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sons for the discovery of moneys paid after notice of a sequestration. (1)

So it lies for a discovery of concealment of a bankrupt's estate. (m)

So a defendant, a lessee, has been compelled to discover whether his lease was expired or not. (n)

So it lies for a person in possession as tenant, or otherwise, for the discovery of the title of one bringing an ejectment against him. (0)

So it lies for goods put on board a ship, though insured for a sum certain, interest or no interest, for the value of the goods saved ought to be deducted out of the sum to be paid for insurance (p)

So it lies for the discovery of assets. (q)

And in like manner for wine imported. (r)

A bill will not lie to compel a purchaser for a valuable consideration, without notice of the plaintiff's title, to make a discovery. (s)

A barrister, or a counsellor, or an attorney, is not bound to discover things communicated to them in the line of their profession. (1)

No person can be compelled to give a discovery that may subject him to a prosecution for felony, or to answer what is a matter of scandal, or what may lead to a legal accusation, or to what may subject him to a penalty, and not merely what must, or to any thing in the nature of a penalty or forfeiture. (u)

A Bill Quia timet.

A bill of quia timet is brought when a person being seised of lands in fee, grants a rent-charge issuing

thereout, and afterwards devises the land to B. for life, the remainder to C. in fee, and dies; C. may compel B. to pay the arrears, for fear all should fall on C. in reversion, although it was urged that this was a remote possibility. (a)

So if A. is bound for B. and has a counter bond from B. and the money is become payable on the original bond, equity will compel B. to pay the debt, though A. is not sued, for it is unreasonable that a man should have such a cloud hanging over him. (b)

A bill was brought to deliver up an apprentice's bond and indentures, he being out of his mind, and it was ordered that the master do either bring his action within a year, or deliver up the bond and indentures; for if it were at the master's choice to stay so long as he pleased, he would, perhaps, stay till the apprentice's witnesses were dead.(c)

So where the defendant's testator gave the plaintiff 1000l. to be paid at the age of 21 years, the bill suggested, that the defendant who was executor, wasted the estate, and therefore, the plaintiff prayed that he might give security for the payment of the legacy at such time as it should become due, which the master of the rolls decreed accordingly. (d)

So where A. had the use of goods and a library for life, remainder to the plaintiff's wife, who was dead, but the plaintiff, as her administrator, brought his bill to have the goods and library secured to him after the death of A. which was declared accordingly. (e)

A Bill of Peace.

This species of bill is held to be a bill proper to be exhibited in a court of equity. (a)

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A court of equity, to prevent a multiplicity of suits, will direct an issue to determine the right of all, says Chancellor Hardwicke; for there would be no end of bringing actions of trespass, since each action would determine only the particular right in question, between the plaintiff and the defendant. (b)

A bill to establish a custom in the case of a common person, must regularly be founded on a trial at law; for when the right is settled it becomes a bill of peace.(c)

Where the bill is founded on an express grant of toll, though the rise of the toll cannot be known, yet the suit being brought on the ground of the toll, it is in the nature of a bill of peace. (d)

Plaintiff brought his bill, in order to establish a right to an oyster fishery, and be quieted in the possession of it, against the defendant, who claimed the pieces of ground where the fishery was, as belonging to his manor. The defendant demurred to the bill, as it was a matter properly triable at law.

Lord Hardwicke. Undoubtedly there are some cases in which a man may, by a bill of this kind, come into this court first; and there are others, where he must establish his right at law.

It is certain where a man sets up a general exclusive right, and where the persons who controvert it with him are very numerous, and he cannot by one or two actions at law quiet that right, he may come into this court first by a bill which is called a bill of peace, and the court will direct an issue to determine the right, as disputes between lords of manors and their tenants, and between tenants of one manor and another; there would be no end of bringing actions of trespass, since each action would determine only the particular

right in question between the plaintiff and defendant. As to the case of the corporation of York and Sir Lionel Pilkington, the plaintiffs there were in possession of the right of fishing upon the river Ouze for nine miles together and had constantly governed that right, and as this large jurisdiction entangled them with different lords of manors, it would be endles for the corporation to have brought actions at law. Vide infra.

But when a question about a right of fishing is only between two lords of manors, neither of them can come into this court till the right is first tried at law. (e) Therefore the demurrer must be allowed.

A Bill of Information by the Attorney-General. This bill is instituted in behalf of the state, or of those whose rights are the objects of its protection and care; it is commenced by information, exhibited in the name of the Attorney-General, and differs from other bills little more than in name, as will appear by the introductory part, which is as follows:

To the Honourable, &c. &c.

Informing sheweth unto your Honor A. B. Esquire, the Attorney-General of this state, at and by the relation of C. D. of the city and county of New-York that &c. &c. And the said Attorney-General by relation aforesaid, further sheweth, &c. &c. In consideration whereof, &c. To the end therefore, &c. precisely as in the original bill.

If the suit does not immediately concern the rights of the state, it is conducted at the instance and under the immediate direction of some person whose name is inserted in the information, and is termed the relator; and the officers of the state in such, or the like cases,

(e) 1. Har. 106. 2. Atk. 483. Lord Tenham. v. Habert.

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are no further concerned than as they are instructed and advised by them whose rights the state is called upon to protect and establish.

But if the suit immediately concerns the rights of the state, the information is generally exhibited without a relator. In England a relator in such a case is generally named through the tenderness of the officers of the crown towards the defendant; that the court might award costs against the relator, if the suit should appear to be improperly instituted, or in any stage of it improperly conducted. (a)

Information against a defendant a justice of the peace at the relation of the church-wardens of the parish of St. James, Westminster, for an account of several sums of money, which he had recievedin his capacity of magistrate, being money received under several penal statutes from persons who had been brought before him as having incurred divers penalties; a proportion of which, so received by the defendant, the relators claimed in behalf of the poor of the said parish, who were entitled thereto by virtue of the several statutes creating the penalties. The defendant demured, upon the ground that this court was not the proper jurisdiction for this information, but the Lord Chancellor was clearly of a different opinion, and the demurrer was overuled. (b) Har. 153. Attorney General vs. Reid, before Lord Thurlow, 1787.

Supplemental Bill.

A Supplemental bill is used for the purpose of supplying some irregularity discovered in the formation of the original bill, or some of the proceedings thereupon; or some defect in the suit, arising from events happening since the points in the original were at issue, (b) 1 Har. 153.

a 1 Har. 152.