No  written  instrument  can  take  effect  or  become  operative
as  such  until  delivery.  The  date  stated,  therefore,  considered
as  a  date  merely,  is  a  mere  memorandum  which  may  be  shown
to  be  incorrect,  a  rule  which  probably  grows  out  of  a  common
experience  in  business  that  many  papers  prepared  for  execu-
tion are  not  in  fact  executed  for  a  considerable  time  after  the
period  set  for  their  execution.  But  while  the  statement  in  a
lease  that  it  was  executed  on  a  given  date  is  not  important
and  if  incorrect  may  be  shown  by  other  evidence  to  be  so,  yet
the  date  stated  in  the  lease  may  be  important  for  other  pur-


LANDLORD  AND  TENANT.  189

poses.  Usually  it  may  be  said  that  where  in  any  part  of  the
instrument  a  reference  is  made  to  the  date  as  a  point  of  time
from  which  anything  is  to  be  reckoned  the  date  stated  in  the
lease  is  the  day  from  which  the  reckoning  is  to  be  made  and
not  the  day  on  which  the  lease  is  actually  executed.  On  the
other  hand,  where  the  language  imports  that  the  parties  have
in  mind  the  time  when  the  lease  is  actually  executed  the  lease
will  be  construed  accordingly  and  without  reference  to  the  date
given  in  the  lease.
