sumed. The person in whom the estates meet may prevent it. Thus, the owner of the fee in land may acquire and hold a mortgage interest therein.¹ 2. Merger of agreements, contracts, obligations. When an engagement by simple contract is afterward confirmed or continued by a sealed instrument, or when the demand right of one party as against the other under their sealed or unsealed engagement is transformed into a judgment. The simple contract becomes lost, sunk, as it were, and swallowed up in that under seal, and becomes totally extinguished.2 A judgment on a note, or a contract, merges the note, or the contract, and no other suit can be main tained on the same instrument.3 A judgment against one of several joint-contractors on a bond merges the contract into the higher security. The instrument, in either case, is thereafter functus officio. See GREATER; JOINT. Extinguishment by merger takes place between debts of different degrees, the lower being lost in the higher, and, being by act of law, it is dependent upon no particular intention. It takes place only where the debt is one, and the parties to the securities are identical. Hence, there is no merger where a stranger gives a bond for a simple contract debt, or confesses judgment for a debt. The debt remains the same, though the old evidence of it melts into the new one, and the creditor merely gains a higher security. In merger there is a change only of the security; in satisfaction by "substitution" there is a change of the debt. See SECURITY, Collateral. All verbal agreements between the parties to a written contract, made before or at the time of the execution of the contract, are considered as merged into the written instrument, and are inadmissible to vary its terms or to affect its construction. But oral agreements subsequently made, on a new and valid consideration, and before the breach of the contract, in cases falling within the rules of common law, and not within the Statute of Frauds, stand upon a different footing. They may have the effect to enlarge the time of performance specified in the contract, or may vary any other of its terms, or they may waive or discharge it altogether. See PAROL, Evidence. 3. Merger of wrongs. When a private wrong and a public offense [a felony] is committed by one and the same act.7 1 Winona, &c. R. Co. v. County of Deuel, 3 Dak. 21 (1882), cases. 2 [Smith, Contr. 23. Eldred v. Michigan Ins. Bank, 17 Wall. 545 (1873); Beazley v. Sim, 81 Va. 648 (1886). 4 United States v. Ames, 99 U. S. 45 (1878); Candee v. Smith, 93 N. Y. 351 (1883); 6 Wall. 231; 95 U. S. 347. 5 Jones v. Johnson, 3 W. & S. 277 (1842), Gibson, C. J. • Emerson v. Slater, 22 How. 41 (1859), cases, Clifford, J.; Hawkins v. United States, 96 U. S. 689 (1877), cases. 14 Bl. Com. 6. At common law, under an indictment for a felony, conviction cannot be had of a lesser offense included within it, if such lesser offense is a misdemeanor. This rule has been changed by statute.¹ Formerly, the civil action for damages suffered by the individual was suspended until he had performed his duty to society by an endeavor to bring the offender to justice in a court of criminal law. See WAIVER. 1. A communication from the President to Congress. State v. Durham, 72 N. C. 449 (1875); Commonwealth v. Dean, 109 Mass. 351 (1872); 1 Bish. Cr. L. §§ 786, 804. 24 Bl. Com. 6. 3 See 1 Chitty, Contr. *181. 4 Blakely v. Frazier, 11 S. C. 134 (1877), Willard, C. J.; Dill v. Moon, 14 id. 339 (1880). 5 [Holthouse's Law Dict. See 18 Pa. 354; 65 id. 476. St. John v. West, 4 How. Pr. *331-32 (1850), Selden, J. Rahn v. Gunnison, 12 Wis. *532 (1860), Paine, J.; Oatman v. Bond, 15 id. *25 (1862). 8 F. mesne: L. medius, middle. • F. message: L. mittere, to send.