tenant's death the land was to revert. But there was no need to say this: if nothing was said the land went back to the donor who had all along been its lord.

LIT., § 19.

In every gift in taile without more saying, the reversion of the fee simple is in the donor.

Co. LIT., 22, b. A reversion is where the residue of the estate always doth continue in him that made the particular estate, or where the particular estate is derived out of his estate, as here in the case of Litt. Tenant in fee simple maketh gift in taile, so it is of a lease of life, or for yeares.

DIGBY, HIST. REAL PROP., Ch. V., § 3 (1). Reversions. -Where a freeholder grants away some estate smaller than that which he has himself, he has, in the metaphorical language of the law, an interest left in him, which, though not immediately an interest of present possession or enjoyment, will become such so soon as the smaller preceding interest has expired. Thus, where a tenant in fee simple has created an estate in tail, for life, or for years, he has left in him a present estate, which will come into possession or enjoyment on the expiration or sooner determination of the estate tail, the estate for life, or the estate for years. The smaller estate thus granted is called the "particular" estate. "A reversion," says Sir E. Coke, "is where the residue of the estate always doth continue in him that made the particular estate." It has already been observed, that between the reversioner and the tenant of the particular estate a tenure exists-the latter holds of the former. Hence, before the Statute 4 Anne, c. 16, the attornment of the tenant was necessary to complete the grant of the reversion; otherwise, the tenant would have had a new lord imposed upon him without his consent.

The proper mode of conveying or disposing of the reversion is by grant, that is, grant by deed, or writing on paper

or parchment sealed and delivered. Suppose A. has the reversion in fee simple expectant on an estate tail, or on an estate for life, or on an estate for years. He can by a simple deed of grant create any number of estates tail, or estates for life, or estates for years out of his reversionary interest, and dispose of them as he pleases. He can deal with the reversionary interest just as he can deal with an interest in possession, only he cannot give livery of seisin, for the simple reason that he has it not to give, inasmuch as he is not in actual possession of the lands. This, however, is subject to the exception that the reversioner is in one sense seised when the particular estate is only a lease for years. The lessee for years is, as has been said above, not seised of the lands, but only possessed of the term. Seisin, as has been seen, implies (1) actual possession, (2) possession as of freehold. Where, therefore, there is a particular estate of leasehold tenure, the reversioner, if he can obtain the consent of the lessee to come on the land for the purpose, can pass his interest by feoffment, accompanied by livery of seisin. In this case, however, he grants, not the reversion, but the freehold in possession.

When a reversioner desires, not to grant his reversion to a third person, but to convey it to the person who already has the particular estate, he is said to release the reversion. This he may do by deed. Supposing, therefore, in the case above put, A., tenant of the reversion in fee, should execute a deed releasing his interest to tenant in tail, tenant for life, or tenant for years, the reversion in fee would coalesce with the particular estate in tail, for life, or for years. This coalescing of a smaller estate with a larger is called merger, the rule being that where the same person becomes entitled to two estates, the one of which is to take effect in possession during the continuance or immediately on the determination of the other, the smaller one is merged or swallowed up in the larger. So in the above cases, each of the tenants in possession, tenant in tail, tenant for life, and tenant for years, becomes at once tenant in fee simple in pos

session. The same effect is produced by the surrender of the particular estate to the reversioner. The particular estate merges in the larger reversionary estate.

Thus, as the law became more refined, new modes of conveying lands from one person to another were introduced, destined, with some modifications to be hereafter noticed, to supersede in practice the old feoffment, fine, and recovery. If A., tenant in fee simple, wished to convey the lands to B., he might make a lease to him of the lands in question, upon which B. would enter, and was then at once capable of taking a release by deed of the reversion in fee. This was called conveyance by lease and release, and became in later times the usual mode of conveying lands.1

A conveyance of the reversion might also be made to a stranger. In this case it was formerly necessary that the tenant of the particular estate, whether in tail, for life, or for years, should attorn to the grantee of the reversion, in other words, acknowledge him as the person of whom the lands were held. The necessity for attornment was done away with by 4 Anne, c. 16, secs. 9, 10. Thus two new modes of conveying the immediate freehold were added, lease and release, and grant and attornment.

LEAKE, LAND LAW, 315. In like manner, if the tenant of a particular estate convey the land for a less estate, he has a reversion left in himself; thus tenant in tail, by a disentailing assurance, may dispose of the lands entailed in fee simple or for any less estate; and if he make a disposition for a less estate, the reversion remains in him and is subject to the entail, unless it be wholly barred by the same assurance. If tenant in tail lease for life or for years at common law, without a disentailing assurance or any other special or statutory power in that behalf, he has a reversion; but such lease is valid only during his life, and is voidable at his death by the heir in tail. So, tenant for life may make a lease for years, and, however long the term of years may be, as it is not 1 See pages 437, 502, post.-ED.

coextensive with the freehold, there is a reversion in the lessor. But such lease made under a special or statutory power is valid only during the continuance of the lessor's estate, and is avoided by his death.

If tenant for term of years make an underlease for a shorter term, by however small an interval of time, he has the reversion for that interval left in him. An underlease for a shorter term, "if the underlessee shall so long live," leaves a reversion expectant on the determination of the sub-term either by lapse of time or by the death of the underlessce. An underlease for the whole term, or for a greater term, operates as an assignment and leaves no reversion; it carries with it all the rights and liabilities incident to the term and leaves none of the incidents of a reversion. If tenant for term of years convey the land to another for an estate for life or in tail at common law, the whole term passes and there is no reversion.

The grant of a particular estate, leaving a reversion in the grantor, creates a tenure between the tenant of the particular estate and the reversioner. This tenure is not within the statute of Quia emptores, for that statute extends only to alienations in fee simple, preventing any new tenure arising upon such alienations. Hence rent reserved upon such a grant of a particular estate is of the nature of rent service, and is attended at common law with the remedy of distress. And a grant of the reversion impliedly carries with it all the incidents of the tenure, as the rent service, if any, unless there be an express exception of such incidents in the grant.

N. Y. REAL PROP. LAW, § 29. A reversion is the residue. of an estate left in the grantor or his heirs, or in the heirs of a testator, commencing in possession on the determination of a particular estate granted or devised.

CHAPTER III.

REMAINDERS.

(a) Vested Remainders.

Co. LIT., 143, a. "Remainder," in legall Latine, is remanere, coming of the Latine worde remaneo; for that it is a remainder or remnant of an estate in lands or tenements, expectant upon a particular estate created together with the same at one time.

2 BL. COм., 163-168. An estate, then, in remainder may be defined to be an estate limited to take effect and be enjoyed after another estate is determined. As if a man seised in fee-simple granteth lands to A. for twenty years, and, after the determination of the said term, then to B. and his heirs forever: here A. is tenant for years, remainder to B. in fee. In the first place an estate for years is created or carved out of the fee, and given to A.; and the residue or remainder of it is given to B. But both these interests are in fact only one estate; the present term of years and the remainder afterward, when added together, being equal only to one estate in fee. They are indeed different parts, but they constitute only one whole: they are carved out of one and the same inheritance: they are both created, and may both subsist, together; the one in possession, the other in expectancy. So if land be granted to A. for twenty years, and after the determination of the said term to B. for life; and after the determination of B.'s cstate for life, it be limited to C. and his heirs forever; this makes A. tenant for years, with remainder to B. for life, remainder over to C. in fee. Now, here the estate of inheritance undergoes a