re. Assurance companies only require an
honest statement of the facts, and that no concealment is practised with
their surveyor; and the case of his own, which he quotes, in which a
glass door led into a conservatory, rendering it, according to the view
of the company, "hazardous," and consequently voiding the policy, when a
fire did occur, the company paid, rather than try the question; but even
after the fire they demurred, when called upon, to make the description
correct and indorse on the policy the fact that the drawing-room opened
through a glass door into conservatories. One of two inferences is
obvious here; either his lordship has overcoloured the statement, or the
company could not be the respectable one represented. The practice with
all reputable offices is to survey the premises before insurance, and to
describe them as they appear; but no concealment of stoves, or other
dangerous accessories or inflammable goods, should be practised. This
certainly binds the office so long as no change takes place; but the
addition of any stove, opening, or door through a party wall, the
introduction of gunpowder, saltpetre, or other inflammable articles into
the premises without notice, very properly "voids the policy." The usual
course is to give notice of all alterations, and have them indorse on
the policy, as additions to the description of the property: there is
little fear, where this is honestly done, that any company would adopt
the sharp practice hinted at in Lord St. Leonards' excellent handy book.

2711. BREAKS IN THE LEASE.--Where a lease is for seven, fourteen, or
twenty-one years, the option to determine it at the end of the first
term is in the tenant, unless it is distinctly agreed that the option
shall be mutual, according to Lord St. Leonards.

2712. NOXIOUS TRADES.--A clause is usually introduced prohibiting the
carrying on of any trade in some houses, and of noxious or particular
trades in others. This clause should be jealously inspected, otherwise
great annoyance may be produced. It has been held that a general clause
of this description prohibited a tenant from keeping a school, for which
he had taken it, although a lunatic asylum and public-house have been
found admissible; the keeping an asylum not being deemed a trade, which
is defined as "conducted by buying and selling." It is better to have
the trades, or class of trades objected to, defined in the lease.

2713. FIXTURES.--In houses held und