Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/820

 804: GIFFOKD GIFT he passed in Rome, and the summer of 1857 in a sketching tour, in company with Albert Bierstadt, through the Abruzzi and around Naples, and later through parts of Austria. He returned to New York in September. In 1861, at the outbreak of the civil war, he joined the 7th New York regiment and accompanied it to Washington. He was also out with it in 1862 and 1863. In 1868 he went abroad again, and spent two years sketching in Italy, Greece, Syria, and Egypt. Among the best of Gif- ford's pictures are the following : " Kauterskill Glove," "Twilight" (1859), " Bivouac of the 7th Eegiment at Arlington Heights" (1861), "Baltimore, 1862," " A House in the Wilder- ness" (1866), "Hunter Mountain" (1866), "Sunrise on the Seashore" (1867), "Shrews- bury River" (1868), "Mansfield Mountain" (1869), "San Giorgio" (1869), " Fishing Boats of the Adriatic" (1870), "Pallanza" (1870), "Tivoli" (1870), "A Venetian Twilight, Santa Maria di Salute " (1871), "Monte Ferro, Lake Maggiore"(1871), " The Golden Horn " (1872), "Schloss Rheinstein " (1873), and " Sunset on the Sweetwater, Wyoming Territory " (1874). GIFFOKD, William, an English author, born in Ashburton, Devonshire, in April, 1757, died in London, Dec. 31, 1826. He was left an or- phan in childhood, and apprenticed to a shoe- maker. His master refused to allow him time for reading, but he contrived by stealth to ac- quire a considerable knowledge qf mathematics, and occasionally wrote verses. Some of the latter came into the hands of Mr. Cookesley, a surgeon, who raised a subscription to purchase his freedom. In two years he entered Exeter college, Oxford, where he was appointed Bi- ble reader. Lord Grosvenor invited him to live with him, and subsequently sent him to the continent as the travelling tutor of his son. After his return to England, he pub- lished in 1794 his "Baviad," a paraphrase on the first satire of Persius, in which the popular Delia Cruscan poetry of the day was happily ridiculed and effectually put down; and in 1795 the "Maeviad," an imitation of Horace, directed against the corruptions of the drama. His "Epistle to Peter Pindar," published in 1800, is one of the bitterest at- tacks ever directed against an opponent. Be- ing now known as a keen political writer, he wrote with George Ellis and Frere for the " Anti- Jacobin " upon its commencement by Canning, and from this connection received two offices under government, which he held for life. In 1802 he published a spirited trans- lation of Juvenal, with his own autobiography. He also translated Persius, and edited the dra- matic works of Massinger, Ben Jonson, Ford, and Shirley. Upon the establishment of the " Quarterly Review " in 1809 he became its editor, a post which he retained until about two years before his death. GIFT, a voluntary transfer of property of any kind. The word " give " is generally employed among the words of transfer in deeds of land ; but by gifts, in law, are usually meant transfers of chattels or presents which are wholly with- out any pecuniary consideration, or any other consideration which the law recognizes as valid. They are usually divided into gifts inter vivos and gifts causa mortis. The latter are called in English gifts in prospect of death ; and the former phrase, or gifts between the living, is not accurate, as describing but one class of gifts, because it applies to all, as only the living can give, and they can give only to the living. But gifts causa mortis may be de- fined as gifts made by one believing himself, on reasonable grounds, to be very near his death, and made in view of and because of this appre- hension; and gifts inter vivos are all those which are not gifts causa mortis. First, as to gifts inter vivos. Any person competent to transact ordinary business may give whatever he or she owns to any other person. The usual disabilities for legal action would apply here. Thus, a gift by an infant (i. e., a minor), a married woman, an insane person, or a person under guardianship, would be wholly void, or would be voidable by the giver or one having authority to represent the giver, in much the same way that a transfer for consideration would be. Gifts, by persons competent to give, of property which they have a right to give, to persons competent to receive, and which are completed and effectual, are regard- ed by the law as executed contracts, founded upon mutual consent. It is absolutely essen- tial to the validity of a gift that it should go into effect at once and completely. If it be not a thing of the present, now done and fin- ished, then it is no longer an act, but a prom- ise. And as it must be, if a promise, wholly without consideration, because otherwise it is not a gift, it comes under the rule of law which makes promises without consideration of no legal validity, and incapable of legal enforce- ment. Hence, the very first rule in the law of gifts is, that delivery is essential to a gift. And this delivery must be to the donee ; even if the giver deliver the money to a third per- son with orders to give it to the donee, and will therefore be bound if this third person give it to the donee before revocation, the giver may, at any time before the delivery to the donee, annul his directions to the party holding the money, and revoke and reclaim the gift. Generally, a court having equity powers will not interfere to enforce or com- plete a gift which is merely intended and promised. Nor will the transfer, if without delivery, be any the more effectual for being made in writing. As there must be actual delivery, so there must be actual acceptance ; in other words, the thing given must pass out of the present power and possession of the giver, and into that of the donee. It is never- theless true that a thing may be given, of which the present and immediate manual de- livery is impossible. The delivery may, in such a case, be constructive, or symbolic, or