6. Aliens are also incapable of taking by descent, or inheriting, for they are not allowed to have any inheritable blood in them; wherefore if a man leave no other relations but aliens, his lands shall escheat to the lord.

And farther, if an alien be made a denizen by the king's letters patent, and then purchases lands, (which the law allows such an one to do) his son, born before his denization, shall not (by the common law) inherit those lands; but a son born afterwards may, even though his elder brother be living; for the father, before denization, had no inheritable blood to communicate to his eldest son; but by denization it acquires an hereditary quality, which will be transmitted to his subsequent posterity. Yet, if he had been naturalized by act of parliament, such eldest son might then have inherited; for that cancels all defects, and is allowed to have a retrospective energy, which simple denization has not. And it is now held for law, that the sons of an alien, born here, may inherit to each other; the descent from the one to another being an immediate descent.

7. By attainder also, for treason or other felony, the blood of the person attainted is so corrupted, as to be rendered no longer inheritable.

And a person attainted is therefore (by the common law) neither allowed to retain his former estate nor to inherit any future one, nor to transmit any inheritance to his issue, either immediately from himself, or mediately through himself from any remoter ancestor; for his inheritable blood,

which is necessary either to hold, to take, or to transmit any feudal property, is blotted out, corrupted, and extinguished for ever: the consequence of which is, that estates, thus impeded in their descent, result back and escheat to the lord.

This corruption of blood, thus arising from feudal principles, but perhaps extended farther than even those principles will warrant, has been long looked upon as a peculiar hardship: and by the statute 7 Ann. c. 21. (the operation of which is postponed by the statute 7 Geo. II. c. 39.) it is enacted, that, after the death of the late pretender, and his sons, no attainder for treason shall extend to the disinheriting of any heir, nor the prejudice of any person, other than the offender himself.

Before I conclude this head, of escheat, I must mention one singular instance in which lands held in fee-simple are not liable to escheat to the lord, even when their owner is no more, and hath left no heirs to inherit them. And this is the case of a corporation; for if that comes by any accident to be dissolved, the donor or his heirs shall have the land again in reversion, and not the lord by escheat; which perhaps is the only instance where a reversion can be expectant on a grant in fee-simple absolute. But the law, we are told, doth tacitly annex a condition to every such gift or grant, that if the corporation be dissolved, the donor or grantor shall reenter; for the cause of the gift or grant faileth.

CHAPTER XVI.

OF TITLE BY OCCUPANCY.

OCCUPANCY is the taking possession of those things which before belonged to nobody. This right of occupancy, so far as it concerns real property, (for of personal chattels I am not in this place to speak) hath been confined by the laws of England within a very narrow compass; and was extended only to a single instance: namely, where a man was tenant pur auter vie, or had an estate granted to himself only (without mentioning his heirs) for the life of another man, and died during the life of cestuy que vie, or him by whose life it was holden: in this case he, that could first enter on the land, might lawfully retain the possession so long as cestuy que vie lived, by right of occupancy. And, had the estate pur auter vie been granted to a man and his heirs during the life of cestuy que vie, there the heir might, and still may, enter and hold possession, and is called in law a special occupant; as having a special exclusive right, by the terms of the original grant, to enter upon and occupy this hæreditas jacens, during the residue of the estate granted though some have thought him so called with no very great propriety; and that such estate is rather a descendible freehold. But the title of common occupancy is now reduced almost to nothing by two statutes: the one 29 Car. II. c. 3. which enacts (according to the ancient rule of law)

that where there is no special occupant, in whom the estate may vest, the tenant pur auter vie may devise it by will, or it shall go to the executors or administrators, and be assets in their hands for payment of debts: the other that of 14 Geo. II. which enacts, that the surplus of such estate pur auter vie, after payment of debts, shall go in a course of distribution like a chattel interest.

c. 20.

By these two statutes the title of common occupancy is utterly extinct and abolished: though that of special occupancy, by the heir at law, continues to this day; such heir being held to succeed to the ancestor's estate, not by descent, for then he must take an estate of inheritance, but as an occupant, specially marked out and appointed by the original grant.

CHAPTER XVII.

OF TITLE BY PRESCRIPTION.

A third method of acquiring real property by purchase is that by prescription; as when a man can shew no other title to what he claims, than that he, and those under whom he claims, have immemorially used to enjoy it. Concerning customs, or immemorial usages, in general, with the several requisites and rules to be observed, in order to prove their existence and validity, we inquired at large in the preceding part of these commentaries. At present therefore I shall only, first,

distinguish between custom, strictly taken, and prescription; and then shew, what sort of things may be prescribed for.

And, first, the distinction between custom and prescription is this; that custom is properly a local usage, and not annexed to any person: such as a custom in the manor of Dale that lands shall descend to the youngest son prescription is merely a personal usage; as, that Sempronius, and his ancestors, or those whose estate he hath, have used time out of mind to have such an advantage or privilege. All prescription must be either in a man and his ancestors, or in a man and those whose estate he hath: which last is called prescribing in a que estate. But by the statute of limitations 32 Hen. VIII. c. 2. it is enacted, that no person shall make any prescription by the seizin or possession of his ancestor or predecessor, unless such seizin or possession hath been within threescore years next before such prescription made.

Secondly, as to the several species of things which may, or may not, be prescribed for: we may, in the first place, observe, that nothing but incorporeal hereditaments can be claimed by prescription; as a right of way, a common, &c. but that no prescription can give a title to lands, and other corporeal substances, of which more certain evidence may be had. 2. A prescription must always be laid in him that is tenant of the fee. And therefore a copyholder must prescribe under cover of his lord's estate, and a tenant for life under cover of the tenant in fee-simple. 3. A prescription cannot