separate sheet of the will, it will be a sufficient signature within the statute, though the sheets are not tacked together. 3 Burr. 1775.

A will of copyhold land is good, even though not attested by any witness; for the devisee is entitled to the land by virtue of the surrender. 2 Atk. 37.

With regard to the manner of the attestation : though the statute requires all the witnesses to subscribe the will in the presence of the testator, yet it has been held that it is not necessary that he should actually see them subscribe their names, but that it is sufficient, if it was possible, that he might have seen them in the act of attesting. Davy v. Smith, 3 Salk. 395; Casson v. Dade, 1 Bro. C. C. 91. But, if the attestation was made in a clandestine and fraudulent manner, so that it was impossible for the testator to have seen the witnesses subscribing, such subscription will not be conformable to the statute. Longford v. Eyre, 1 P. Wms. 740. Neither will an attestation made during a suspension of the testator's mental faculties satisfy the statute. Cater v. Price, Doug.

241.

As to the qualification of the witnesses required by the statute, it has been decided that if, at the time of their subscribing the will, there subsisted no objection to their competency as witnesses at common law, no subsequent conduct can impeach

their credibility as witnesses within the statute, Hudson's case, Skin. 79; but that if, at the time of their attestation, they were incapacitated from giving evidence in a court of justice, or were convicted of offences of the species of the crimen falsi, and which stigmatize a man with infamy, such as treason, felony, conspiracy at the suit of the crown, perjury, forgery, barratry, attaint of false verdict, or any other crime of an infamous nature, such existing disabilities disqualify them as subscribing witnesses within the statute, and consequently the will is void on account of the insufficiency of the attestation. Com. Dig. tit. Temoigne, A. 2. But as the ground of the disqualification arises from the infamy of the offence, and not of the punishment, the being punished for a treasonable libel, or for slanderous words on the government, will not vitiate an attestation so as to render the attestator an incredible witness. 2 Wils. 18.

Another requisite to the competency of witnesses is that they be disinterested, i. e. not entitled to any benefit or advantage under the will. It having been a maxim of the spiritual courts of this kingdom that the testimony of a witness entitled to claim as a devisee under a will was inadmissible to support the validity of a will, unless where he released his legacy, or, in case he had received it, that the executor had released all title to any future claim on such legatee in respect of the pay

ment of the legacy; in order that the legatee may have no shadow of interest at the time of making his testimony, it was enacted, by the statute 25 Geo. II. c.6, s.1,* that all legacies (and this extends to real and personal property) given to a witness should be null and void: by which act both the competency and credit of legatees were restored, by removing all possibility of their interest affecting their testimony.

Until the passing of this act, the testimony of creditors, with the payment of whose debts the testator had charged his real estate, was equally inadmissible. But, by section 2, the competency of creditors, whose debts are charged upon the real estate, is established, by directing their testimony to be admitted to prove the validity of the will.

To those already enumerated as incompetent to attest a will, may be added, persons labouring under the disability of idiocy, insanity, as also children who are incapable of discerning or estimating truth.

But besides these precautions in the selection of persons who are to be witnesses to the will, viz.

* In the construction of this statute it has been held that, though a witness was inadmissible to prove the will, on account of interestedness at the time of his attesting the same, yet he may be restored to his competency by a release or receipt of his legacy. Hudson v. Hersey, 4 Burn. Ecc. Law, 97.

that they should not be such as, on account of having been convicted of any infamous crime, are disqualified from giving evidence in a court of justice; nor be legatees under the will or codicil; nor creditors of the testator; nor any way interested in the making of the will-they should also be persons of sufficient intelligence and understanding; which last requisite, Dr. Kitchiner, in his humorous instructions, entitled, "Pleasures of making a Will," very forcibly illustrates. "It is too commonly supposed," says that ingenious writer," that the most ignorant person, even a marksman, who cannot write his own name, will do for a witness to a will; but should circumstances make it necessary for the witnesses to be examined in a court of law, what impotent evidence do such persons give in many cases, not probably from any intention of fraud, but solely arising from ignorance !-they are so easily bothered by a shrewd counsel, that they may be made to say almost any thing." This is not exaggerated censure; almost every day's experience in the courts evinces the imprudence of calling in illiterate persons to perform this duty.

6. Of the Republication of Wills.

The effect of republication of a will is, to give the words used therein the same operation as they would have had if the will had been made at the

time of republication, and consequently to extend its operation to all property purchased subsequent to the will, and which is conveyed by such words. Powell's Dev. 683. And this republication, if executed according to the requisitions of the statute, will supply any defect arising from want of capacity in the testator at the time of making the will, as well as from any inability for want of a subject matter whereon the will may attach. Therefore, if an infant having made a will of land, duly executed according to the statute, but which is void by reason of his infancy, re-execute it after he comes of age, with the formalities required by the statute, the will is rendered as valid and effectual as if made when he was of sufficient ability. 1 Keb. 589; 1 Sid. 162.

But to give effect to the new publication of a will, the words by which the republication is created must be such as are proper to convey the lands, and also sufficiently to denote the person to whom they are devised; for, if there is any change with respect to the person who is to take the lands by the will, between the time of first making the will and the new publication of it; in such case the new publication will not alter the intention of the will as originally made, nor change the import of the words made use of, so as to make the persons named in the will take in a different manner than was intended at the time of such original