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of mortar. The hardness and dissolving power of that, substance |"re particularly to be attended to. As copper is a soil metal, so- jiuble bv almost all menstrunms, and hurtful,to health, good artists ihav e some lime ago proscribed the use of this metal. One of the !principal inconveniences of pulverisation in a mortar proceeds;from the line powder which rises abundantly from some substances :during the operation. If these subslances be precious, tire loss j"ill be considerable ; and if they be injurious to health, they may fhurt the operator. These inconveniences may be remedied, Iyither by covering the mortar with a skin, in the middle of which >>s a hole, through u liich the pestle passes, or by moistening the j■natter with a little waier when tills addition does not injure it; j°r> lastly, by covering tiie mouth and nose of the operator with adue cloth, to exclude this powder. Some substances, as corro-sive sublimate, arsenic, calves of lead, cantharides, euphorbium,&c. are so noxious, that all these precautions ought to be used,particularly when a large quantity cf them is pounded. Largeuiortars ought to be fixed upon a block of wood, so high, that the■nortar shall be level with the middle of the operator. When thepestle is large and heavy, it ought to be suspended by a cord orehain fixed to a moveable poi •, placed horizontally above the■"orlar : this pole considerably relieves the operator, because itsElasticity assists the raising of the pestle.

Mortar, or Mortar-piece, in the military art, is a shortPiece of ordnance, thick and wide, proper for throwing bombs,carcases, shells, stones, bags tilled with grape-shot, &c. See Pro-jectiles.

Mortars, Land, are those used in sieges, and of late in bat-tles, mounted on beds made of solid timber, consisting generallycf four pieces, those of the royal and cohorn excepted, which arecut one single block ; and both mortar and bed are transported on■■lock-carriages.

MORTGAGE, in English law, [inortuum vadium, Lat. orc ‘ e ad pledge,] is where a man borrows of another a specific sum( e - g. 200/.), and grants him an estate in fee, on condition that if" e , the mortgager, shall pay the mortgagee the said sum of 2001.°u a certain day mentioned in the deed, that then the mortgager•nay re-enter on the estate so granted in pledge ; or, as is now the•’■ore usual way, that the mortgagee shall re-convey the estate topc mortgager: in tiiis case the land which is so put in pledge, is">’ law, in case of nonpayment at the time limited, for ever dead3>id gone from the mortgager; and the mortgagee’s estate in thepuds is then no longer conditional, but absolute. But so long as"• continues conditional, that is, between the time of lending theC’oiley and the time allotted for payment, the mortgagee is called| en ant in mortgage. But as it was formerly a doubt, whether, byM'lig such estate in fee, it did not become liable to the wife’sCower, and other incumbrances of the mortgage (though that doubtpSjbeen long ago over-ruled by our courts of equity,) it, therefore,“ e came usual to grant only a long term of years, by way of mort-® a ge ; with condition to he void on repayment of the mortgage-Utoney; which course has been since continued, principally be-?‘}Use on the death of the mortgagee such term becomes vested inlts personal representatives, who alone are intituled in equity to re-vive the inonev lent, of whatever nature the mortgage may hap-Peu to be. As "soon as the estate is created, the mortgagee may‘"■mediately enter on the lands ; but is liable to be dispo-sessed,U P°U performance of the condition by payment of the mortgage-money at the day limited. And therefore the usual way is to?S r ee that the mortgager shall hold the land till the day assigned?■ payment; when in case ot failure, whereby the estate becomesyolute, the mortgagee may enter upon it and take possession,■thout any possibility at law of being allerwards evicted by theortgager, to whom the land is now for ever dead. But hereSain the courts of equity interpose; and though a mortgage be'«s forfeited, and the estate absolutely vested in the mortgageethe common law, yet they will consider the real value of the^ "einents compared with the sum borrowed. And if the estatee °f greater value than the sum lent thereon, they will allow the°rtg a g er at any reasonable time to recal or redeem his estate;a ying tothe mortgagee his principal, interest, and expences: forf Q .'/fwise, in strictness of law, an estate worth 1000/. might be^■filled for non-payment of 100/. or a less sum. This reasonabletj Vatl Gge allowed to mortgagers, is called the equity of redemp-11 > and this enables a mortgager to call on the mortgagee, who

has possession of his estate, to deliver it back, and account for therents and profits received on payment of his whole debt and interest,thereby turning the mortuum into a kind of vivum vadium. SeeVadium. But, on the other hand, the mortgagee may eithercompel the sale of the estate, in order to get the whole of hismoney immediately ; or else call upon the mortgager to redeemhis estate presently, or in default thereof, to be for ever foreclosedfrom redeeming the same ; that is, to lose his cqu.ly of redemptionwithout possibility of recall. And also, in some cases of fraudulentmortgages, the fraudulent mortgager forfeilstall equity of redemptionwhatsoever. It is not, however, usual for mortgagees to take posses-sion of the mortgaged estate, unless where the security is precarious,or small ; or where the mortgager neglects even the payment <finterest: when the mortgagee is often obliged to bring an eject-ment, and take the land into his own hands, in the nature of apledge, or the pignus of the Roman law: whereas, while it re-mains in the hands of 'the mortgager, it more resembles their hv-polheca, which was where the possession of the thing pledged re-mained with the debtor. But by statute 7 Geo. 11. e. 20, afterpayment or tender by the mortgager of principal, interest, andcosts, the mortgagee can maintain no ejectment; but may be com-pelled to re-assign his securities. In Glanvil’s time, when the uni-versal method of conveyance was by livery of seisin or corporaltradition of the lands, no gage or pledge ot lands was good unlesspossession was also delivered to the creditor ; si non sequatur ipsimsvadii traditio, curia domini regis hujusmodi privatas conventionestueri non solet; for which the reason given is, to prevent subse-quent and fraudulent pledges of the same land; cum in tali casupossit eadem res pluribus aliis crediloribus turn prius turn posteriusinvadiari. And the frauds which have arisen, since the exchangerof these public and notorious conveyances for more private andsecret bargains, have well evinced the wisdom of the ancientlaw.

MORTIER, an ensign of dignity, born by the late chancellorand grand presidents of the parliament of France . That born bythe chancellor was a piece of cloth of gold, edged and turned upwith ermine; and that of the tir-t president a piece of black vel-vet edged with a double row'of gold-lace, while those of the otherpresidents were only edged with a single row. These they car-ried on their heads, in grand ceremonies, such as the entry of theking; but ordinarily they carried them in their hands.

MORTIE1CATION, in medicine and surgery, a total ex-tinction of the natural heat of the body, or a part thereof. Sonicdefine mortification a disease, wherein the natural juices of anypart quite lose their proper motion ; and thus fall into a fermen-tative one, and corrupt and destroy the texture of tile part. SecSurgery.

Mortification, in religion, is any severe penance observed ona religion^ account. The practice has been very ancient and al-most universal. See Fast.

MORTISE, or MORTOISE, in carpentry, is a kind of jointwherein a hole of a certain depth is made in a piece of timber,which is to receive another piece called a tenon.

MORTMAIN, or ALIENATION in MORTMAIN, [fnmortua munu, Lat.] is an alienation ot lands or tenements to any'corporation, sole or aggregate, ecclesiastical or temporal. Butthese purchases having been chiefly made by religious houses, inconsequence whereof the lands become perpetually inherent inone dead hand, this occasioned the general appellation of the termmortmain to he applied to such alienations, and the religioushouses themselves to be principally considered in forming thestatutes of mortmain: in deducing the history of which statutes,it is curious to observe the great addressund subtle contrivance of theecclesiastics in eluding from time to lime the laws in being,ami thezeal with which successive parliaments have pursued them thromdiall their finesses: how new remedies were still the parents of newevasions; till the legislature at last, though with difficulty, have ob-tained a decisive victory. By the common law any man mightdispose of his lands to any other private man at his own discretionespecially when the feoda'l restraints of alienation were worn away!“ Yet (says Blackstoue,) in consequence ot these it was always,and is still, necessary, for corporations to have a licence of mort-main from the crown, to enable them to purchase lands, for as theking is the ultimate lord of every fee, he ought not, unless by hisown consent, to lose his privilege of escheats and other feodal

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