With respect to the operation of a devise, it remains only to remark, that it vests in the devisee an actual freehold by construction of law (h); being similar in this respect to a conveyance under the Statute of Uses; but different from a descent, which vests in the heir no complete estate, until he has made entry on the lands descended (i).

We have now adverted to all the ordinary kinds of assurance. Among which, the conveyances under the "Statute of Uses" and devises [are by much the most frequent of any; though, in these, there is certainly one palpable defect, the want of sufficient notoriety; so that purchasers or creditors cannot know, with any absolute certainty, what the estate, and the title to it, in reality are, upon which they are to lay out or to lend their money. In the antient feudal method of conveyance (by giving corporeal seisin of the lands) this notoriety was in some measure answered (j), as it was by [the old Saxon custom of transacting all conveyances at the county court, and entering a memorial of them in the chartulary, or leger-book, of some adjacent monastery (k)]; but since the disuse of these methods, our transfers of land have been private; the inconveniences resulting from which have been strongly felt, and more especially in the counties of York and Middlesex (1), where a guard has been consequently provided against them by the statutes of 2 & 3 Anne, c. 4; 6 Anne, c. 35; 7 Anne, c. 20; and 8 Geo. II. c. 6 (m).

(h) Co. Litt. 111 a. The devisee may, however, by an express act of dissent, waive the devise, unless he has entered on the land. (Doe d. Winder v. Lawes, 7 Ad. & Ell. 212.) (i) Vide sup. p. 432.

(j) Vide sup. p. 514.

(k) An antient method of similar character, though only of partial application, is also noticed by Blackstone, viz., "the general regis"ter established by King Richard

"the first, for the stars or mortgages "made to Jews, in the Capitula de "Judæis, of which Hoveden has pre"served a copy.”

(1) The reasons of this are set forth in the preambles to the Register Acts mentioned in the text.

(m) The provisions in these Acts as to the forgery of registers of deeds, &c. are repealed by 24 & 25 Vict. c. 95, and a more general one enacted by 24 & 25 Vict. c. 98, s. 31.

These enact that a memorial of all conveyances and devises, in writing, of lands of freehold tenure, in those counties, (but not including those of leases at rack rent, or for twenty-one years or under, where the actual possession goes along with them,) may be registered in such manner as in those Acts directed; and that every such conveyance shall be adjudged fraudulent and void against any subsequent purchaser or mortgagee for valuable consideration, unless such memorial thereof shall be registered before the registering of the memorial of the conveyance, under which such subsequent purchaser or mortgagee shall claim; and that every such devise shall be adjudged fraudulent and void against any subsequent purchaser or mortgagee for valuable consideration, unless a memorial thereof be registered in such manner as in the Acts directed (n). The provisions of these Acts, however, have never been extended to any other part of England; and "it has been doubted" (as remarked by Blackstone) "by "very competent judges, whether more disputes have not "arisen in those counties by the inattention and omission "of parties, than prevented by the use of registers." Other provisions for the protection of purchasers for valuable consideration against insecure titles, have nevertheless been made in the last session of parliament, applying, not to particular counties only, but to the whole of England, and are at present attended, in many quarters, with great and favourable expectation. This is not a convenient place for entering more fully into the subject, but it is one to which we shall shortly have occasion to return.

(n) See L'Neve v. L'Neve, 1 Ves. sen. 64; Tunstall v. Trappes, 3 Sim. 301; Doe v. Allsop, 5 A. & E. 142; Sumpter v. Cooper, 2 B. & Adol. 223; Queen v. Registrars of Mid

dlesex, 7 Q. B. 156; Wollaston v. Hakewell, 3 Man. & G. 297; Hall v. Warren (Dom. Proc.), 10 W. Rep. p. 66. See also Christian's Blackstone, vol. ii. p. 343 (n).

CHAPTER XXI.

OF EXTRAORDINARY CONVEYANCES,

BY MATTER OF RECORD.

OR THOSE

HAVING now completed our view of all conveyances of the ordinary class, whether founded on common or statute law, we proceed next to the examination of conveyances by matter of record: which (as formerly remarked) are in use on particular and comparatively rare occasions; and which may therefore, by way of distinction from the former, be designated as extraordinary conveyances. These are, 1. Private acts of parliament; and 2. Royal grants; both of which, as connected but slightly with the main body of the law, will be treated with brevity; and the rather, because our method will lead us to omit, for the present, any examination of the nature of the parliamentary and royal authorities on which they are respectively founded,— these subjects having both their appropriate place, under the division of the work which relates to public rights.

I. Private acts of parliament (a) have been resorted to as a mode of assurance more frequently in modern than in antient times. [For it may sometimes happen that, by

(a) As to private acts of parliament, vide sup. p. 71. And see 7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 83, as to the deposit of plans and documents in the case of private bills; 10 & 11 Vict. c. 69, 12 & 13 Vict. c. 78; as to taxation and costs on private bills,

13 & 14 Vict. c. 21, s. 7, providing that all Acts for the future shall be public Acts unless the contrary shall be expressly declared therein; and 21 & 22 Vict. c. 78, as to administering oaths before committees of House of Commons on private bills.

[the ingenuity of some, and the blunders of other practitioners, an estate is most grievously entangled by a multitude of resulting trusts, springing uses, executory devises, and the like artificial contrivances (b),—a confusion unknown to the simple conveyances of the common law,so that it is out of the power of either the courts of law or equity to relieve the owner. Or it may sometimes happen, that, by the strictness or omissions of family settlements, the tenant of the estate is abridged of some reasonable power, (as letting leases, making a jointure for a wife, or the like,) which power cannot be given him by the ordinary judges either in common law or equity (c). Or it may be necessary, in settling an estate, to secure it against the claims of infants, or other persons under legal disabilities; who are not bound by any judgments or decrees of the ordinary courts of justice. In these, or other cases of the like kind, the transcendant power of parliament is called in, to cut the Gordian knot; and by a particular law, enacted for this very purpose, to unfetter an estate; to give its tenant reasonable powers; or to assure it to a purchaser, against the remote or latent claims of infants or disabled persons, by settling a proper equivalent in proportion to the interest so barred. This practice was carried to a great length in the year succeeding the Restoration, by setting aside many conveyances alleged to have been made by constraint, or in order to screen the estates from being forfeited during the usurpation. And at last it proceeded so far, that, as a noble historian expresses it (d), every man had raised an equity in his own imagination, that he

[thought was entitled to prevail against any descent, testament, or act of law, and to find relief in parliament; which occasioned the king, at the close of the session, to remark (e), that the good old rules of law are the best security, and to wish that men might not have too much cause to fear that the settlements which they make of their estates shall be too easily unsettled, when they are dead, by the power of parliament.

Acts of this kind are, however, at present, carried on, in both houses, with great deliberation and caution; particularly in the House of Lords, where they are usually referred to two judges, to examine and report on the facts alleged, and to settle all technical forms (f). Nothing also is done without the consent, expressly given, of all parties in being, and capable of consent, that have the remotest interest in the matter; unless such consent shall appear to be perversely, and without any reason, withheld. And, as was before hinted, an equivalent in money or other estate is usually settled upon infants, or persons not in esse, or not of capacity to act for themselves, who are to be concluded by the Act. And a general saving is constantly added, at the close of the bill, of the right and interest of all persons whatsoever, except those whose consent is so given or purchased, and who are therein particularly named; though it hath been holden, that, even if such saving be omitted, the act shall bind none but the parties (g).

A law thus made, though it binds all parties to the bill, is yet looked upon rather as a private conveyance than as the solemn act of the legislature. It is not therefore allowed to be a public, but a mere private statute; it is not

(e) Lord Clar. Contin. 163. (ƒ) Whenever a private bill, in the nature of an estate bill, is brought up from the Commons, it is referred to two of the judges in rotation, not being lords of parliament. But, except in special cases, no other Commons' bills are referred to the

judges. (May's Pr. of Parl. p. 595, 3rd ed.)

(g) See 8 Rep. 138 a; Godb. 171; vide Westby v. Kiernan, Ambl. 697; Provost of Eton v. Bishop of Winchester, 3 Wils. 483; Chapman v. Brown, 3 Burr. 1626.