Chap. V.]

OBSERVANCE OF PROMISES.

207

upon it, you find the profits less, the labor more, or some mate-rial circumstance different from the representation which he gaveyou. Under such circumstances, you are not bound by yourpromise.

(2.) When the promise is understood by the promisee to bebased upon a certain state of facts, or when the promiser appre-hended it to be so understood, and this state of the facts turns outto be false, —■ the promise is not binding. An example will setthis rule in a more clear light. A father receives an accountfrom abroad, of the death of his only son, soon after which hepromises his fortune to his nephew. The account turns out tobe false. By this rule, the father is released from his promise ;not merely because he never would have made it, had he knownthe true state of the facts, but because the nephew also himselfunderstood the promise to proceed upon the supposition of hiscousin’s death ; or at least his uncle thought he so understood it,and could not think otherwise. The promise proceeded uponthis supposition in the promiser’s own apprehension, and, as hebelieved, in the apprehension of both parties ; and this beliefon his part is the precise circumstance which sets him free. Thefoundation of the rule is manifestly this ; — a man is bound, as hasbeen said before, to satisfy only the expectation which he intend-ed to excite ; any condition, therefore, to which he intended tosubject, or by which he intended to limit, that expectation, be-comes, when known to the promisee, an essential condition ofthe promise.

Errors which do not come within these two rules, do not annulthe obligation of a promise. I promise a candidate my vote ;presently another candidate appears, for whom I certainly wouldhave reserved it, had I been acquainted with his design. Here,therefore, as before, my promise proceeded from misapprehen-sion ; and I should never have given such a promise, had I beenaware of all the circumstances of the case. But the promiseedid not know this, nor did he receive the promise subject to thecondition of the other candidate not appearing, or as proceedingfrom any such supposition ; nor did I at the time imagine, thathe so received it. This error, therefore, of mine must fall onmyself, and the promise be observed notwithstanding. In this