M O P, 
M O 11 
22 S 
MOR 
*>f Mortality, which wore much enlarged in 
subsequent editions, bir William Petty, in 
1083; made considerable use of the infor- 
mation afforded by them, in his Political 
Arithmetic. In 1742, Mr. T. Simpson 
published his Treatise on Annuities, in which 
he inserted a table formed by Mr. Smart 
from the London bills of mortality, with some 
corrections which appeared necessary : in 
1740, Mr. De Parcieux, in an Essai sur les 
Probabilities de la Vie humaine, made some 
objections to Mr. Simpson’s alterations in the 
London bills, but without sufficient foun- 
dation ; and in 1752, Mr. Simpson, in a sup- 
plement to his Treatise on Annuities, made 
use of the same table from the London bills, 
but adapted to a different radix. In 1769, 
Dr. Price published his treatise on Rever- 
sionary Payments, in which, particularly in 
the subsequent editions, many valuable ob- 
servations are to be found on the bills of mor- 
tality of different places, and very accurate 
tables are given of the expectation of life, and 
the value of annuities, accoi ding to these bills. 
Dr. Price remarks, that in every place 
which just supports itself in the number of 
its nhabitants, without any recruits irom 
other places ; or where, for a course of years, 
there has been no increase or decrease, the 
number of persons dying every year at any 
particular age, and above it, must be equal 
to the number of the living at that age. The 
number, for example, dying every year, at 
all ages, from the beginning to the utmost 
extremity of life, must, in such situation, be 
just equal to tne whole number born every 
year. And for the same reason, the number 
dying every year at one year of age and up- 
wards, at two years of age and upwards, at 
three and upwards, and so on, must be equal 
to the numbers that attainto those ages every 
year; or, which is the same, to the numbers 
of the living at those ages. It is obvious, that 
unless this happens, the number of inhabi- 
tants cannot remain the same; it follows,, 
therefore, that in a town or country, where 
there is no increase or decrease, bills of mor- 
tality which give the ages at which all die, 
will shew the exact number of inhabitants; 
and also the- exact law, according to which 
human life wastes in that town or country. 
In order to find the number of inhabitants, 
the mean numbers dying annually at every 
particular age and upwards, must be taken as 
given by the bills, and placed under one an- 
other in the order of the second column : see 
Tablet, article Expectation. These num- 
bers will be the numbers of the living at 1, 2, 
3, &c. years of age ; and, consequently, the 
sum, diminished by half ; he number boraannu- 
ally, will be the whole number of inhabitants. 
The bills of mortality, in some parts of 
Great Britain, are known to be materially 
defective ; the deficiencies may chiefly be 
ascribed to the following circumstances: 1. 
Many congregations of dissenters, inhabiting 
towns, have their -own peculiar burying- 
grounds; as have the Jews, and the Roman 
Catholics, who reside in London. 2. Some 
persons, from motives of poverty or conveni- 
ence, inter their dead without any religious 
ceremony; this is known to happen in the 
metropolis, in Bristol, and Newcastle-upon- 
Tyne, and may happen in a few other large 
towns. 3. Children who die before bap- 
tism are interred without any religious cere- 
mony, and consequently are not registered. 
You II. 
4, Negligence may be supposed to cause 
some omissions in the registers, especially in 
those small benefices, where the officiating 
minister is not resident. 5. Many persons 
employed in the army and in navigation die 
abroad, and consequently their burials re- 
main unregistered. Whatever may be the 
total number of deaths and burials, which 
from these several circumstances are not 
brought to account, it has been computed 
that about 5000 of them may be attributed 
to the metropolis, and a large portion of the 
rest may be ascribed to the other great 
towns, and to Wales, where the registers are 
less carefully kept than in England. 
The annual amount of the burials, as col- 
lected conformably to the population act, 
authorizes a satisfactory inference of dimi- 
nishing mortality in England since the year 
1780; the number of marriages and baptisms, 
indicates that the existing population in 1801, 
was to that of 1780, as 1 17 to 100, while the 
amount of registered burials remained sta- 
tionary during the same period ; the first five 
years of which, as well as the last live years, 
and all the 21 years taken together, equally 
averaged about. 1 36,000 per annum. 
The whole number of baptisms, collected 
for the purposes of the population act, was 
6,436,110; of these 3,285,188 were males, 
and 3,150,922 females; so that the baptisms 
of males were 10,426 to 10,000 baptisms of 
females. The whole number of the burials 
appeared to be 5,165,844; of which 2,575,762 
were males, and 2,590,082 females, so 
that the burials of males were 9,944 to 10,000 
burials of females. It may be interred hence, 
that of 10,426 males born in England, only 
9,944 die at home; therefore, about one in 
twenty-two dies abroad in the employments 
of war and commerce ; a proportion which 
strongly marks the enterprising character of 
the nation. 
MORTAR-piecf., a short piece of ord- 
nance, considerably thick and wide ; serving 
to throw bombs, carcases, fire-pots, &c. See 
Gunnery. 
MORTGAGE, signifies a pawn of land or 
tenement, or any thing immoveable, laid or 
bound for money borrowed, to be the credi- 
tor’s for ever, if the money is not paid at 
the day agreed upon ; and the creditor 
holding land and tenement upon this bargain, 
is called tenant in the mortgage. He who 
pledges this pawn, or gage, is called the mort- 
gaged', and he who takes it, the rnortagee. 
The last and best improvement of mortgages 
seems to be„ that in the mortgage-deed of a 
term for years, or. in the assignment there- 
of, the mortgageor should covenantfor himself 
and his heirs, that if default is made in the 
payment of the money at the day, then he 
and his heirs will, at the costs of the mort- 
gagee and his heirs, convey the freehold and 
inheritance of the mortgaged lands to the 
mortgagee and his heirs, or to such person or 
persons (to prevent merger of the term) as he 
or they shall direct and appoint : for the re- 
version, after a term of fifty or a hundred years, 
being little worth, and yet the mortgagee 
for want thereof continuing but a termer, and 
subject to a forfeiture, &c. and not capable of 
the privileges of a freeholder; therefore when 
the mortgageor cannot redeem the land, it is 
but reasonable the mortgagee should have 
the whole interest and inheritance of it to 
dispose ©fit as absolute owner. 3 Bac. Abr, 633. 
F f 
Although after breach of the condition, 
an absolute fee-simple is vested at common 
law in the mortgagee ; yet a right of redemp- 
tion being still inherent in the land, till the 
equity of redemption is foreclosed, the same 
right shall descend to, and is invested in, such 
persons as had a right to the land, in case 
there had been no mortgage or incumbrance 
whatsoever ; and as an equitable perform- 
ance as effectually defeats the interests of the 
mortgage, as the legal performance does at 
common law, the condition still hanging over 
the estate till the equity is totally foreclosed; 
on this foundation it has been held that a 
person who comes in under a voluntary con- 
veyance, may redeem a mortgage; and though 
such right of redemption is inherent in tiie 
land, yet the party claiming the benefit of it, 
must not only set forth such right, but also shew 
that lie is the person entitled to it. Hard. 465. 
But if a mortgage is forfeited, and thereby 
the estate absolutely vested in the mortgagee 
at common law, yet a court of equity will 
consider the real value of the tenements, com- 
pared with the sum borrowed. And if the 
estate is of greater value than the sum lent 
thereon, they will allow the mortgageor, at'any 
reasonable time, to recal or redeem the estate, 
paying to the mortgagee his principal, interest, 
and costs. This reasonable advantage, al- 
lowed to the mortgageors, is called the equi- 
ty of redemption. 2 Black. 159. 
It is a rule established inequity, analogous 
to the statute of limitation, that after twenty 
years possession of the rnortagee, he shall 
not be disturbed, unless there are extraordi- 
nary circumstances; as in the case of femos 
covert, infants, and the like. 3 Atk. 313. 
MORTISE, or Mortoise, in carpentry, 
&c. a kind of joint, wherein a hole of a certain 
depth is made in a piece of timber, which is 
to receive another piece called a tenon. 
MORTMAIN, signifies an alienation of 
lands and tenements, to any guild, corpora- 
tion, or fraternity, and their successors, as 
bishops, parsons, vicars, &c. which may not 
be done without the king’s licence, and the 
lord of the manor ; or of the king alone, if it 
is immediately holden of him. 
But in order to prevent any imposition in 
respect to the disposal of lands to charitable 
uses, which might arise in a testator’s last hours, 
and in some measure, from political principles, 
to restrain clevises in mortmain, or the too gre..t 
accumulation of land in hands where it lies 
dead, and not subject to change possession, it 
is provided by stat. 9 G. II. c, 36, (called th® 
statute of mortmain), that no manors, lands, 
tenements, rents, advowsons, or other heredit- 
aments, corporeal or incorporeal, whatsoever, 
nor any sum or sums of money, goods, chat- 
tels, stocks in the public funds, securities for 
money, or other personal estate whatsoever, 
to be laid out or disposed of in the purchase 
of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, 
shall be given, limited, or appointed by will, to 
any person or persons, bodies politic or cor- 
porate, or otherwise for any estate or interest 
whatsoever ; or any ways charged or incum- 
bered by any person or persons whatsoever, 
intrust, or for the benefit of any charitable 
use whatsoever ; but such gift shall be by 
deed indented, sealed and delivered in the 
presence of two or more credible witnesses, 
twelve calendar months at least before the 
debt of such donor, and beinrolled in the high 
eourt of chancery within six calendar, months 
