ASSIGN AT 



ASSIGNMENT. 



(Tkkn, rol. vii. > Iniquitous this regu- 

 lation was, as employed solely in favour of the government, it would 

 neverthelea* have been meAVcUve if it* operation had been more 

 wide]r extended ; for the asotgnats, instead of being depreciated only a 

 fifth, tad now fallen to the 160U> put of their nominal value. The 

 taxes being levied in put only in commodities, And being chiefly paid 

 in |aper, produced scarcely anything to the government, which h.vl, 

 bowTr. undertaken the task of fading the city of Paris. Had it not 

 in fact furnuhrd something man olid than depreciated amignaU to 

 the fundholden and public functionaries, they miurt hare died of 

 starvation. Many, indeed, notwiUutanding the scanty and precarious 

 supplies furnished by the government, were threatened with the 

 horror* of famine ; and number* of penoni threw themselves every 

 evening into the Seine, in order to save themselves from this extre- 

 mity. (Storch, ' Economic P-.lit .' vol. iv. ]>. 168.) 



To such a state of utter pauperism hod the nation been reduced by 

 the mismanagement of its finance* and the ruin of public credit by the 

 excessive issues of paper, that when the five directors went to the 

 Luxembourg in October 1795, there was not a single piece of fumit un- 

 fa the office. The doorkeeper lent them a rickety table, a sheet of 

 letter-paper, and an inkstand, fa order to enable them to write their 

 first message to announce to the two councils of state that the Direc- 

 tory was established. There -was not a single piece of coin in the 

 treasury. The aarignats necessary for the ensuing day were printed fa 

 the night, and issued fa the morning wet from the press. Kven before 

 the entry of the directors into office, the Bum in circulation amounted 

 to 19,000 millions : a sum unheard of in the annals of financial pro- 

 fligacy. One of their first measure*, however, in order to procure 

 silver, was to issue 3000 millions in addition, which produced not much 

 more than 100 million francs. 



In tliu formidable state of things, the next measure adopted waa 

 worthy of the violent and short-sighted administration from which it 

 emanated. A forced loan of 600 millions was raised from the richest 

 classes, to be paid either in coin, or fa assignats at the hundredth part 

 of their nominal value. So that if the current paper was 20,000 

 million*, a payment of 200 millions would be sufficient to extinguish 

 the whole. The government, however, refused to sanction this prin- 

 ciple as against itself ; for fa laying the public creditor, it gave the 

 assignat the tenth part of its nominal value. The land-tax and the 

 duties fa farm were required to be paid half in kind and half in 

 assignats ; the custom-duties, half in corn and half in osgignats. In 

 the mean time, until the fund* produced by this loan, which was 

 enforced with great severity, could be at the disposition of the state, 

 the government went on issuing aasignats, till they had absolutely lost 

 all value, and had become waste paper. It therefore anticipated its 

 resources by issuing promissory notes payable in -i-<-<-ie, when the 

 forced loan should be collected, and with difficulty prevailed on 

 lonkera to discount them to the amount of 60 millions. At this time 

 the Directory gave up the task of supplying Paris with bread, and 

 allowed the bakers' shops ,to be opened as before : an exception being 

 made fa favour of the indigent, and of fundholders and public function- 

 aries whose annual incomes were not more than SOOO francs. The 

 I*yment of the loan, however, went on slowly, the produce of the 

 government bills was exhausted, and fresh funds were required. 

 Again the resource of assignats was resorted to, and in two months 

 the currency had been raised to 36,000 millions, by the issue of 20,000 

 millions, which even to the government were not worth the 200th 

 part of their nominal value. 



By this time some new financial expedient became necessary. It 

 was expected that, by paymeuti of taxes and of the forced loan to 

 the government, the paper in circulation would soon be reduced to 

 24,000 millions. It was therefore determined to make a new issue of 

 I|T, under the name of mandate, to the amount of 2400 million-. 

 Of thin sum 800 millions were to be employed fa extinguishing 24,000 

 millions of astigrrit*. which were to be token at a thirtieth part of 

 their legal value: 600 millions were to be allotted to the public 

 service, and the remainder retained in the public coffers. These 

 were to enable any ponton who was willing to pay the 

 value of any of the national lands to enter at once into 

 > ; and therefore the}- f urninhed a somewhat bettor security 

 than the aarignsts, as these could only be offered fa payment at sales 

 by auction ; and consequently the price of the lands rose in proportion 

 to the depreciation of the paper. The estimate of the lands having 

 been made in 1790, wan not true in 1795, at which time they had in 

 some cases lost a half, in others two-thirds or three-fourths of their 

 (riniT value. The mandat of 100 francs, however, at its first issue, 

 WM worth only fifteen francs in silver ; and the new pajxsr was soon so 

 much ducrvditnl that it never got into general circulation, and won 

 not able to drive out the coined money which wa* now almost uni- 

 versally employed fa transactions between individual*. The only 

 holder* of mandaU were speculators, who took them from the govern- 

 ment and sold them to punk-win of national lands. By thi* entire 

 discredit of the government-paper the prosperity l individuals had 

 been in some measure restored, and trade revived a little from its long 

 sleep. The government was destitute of all resource ; its agent* 

 received nothing but worthless |*tper. and refused any longer to do 

 their duties. The armies of the interior were fa a state of extreme 

 misery ; white those of Germany and Italy were maintained only from 



the countries where they were quartered. The military hospitals were 

 shut, the geos-d'armes were not paid or equipped, and the high roads 

 were infested with bands of robbers, who sometimes even ventured 

 into the towns. 



In a short time the government were forced to abandon the mandate, 

 as they had abandoned the assignata, and to declare that they should 

 be received in payment of taxes and national lands only at their real 

 value. Having fallen to near a seventieth of their ostensible value, 

 they were, fa the course of 1796, returned to the government in pay- 

 ment of taxes and for the purchase of lands; and with them ended the 

 revolutionary system of paper-money, which probably produced more 

 reading misery, more sudden changes from comfort to poverty, 

 more iniquity in transactions both between individual* and the govern- 

 ment, more loss to all persons engaged fa every department of industry 

 and trade, more discontent, disturbance, profligacy, and outrage, than 

 the massacres fa September, the war in La Vended, the proscripii"n> 

 in the provinces, and all the sanguinary violence of the Reign of 

 Terror. 



From the extinction of the mandate to the present time the legal 

 currency of France has been exclusively metallic. (Thiers, vol. viii. 

 pp. 85-9, 103-19, 158-62, 177, 183-91, 884-44, 428-4; Storch,- 

 d Boon. Pol., 1 vol. iv. p. 164.) 



A-MiiXKK OK BANKRUPT. [BANKRUPTCY.] 



.'INK.K OF BILL OF LADING. [Biu. OF LADING.] 



ASSIGNEE OF INSOLVENT DEBTOR'S ESTATE. [INSOL- 

 VENT DEBTOR.] 



ASSIGNEE OF A LEASE is the party to whom theVftofa interest 

 of the lessee is transferred by assignment, which assignment may be 

 made without the privity or consent of the lessor, unless the lessee is 

 expressly restrained by the lease from assigning over. The assignee 

 becomes liable to the lessor, from the date of the assignment, for the 

 payment of the rent and performance of the covenants in the lease ; 

 but such liability is limited to breaches of covenant during the exist- 

 ence of the assignee's interest, and may be got rid of by assigning over 

 all his interest, and this even to an insolvent ; for his liability, arising 

 only from jyririty of Mate, that is, from the actual enjoyment of 

 the premises leased, ceases with such enjoyment ; whereas the lessee 

 remains liable to the rent and covenants during the whole term. It 

 result* also from the circumstance of the assignee's liability arising 

 from privity of estatf, that he is not liable to mere personal covenants 

 which the lessee may have made with the lessor (as, for example, to 

 build on premises not demised, or to pay a sum of money fa gross), 

 but only to such covenants as run with the land, as for instance, 

 covenants to ]y rent, to repair, to reside on the demised premises, to 

 leave part of the land in posture, to insure premises situate within the 

 weekly bills of mortality, to build a new mill on the site of an old 

 one, &e. [COVENANT.] The assignee, in order to become liable to 

 the covenants, must take the whole estate and interest of the lessee ; 

 for if the smallest portion is reserved, he is merely an under-lessee, 

 and not responsible to the original lessor. The interest of the assignee 

 must also be a legal, not merely an equitable interest ; and therefore 

 if the lessee devise the premises leased to trustees fa trust for A B, 

 A B will not be chargeable as the assignee of the lessee's interest. 

 The interest must also be an interest in lands or tenements ; for if a 

 lease is made of chattels (as for instance, of sheep or cows, which 

 sometimes happens), and the lessee covenant for himself and his 

 assigns to re-deliver them, the assignee is not liable to the owner on 

 this covenant ; for there is no privity between the assignee and the. 

 owner. Buch privity only existing where the subject of the demise is 

 real estate. Wilmot, C. J., says, in Bally v. 11W/, " The covenant in 

 this case is not collateral; but the parties, that is, the lessor and 



assignee, are total strangers to each other, without any lin thread 



to unite and tie them together, and to constitute that privity which 

 must subsist between debtor and creditor to support an action." 

 (Wilmot, 845.) The assignee may acquire his interest by operation of 

 law as well as by on actual assignment from the lessee, anil th. i 

 tenant by rlryil, who has purchased a lease under an executor, is liable 

 as assignee to the lessor in respect of his privity of estate. [As to (he- 

 liability of assignees of bankrupt on the leases of the bankrupt, see 

 BANKRUPT.] 



ASSIGNMENT, : deed or in-n 'im, "t ol tHBstsT, '1 MNtfas 



words of which are usually ' assign, transfer, and set over.' ami which 

 passes both real and personal property. Estates for life :md estate* 

 for years are the principal real inton>ts which are passed by nn n 

 ment; and by the statute of Frauds and Perjuries (!!!' Cur. Ill the 

 assignment of such estate is re<|\mv.l to ! in writing. An .-is-ipimenl 

 differs from a lease, in being o transfer of tin* entire intci.-t ol the 

 lessor; whereas a lease is carved out of a greater estate, creat 

 lel.itionof landlord and tenant, and reserves to the lessor a reversion 

 after its expiration. If, however, a deed in effect passes the whole 

 interest of the tenant, it operates as an assignment, though it be in 

 form a lease, and though it reserve a rent. As if A having a term 

 of twenty years fa land, grant* to B the whole twenty years, reserving 

 a rent: in such case B is assignee of the wh .-id interest, 



and not under-lewce to A ; and A, for want of having any rev 



(uiiiot distrain for the rent (a distress being only enro al<l, where 



I has a reversion expectant on the determination of tho 

 ; i. A, in such case, can only sue B for tho rent as for money 



