y death or resignation of any
member or any officer of said board. One other bequest,
hereinafter made, will, sooner or later, revert to this board of
trustees. My desire is that they may become a permanent
organization, until the rights of women shall be established
equal with those of men; and I hope and trust that said board
will receive the services and sympathy, the donations and
bequests, of the friends of human rights. And being desirous that
said board should have the immediate benefit of said bequest,
without waiting for my exit, I have already paid it in advance
and in full to said Phillips, the treasurer of said board, whose
receipt therefor is on my files."

OPINION.--Gray, J. IV. It is quite clear that the bequest in
trust to be expended "to secure the passage of laws granting
women, whether married or unmarried, the right to vote, to hold
office, to hold, manage and devise property, and all other civil
rights enjoyed by men," cannot be sustained as a charity. No
precedent has been cited in its support. This bequest differs
from the others, in aiming directly and exclusively to change the
laws; and its object cannot be accomplished without changing the
constitution also. Whether such an alteration of the existing
laws and frame of government would be wise and desirable, is a
question upon which we cannot, sitting in a judicial capacity,
properly express any opinion. Our duty is limited to expounding
the laws as they stand. And those laws do not recognize the
purpose of overthrowing or changing them, in whole or in part, as
a charitable use. This bequest, therefore, not being for a
charitable purpose, nor for the benefit of any particular
persons, and being unrestricted in point of time, is inoperative
and void. For the same reason, the gift to the same object, of
one-third of the residue of the testator's estate after the death
of his daughter, Mrs. Eddy, and her daughter, Mrs. Bacon, is also
invalid, and will go to his heirs-at-law as a resulting trust.

Decision third was on the right of women to hold judicial offices.
To quote again from _Allen's Reports_:

On June 8, 1871, the following order was passed by the governor
and council, and on June 10 transmitted to the Justices of the
Supreme Judicial Court, who, on June 29, returne