The dower of women married since the 1st of January, 1834, may be barred by the acceptance of a jointure in the same manner as before; but, in their case, the doctrine of jointures is of very little moment. For, by the Dower Act, the dower of such women has been placed completely within the power of their husbands. Under the Act no widow is entitled to dower out of any land, which shall have been absolutely disposed of by her husband in his lifetime or by his will, or in which he shall have devised any estate or interest for her benefit, unless (in the latter case) a contrary intention shall be declared by his will. And all partial estates and interests, and all charges created by any disposition or will of the husband, and all debts, incumbrances, contracts and engagements to which his lands may be liable, shall be effectual as against the right of his widow to dower. The husband may also either wholly or partially deprive his wife of her right to dower, by any declaration for that purpose made by him, by any deed, or by his will. As some small compensation for these sacrifices, the Act has granted a right of dower out of lands to which the husband. had a right merely without having had even a legal seisin; dower is also extended to equitable as well as legal estates of inheritance in possession, excepting of course estates in joint-tenancy. The effect of the Act is evidently to deprive the wife of her dower, except as against her husband's heir at law. If the husband should die intestate, and possessed of any lands, the wife's dower out of such lands is still left her for her support-unless, indeed, the husband should have executed a declaration to the contrary.

ID., 377. The legislation in this country in regard to dower is not uniform, and is much less sweeping than in England. In the following States dower has been expressly abolished by statute, and a provision made for the widow's benefit in the statutes of descent: California (Civ. Code of 1886, sec. 173), Colorado (Mills' Ann. Stat., sec. 1524), the Dakotas (Comp. Laws of 1887, secs. 2594, 3402), Indiana (Burns' Ann. Stat. sec. 2639), Iowa (1 McClain's

Ann. Code, sec. 3644), Kansas (Gen. Stat. of 1889, sec. 2619), Minnesota (Gen. Stat. of 1891, Kelly's ed., sec. 4001), Mississippi (Ann Code of 1892, sec. 2291), Washington (1 Hill's Ann. Stat., secs. 1405, 1482), and Wyoming (R. S. of 1887, sec. 2221). While statutory changes of more or less importance are found in other States, in the majority dower exists substantially as at common law. In New Hampshire (Pub. Stat. of 1891, chap. 195, sec. 3), Vermont (Rev. Laws of 1880, sec. 2215), and a few other States, it is restricted to the real estate of which the husband dies seised; but in Vermont a conveyance made by the husband during coverture with a fraudulent intention to defeat the wife's dower right is void as against her. See Nichols v. Nichols, 61 Vt., 426. Under our statutes, dower usually attaches to equitable as well as legal estates. But the common-law rule prevails in several States; and in those in which it has been changed, it is generally held that the wife's right to dower in the equitable estates of her husband extends only to those cases in which he is possessed of such estates at the time of his death.-Hutchins' note.

(3) TENANT IN TAIL AFTER POSSIBILITY OF ISSUE EXTINCT.

LIT., § 32. Tenant in fee taile after possibility of issue .xtinct is, where tenements are given to a man and to his wife in especiall taile, if one of them die without issue, the survivor is tenant in taile after possibility of issue extinct. And if they have issue, and the one die, albeit that during the life of the issue the survivor shall not be said tenant in taile after possibilitie of issue extinct; yet if the issue die without issue, so as there be not any issue alive which may inherit by force of the taile, then the surviving party of the donees is tenant in taile after possibilitie of issue extinct.

§ 33. Also, if tenements be given to a man and to his heires which he shall beget on the bodie of his wife, in this case the wife hath nothing in the tenements, and the husband is seised as donee in especiall taile. And in this case, if the

wife die without issue of her body begotten by her husband, then the husband is tenant in taile after possibility of issue extinct.

8 34. And note, that none can be tenant in taile after possibility of issue extinct but one of the donees, or the donee in especial taile. For the donee in generall taile cannot be said to be tenant in taile after possibility of issue extinct; because alwaies during his life he may by possibility have issue which may inherit by force of the same entaile. And so in the same manner the issue, which is heir to the donees in especiall taile, cannot be tenant in taile after possibility of issue extinct, for the reason above said.

2 BL. COM., 124-126. The next estate for life is of the legal kind, as contradistinguished from conventional; viz., that of tenant in 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: in either of these cases the surviving tenant in special tail becomes tenant in tail after possibility of issue 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. For if it had called him barely tenant in fee-tail special, that would not have distinguished him from others; and besides, he has no longer an estate of inheritance or fee, for he can have no heirs capable of taking per formam doni. Had it called him tenant in tail without issue, this had only related to the present fact, and would not have excluded the possibility of future issue. Had he been styled tenant in tail without possibility of issue, this would exclude time past as well as present, and he might under this description never have had any possibility of issue. No definition therefore could so exactly

mark him out, as this of tenant in tail after possibility of issue extinct, which (with a precision peculiar to our own law) not only takes in the possibility of issue in tail, which he once had, but also states that this possibility is now extinguished and gone.

This estate must be created by the act of God, that is, by the death of that person out of whose body the issue was to spring; for no limitation, conveyance, or other human act can make it. For, if land be given to a man and his wife, and the heirs of their two bodies begotten, and they are divorced a vinculo matrimonii, they shall neither of them have this estate, but be barely tenants for life, notwithstanding the inheritance once vested in them. A possibility of issue is always supposed to exist in law, unless extinguished by the death of the parties; even though the donees be each of them an hundred years old.

This estate is of an amphibious nature, partaking partly of an estate tail, and partly of an estate for life. The tenant is, in truth, only tenant for life, but with many of the privileges of a tenant in tail; as not to be punishable for waste, etc.; or, he is tenant in tail, with many of the restrictions of a tenant for life; as to forfeit his estate if he alienes it in fee-simple: whereas such alienation by tenant in tail, though voidable by the issue, is no forfeiture of the estate to the reversioner who is not concerned in interest, till all possibility of issue be extinct. But, in general, the law looks upon this estate as equivalent to an estate for life only; and, as such, will permit this tenant to exchange his estate with a tenant for life, which exchange can only be made of estates that are equal in their nature.

II. Estates not of Freehold.

CHAPTER I.

ESTATES FOR YEARS.

LIT., § 58. Tenant for terme of yeares is where a man letteth lands or tenements to another for terme of certaine yeares, after the number of yeares that is accorded between the lessor and the lessee. And when the lessee entreth by force of the lease, then is he tenant for tearme of yeares; and if the lessor in such case reserve to him a yearely rent upon such lease, he may chuse for to distraine for the rent in the tenements letten, or else he may have an action of debt for the arrerages against the lessee. But in such case it behooveth that the lessor be seised in the same tenements at the time of his lease; for it is a good plee for the lessee to say, that the lessor had nothing in the tenements at the time of the lease, except the lease be made by deed indented, in which case such plee lieth not for the lessee to plead.

Co. LIT., 45, b. Words to make a lease be, demise, grant, to fearme let, betake; and whatsoever word amounteth to a grant may serve to make a lease. . .

"De certaine ans." For regularly in every lease for yeares the terme must have a certaine beginning and a certaine end; and herewith agreeth Bracton, Terminus annorum certus debet esse et determinatus. And Littleton is here to be understood, first, that the yeares must be certaine when the lease is to take effect in interest or possession. For before it takes effect in possession or interest, it