AN INTRODUCTION TO CONVEYANCING, &c. &c. &c. CHAPTER I. OF THE NATURE AND EFFECTS OF TENURE. bution of the IT is proposed, in the following historical sketch, to General districonsider the Law of Real Property under three principal subject. divisions. The first division embraces the period of feudal ascendancy, when the system of tenures flourished, severe and pure, without any tincture of equitable doctrines. Some knowledge of the leading principles of that system is not merely desirable as matter of elegant or curious research, but essential to form the sound practical lawyer. The second division exhibits the rise and progress of equitable interests under the name of USES, which, eluding the strictness of tenure, contravened the law and impoverished the seigniory, yet effected on the whole a salutary change, and laid the foundation of greater good. Distinct traces of both these eras are visible in the compound character of our law, and in the twofold constitution of our judicature. The third division shews, by what legislative and judicial steps, the materials supplied by the preceding periods were rendered CHAPTER I. Property di vided into legal subservient to the progressive wants of society; how the harshness of tenure was mitigated by the adoption into our legal system of modes and forms peculiar to uses, which, in losing their fiduciary character, imparted new capabilities to the direct dominion; while personal confidences, so inseparable from the social state, were revived, in a more elaborate form, under the appellation of TRUSTS. In following the course of Law and Equity, so strongly contrasted in their origin and character, yet working and advancing together, we shall traverse an extensive and varied field, not destitute of moral interest, till we reach the maturity of that mixed system, under which, in later times, landed possessions have been enjoyed. We may then usefully pause to take a retrospective view, and to deduce from our observations some general results, in regard to the modifications of property and the forms of conveyance. In conclusion, the alterations effected by some recent statutes, the first fruits of a plan for the general revision of the Law of Real Property, will occupy our attention. Thus, we hope to illustrate the connection between the earliest and the latest fashion of the law, and to give a practical value to every stage of our history (a). THE most striking feature, in that branch of our civil and equitable. jurisprudence which concerns the rights of Property, is the division of the ownership into the legal estate, and the equitable or beneficial interest. A distinguished Judge, while seeking to subvert the distinction, or at (a) The student should be apprized, that though the past tense is used throughout the first four chapters, yet the law remains un altered, unless where change is indicated, either in the progress of the narrative, or in the concluding chapter. |