d instrument would
become void for uncertainty. If a will contains any alterations or
erasures, the attention of the witnesses ought to be directed to the
particular parts in which such alterations occur, and they ought to
place their initials in the margin opposite, before the will is
executed, etc., notice this having been done by a memorandum added to
the attestation clause at the end of the will.

In Scotland the rule as to erasure is somewhat stricter than in
England and the United States, the legal inferences being that such
alterations were made after execution. As to necessary or bona-fide
alterations which may be desired by the parties, corrections or
clerical errors and the like after a paper is written out but before
signature, the rule usually followed is that the deed must show that
they have been advisedly adopted by the party; and this will be
effected by mentioning them in the body of the writing. Thus if some
words are erased and others superinduced, you mention that the
superinduced words were written over an erasure; if words are simply
delite that fact is noticed, if words are added it ought to be on the
margin and such additions signed by the party with his Christian name
on one side and his surname on the other; and such marginal addition
must be noticed in the body of the work so as to specify the page on
which it occurs, the writer of it and that it is subscribed by the
attesting witness.

The Roman rule was that the alterations should be made by the party
himself and a formal clause was introduced with their deeds to that
effect.

As a general rule alterations with the pen are in all cases to be
preferred to erasure; and suspicion will be most effectually removed
by not obliterating the words altered so completely as to conceal the
nature of the correction.

The law of the United States follows that of England and Scotland in
regard to alterations and erasures.

If any one will try the experiment of erasing an ink-mark on ordinary
writing paper, and then writing over the erasure, he will notice a
striking difference between the letters on the unaltered surface. The
latter are broader, and in most cases, to the unaided eye, darker in
color, while the erased spot, if not further treated to some substitute
for sizing, may be noticed either when the paper is held between a
light and the eye, or when viewed obliquely at a certain angle, or in
both cases.

Very frequently it happens that so m