court would suffer them to be shaken, and even acts of parliament countenanced and established them.

This expedient having greatly abridged estates-tail with regard to their duration, others were soon invented to strip them of other privileges. The next that was attacked was their freedom from forfeiture for treason. For, notwithstanding the large advances made by recoveries, in the compass of about threescore years, towards unfettering these inheritances, and thereby subjecting the lands to forfeiture, the rapacious prince then reigning, finding them frequently resettled in a similar manner to suit the convenience of families, had address enough to procure a statute, whereby all estates of inheritance, under which general words estates-tail were covertly included, are declared to be forfeited to the crown upon any conviction of high treason.

The next attack which they suffered was by the statute 32 Hen. VIII. c. 36, which declared a fine duly levied by tenant-in-tail to be a complete bar to him and his heirs, and all other persons claiming under such entail. This was agreeable to the intention of Henry VII., whose policy it was to lay the road as open as possible to the alienation of landed property, in order to weaken the overgrown power of his nobles. But as they, from the opposite reasons, were not easily brought to consent to such a provision, it was therefore couched, in his act, under covert and obscure expressions. And the judges, though willing to construe that statute as favourably as possible for defeating entailed estates, yet hesitated at giving fines so extensive a power by mere implication, when the statute De Donis had expressly declared, that they should not be a bar to estates-tail. But the statute of Henry VIII., when the doctrine of alienation was better received, avowed and established that intention.

Lastly, by a statute of the succeeding year, all estates-tail were rendered liable to be charged for payment of debts due to the king by record or special contract; as since, by the bankrupt laws, they are also subjected to be sold for the debts contracted by a bankrupt; and now are chargeable by judgment or decree of a court of law or equity in favour of creditors, to the exclusion of the issue and remainder-men to the same extent as the debtor himself might have charged them.

So much for freehold estates of inheritance. Those estates of freehold which are not of inheritance, are for life only. And of these some are conventional, or created by the acts of the parties; others legal, or created by operation of law.

I. Estates for life, created by deed or grant, are where a lease is made of lands or tenements to a man, to hold for the term of his own

life, or for that of any other person, or for more lives than one: in any of which cases he is styled tenant for life; only when he holds the estate by the life of another, he is usually called tenant pur auter vie; and the incidents to such an estate are principally the following:

1. Every tenant for life, unless restrained by covenant or agreement, may take reasonable estovers or botes. For he has a right to the full enjoyment and use of the land, and all its profits, during his estate therein. But he is not permitted to cut down timber or do other waste upon the premises: for the destruction of such things as are not the temporary profits of the tenement, is not necessary for the tenant's complete enjoyment of his estate; but tends to the permanent and lasting loss of the person entitled to the inheritance.

2. Tenant for life, or his representatives, shall not be prejudiced by any sudden determination of his estate, because such a determination is contingent and uncertain. Therefore, if a tenant for his own life sows the lands, and dies before harvest, his executors shall have the emblements, or profits of the crop: for the estate was determined by the act of God, and it is a maxim in the law, that actus Dei nemini facit injuriam. So it is also, if a man he tenant for the life of another, and cestui que vie, or he on whose life the land is held, dies after the corn sown, the tenant pur auter vie shall have the emblements. The same is also the rule, if a life-estate be determined by the act of law. But if an estate for life be determined by the tenant's own act, as by forfeiture for waste committed, in these, and similar cases, the tenants, having thus determined the estate by their own acts, shall not be entitled to take the emblements.

3. A third incident to estates for life relates to the under-tenants, or lessees. For they have the same, nay greater indulgences than their lessors, the original tenants for life. The same; for the law of estovers and emblements with regard to the tenant for life, is also law with regard to his under-tenant, who represents him and stands in his place and greater; for in those cases where tenant for life shall not have the emblements, because the estate determines by his own act, the exception shall not reach his lessee, who is a third person. Instead of emblements, however, the under-tenant, on the determination of a lease or tenancy under a landlord entitled as tenant for life or for an uncertain interest, now holds until the expiration of the current year, paying the succeeding landlord a fair proportion of the rent.

II. The next estate for life is of a legal kind, viz., that of tenantin-tail after possibility of issue extinct. This happens where one is tenant in special tail, and a person, from whose body the issue was

to spring, dies without issue; or, having left issue, that issue becomes extinct. As, where one has an estate to him and his heirs on the body of his present wife to be begotten, and the wife dies without issue in this case the man has an estate-tail, which cannot possibly descend to any one; and therefore the law makes use of this long periphrasis, as absolutely necessary to give an adequate idea of his estate. The tenant is here a tenant for life, but with many of the privileges of a tenant-in-tail, as not to be punishable for waste, &c.; yet, in general, the law looks upon this estate as equivalent to an estate for life only.

III. Tenant by the courtesy of England, is where a man marries a woman seised of an estate of inheritance, and has by her issue, born alive, which was capable of inheriting her estate. In this case he shall, on the death of his wife, hold the lands for his life, as tenant by the courtesy of England. There are four requisites to make a tenancy by the courtesy:-1. The marriage must be legal. 2. The seisin of the wife must be an actual possession of the lands, not a bare right to them. 3. The issue must be born alive. Some have had a notion that it must be heard to cry; but that is a mistake. Crying indeed is the strongest evidence of its being born alive; but it is not the only evidence. The issue also must be born during the life of the mother; for if the mother dies in labour, and the Cæsarear operation is performed, the husband in this case shall not be tenant by the courtesy: because, at the instant of the mother's death, he was clearly not entitled, as having had no issue born, but the land descended to the child, while he was yet in his mother's womb; and the estate being once so vested, shall not afterwards be taken from him. 4. Such issue must be also capable of inheriting the mother's estate. Therefore, if a woman be tenant-in-tail male, and has only a daughter born, the husband is not thereby entitled to be tenant by the courtesy; because such issue female can never inherit the estate in tail male.

IV. Tenancy in dower is where a widow takes a third of such lands and tenements as her husband died entitled to, for seisin is not here necessary, and in which her title to dower has not been previously barred. This mode of providing for a widow seems to have been unknown in the early part of our Saxon constitution; for, in the laws of King Edmund, the wife is directed to be supported wholly out of the personal estate. Afterwards, as may be seen in gavelkind tenure, the widow became entitled to an estate in one-half of the lands, provided she remained chaste and unmarried; as is usual also in copyhold dowers, or free-bench. Some have ascribed dower to the Normans, but it was first introduced into the feudal system by the Emperor Frederick II., who was contemporary with

Henry III. It is possible, therefore, that it may be with us the relic of a Danish custom: since, according to the historians of that country, dower was introduced into Denmark by Swein, the father of our Canute, out of gratitude to the Danish ladies, who sold all their jewels to ransom him when taken prisoner by the Vandals. However this be, the reason which our law gives for adopting it is a very plain and sensible one; for the sustenance of the wife, and the nurture and education of the younger children.

The person endowed must be the actual wife of the party at the time of his decease. If she be divorced a vinculo, she shall not be endowed; but a judicial separation does not destroy the dower. It is, however, forfeited by adultery on the part of the wife, and by the treason of the husband.

At common law a widow was endowed of all the lands, tenements, and hereditaments of which her husband was seised at any time during the coverture, but under certain restrictions.* And it mattered not though the husband alienated the lands during the coverture; for he alienated them liable to dower. This law was altered some years ago; and lands to which the husband is merely entitled, or in which his interest is merely equitable, have been made subject to the dower of the widow. On the other hand the title to dower does not attach upon all the lands of which the husband was at any time seised during the coverture; for the widow can only be endowed out of lands of or to which he dies seised or entitled; and the absolute disposition of lands by him during his life or by his will, defeats the widow's right; nor will she be entitled to dower out of land purchased by the husband, where, in the deed of conveyance to him, or in any deed executed by him, it is declared that she shall not be so entitled. So that whether a wife shall be endowed or not, is now entirely in the will of the husband.

Upon preconcerted marriages, and in estates of considerable consequence, tenancy in dower happens very seldom: for the claim of the wife to dower is a great clog to alienations, and otherwise inconvenient to families, so that jointures are now universally resorted to. And thus much of estates of freehold.

*Thus, copyhold estates are not liable to dower, being only estates at the lord's will; unless by the special custom of the manor, in which case it is usually called the widow's free-bench.

CHAPTER VI.

OF ESTATES LESS THAN FREEHOLD.

1. Estates for years-Origin of long leases-Emblements.II. Estates at will-Notice to quit-Copyholds-Enfranchisement.III. Estates at sufferance.

Or estates that are less than freehold, there are three sorts: 1. Estates for years; 2. Estates at will; 3. Estates by sufferance.

I. An estate for years is where one has the possession of lands or tenements, for some determinate period: it takes place, for example, where a man letteth lands to another for the term of a certain number of years, agreed upon between the lessor and the lessee, and the lessee enters thereon. If the lease be but for half a year or a quarter, or any less time, this lessee is respected as a tenant for years, and is styled so in some legal proceedings: a year being the shortest term which the law in this case takes notice of.

These estates were originally granted to mere farmers or husbandmen, who every year rendered some equivalent in provisions, or other rent, to the landlords; but, in order to encourage them to manure and cultivate the ground, they had afterwards a permanent interest granted them, not determinable at the will of the lord. Yet their possession was esteemed of so little consequence, that they were rather considered as the bailiffs of the lord, who were to account for the profits at a settled price, than as having any property of their own, And their interest, such as it was, vested after their deaths in their executors, who were to make up the accounts of their testator with the lord, and were entitled to the stock upon the farm.

While estates for years were thus precarious, it is no wonder that they were usually very short, like our modern leases upon rack-rent; but when by the statute 51 Hen. VIII. c. 15, the termor, that is, he who is entitled to the term of years, was protected against fictitious actions brought to evict the landlord, which common recoveries were, and his interest rendered permanent, long terms began to be frequent, and were afterwards extensively introduced, being found extremely convenient for family settlements and mortgages: continuing subject, however, to the same rules of succession, as when they were little better than tenancies at the will of the landlord.

Every estate which must expire at a period certain and prefixed