THE WILL OF AN ENGLISH GENTLEMAN subject matter of the gift is to a very con siderable extent perishable and wearing out, so that the one ultimately entitled cannot in the usual course expect to enjoy it. This gives rise to the requirement that effects of a certain character must be sold, the pro ceeds invested, and the income only used by the widow during her life. Difficult and troublesome questions arise as to what articles must be treated in this way. Finally, there is always present the oppor tunity of friction between the life tenant and those entitled afterwards. If the testator insisted upon the widow having a life estate only in these chattels, it was customary to bequeath all such as were of a permanent character and not likely to wear out or dis appear in the using to trustees to permit the widow to use them during her life or widow hood.1 It is a matter of remark, therefore, that in the will of the late Marshall Field the gift of household effects to the widow includes all sorts of effects, both those likely to be consumed in the using and those of a permanent character, and creates in the widow an interest for life, without the inter vention of trustees. The final and principal concern of the draughtsman is the disposal of the residu ary estate. This, of course, includes the bulk of the testator's property, real and personal. The first step is to devise all the rest and residue of the estate, real and personal, to trustees who are named, and to expressly provide what powers they shall have. Here experience has constantly added pro visions which enable those administering the estate to proceed with the least possible inconvenience. The trustees represent the estate to the outside world. Whatever acts the holder of such a property must ordi narily execute in its profitable administra tion the trustee must be given express power to perform. There must be power to lease, to sell, to exchange, to mortgage, to pay off encumberances, and to make a volun1 Davidson's Precedents (1880) Vol. 4, p. 67.
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tary partition of lands which the testator may hold in common with others. In their relation to the trust estate the trustees must be given directions as to the invest ments to be allowed. The English convey ancers had this all very precisely worked out. There were three different clauses. From these the draughtsman took his choice according to the exigencies of the situation. There was a clause for "Re stricted Range," one for "Fair Range," and a third which gave a "Comprehensive Range." There then must be a power to vary investments to buy land and sell the same again. It was wise, also, to confer power upon the trustees to apply the pro ceeds of any sale of real estate to pay off encumbrances upon the property sold or any other property in the trust estate. Powers to partition the trust premises among the beneficiaries at the time of dis tribution and to allow the widow to reside in a particular residence of the testator dur ing the time when she was entitled to the income from all or any part of the trust estate by the terms thereof, without paying rent, were appropriate and advisable. All of these powers are properly common to English and American wills. There was, however, an almost invariable accompani ment of the English will which has been usually dropped in this country. The Eng lish draughtsman always started his gift to trustees with an explicit direction that they were to at once convert all the residue into money and invest the same. This, of course, from a practical point of view, was most inexpedient, for, as the most ordinary experi ence indicates, no estate can be at once converted into money without great loss. We find the English draughtsman, appar ently, at once stultifying himself by insert ing a proviso that the trustee may postpone conversion so long as such postponement may be advantageous in their opinion to the estate. What then is the object of the clause which directs an immediate conver sion of the trust estate? It is this: It has
