MOK 
atice lias tlie same equity of rudcmptiuu as 
tlie mortgagor. Although therefore the 
mortgage is forfeited, yet a court of equity 
will allow the mortgagor at any reasonable 
time, to recal or redeem the estate, paying 
the principal, interest, and costs. This 
however is not allowed if the mortgagee 
has been twenty years in possession. The 
heir at law may have the mortgage redeem- 
ed out of the personal assets in the first 
place, as far as they will extend- This pri- 
vilege is also allowed to the person to 
whom land mortgaged is devised. Where 
a mortgagor conceals prior incumbrances 
upon making a second mortgage, he loses 
the equity of redemption. .Stat. 1 and 5 
William and Mary, c. 16. Where a mort- 
gage is made, the mortgagee should have 
the title deeds, as under some circumstances 
it has been held in equity that a subsequent 
mortgagee who has tlie title deeds of the 
mortgagor shall have a prior claim. A 
third mortgagee also who buys up the first 
mortgagee will be preferred to the second, 
if he had no notice of the second. By stat. 
7 Geo. II. c. 20, where an action is brought 
to recover money due on mortgage, or an 
ejectment to get into the' possession of the 
lands, if tlie defendant appears, and within 
six inontlis pays the debt, interest, and costs, 
the writ shall be staid. And where a bill 
is filed in equity by the mortgagee to com- 
pel the mortgagor, either to pay off the 
mortgage, or be foreclosed, or prevented 
from having his equity of redemption, the 
like time is allowed, and afterwards the 
estate is absolutely foreclosed. But the 
act does not extend to cases where the- 
mortgagor disputes the validity or fairness 
of the mortgage. By stat. 14 Geo. III. 
c. 79, sect. 2, estates in the West Indies 
may be mortgaged here at West India inte- 
rest. A remainder man may foi ce the tenant 
in tail to keep down the interest, but not to 
redeem a mortgage. 
MORTMAIN, signifies an alienation of 
lauds and tenements, to any corporation, 
and their successors, as bishops, parsons, 
vicars, &c. which is restrained in Magna 
Charta, and cannot be done without the 
King's licence. The disposing of property 
to hospitals is allowed by 35 Eliz. c. 6, and 
various enactments have been made to pre- 
vent the influence of priests and crafty men 
from taking advantage of the last hours of 
the lives of weak devotees, by obtaining 
gifts in mortmain or perpetuity. The chief 
of these is tlie stat. 9 Geo. II. c. 36, (called 
the statute of mortmain) that no manors. 
MOR 
lands, tenements, rents, advowsons, or otlier 
hereditaments, corporeal, or incoiporeal, 
whatsoever, nor any sum or sums of money, 
goods, chattels, stocks in the public funds, 
securities for money, or other personal 
estate wliatsoever, to be laid out or disposed 
of in the purchase of any lands, tenements, 
or Ifereditaments, shall be given, limited, 
or appointed by will, to any person or per- 
sons, bodies politic or corporate, or other- 
wise, for any estate or interest whatsoever, 
or any ways charged or incumbered by any 
person or persons whatsoever, in trust, or 
for the benefit of any charitable use what- 
soever ; but such gift shall be by deed, in- 
dented, sealed, and delivered in the pre- 
sence of two or more credible witnesses, 
twelve calendar months at least, before the 
death of such donor, and be iurolled in the 
high Court of Chancery, within six calendar 
months after execution, and the same to 
take effect immediately after the execution 
for the charitable use intended, and be 
without any power of revocation, reserva- 
tion, on trust for benefit of the donor. And 
by the fourtli section all gifts or incum- 
brances otherwise made are void. This 
act however does not extend to prevent 
the making bequests, merely of money, to 
charitable uses, and it is much to be feared 
that certain fanatics, who are what the 
monks were formerly, have taken advantage 
of this, to obtain great bequests of property 
to improper purposes. In the Evangelical 
Magazine is published frequently a form of a 
bequest for the encouragement of Calvi- 
nistic Methodism. 
MORUS, in botany, mulberry tree, a ge- 
nus of the Monoecia Tetrandria class and 
order. Natural order of Scabrid®. Urtic®, 
Jussieu. Essential character : male, calyx 
four parted ; corolla none : female, calyx 
four- leaved ; corolla none ; styles two ; calyx 
becoming a berry; seed one. There are 
seven species, of which we shall notice the 
M. papyiifera, paper mulberry tree. The 
inhabitants of Japan make paper of the 
bark ; they cultivate tlie trees for this pur- 
pose on the mountains, much after the same 
manner as osiers are cultivated with us, 
cutting down the young shoots in Decem- 
ber, after the leaves are fallen ; these being 
divided into rods of three feet in lengtli, are 
gatliered into bundles to be boiled ; they 
are placed erect and close in a large cop- 
per, properly closed, and the boiling conti- 
nued till tlie separation of the bark shews 
the naked wood, after which, by a longitu- 
dinal incision, the bark is stripped off, and 
