/2/
It is now time to analyze the nature of a promise, which is the
second and most conspicuous element in a simple contract. The
Indian Contract Act, 1872, Section 2,8 says:--
"(a.) When one person signifies to another his willingness [298]
to do or to abstain from doing anything, with a view to obtaining
the assent of that other to such act or abstinence, he is said to
make a proposal:
"(b.) When the person to whom the proposal is made signifies his
assent thereto, the proposal is said to be accepted. A proposal
when accepted becomes a promise."
According to this definition the scope of promises is confined to
conduct on the part of the promisor. If this only meant that the
promisor alone must bear the legal burden which his promise may
create, it would be true. But this is not the meaning. For the
definition is of a promise, not of a legally binding promise. We
are not seeking for the legal effects of a contract, but for the
possible contents of a promise which the law may or may not
enforce. We must therefore only consider the question what can
possibly be promised in a legal sense, not what will be the
secondary consequence of a promise binding, but not performed.
An assurance that it shall rain to-morrow, /1/ or that a third
person shall paint a picture, may as well be a promise as one
that the promisee shall receive from some source one hundred
bales of cotton, or that the promisor will pay the promisee one
hundred dollars.
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