ON THE LAW OF LEASES; WITH Forms and Precedents. BY THOMAS PLATT, ESQ., OF LINCOLN'S INN, BARRISTER-AT-LAW; AUTHOR OF "A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE LAW OF COVENANTS." METUIT QUI SPERAT. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: A. MAXWELL AND SON, 32, BELL YARD, LINCOLN'S INN; AND HODGES AND SMITH, GRAFTON STREET, DUBLIN. MDCCCXLVII. LICRARY OF THE LELAND STANFO, J, LSSITY LAW DEPARTMENT. A. 75024. LONDON: BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. A TREATISE OF LEASES BY PAROL, WRITING, AND DEED. common law, corporeal hereditaments were demisable, except by corporations aggregate (a), without deed or writing (b); the lease being perfected, in the case of a demise for years, by the entry of the lessee; and by livery of seisin case of a lease for life. A deed was always required leasing without deed did not extend to a corporation aggregate, an allegation of a demise by them, not saying that it was under seal, has been held good after verdict, the court implying a deed (d). Parol leases were early discountenanced in equity; and we find Sir Thomas Egerton, the Lord Keeper, pronouncing openly, in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and the first King James, that, for avoiding perjuries and other abuses, he would not give help to a lease claimed by parol only (e); and that it were good for the commonwealth if no lease parol were allowed by the law, nor promises to be proved by witnesses, "considering the plenty of witnesses now-a-days which are testes diabolices, qui magis fame quàm famá moventur” (f). And it was afterwards enacted by the statute of frauds (g), that all leases, estates, interests of freehold, or terms of years, or any uncertain interest, of, in, to, or out of, any messuages manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments, made or created by livery and seisin only, or by parol, and not put in writing, and signed by the parties so making or creating the same, or their agents thereunto lawfully authorised by writing, should have the force and effect of leases or estates at will only, and should not either in law or equity be deemed or taken to have any other or greater force or effect, any consideration for making any such parol leases or estates to the contrary notwithstanding. The second section, however, excepted all leases not exceeding the term of three years from the making thereof, whereupon the rent reserved to the landlord during such term should amount to two-third parts at the least of the full improved value of the thing demised. Before this statute was passed, if a man by his will declared that he had made a lease to another for twenty-one years, the |