X LIMITATION OF STATE FUNCTIONS 155 



itself with carrying out the whims of every man (whether 

 he be sage or fool) who may wish to make his relations 

 or successors subject to his orders in the application of 

 property no longer his, is a positive wrong to the com- 

 munity, inasmuch as it is incompatible with the perform- 

 ance of duties of a paramount nature. What the law 

 may do, and all that it should do, is, to recognize and 

 enforce gifts or transfers of property of all kinds, to living 

 individuals, absolutely. It should utterly refuse to recog- 

 nize any desires, whims, or fancies of individuals as to 

 the applications of the property, or any limitation to the 

 future owner's absolute possession of it. It should not 

 even recognize any alternative applications of the property 

 in the case of the death of the legatee before that of the 

 testator, who could in that case have altered his will, and 

 if he has not done so the legacy should pass to the legal 

 representatives of the legatee. Property should always 

 be considered by the law to be in the possession of some 

 person absolutely, who can transfer it to another person 

 absolutely, but cannot enforce any stipulations whatever 

 as to the use of it on the next owner. Life interests in 

 landed and other property, with all their attendant evils, 

 would thus never exist. 



The wishes of the donor or testator of property, although 

 not a proper subject for the interference of the law, could 

 be in many cases carried out by means of what may be 

 termed a voluntary and amicable trust. The trustee (who 

 would be really the legatee) would be chosen on account 

 of friendship, integrity, and sympathy with the objects 

 and desires of the testator, and he would give just so 

 much effect to those desires as his reason and his conscience 

 impelled him to give. The law would consider him only 

 as the owner of the property, and would in no way 

 interfere with the manner in which he thought proper 

 to interpret the wishes of his friend. To provide for 

 children and minors, property might be either left 

 absolutely to their nearest relative or friend to stand to 

 them in loco parentis, or it might be left to themselves, in 

 which case an officer of the court would be their official 

 trustee, and would prevent any misappropriation of their 



