355 



where the Legislature intended the words '' charitable" or "religious'' 

 to embrace the idea of " literary" or " scientific" bodies. 



The court adopted the views of the complainants. " It was true," 

 they said, '' that the words of a statute are generally to be understood 

 in their usual and most known signification, not so much regarding 

 the propriety of grammar as their popular sense/' But when terms 

 of art or technical terms are used (and there is nothing in the statute 

 to show that they were used in a restricted or popular sense), '4hey 

 must be taken according to the acceptation of the learned in the art, 

 trade, or science," to which they properly belong. The court enter- 

 tained no doubt that the words were intended to embrace objects of 

 a religious, literary, and scientific character, as well as those which 

 related to the poor and afflicted. It was therefore decided that the 

 dispositions in the will were void ; and that the executors make dis- 

 tribution among the heirs and next of kin. 



It would scarcely be in place here to question this learned deci- 

 sion ; or, perhaps, even to examine into its bearing upon the will of 

 Mr. Gilpin. The friends of the deceased, however, and the public 

 at large, have made his bequests the topic of remark and discussion 

 from the time they were known. A^aluable institutions of literature, 

 science, and art, are deeply interested in the construction of them. 

 They are to take eifect in any event, only at what may be hoped is 

 a remote day, after the death of the wife and mother of the deceased, 

 whichever shall last occur. The significance of these bequests in 

 amount, the high character of the institutions "for which they are 

 designed, the characteristic public spirit and liberality breathed in 

 them, even the mystery which belongs to their future and distant 

 development, and the curiosity and concern naturally felt in the dis- 

 position of a large estate, different as it is from the more common 

 course of testamentary disposal, have combined to prompt and justify 

 a somewhat minute explanation. It is given in order that the friends 

 of the deceased and the public at large may be prepared to meet the 

 question, if it shall ever be formally agitated. It may not be wrong 

 to add, that, although no technical judgment has been pronounced, 

 yet sound legal minds are believed to have formed opinions favorable 

 to the complete and literal fulfilment of the expressed purposes of 

 the will. 



In recurring to the habits of Mr. Gilpin's life, and noticing sum- 

 marily its incidents, a combination will be found of devoted attention 

 to ofiicial duty in successive places of public employment, and of 

 readiness to turn to voluntary exercises, sometimes having public 



