specifies? But it must be recollected that in the instance CHAP. V. of the lessee of a life-hold tenant the legislature has so interfered, and it is not clear, perhaps, that on examination there would be found any substantial difference in principle between the cases. However, the very frame and language of the act seem to forbid our entering upon considerations designed to include them both, as being equally within the reason of the law. We have thus taken a rapid and general view of a Conclusion. larger mass of real property law than the legislature ever before produced in so short a period. To have travelled through the acts in detail, to have anticipated questions, and indulged in speculations on their construction and effect, would not have been consistent with the limits or the design of this work. Whatever defects may be found in these the first serious attempts to revise our civil jurisprudence, still the result, upon the whole, may be deemed creditable to the character of the profession as a learned and candid body, and of the people as an enlightened and progressive community. As to fines and recoveries, the abolition of those mystic rites and solemnities, which not even the officiating priesthood could ever comprehend, (a) was long since proposed by grave and cautious men, and its practicability had been evinced by the experience of some of our colonies for more than a century. The rules of inheritance have been less necessarily, and the law of dower less fortunately touched; but the statutes for shortening the period of limitation, and for the relief of simple-contract creditors, were demanded by justice and policyby all who desire to live quiet and to die honest. On (a) 1 Wils. 73. Lee 14815 Vic Cop CHAP. V. the practical success of the new acts will depend, in some degree, the progress of legal reform, which, unless discouraged by eminent failure at the outset, is not likely to relax its efforts until it has removed the moss from every stone of the ancient edifice of our laws, and accommodated to modern ideas of utility and order the unwieldy forms and obsolete style of the feudal architect. (a) But in seeking to correct its faults, let us shun the vice of excessive legislation, recollecting that acts of parliament, however skilfully framed, (and most of those on which we have been commenting proceeded from a commission constituted of very able lawyers,) do but contribute to furnish the rude substratum on which the judicature slowly rears a system of rules, and that while the foundation is continually shifting, the superstructure can acquire neither solidity nor symmetry. (a) It is probable that all or most of the inconveniences resulting from the rules of tenure will be remedied, particularly those glanced at towards the conclusion of the fourth Chapter. The extinction of dry legal estates, unaccompanied with either interest or duty, is a desideratum, but the peculiar constitution of our judicature, and the importance of maintaining a broad line of separation between the provinces of law and equity, render the attempt difficult and hazardous. By ameliorations in the doctrines of tenure the frequency of such estates will be diminished. Some Questions prepared by the writer, with the view of inviting discussion on this subject, when it was under the consideration of the Real Property Commissioners, will be found in a subsequent part of this volume. A Table showing all the expressly fixed Periods for the efficient Commencement of Clauses in the Acts of the 3 & 4 Will. 4, to amend the Law of Real Property. (a) 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 27. An Act for the Limitation of Actions and Suits relating to Real Property, and for simplifying the Remedies for trying the Rights thereto. [Royal Assent, 24th July, 1833.] DECEMBER 31, 1833. 1. After THIS DATE, no entry, distress, or action at law, for land or rent, except within twenty years after the time when, as enacted, the right thereto accrued, s. 2; which period, in cases of disability only, is capable of enlargement, s. 16; but not beyond forty years, s. 17. 2. Suits in equity for land or rent subjected to same limitation, ss. 24, 28. 3. After THIS DATE, no entry, distress, action, or suit, by spiritual or eleemosynary corporation sole for land or rent, unless within two successive incumbencies and an additional term of six years, with, where the aggregate of such periods amounts not to sixty years, an allowance of a further term equal to the difference between such aggregate and sixty years, s. 29. 4. After THIS DATE, no quare impedit, or other action or suit for advowson, after three adverse incumbencies; with (a) For the meaning of those technical terms in this table, to which particular significations are affixed by the Acts, the reader must consult the respective Acts. an allowance, if such incumbencies do not amount to sixty years, of a further period equal to the difference between the aggregate of such incumbencies and sixty years, s. 30, 31; but in no case after 100 years from presentation, &c. adversely either to the claimant or those under whom he claims, or else to a preceding interest derived under the same title, unless in case of a mediate presentation, &c. in respect of an estate under the same title, s. 33. 5. After THIS DATE, no descent cast, discontinuance, or warranty to toll or defeat any right of entry or of action, s. 39. 6. After THIS DATE, no action or suit for any money secured on land by mortgage, judgment, lien, or otherwise, or for any legacy, except within twenty years after right to re ceive same by a person capable of giving a discharge, or after last payment of part principal or interest, or last acknowledgment in writing by a person liable, s. 40. 7. After THIS DATE, no arrears or damages in respect of dower, for more than six years before action or suit, s. 41. 8. After THIS DATE, no arrears of rent; or of interest for any money charged on any land or rent, or for any legacy; nor any damages in respect of such arrears recoverable, except within six years after accruer or acknowledgment in writing, save arrears of interest accrued while prior incumbrancer is in possession up to within one year next before the action or suit, s. 42. 9. Like limitation of suits in ecclesiastical courts for tithes, legacy, or property recoverable also by action or suit at law or in equity, s. 43. JULY 24, 1833.-(Passing of the Act.) 10. From THIS DATE, five years allowed for entry, distress or action, if the possession, or receipt of profits, or receipt of rent, at passing of the act, was not adverse to the right of the claimant, notwithstanding lapse of twenty years since the right of the claimant or of the person under whom he claims accrued, s. 15. DECEMBER 31, 1834. 11. After THIS DATE (subject to the exception in No. 12,) no action, real or mixed, and no plaint in nature thereof (except writ of right of dower, writ of dower unde nihil habet, quare impedit, or ejectment, and except plaint for freebench or dower,) s. 36. JUNE 1, 1835. 12. Before THIS DATE, every person having on DECEMBER 31, 1834, right of action, but not of entry, may, notwithstanding (only) the act, bring any such writ or action as by s. 36 is otherwise abolished, s. 37. JUNE 1, 1835. 13. After THIS DATE, every person who, on JUNE 1, 1835, could maintain such writ or action as by s. 36 is otherwise abolished, but whose entry shall have been taken away by descent cast, discontinuance, or warranty, may maintain such writ or action within the like period as the act would have allowed his entry if not so taken away, s. 38. 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 74. An Act for the Abolition of Fines and Recoveries, and for the Substitution of more simple modes of Assurance. [Royal Assent, 28th August, 1833.] DECEMBER 31, 1833. 14. After THIS DATE, no fine or recovery of land of any tenure, unless dedimus or other writ for this purpose sued out on or before THIS DATE, S. 2. 15. After THIS DATE, persons who by any instrument executed before 1st JANUARY, 1834, have covenanted or agreed |