Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/695

P E R P E R 665 real and chattels personal ; the latter are again divided into choses in jwssession and chases in action. Chattels real are personal interests in real estate, which, though they are annexed to land, still descend in the same manner as personal estate. Blackstone speaks of them as being " of a mongrel amphibious nature." Examples are a term of years, the next presentation to a benefice, an estate pur autre vie, and money due upon a mortgage. Under the head of chattels personal fall all kinds of property other than real estate and chattels real. In cases of bequest to a charity the terms pure and impure or mixed personalty are often used. The latter class is almost conterminous with chattels real. It falls as a rule within the Mortmain Act. A chose in action denotes the right of recovery by legal proceedings of that which, when recovered, becomes a chose in possession. Choses in action were before the Judicature Acts either legal, as debts (whether arising from contract or tort), recoverable in a court of law, or equitable, as legacies (residuary personal estate of a deceased person), or money in the funds. A legal chose in action was not assignable. A consequence of this view was that until 1875 (subject to one or two statutory ex ceptions, such as actions on policies of insurance) an action on an assigned chose in action must have been brought at law in the name of the assignor, though the sum recovered belonged in equity to the assignee, and in equity he might have sued in his own name, making the assignor a party as co-plaintiff or as defendant. The Judicature Acts have made the distinction drawn between legal and equitable choses in action of no importance. The Judicature Act, 1873, 36 and 37 Viet. c. 66, s. 25, (6), enacts that the legal right to a debt or other legal chose in action may be passed by absolute assignment in writing under the hand of the assignor. The old law as to the reduction into possession by a husband of his wife s choses in action (see HUSBAND AND WIFE) seems to have been practically rendered obsolete by the Married Women s Property Act, 1882. Blackstone, who is followed by Mr Joshua Williams (Law of Personal Property], recognizes a further division of incorporeal personal property, standing between choses in action and choses in possession, and including personal annuities, stocks and shares, patents, and copyrights. Interest in personal property may be either absolute or qualified. The latter case is illustrated by animals ferse naturx, in which property is only coextensive with detention. Personal estate may be acquired by occupancy (including the accessio, commixtio, and confusio of Roman law), by invention, as patent and copyright, or by transfer, either by the act of the law (as in bankruptcy, judgment, and intestacy), or by the act of the party (as in gift, con tract, and will). There are several cases in which, by statute or other wise, property is taken out of the class of real or personal to which it seems naturally to belong. By the operation of the equitable doctrine of conversion money directed to be employed in the purchase of land, or land directed to be turned into money, is in general regarded as that species of property into which it is directed to be converted. An example of property prima facie real which is treated as personal is an estate pur autre vie, which, since 14 Geo. II. c. 20, s. 9 (now replaced by 1 Viet. c. 26, s. 6), is distributable as personal estate in the absence of a special occupant. Examples of property prima facie personal which is treated as real are FIXTURES (g.v.), heirlooms, such as deeds and family portraits, and shares in some of the older companies, as the New River Company, which are real estate by statute. In ordinary cases shares in com panies are personal estate, unless the shareholders have individually some interest in the land as land. The terras heritable and movable of Scotch law to a great extent correspond with the real and personal of English law. The main points of difference are these. (1) Leases are heritable as to the succession to the lessee, unless the destination expressly exclude heirs, but are movable as to the fisk. (2) Money due on mortgages and securities on land is personalty in England. At common law in Scotland debts secured on heritable property are themselves heritable. But by 31 and 32 Viet. c. 101, s. 117, heritable securi ties are movable as far as regards the succession of the creditor, unless executors are expressly excluded. They still, however, remain heritable quoad fiscum, as between husband and wife, in computing legitim, and as far as regards the succession of the debtor. (3) Up to 1868 the heir of heritage succeeded to certain movable goods called heirship movables, which bore a strong likeness to the heirlooms of English law. This right of the heir was abolished by 31 and 32 Viet. c. 101, s. 160. (4) Annuities, as having tractum futuri temporis, are heritable, and an obligation to pay them falls upon the heir of the deceased (Watson, Law Diet., s.v. "Annuities"). The law in the United States agrees in most respects with that of England. Heirlooms are unknown, one reason being, no doubt, that the importance of title-deeds is much less than it is in England, owing to the operation of the Registration Acts. Long terms in some States have annexed to them the properties of freehold estates. Thus in Massachusetts, if the original term be a hundred or more years, it is deemed a fee as long as fifty years remain unexpired (Mass. Gen. Stat., c. 90, 20). In the same State estates pur autre vie descend like real property (Gen. Stat., c. 91, 1). In New York and New Jersey an estate pur autre vie is deemed a freehold only during the life of the grantee ; after his death it becomes a chattel real. In other States the heir has a scintilla of interest as special occupant (Kent, Comm., vol. iv. p. 27). In some States railway rolling-stock is considered as purely personal, in others it has been held to be a fixture, and so to partake of the nature of real property. Shares in some of the early American corporations were, like New River shares in England, made real estate by statute, as in the case of the Cape Sable Company in Maryland (Schouler, Laiv of Personal Property, vol. i. p. 619). In Louisiana animals employed in husbandry are, and slaves were, regarded as immovables. Pews in churches are generally real property, but in some States they are made personal property by statute, e.g., in Massachusetts (Gen. Stat., c. 30, 38). The assignment of choses in action is generally permitted, and is in most States regulated by statute. The circuit court has no jurisdiction in the case of an assigned chose in action unless a suit might have been prosecuted in that court if no assignment had been made (Revised Stat. of U. S., tit. xiii. 629). (J. Wt.) PERSPECTIVE. See PROJECTION. PERTH, an inland county of Scotland, is situated almost in the centre of the country between 56 4 and 56 57 N. lat., and between 3 4 and 4 50 W. long. The larger part of its border-line is formed of natural bound aries, the Grampians separating it on the west and north from Argyll, Inverness, and Aberdeen, while the Ochils and the Firth of Tay in the south-east divide it from Kinross, Clackmannan, and Fife. In the south the river Forth forms a large portion of the boundary with Stirling, but the boundary with Forfar in the north-east is almost at no point denned either by rivers or mountains. The county is of an irregular circular form, the diameter being about 70 miles. A small portion in the south-east is separated from the main portion at the junction of Clackmannan and Fife, and another small portion is sur rounded by Stirlingshire. Perthshire is the fourth largest county in Scotland, the total area being 1,617,808 acres, or 2528 square miles. Situated on the Highland border, Perthshire embraces characteristics scarcely combined in any other county of Scotland, and it excels them all in the picturesqueness and multiform variety of its scenery. The finest passes into the Highlands are Killiecrankie, Leny, and the Trosachs. With hardly any exception the rivers and streams flow east and south and reach the ocean either by the Forth or the Tay. They generally issue from large elongated lochs formed by depressions at the foot of the mountains. The Ericht in the extreme north-west unites Loch Ericht and Loch Rannoch ; and from the latter flows the Tummel, which, after passing through Loch Tummel and forming a series of rapids and falls, joins the Tay. The Tay, which rises on the borders of Argyllshire, passes through Loch Dochart and Loch Tay, and in its course XVIII. 84