Page:James Thomason (Temple).djvu/159

Rh held in partnership their estates, composed of villages, more correctly of townships or parishes. Their peculiarity consisted in the partnership, originally described in Persian phrase, which he translated into English as coparcenary; adopting, apparently, Blackstone's definition, which indeed exactly meets the case: —

'All the coparceners together make but one heir, and have but one estate among them.'

He found that the assessment of the land tax had been made for the whole township en bloc, and that the engagement for paying the revenue had been concluded not with each partner individually for his share, but with the entire Community for the whole estate. Thence he inferred that the responsibility, for defraying the charge, rested not with individual coparceners, but the coparcenary body as a whole. This he termed 'joint responsibility,' and accordingly the Community would be liable for the default of anyone among its members. In other words, if any sharer failed to pay his quota of the revenue, the Community must pay, and then take over, or make other arrangements for, his share. It was for the Community to determine by agreement the shares, the interests and the quotas of its members in the general burden. But the Government demand was upon the Community, and the liability was in common. To this plan Thomason steadfastly adhered, because it was fraught with advantages not otherwise attain-