57. What is a confirmation ?-325, 326.

It is of a nature nearly allied to a release. Sir Edward Coke defines it to be a conveyance of an estate or right in esse, whereby a voidable estate is made sure and unvoidable; or whereby a particular estate is increased; and the words of it are these, "have given, granted, ratified, approved, and confirmed."

58. What is a surrender?-326.

A surrender, sursumredditio, or rendering up, is of a nature directly opposite to a release; for, as that operates by the greater estate descending upon the less, a surrender is the falling of a less estate into a greater.

59. Why is there not occasion for livery of seizin in a surrender? -326.

Because there is a privity of estate between the surrenderor and the surrenderee; the one's particular estate, and the other's remainder, are one and the same estate; and livery having been once made at the creation of it, there is no necessity for having it afterward.

60. What is an assignment?-326, 327.

An assignment is, properly, a transfer, or making over to another, of the right one has in any estate; but it is usually applied to an estate for life or years; and it differs from a lease only in this; that by a lease one grants an interest less than his own, reserving to himself a reversion; in assignments he parts with the whole property.

61. What is a defeasance ?-327.

A defeasance is a collateral deed, made at the same time with a feoffment or other conveyance, containing certain conditions, upon the performance of which the estate then created may be defeated, or totally undone.

62. What are uses ?-327, 328.

Uses and trusts are, in their origin, of a nature very similar, or, rather, exactly the same. A use is a confidence reposed in another, who was tenant of the land, or terre-tenant, that he should dispose of the land according to the intentions of cestuy

que use, or him to whose use it was granted, and suffer him to take the profits.

63. How and when were uses introduced?—328.

The notion was transplanted into England from the civil law, about the close of the reign of Edward III., to evade the statutes of mortmain by obtaining grants of lands, not to the religious houses directly, but to the use of the religious houses.

64. What distinctions grew up with reference to the use itself, or interests of cestuy que use?-330, 331.

Many elaborate distinctions: 1. It was held that nothing could be granted to a use whereof the use is inseparable from the possession. 2. A use could not be raised without a sufficient consideration. 3. Uses were descendible, according to the rules of the common law in the case of inheritances in possession. 4. Uses might be assigned by secret deeds, between the parties, or be devised by last will and testament. 5. Uses were not liable to any of the feodal burdens. 6. No wife could be endowed, or husband have his curtesy, of a use. 7. A use could not be extended by writ of elegit, or other legal process, for the debts of cestuy que use.

65. How were uses finally transferred into possession ?—332.

By the statute 27 Henry VIII., c. 10, which is usually called the statute of uses. The statute "executes" the use, as it is termed.

66. How are the old uses continued?-336.

The doctrine of uses was revived under the denomination of trusts.

67. How do the courts now consider a trust estate ?-337.

As equivalent to the legal ownership; governed by the same rules of property, and liable to every charge in equity which the other is subject to in law.

68. To what species of conveyance has that to uses now given way?

-337.

To the covenant to stand seized to uses, by which a man,

seized of lands, covenants, in consideration of blood or marriage, that he will stand seized of the same, to the use of his child, wife, or kinsman, for life, in tail, or in fee. Here the statute executes at once the estate. But this conveyance can only operate when made upon consideration of blood or marriage.

69. What other principal species of conveyance was introduced by the statute of uses ?—338.

That of a bargain and sale of lands.

70. What others were so introduced?-339.

1. The conveyance by lease and release. 2. Deeds to lead or declare uses. 3. Deeds of revocation of uses.

71. What are the deeds used, not to convey, but to charge or discharge lands ?-340.

Obligations or bonds; recognizances; and defeasances.

12. What is an obligation, or bond?—340.

It is a deed whereby the obligor obliges himself, his heirs, executors, and administrators, to pay a certain sum of money to another at a day appointed. If this be all, the bond is called a single one, simplex obligatio; but there is generally a condition added, that, if the obligor does some particular act, the obligation shall be void.

73. On the forfeiture of a bond, or its becoming single, what sum is recoverable?-341.

The principal, interest, and expenses, in case the forfeiture accrued by non-payment of money borrowed, and the damages sustained upon non-performance of covenants, and the like. The whole penalty was formerly recoverable at law.

74. What is a recognizance ?-341.

A recognizance is an obligation of record, which a man enters into before some court of record, or magistrate duly authorized, with condition to do some particular act.

75. What is a defeasance ?-342.

A defeasance on a bond, or recognizance, or judgment re

covered, is a condition which, when performed, defeats or undoes it, and discharges the estate of the obligor.

76. What species of conveyance is most in use?--343.

any.

The conveyance to uses is by much the most frequent of

77. What palpable defect is there in the conveyance to uses ?-348 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.

78. How far does a system of registry prevail in England ?—343. Only in the counties of York and Middlesex.

CHAPTER XXI.

OF ALIENATION BY MATTER OF RECORD.

1. What are assurances by matter of record?—344.

Assurances by matter of record are such as do not entirely depend on the act or consent of the parties themselves; but the sanction of a court of record is called in to substantiate, preserve, and be a perpetual testimony of the transfer of property from one man to another; or of its establishment, when already transferred.

2. What are they?—344.

1st. Private acts of parliament. 2d. The king's grants. 3d. Fines. 4th. Common recoveries.

3. How are private acts of parliament a mode of assurance ?

344.

In many cases, the power of Parliament is necessarily called in to unfetter an estate, to give its tenants reasonable powers, or

to assure it to a purchaser against remote or latent claims of infants or disabled persons, by a particular law enacted for the

purpose.

4. How is such an act regarded ?—346.

It is looked upon rather as a private conveyance, than as the solemn act of the legislature. It is a mere private statute, and is not printed or published among the other laws of the session. No judge or jury is bound to take notice of it, unless the same be specially set forth and pleaded to them. It remains, however, enrolled among the public records of the nation, to be forever preserved as a perpetual testimony of the conveyance, or assurance, so made or established.

5. How are the king's grants made ?—346.

They are contained in charters, or letters patent, that is, open letters, literæ patentes.

6. What is a fine of lands and tenements?—348.

It is an acknowledgment of a feoffment on record, and may be described to be an amicable composition or agreement of a suit, either actual or fictitious, by leave of the king or his justices, whereby the lands in question become, or are acknowledged to be, the right of one of the parties.

7. What was the origin of a fine?—349.

In its origin, it was founded on an actual suit, commenced at law for recovery of the possession of land or other hereditaments; and the possession thus gained, by composition, was found to be so sure and effectual, that fictitious actions were, and continue to be, every day commenced for the sake of obtaining the same security.

8. Why is a fine so called?-349.

Because it puts an end, not only to the suit thus commenced, but also to all other suits and controversies concerning the same matter.

9. What classes of persons are bound by a fine?—355.

Parties, privies, and strangers.