Chap. V.]

OBSERVANCE OF PROMISES.

203

Still less is a promise always to be interpreted in the sense inwhich the promisee actually understood it; for, according to sucha rule, a man might be drawn into engagements which he neverdesigned to undertake. It must, therefore, be the sense (forthere is no other remaining) in which the promiser believed thatthe promisee accepted his promise. This will not differ fromthe actual intention of the promiser, where the promise is givenwith sincerity, and without collusion or reserve ; but it is best toput the rule in the above form, to prevent evasion, in cases inwhich the popular meaning of a phrase, and the strict grammati-cal signification of terms, differ ; or, in general, to prevent eva-sion, wherever the promiser might attempt to make his escape,through some ambiguity in the expressions which he used.*

Promises are sometimes made upon certain conditions ; andthose conditions may be either expressed, or tacit and implied.When the condition is expressed, it thereby becomes a part ofthe promise itself; and, whenever a promise pertains to any thingimportant, the condition, if there is one, ought always to be dis-tinctly declared. This prevents disappointments and misunder-standings, and all the evil consequences which are accustomed togrow out of them. The surest way of making a promise abso-lute in all other respects, is, to annex one or more express con-ditions to it. When one condition is expressed, the natural pre-sumption is, that no other is implied or understood ; because, ifthere had been any other in the mind of the promiser, the occa-sion of mentioning the one condition would naturally have ledhim to mention the other, — when he designed to make condi-tions, and was employed in making them, he mentioned only one,— we have, therefore, good reason to believe, that he thought ofand intended no more. Still, it cannot be said, universally, thata promise is subject to no tacit conditions, because none areexpressed.

It has sometimes been affirmed, that all promises are to beunderstood to contain a tacit condition, that the promiser con-tinues in the same situation as when he promised ; insomuch so,that he is not bound by his promise, when the time of perform-

* Paley’s Moral and Political Philosophy, p. 73.