446 LEG 
or three broad. The eaft fide of it, which is expofed to 
the trade-wind, has a reef running to a confiderable 
breadth from it, on which the fea breaks with great vio¬ 
lence. It is a continuation of this reef that joins Lefooga 
to Foa, which is not above half a mile diftant; and at 
low water the natives can walk upon this reef, which is 
then parti}' dry, from the one ifland to the other. The 
Ihore here is either a coral rock fix or feven feet high, or 
a fandy beach ; but higher than the weft fide, which in 
general is not more than three or four feet from the level 
of the fea, with a fandy beach its whole length. Lat. 
19.49.S. Ion. 185. 40. E. 
LEFT, a town on the north coaft of the ifland of 
Kiffime : twelve miles north-eaft of Kiffime. 
LEFT, participle preter. of leave. —Were I left to my- 
felf, I would rather aim at inftrufting than diverting; 
but, if we will be ufeful to the world, we mull; take it as 
we find it. Addifon's SpeElator. 
Alas,'poor lady ! defolate and left ; 
I weep myfelf to think upon thy words. Shakefpeare. 
LEFT, adj. [ life , Dut . lavus, Lat.j Siniftrous ; not 
right.—That there is alfo in men a natural prepotency in 
the right, we cannot with conllancy affirm, if we make 
obfervation in children, who, permitted the freedom of 
both hands, do oft-times confine it unto the left, and are 
not without great difficulty reftrained from it. Brown's Vul¬ 
gar Errours. 
The right to Pluto’s golden palace guides ; 
The left to that unhappy region tends, 
Which to the depth of Tartarus defcends. Dryden. 
LEFT-HAN'DED, adj. Uling the left hand rather than 
right.—The limbs are ufed mod on the right-fide, whereby 
cuftom helpeth ; for we fee, that fome are left-handed, 
which are fuch as have ufed the left hand moft. Bacon. — 
[A latinifm.] Itiaufpicious—That would not be put off 
with left-handed cries. B Johnfo.Ts Epicatne. 
LEFT-HAN'DEDNESS, f. Habitual ufe of the left 
hand : 
Although a fquint left-handednefs 
B’ ungracious; yet we cannot want that hand. Donne. 
LEFT-HAN'DINESS.yi Aukward manner.—An auk- 
ward addrefs, ungraceful attitudes and aftions, and a 
certain left-handinefs (if I may ufe the expreffion), proclaim 
low education. Chejlerfield. 
LEFT-WIT'TED, adj. Miftaken : 
O I left-wilted, that purge ev’ry fpring 
For eholer! B. Johnfon's Horace. 
LEG, f. \_leg, Dan. leggur, Iflandic.] The limb by 
which we walk ; particularly that part between the knee 
and the foot.—Such intrigues people cannot meet with, 
who have nothing but legs to carry them. Addifon. 
Purging comfits, and ants’ eggs, 
Had almoft brought him off his legs. Hudibras. 
That by which any thing is fupported on the ground ; 
as, the leg of a table. 
To make a Leg. To bow with the leg drawn back.— At 
court, he that cannot make a leg, put off his cap, kifs his 
hand, and fay nothing, has neither leg, hands, lip, nor 
cap. Shakefpeare. —If the boy ihould not put off his hat, 
nor make legs very gracefully, a dancing-mafter will cure 
that deleft. Locke. 
Their horfes never give a blow, 
But when they make a leg, and bow. Hudibras. 
ToJlancl on his own Legs. To fupport himfelf.—Perfons 
of their fortune and quality could well have Jlood upon their 
own legs, and needed not to lay in for countenance and 
fupport. Collier. 
LEG'ABLE, adj. [from the Lat. legalilisj Unentailed, 
capable of being bequeathed as a legacy. Scott, 
LLG'ACY, J. fegatum, Lat.j Some particular thing 
LEG 
given by laft will and teftament.—Good counfel is the beft 
legacy a father can leave a child. L'Ef range. 
Fetch the will thither, and we fliall determine 
How to cut off fome charge in legacies. Shakefpeare. 
A bequeft or gift of goods and chattels by will or tef- 
tament, transfers an inchoate property to the legatee; but 
the legacy is not perfeft without the affent of the execu¬ 
tor; for, if one has a general or pecuniary legacy, of 100L 
or a fpecific one of a piece of plate, he cannot in either 
cafe take it without the confent of the executor: for in 
him all the chattels are verted ; and it is his bufinefs firft 
of all to fee, whether there is fufficient fum left to pay 
the debts of the teftator. Co. Lit. in. BraEl. 1 . a. c. 2.6. 
In cafe of a deficiency of alfets, all the general legacies 
mult abate proportionally, in order to pay the debts; but 
a fpecific legacy (of a piece of a plate, a horfe, or the like) 
is not to abate at all, or allow any thing by way of abate¬ 
ment, unlefs there be not fufficient without it. Upon the 
fame principle, if the legatees have been paid their lega¬ 
cies, they are afterwards bound to refund a rateable part, 
in cafe debts come in more than fufficient to exhauli the 
refidue after the legacies paid. 
If the legatee dies before the teftator, the legacy is a 
loft or lapfed legacy, and fliall fink into the refidue. And, 
if a contingent legacy be left to any one, as when lie attains, 
or if he attains, the age of twenty-one, and he dies be¬ 
fore that time, it is a lapfed legacy. But a legacy to one 
to be paid when he attains the age of twenty-one years, is 
a vefied legacy; and, if the legatee dies before that age, 
his reprefentatives fliall receive it out of the teftator’s per- 
fonal eftate, at the fame time that it would have become 
payable in cafe the legatee had lived. But, if fuch (con¬ 
tingent) legacies be charged upon a real eftate, in both 
cafes they ihall lapfe for the benefit of the heir; for, with 
regard to devifes affefting lands, the ecclefiaftical court 
hath no concurrent jurifdiftion. And, in cafe of averted 
legacy due immediately, and charged on land, or money 
in the funds, which yields an immediate profit, intsrefi fliall 
be payable thereon from the telfator’s death; but, if 
charged only on the perfon’s eftate, which cannot be im¬ 
mediately got in, it fliall carry intereft only from the end 
of the year after the death of the teftator. 
Befides the formal legacies contained in a man’s will 
and teftament, there is alfo permitted another difpofition 
of property; which is called Donatio causa mortis. 
See that article, vol. vii. p. 18. 
Some perfons are incapable of taking by legacy, under 
feveral ftatutes ; as in itat. 13 Will. III. c. 6, officers, 
counfellors, lawyers, See. not taking the oaths; and 5 
Geo. I. c. 27, artificers going abroad. See. See farther un¬ 
der the article Will. 
The executor is to pay the legacies after the debts; 
but executors cannot in equity pay their own legacies 
firft, where there is not enough to pay all of them, but 
fhall have an equal proportion with the reft of the legatees. 
See the article Executor, vol. vi. p. 112. 
As an executor is not obliged to pay a legacy without 
fecurity given him by the legatee to refund if there are 
debts, (becaufe the legacy is not due till the debts are 
paid ;) lb, in fome cafes, the executor may be compelled to 
give fecurity to the legatee for the payment of his legacy; 
as where a teftator bequeathed 1000I. to a perfon, to be 
paid at the age of twenty-one, and made an executor, and 
died ; afterwards the legatee exhibited a bill in equity 
againll the executor, fetting forth that he had wafted the 
eltate, and praying that he might give fecurity to pay the 
legacy when it fhould become due; and it was ordered 
accordingly. 
By various fiamp-afts, duties ad valorem have from time 
to time been impofed on receipts given for payment 
oflegacies; and thefe extend now as well to legacies fe- 
cured on real as on perfonal property. For the amount of 
thefe flamps the executor is made liable, and it is Iris duty 
not to pay a legacy without a receipt duly lumped. The 
1 ftamp 
