture, is an Imposition upon this Town. And I take this opportunity publickly to declare that I will take all legal Advantages, against every Action brought by him or by Captn. Thayer or by any other Petty fogger in this Town. For I am determined if I live in this Town to break up this scene of strife, Vexation and Immorality. (Such suits as this and most others that ever I have seen before a justice in

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this Town, have a Tendency to vex and imbitter the Minds of the People, to propagate an idle, brawling, wrangling Temper, in short such suits  [illegible]  are an Inlet to all manner of Evils.)

And some [i.e. one] of these suit managers, when I first came to this Town, hearing that I had been thro a regular Course of study with a regular Practitioner, and that I was recommended to the Court in Boston, by one of the greatest Lawyers in America, and knowing concluded, that I should be enabled by these Advantages, and prompted by my own Interest if by no higher Motive, to put an End to the illegal Course of dirty, quacking Practice in this Town, which he had been in, and thereby enslaved the Minds and Bodyes and Estates of his Neighbours. And to prevent this he set himself to work to destroy my Reputation and prevent my getting Business, by such stratagems as no honest Mind can think of without Horror, such stratagems as I always will resent, and never will forgive till he has made Attonement by his future Repentance and Reformation. I thank God his action Malice has been defeated, he has not been able to enslave me, nor to drive me out of Town, but Peoples Eyes begin to open,  [illegible]  and I hope they will open wider and wider till they can see like other Towns. Happy shall I be if I can rescue the Souls and Bodies, and Estates of this Town from that Thraldom and slavery, to which these Petty foggers have contributed to depress them; and if I can revive in them a generous Love of Liberty

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and sense of Honour. -- After this long Digression from this Cause your Honour will let me return to this Cause, and I rely upon it, it is a vexatious one. I rely upon it that many of these Articles were borrowed and not bought, and that therefore this Action cant be maintained for them. I rely upon it, that the Affair of the Hat is a litigious Thing, that it was a mere piece of Tavern Amuzement, and if there was any Thing like Bargain and sale in it, the Bargain was completed, the Hat delivered and the Money paid, and with regard to the other Articles, we have filed an Account that more than ballances them, and therefore I pray your Honours Judgment for Costs.

I must not say so much about my self, nor so much about Hollis and Thayer by Name. I may declaim against Strife, and a litigious Spirit, and about the dirty Dablers in the Law.

I have a very good Regard for Lt. White, but he must allow me to have a much greater Veneration for the [forms of?] Law. To see the Forms and Processes of Law and justice thus prostituted, (I must say prostituted) to revenge an imaginary Indignity, offered in a Tavern over a Chereful Bowl or enlivening Mug. To have a mere Piece of Jocular Amuzement, thus hitched into an Action at Law, a mere frolick converted into a Law suit, is a Degree of meanness that deserves no Mercy and shall have none from me. I don't think

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Lt. White considered the Nature and the Consequences of this Action, before he brought it. If he had he never would have brot it. He has too much Honour to have brot it. But I suppose the Case was this. Lt. White was a little chagrined, that my Client had for once outwitted him, and in a Miff, or a Bravado, I say a Miff or a Bravado, sees Hollis and asks his Opinion. And Hollis glad of an opportunity to draw a Writ, instantly encourages the  [illegible]  suit, and the suit was brot. And when once brot, it was too late to repent. But I dare say he has been severely sorry, that he ever brot it, and will have still further Occasion to be sorry before it Ends.

As to the Hat, Either it was a Bargain and Sale or it was not. If it was a Bargain and sale, The Hat is my Clients and the Price agreed upon, which was the Copper, delivered at the very Time, is Lt. Whites. But if it was not a Contract, but only a frolick and no one in Earnest, as I suppose it was, then the Property of the Hat continues in Lt. White, and he is welcome to take it, returning us our Copper.

Rode to Germantown in the morning. Cranch says that the Grindstone is found in the Coal Mines in Europe. The Coal lies in Apartments, strongly fortified with Partitions of this stone, and this stone forms the Covering over Head, &c. I took a good Notice of the Rock Weed, they were burning into Kelp and I find there are a great Variety of Species of it. Some of it grows out of the Rock,

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a small stalk, which soon spreads into several Brainches, and each of those Branches into several others, with those little Bubbles or Bladders, full of Air, scattered along at little Distances, on every Branch and Sprig, but at the End of Each twigg or Sprig, hangs a large Pod, full of a spongy substance seed incased in a spongy substance. We went down to some large stones, which had been thrown over between high Water and low water mark 2 or 3 Years ago. These stones are all grown over with the Rock Weed  [illegible]  . The seed, We suppose is deposited by the Water upon the Rock, takes Root and grows. It grows very fast to the Rock and when you pull, you will sometimes break the stalk, sometimes pull off a flake of the Rock with it, and sometimes take the Weed, as it seems to me, fairly up by the roots, and the Roots are little fine Spiculae, finer than the Point of the finest Needle. These Roots insert themselves into the Pores of the Rock and thence draw Nourishment. And the connoiseurs say, that some Rocks will produce Weeds, large and rank and strong, while others, laid in the same Place at the same time, will produce only a meagre, short, lingering one. They seem to take a deeper and stronger Root, in Timber and Planks, as on the sides of Wharfes, than they do in Rocks. The salt Water seems to be impregnated with the seeds of it, for whenever a Rock is thrown below high Water mark, immediately a Crop of these

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Weeds Spring up. It is excellent Manure for the Soil. The salts and sulphurs in it are very good. When they thro it into the Kelp Kiln, it is of a dark brown, or a dirty Yellow, but after it has been heated in the Kiln, it turns of a bright clear green. The Fire occasions some Change in the Configuration of the surface, that reflects green Rays most plentifully, where it used to reflect yellow and brown. They burn it into an ashes, which is a fixed salt, which they call Kelp. 20 Tons of the Weeds will produce about one Ton of the ashes. It tastes a little like Gun powder, it smells like marsh Mud, like a muddy Creak, &c  [illegible]  . It has a saltish, sulphurous Taste and Smell. -- The Deacon shewed us a Sort of Stone, that the old Glass Company brought from Connecticut, to use instead of Grindstone, for the furnace. He called it stone of the asbestus Kind. Dr. Eliot used it in his and never found the fire made any Impression on it. But the Glass men found it dissolved in about 4 months. They call it a Cotten stone. It seems to have no Gritt at all, it feels as soft as soap. It cost the Company about  [illegible]  or 900. -- Thus, the first Essays, generally  [illegible]  rude, and unsuccessful, prove burdensome instead of profitable.

Ephraim Jones, being a Widower and having two Children by a former Wife marries another, and soon after dies, leaving a Widow, and the two Children, mentioned before. The Widow takes one third of the personal Estate, and is endowed of for ever, and is endowed of one third of the real Estate, which she lets out to one Tower, as we say to the Halves. Tower breaks up, and plants 1/2 a dozen Acres of the Land with Corn, which he ploughs and hoes &c. till the 20th of September, when The Widow his Lessor dies, giving having given by her Will, all her Estate to her Relations, Strangers to her late Husband and his Heirs. Now The Question is whether, the one half of the Produce and profits of this Land which the Widow was by Contract to have had, shall go to the Legatees Executor of her Will, and so to her Legatees, or else to the Right Heirs, of the Reversion of the Land, expectant on the Widows Death? And Q. also, whether, the said Right Heirs have the Property of the feed and the Apples, and such other fruits as the Earth produces spontaneously, or at least without any immediate Expence and Industry, of the late Tenant in Dower: and Q. also whether the Possession of the Land vests in the Right

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[heir] Eo Instante that the Widow dies, so that he has an immediate Right of Entry, or Whether the Lessee has not Possession, so that he must be ejected?

If I am the Proprietor of an House, and I lease it to any Man, and bind my self to keep it in Repair, it is reasonable and it is Law, that I should have a Rent. So if I am the owner of a ship, and I let [it] out on a Voyage to the Wist Indies or to Europe it is reasonable, and it is the maritime and the maritime Law has made provision that I should have  [illegible]  freight. For the sum of Money, that an House or a Ship would Cost, would if placed out, on Interest, bring in Annually 6 pr. Cent for my Use. Now I cant loose the Interest of my money, and besides  [illegible]  my House is constantly wearing and decaying and my ship and her Cordage and her Canvas are continually wearing, so that the Rent and the freight ought to be sufficient to enable [me] to make these Repairs: But besides this, all Merchants, all Persons who have Property, in shipping, in Vessells that sail upon the sea, are in a peculiar manner liable to Accidents and Misfortunes. They are in Danger, from storms, from Rocks and sands, and they are in Danger from Pyrates and frenchmen, so that the Law, in establishing the freight of

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Vessells has made allowance, for these 3 things-for the Interest of Money on the Capital, for the Constant Expences in Repairing the Hull and the Cordage and the sails, and for the peculiar Danger from seas, Winds, Rocks and Enemies, which constantly environ Vessells on the sea. And accordingly the freight or Rent of shipping is very high in all foreign Voyages. Well, now the same Reasons, which have established a freight upon Vessells in foreign Voyages, has by Law established a certain share of the Profits [of] this schooner now in Controversy. But the Case, which is more precisely parrallel to this of Mr. Lovell, and which is decisive in this Case, is that of Whaling Voyages. In Whaling Voyages, of [off] the shoals of Nantuckett, and in those to Hudsons Bay, there is frequently, a Master of a Vessell, and a Master of the Voyage i.e. a Vessell ship is taken into the service, and Whale Boats put on Board her. The Vessell sails into the Whaling Latitudes, and then puts her Boats to sea after the Whales.  [illegible]  The Whales are taken on Board the Vessell, and brought home to Cape Cod we'l say, in a sort of Blubber. Wel there, at Cape Cod they frequently hire other People, People who had no Concern with the Voyage, to boil that Blubber into oil. When that is done the

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oyl is sent up to Boston and sold by Persons who are allowed Commissions for their Pains and after the Oyl is sold, the Established Rule is, to pay all the Costs of Boiling the Blubber and the Commissions arising on the sales and then the Vessell which went out upon the Voyage draws one Quarter of the whole Profits of the Voyage. But the particular Custom which has prevailed among these small Lighters, and schooners that run out a fishing, where there is not so much Danger of Shipwreck, is that the schooner or Lighter shall draw one fifth Part of the Profits of the Voyage. If a schooner runs out in the Harbour a fishing the schooner draws every fifth fish, and whenever they have taken up any drifted Timber or Shingles or Boards, the same proportion has been observed. I have known several Instances in which our Braintree Boats have taken up valuable things adrift, in Cases where there has been no danger to the Lighter, only her time has been consumed, and the Boat always drew one fifth of such drifted Timber as well as of the fish. The only thing, that I can think of, and which the first [illegible] to its utmost extent [illegible] think of, as I believe to distinguish this Case from any of the 3 that I have mentioned, either from that of a ship on a foreign Voyage or of any Vessell on a Whaling Voyage or of common Lighters and schooners

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on fishing Voyages, is this. That the schooner was not stout enough to weigh the Anchor and they were obliged to hire another Vessell to go down a Weight [ i.e. and weigh] it. -- I beg your Hs [Honor's] careful Attention to this Point, because I suppose the whole stress of the Cause will be laid upon it, by the other side. -- Now this I insist upon it can make no Alteration in the Case at all. For Mr. Lovells Vessell went out, upon the supposition that she should draw 1/5 of the whole Profits of the Voyage, 1/5 of all the fish, that should be caught, and 1/5 of every Thing that he found adrift upon the surface or drawn upon from the Bottom of the Sea. And without this Prospect of 1/5 of the Profits, he would not have let her gone. He could have gone in her himself and made Profits by her or he could have let her out to others who would have minded their fishing, and not and so have gained Profits for him as well as for themselves. Suppose it had been said to Mr. Lovell, let us have your schooner to go out a fishing, and if we catch any, you shall have a fifth, but if we catch none, you shall have nothing and I believe we shant for we intend to spend most of our time in Poking after an Anchor or a Chest of Gold, that we suppose to be lost out in the Harbour; but if we should find this Anchor or Chest your schooner is not able to weight it, and so you shall have no Part of that.

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Would Captn. Lovell have consented to that. No he would have laughed at them for fools to think he would, or have frowned upon them in Resentment of an Affront, for such a Proposal in Earnest would have been an affront. Well now what he could not have been desired too reasonably to have consented to before the Voyage Your Honor cant desire him to do, and the Law will not oblige him to do after the Voyage. The Time of [the] Schooner was spent in securing of the anchor, time in which she might have earned him money either in fighting or fishing, his Vessell, his Ropes, and Sails were worn in the service, which will cost him money to repair; and what is worse than both the former, his Property was endangered, his Anchor was in great Risque of being irrecoverably lost in the first Place by its Entanglement with the large Anchor at the Bottom, and afterwards by the Use they made of it in raking at the Bottom to bring up the Cable of the great Anchor. And to say that the great Anchor was not weighed by his schooner is to say nothing. It was secured by his schooner, and totally by his schooner.

I say too that the Whales are not taken, cannot be taken by the ship. They are taken by the Whale Boats: I say too that the ship cant boil the Blubber up into oyl. But what then? The ship's time

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is spent, she is wearing out, and she is endangered, and therefore she shall draw a Quarter of the Neat Profits of the Voyage after Wages for Boiling and Commissions for selling, and are paid. This I rely upon, this schooners being unable to weigh the Anchor, is exactly like the ship in Hudsons bays being unable to chase and take the Whales. And their hiring another Vessell to go down, and weigh it, is like Whale mens hiring other Men to boil their blubber, and to sell their Oyl, and that this schooner has as good a Right to 1/5 of the 2/3 after the one third is taken out, which by Agreement was given to the Vessell that weighed it, as a Whaling Vessell has to one fourth of the whole Profits of the Voyage after enough has been taken out to pay the Boilers and factors.

And nothing can be more reasonable. Suppose I should Agree with a Man, to let him have my Horse to Rhode Island to purchase a Quantity of Goods, and he engages I shall have one fifth or one Qr. of the Profits of his journey. Well when he gets upon Seachonk Plain, He finds a Number of People there a horse racing. He challenges every Horse upon the Plain

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to run. At last they run for 100 Guineas which my Horse wins. Would it not be reasonable that I should have a Proportion of that Prize? Shall the Man that I let him to, run the Hazard of breaking the Neck, or Limbs or Wind of my Horse. Shall he strain, and violently drive him so as uterly to mar him very much; and I have no Recompence at all? By no means. Your Honor cant but see, we have a Right, and I dont doubt youl give it us.

Perhaps some Difficulty may arise in your Honours mind about the Propriety of the manner of laying this Action. It is an Ind [Indebitatus] Ass [Assumpsit] for so much Money had and received by the Defendant, to the Use of the Plaintiffs, and it is alledged that the Defendant promised to render a reasonable Account. But this is the constant form of Suing for things of this sort. If I reck upon a Reckoning and settlement with a man pay him by a Mistake 20 more than is due to him, I may recover it back, by this Action, i.e. he has had and received so much money, which did not belong to him but to me, so if Money is due to me from another man, and some 3d Person goes to him, and under Pretence of Authority from me, receives that Money, I may have this Action against him.

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And in general if any man has received Money, which did not belong to him, but does belong to me, I may recover it of him by this Action. Now I think it is plain that Mr. Ward has received the sum mentioned in this Writ, that it did not belong to him but it did of right belong to the owners of the schooner the present Plaintiffs, and therefore it follows that he is accountable to us for it, and I dont doubt your honour will think so too.

What are the Questions, on which  [illegible]  Mrs. Bracketts Bars to Danas Actions turn? - The first Question is, whether any Action at all can be maintained vs. the Administrator of an Insolvent Estate excepting for Debt due to the Crown, for sickness and funeral Charges? And the second is, whether an Action brought before the Representation of Estate of Insolvency, can be maintained, i.e. Whether an Administrator, by delaying to represent the Insolvency, makes herself liable to any suit, that is brought against her. For I take it to be very clear, that when an Estate is represented insolvent, as soon as an Administrator is appointed no Action can be maintained. All Actions must be barred, bar'd I mean for a Time, till the Commissioners have reported and the Average is settled. So that the only Question is, whether Administrators are liable to suits, till the Representation is made? And with submission I think [it] is certain that they are not. In many Cases it is well known, before a Mans Breath is gone, that he owes more than he is worth, and in such Cases the Administrator would do well to represent the Insolvency, at his first Appointment, but there are many Cases, when it is impossible for the Administrator to know whether his Intestate was is solvent or insolvent, the Quantity of the his Lands and goods may be unknown, and the Number and

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Quantity of his Debts is always unknown so that no Computation can possibly be made, and in these Cases, it is certainly reasonable and it is Law, that the Administrator should have some time to examine and calculate before he makes a Representation, for if the Estate is sufficient, it would be folly to draw upon his Intestate and himself and family the Disgrace of Insolvency, and the Curses of the Creditors needlessly, and it would be a Pitty to put the Estate to the Expence of the Commissioners, and the Creditors to the Trouble of making out their Claims before them. In all Cases therefore where it is doubtful whether the Estate is sufficient or insufficient, the Administrator ought to have time to inform himself, and in the mean time, all the Creditors must be debared from suits, or if they will bring them they must do it at their Peril, i.e. if the Estate afterwards proves insolvent, their Actions must be bared and they must pay Costs. Whether a Law some Limitation of the time, is expedient or not, it is not our Business to inquire, if the Laws are imperfect in this respect it is the Business of the Legislature to perfect it, but Mr. Dana cannot avail him self of a Law that has no being.

Now the Case before your Honour, is of the last sort. At the Time of Capt. Bracketts Death, it was very doubtful, with every

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body, whether left he left enough to pay his Debts or not. His Widow, on her appointment, to the Administration, told the judge, it was uncertain, and asked time to inform herself; and she has been as diligent as she could, considering the distressed situation of her family, in making Enquiry after the Debts. She found Effects enough in her Hands to pay all the Debts that she was apprized of, and so was unwilling to make the Representation, unwilling to put the Estate to needless Charge, and Disgrace, unwilling to put her Creditors to the Trouble of making out their Claims with the Commissioners, till she was satisfyd, there was not enough. But new Creditors are daily making their Appearance, who have large demands, and some who were never so civil as to let her know she owed them, have sent her Writts. She was sued in one Action to this Court for some hundreds, on a Note that she never suspected to be in Being. In short she finds most of the real Estate under Mortgage, so that most, if not all the Personal Estate must go to discharge these Mortgages, and then the real Estate must be sold at Vendue, the Event of which is quite uncertain, and therefore the Estate is not sufficient to pay. And as the Estate is insolvent, these suits must be barred. The Law is express, that

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No Proscess shall be allowed. And I presume the Reason, why the Law has not confined Administrators to narrow limits, is that People [must?] be restrained from rushing on  [illegible]  such Estates, and  [illegible]  by stifling all the sentiments of Humanity, bringing Destruction on the fatherless and Widows.

The Time for Enquiry, whether the Estate is insolvent, or not, must be dilated on. It is a momentous Point. Must shew, that the time she has taken, is no more than reasonable.

The Administrator is not liable unless it can be shewn that she has intermeddled with the Goods and made payment of any Debt. She has never paid any Debt.

In the Beginning of May 58 Mr. Lambard, the Plantiff, gave a Lease of a House and Barn and Land in Germantown mentioned in the Writ to the Defendant Mr. Tirrell, and this Lease you will have with you. You will find by it, that Tirrill was to give [illegible] &c. the same Rent, that is sued for, in the present Action. In May 1759, i.e. at the End of the Year, Mr. Lambard went into the service, without making any new Contract, and Mr. Tirrell and his family continued in the House from that time to this. The Plantiff has frequently reque requested his Rent, but has been always refused, and at last he was obliged to bring

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his Action. As I said before there was no express Contract between the Parties, but for the Year 1759, but as there was an express Contract for 58, and as the Plantiff permitted him to continue, and as the Defendant continued as the Defendant continued with  [illegible]  his family, and as the Plantiff permitted him to continue in the House, the natural and legal Presumption is, that each Party was satisfyd with the old Terms, and intended the old Terms should continue. For had the Landlord been dissatisfyd with the Terms, it would have been his Business to have said, you must come upon a new Agreement or else leave the House, and had the Tenant been dissatisfyd he should have said I must have the Place for less Rent or else I must leave. But as each Party was silent, each Party implicitly consented that the old Conditions should remain; especially as the Terms were very reasonable. 70 old Tenor, a Year is a moderate Rent for that Place. There is a very convenient handsome new House, there is a good Barn, and several good Lotts of Land. Besides the House has had Licence for a . Tavern for these 7 Years, and Mr. Tirrell has all along kept a Tavern there and does to this day. Now the single Pri [Privilege]

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viledge of keeping a Tavern upon that Place is worth as much annually as this Rent. For Germantown, you all know is a Place of considerable Resort. Hardly any Gentlemen of Curiosity from any of the four Governments come to this Town, without taking a Ride to Germantown to see the Manufactures there, that of Glass and that of Stockings. Great Numbers of People go out  [illegible]  from this Town upon Parties of Pleasure to Germantown, and there is a considerable Number of Inhabitants upon the Place and all these must be entertained and supplied, so that considering the House, Barn, Land, and these Priviledges the Rent is quite moderate, and there can be no Reason why each Party should not be confined, to those Terms, which the Defendants silence and Continuance in the House, raise a violent Presumption that he consented to, and I dont doubt-you'l give us the sum sued for accordingly.

Dana says the Administrator ought not to regard the Disgrace or Trouble or Expence of a Commission of Insolvency, but if it is in the least degree suspicious, that the Estate will not prove sufficient, he must represent it so, at his first Appointment i.e. every Day, that he takes to enquire into the Value of the Estate, and the Number of Debts, is at the Risque of the Creditors, and

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if any one Creditor brings his Action he must maintain it, at the Expence of the others. For says he, as no Time is limitted an Administrator may wait a whole Year, before he represents the Estate insolvent, and live upon the Estate all that time, to the Injury of the Creditors. Nay he may neglect it two Years, or 10 Years, till he has wasted, spent, or alienated the whole Estate.

I say, it is reasonable that a Time should be allowed the Administrator to enquire, to make a Computation of the Effects, and to enquire into the No. and Quantity of the Debts, that he may be able to judge, whether the Estate is insolvent or not. For a Commission of Insolvency is an Evil, always to be avoided, if Possible. It is always considered as a Disgrace to a family. It is always a great Expence to the Estate. It always provokes the Curses of the Creditors, and puts them to the Trouble in attending the Commissioners to prove their Debts. And it is not only reasonable, that a Time of Enquiry should be allowed, but it is Law. And the Executor or Administrator appointed to any Insolvent Estate, before Payment to any be made, except as aforesaid, shall represent the Condition and Circumstances thereof unto the judge of Probate. Here is plainly a time allowed him, and there is no

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Limitation of that time , but. It is only said the Representation must be made before any Payment is made. And here is an Exception, which clearly gives the Administrator, some time; the Exception is of Debts due to the Crown, of sickness and funeral Charges. These the Administrator, after his Appointment may pay, before he is obliged to represent it insolvent, and he could not pay these any more than any other Debts unless some time was allowed him.

Mr. Danas Objections are in my humble opinion of little Weight. He says, that if the Administrator is not obliged to represent immediately, he may delay it, till she and her family have consumed, or by fraud conveyed away the Estate. But your Honours know that Apprisers are appointed, always directly after the Administrator is appointed, who are to make an Inventory and then the Administrator charges herself with all the Articles in the Inventory, and gives Bonds to be accountable for them at the apprized Value, at the Years End. So that if the Estate is wasted the Administrators Bond may be put in suit. Besides, admitting here is a Defect in the Law, in this Respect, Admitting a new Law is expedient, to limit the Time of representation, such a Law has no Existence, nor can Mr. Dana avail himself of a Law that has no Being, however expedient it may be, especially when the Representation is made within a reasonable Time, as this was. The Representation was made in 9 months,

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which was a short space of Time considering the Circumstances of this affair. Brackett was struck out of Life suddenly, left a very distressed family, and a very perplexed and embarrassed Estate, so that it was impossible for the Widow to recover from her surprize, and make any Inquiry so as to satisfy herself whether the Estate was sufficient or not, sooner than she did. And I presume the Reason why the Law has not confined the Administrator to such Estates to narrow limits, is, because Persons, that die so much in Debt, commonly leave Widows and Children behind them, who have been used to decent and reputable living, and will therefore, if some reasonable time is not allowed them to keep together, recover their surprize and look about them, will be driven to absolute Despair. And to this Purpose and that the Estate may not be burdened with Costs, the Law has provided, that no Proscess shall be allowed, while any such Estate is depending as aforesaid, which Words extend as well to the Time, the Estate is depending under the Examination and Enquiry of the Administrator as to that between the Representation of Insolvency and the settling of the Average. And it is quite reasonable that this Action in Particular, should be barred, because it was entered, out of the meer Humour and Obstinacy of the Plantiff. Tho it was commenced before the Representation it was entered afterwards, whereas if he had been a reasonable Man, instead of entering

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and driving this Action, as he has done, he should have dropd it without Entry.