vate Money Drainage Act, 1849 (c), the owner of any land in Great Britain or Ireland may borrow or advance money for the improvement of such land by works of drainage, such money, with interest not exceeding five per cent. per annum, to be charged on the inheritance of the land, in the shape of a rent-charge, for the term of twenty-two years. These loans are under the superintendence of the Inclosure Commissioners for England and Wales, and in Ireland under that of the Commissioners for Public Works in Ireland. But the authority of these commissioners to issue certificates of the redemption of the loans of public money is now transOther improve- ferred to the Board of Inland Revenue (d). In all other respects, improvements which a tenant for life may wish to make must be paid for out of his own pocket (e).

ments.

Conveyance.

Tenants for life under wills are empowered, by recent acts of parliament, to convey in certain cases, under the direction of the Court of Chancery, the whole estate in the lands of which they are tenants for life. Such conveyances are made only when the concurrence of the other parties cannot be obtained, and a sale or mortgage of the lands is required for the payment of the debts of the testator (f). These powers, however, are given to the tenant for life for the sake of making a title to the property; and are more for the benefit of the creditors of the late testator, than for the advantage of the tenant for life, who is, in these cases, merely the instrument for carrying into effect the decree of the Court; and the powers given by these acts will now apparently be in a

(c) Stat. 12 & 13 Vict. c. 100, amended by stat. 19 & 20 Vict. c. 9.

(d) Stat. 19 & 20 Vict. c. 9, s. 10.

(e) Nairn v. Majoribanks, 3 Russ. 582; Hibbert v. Cooke, 1

Sim. & Stu. 552; Caldecott v.
Brown, 2 Hare, 144; Horlock v.
Smith, 17 Beav. 572; Dunne v.
Dunne, 7 De Gex, M. & G. 267.

(f) Stat. 11 Geo. IV. & 1 Will. IV. c. 47, s. 12; 2 & 3 Vict. c. 60.

estates.

great measure superseded by the provisions of the recent act to consolidate and amend the laws relating to the conveyance and transfer of real and personal property vested in mortgagees and trustees (g). More recently, Sale of settled however, an act has been passed, to which we have already referred (h), to facilitate leases and sales of settled estates (i). Under this act, if the Court of Chancery should deem it proper and consistent with a due regard for the interest of all parties entitled, a sale of any settled estate may be ordered to be made. And the money to be raised on any such sale is to be paid either to trustees of whom the Court shall approve, or into Court, and is to be applied to the following purposes, namely, the redemption of the land tax, or of any incumbrance affecting the hereditaments sold or any other hereditaments settled in the same way, or the purchase of other hereditaments to be settled in the same manner, or in the payment to any person becoming absolutely entitled (k). And the money is in the meantime to be invested in Exchequer Bills or Consols, and the interest or dividends paid to the tenant for life (1). But the powers of the act are not to be exercised if an express declaration or manifest intention that they shall not be exercised is contained in the settlement, or may reasonably be inferred therefrom or from extrinsic circumstances or evidence (m).

In addition to estates for life expressly created by the acts of the parties, there are certain life interests, created by construction and operation of law, possessed by husbands and wives in each other's land. These interests will be spoken of in a future chapter.

(g) Stat. 13 & 14 Vict. c. 60,

s. 29.

(h) Ante, pp. 25, 26.

(i) Stat. 19 & 20 Vict. c. 120, amended by stat. 21 & 22 Vict.

There are

c. 77.

(k) Stat. 19 & 20 Vict. c. 120,

s. 23.

(1) Sect. 25.
(m) Sect. 26.

also certain other life estates held by persons subject to peculiar laws; such as the life estates held by beneficed clergymen. These estates are exceptions from the general law; and a discussion of them, in an elementary work like the present, would tend rather to confuse the student, than to aid him in his grasp of those general principles, which it should be his first object to comprehend.

CHAPTER II.

OF AN ESTATE TAIL.

THE next estate we shall notice is an estate tail, or an Estate tail. estate given to a man and the heirs of his body. This is such an estate as will, if left to itself, descend, on the decease of the first owner, to all his lawful issue,children, grand-children, and more remote descendants, so long as his posterity endures,-in a regular order and course of descent from one to another; and, on the other hand, if the first owner should die without issue, his estate, if left alone, will then determine. An estate General or tail may be either general, that is, to the heirs of his special. body generally, and without restriction, in which case the estate will be descendible to every one of his lawful posterity in due course; or special, when it is restrained to certain heirs of his body, and does not go to all of them in general; thus, if an estate be given to a man and the heirs of his body by a particular wife; here none can inherit but such as are his issue by the wife specified. Estates tail may be also in tail male, or in Male or fetail female: an estate in tail male cannot descend to any

but males, and male descendants of males; and cannot, consequently, belong to any one who does not bear the surname of his ancestor from whom he inherited: so an estate in tail female can only descend to females, and female descendants of females (a). Special estates tail, confined to the issue by a particular wife, are not now common; the most usual kinds of estates tail now given are estates in tail general, and in tail male. Tail female scarcely ever occurs.

(a) Litt. ss. 13, 14, 15, 16, 21; 2 Black. Com. 113, 114.

male.

Donee in tail.

The owner of an estate tail is called a donee in tail, and the person who has given him the estate tail is called the donor. And here it may be remarked, that such correlative words as donor and donee, lessor and lessee, and many others of a like termination, are used in law to distinguish the person from whom an act proceeds, from the person for or towards whom it is done. Tenant in tail. The owner of an estate tail is also called a tenant in tail, for he is as much a holder as a tenant for life. But an estate tail is a larger estate than an estate for life, as it may endure so long as the first owner of the estate has An estate tail any issue of the kind mentioned in the gift. It is con

is a freehold.

Feudal tenancies become hereditary.

sequently an estate of freehold. We shall now proceed to give a short history of this estate; in doing which it will be necessary to advert to the origin and progress of the general right of alienation of lands.

It will readily be supposed that a mere system of life estates, continually granted by feudal lords to their tenants, would not long continue; the son of the tenant would naturally be the first person who would hope to succeed to his father's tenancy: accordingly we find that the holding of lands by feudal tenants soon became hereditary, permission being granted to the heirs of the tenant to succeed on the decease of their ancestor. By the term "heirs" it is said that the issue of the tenant were at first only meant; collateral relations, such as brothers and cousins, being excluded (b); the true feudal reason of this construction is stated by Blackstone to be, that what was given to a man for his personal service and personal merit ought not to descend to any but the heirs of his person (c). But in our own country it appears that, at any rate in the time of Henry II. (d) collateral relations were admitted to succeed as heirs;

(b) Wright's Tenures, 18.
(c) 2 Black. Com. 221.

(d) 1 Reeves's Hist. Eng. Law, 108.