M O R 
it; to well wet the materials ufed with it, or the ground 
on which it is laid, with the cementing liquor, at the 
time of laying it on ; and to ufe the cementing liquor 
for moiftening the cement and facilitating the floating 
of it. 
If a cement of a finer texture be required, take ninety- 
eight pounds of the fine fand, wet it with the cementing 
liquor, and mix it with the purified lime and the bone- 
a(h as above ; with this difference, that fifteen pounds of 
lime are to be ufed inftead of fourteen pounds, if the 
greater part of the fand be as fine as Lynn fand. This is 
called water-cement fine-grained ; and is ufed in giving the 
laft coating or the finifli to any work, intended to imitate 
the finer-grained ftones, or ftucco. 
More full information may be met w’ith on this curious 
and interefting fubjeft in the firft volume of Anderfon’s 
Eflays on Agriculture and Rural Affairs; in Doffie’s 
Memoirs of Agriculture, vol. ii. and in Sir Humphry 
Davy's Agricultural Chemiftry. Beealfothe Diflertation 
on Limes, in Crofoy’s Builder’s Price-Book, by Mr. John 
Phillips. 
MORTA'RA, a town of Italy, in the Lumelline: 
feven miles north of Lumello. 
MORTA'RIUM, /. See Morter. 
MOR'TE, a lake of the county of Tyrol: ten miles 
<aft of Trent. 
MORTE POIN'T, a cape of England, on the weft 
coaft of Devonlhire, at the entrance of the Briftol Channel. 
Lat. 51.10. N. Ion. 4. 8. W. 
MORTEAU', a town of France, in the department of 
the Doubs: twelve miles fouth-eaft of Pontarlier, and 
twenty-four eaft-fouth-ealt of Belan^on. 
MORTF.L'LO. See Martello, vol. xiv. p. 430. 
MORTEMA'RT, a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Upper Vienne: fix miles fouth-foutli-weft of 
Bellac. 
MOR'TER, an ifland in the Adriatic, near the coaft of 
Dalmatia; on it are the ruins of a town, fuppofed to be 
the ancient Colentum, about thirteen miles in circum¬ 
ference. The ifland is chiefly inhabited by linugglers 
and pirates. A few farmers cultivate vines, but olives 
are abundant. Lat. 43. 57. N. Ion. 15. 44. E. 
MOR'TER,/ [mortier, Fr.] A lamp or light; a cham¬ 
ber-lamp. Cotgrave. 
By that morter which that I fee brenne. 
Know I ful wel that day is not far henne. Chaucer. 
Chambers has it Mortere, a mortarium , a light or 
taper fet in churches, to.burn over the graves or Ihrines 
of the dead. 
MORTE'RO, a fmall ifland in the Mediterranean, near 
the coaft of Sardinia. Lat. 41.8. N. Ion. 9. 45. E. 
MORTERO'L, a town of France, in the department of 
the Upper Vienne : twelve miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Le 
Dorat. 
MOR'TES, a river of Brafil, which runs into the 
pBr3I13. 
MOR'TGAGE, f. [French.] A dead pledge; a thing 
put into the hands of a creditor.—The Romans do not 
leem to have known the fecret of paper-credit, and fecu- 
rities upon mortgages. Arbuthnot. 
The eftate runs out, and mortgages are made. 
Their fortune ruin’d, and their fame betray’d. Dryden. 
The ftate of being pledged.—The land is given in mort- 
gage only, with full intention to be redeemed within one 
year. Bacon's Off. of Alienation. 
Mortgage, in law, is an obligation, whereby lands 
or tenements of a debtor are pawned or bound over to the 
creditor for money, or other effedts, borrowed ; peremp¬ 
torily to be the creditor’s for ever, if the money be not re¬ 
paid at the day agreed on. In this fenfe, mortgage, in the 
common law, amounts to much the lame with hypotheca 
in the civil law. The creditor, holding Inch land on fuch 
agreement, is in the mean time called tenant in mortgage. 
He, who lays the pawn or gage, is called the mortgager ; 
m o 11 m 
and he that takes it, the mortgagee. If a mortgage in¬ 
cludes exceffive ufury, it is prohibited by the ftatute 37 
Hen. VIII. 
The French fometimes ufe the word mortgage in the 
fame fenle in their language ; where it Hands in contra- 
diftimffion to a Ample contrail, which does not carry with 
it the mean profits, and which they call vif-gage, life- 
pledge. 
Glanville defines mortgage, mortuum vadium, to be that 
ci jus fruRusvel reditusinterim percepti in nullofe acquietant. 
Thus, it is called mortgage, i. e. “ dead gage,” of mort, 
death, and gage, pledge ; becaufe, whatever profit it 
yields, yet it redeems not itfelf by yielding fuch profit, ex¬ 
cept the whole fum borrowed belikewife paid at the day; 
the mortgager being by covenant to receive the profits till 
default of payment. Others hold it called mortgage, be- 
caute, if the money be not paid at the day, the land, mori- 
tur, “dies” to the debtor, and is forfeited to creditor. 
Thus, if a man borrows of another a fpecific fum(e. g. 200I.) 
and grants him an eftate in fee, on condition that if he, 
the mortgager, fhall repay the mortgagee the faid fum on 
a certain day mentioned in the deed, that then the mort¬ 
gager may re-enter on the eftate fo granted in pledge; or, 
as is now the more ufual way, that the mortgagee lhall re¬ 
convey the eftate to the mortgager; in this cafe, the land, 
which is fo put in pledge, is by law, in cafe of non-pay¬ 
ment at the time limited, for ever dead and gone from the 
mortgager; and the mortgagee’s eftate in the lands is then 
no longer conditional, but abfolute. But, as it was for¬ 
merly a doubt (Litt. 357. Cro. Car. 191.) whether by tak¬ 
ing fuch eftate in fee it did not become liable to the wife’s 
dower, and other incumbrances of the mortgage, though 
that doubt has been long ago over-ruled by our courts of 
equity, (Hard. 466.) it therefore became ufual to grant 
only a long term of years, by way of mortgage; with con¬ 
dition to be void on re-payment of the mortgage-money ; 
which courfe has been lince pretty generally continued, 
principally becaufe, on the death of the mortgagee, fuch 
term becomes vefted in his perfbnal reprefentatives, who 
alone are intitled in equity to receive the money lent, of 
whatever nature the mortgage may happen to be. As 
foon as the eftate is created, the mortgagee may immedi¬ 
ately enter on the lands ; but is liable to be difpoflefled, 
upon performance of the condition by payment of the 
mortgage-money at the day limited. And, therefore, the 
ufual way is to agree, that the mortgager lhall hold the 
land till the day alfigned for payment; when, in cafe of 
failure, whereby the eftate becomes abfolute, the mort¬ 
gagee may enter upon it and take pofleflion, without any 
pollibility, at law, of being afterwards evicted by the 
mortgager, to whom the land is now for ever dead. But 
here again the courts of equity interpofe; and, though a 
mortgage he thus forfeited, and the eftate abfol utely vefted 
in the mortgagee, at the common law, yet they will con- 
fider the real value of the tenement compared with the 
fum borrowed. And, if the eftate be of greater value 
than the fum lent thereon, they will allow the mortgager, 
at any reafonable time, (lefs than 20 years,) to recal or re¬ 
deem his eftate; paying to the mortgagee his principal, 
intereft, and expenfes ; for, otherwife, in ftriftnefs of law, 
an eftate worth ioooi. might be forfeited for non-pay¬ 
ment of 100I. or a lefs fum. This reafonable advantage, 
allowed to mortgagers, is called the equity of redemption. 
And this enables a mortgager to call on the mortgagee, 
who has pofleflion of his eftate, to deliver it back, and 
account for the rents and profits received, on payment of 
his whole debt and intereft; thereby turning the mortuum 
into a kind of vivum vadium. But, on the other hand, the 
mortgagee may either compel the fale of the eftate, in or¬ 
der to get the whole of his money immediately, or elfe 
call upon the mortgager to redeem his eftate prelently, or 
in default thereof to be for ever foreclofcd from redeem¬ 
ing the fame, i. e. to lofe his equity of redemption with- . 
out pollibility of recal. And alio in fome cafes of fraudu¬ 
lent mortgages, fpecified in 4 & 5 W. and M. c. 16. the frau¬ 
dulent mortgager forfeits all equity of redemption what- 
j foeven 
