for the benefit of any charitable uses whatsoever, unless made by a deed executed in the presence of two or more credible witnesses, twelve calendar months at least before the death of the donor or grantor, and enrolled in Chancery within six calendar months after its execution. The deed must also be intended to take effect in possession for the charitable use, immediately from the making thereof, and be without any power of revocation, reservation, trust, condition, clause, or agreement whatever, for the benefit of the donor or of any person claiming under him. But these provisions are not1 to extend to any purchase made bona fide for valuable consideration, or 2 to prejudice the Universities of Oxford. and Cambridge, or the Colleges of Eton, Winchester, and Westminster. c. 57. The time allowed for enrolling conveyances under the Mortmain Act was enlarged by subsequent statutes, and now it is provided by the 29 & 30 Vict. 29 & 30 Vict. c. 57, that any trustee of a charity may, at any time. apply to the Court of Chancery for an order authorizing the enrolment of any deed, or other instrument, whereby any hereditaments have been conveyed for charitable uses, or any deed connected with any charitable trust, which deed ought to have been enrolled, but has not been enrolled within the time limited by law. c. 44. By a subsequent act,5 grants of lands made to a 31 & 32 Vict. trustee or trustees on behalf of any society or body of persons associated together for religious purposes, or for the promotion of education, arts, literature, science, or other like purposes, in order to erect a 8 24 & 25 Vict. c. 9; 25 & 26 Vict. c. 17; 27 & 28 Vict. c. 13. 4 S. 1. 5 31 & 32 Vict. c. 44. building thereon, or whereon a building used, or intended to be used, for such purposes, or any of them, shall have been erected, are to be exempted from the necessity of enrolment, provided they are made bona fide and for valuable consideration, and provided that each such piece of land shall not exceed two acres in extent or area in each case. In addition to the above, the Charitable Trusts Act 1853,1 and the Charitable Trusts Amendment Act 1855,2 enable trustees of charities to purchase lands 33 & 34 Vict. for building purposes, and the 33 & 34 Vict. c. 34, permits corporations and trustees holding moneys in trust for any public or charitable purposes to invest the same in any mortgages or charges of lands and hereditaments of any tenure.* Charitable c. 34. Corporations not charitable. Highway boards. Joint-stock companies. With respect to corporations formed for purposes not strictly charitable, the law of mortmain has been of late considerably relaxed. Thus, highway boards are now empowered to take lands without a license from the Crown,5 as are also joint-stock companies formed under the Companies' Act 1862, it being, however, provided by this act, that no company formed for the purpose of promoting art, science, religion, charity, or any other like object, not involving the acquisition of gain by the company, shall hold more than two acres of land without the sanction of the Board of Trade. Aliens were also, until recently, forbidden to hold land in this country, except for business purposes, and then only for terms not exceeding twenty-one years, but now the Naturalization tion Act 1870. Act 1870,8 provides that real and personal property of every description may be taken, acquired, held, Aliens. Naturaliza 1 16 & 17 Vict. c. 137. 3 S. 1. 5 25 & 26 Vict. c. 61, § 9. 2 18 & 19 Vict. c. 124. 6 25 & 26 Vict. c. 89. 8 33 Vict. c. 14, § 2. and disposed of by an alien, in the same manner in all respects as by a natural-born British subject; and that a title to real or personal property of every description may be derived through, from, or in succession to an alien, in the same manner, in all respects, as through a British subject. be created. An estate in fee-simple may be granted or given, How a feeby deed or by will, by any competent person. We simple may have already seen that the use of the word "heirs" Form of is essential in order to confer such an estate by deed, although not so where a disposition is made of it by will. . words. an estate in The incidents of an estate in fee-simple do not re- Incidents of quire any lengthy notice, since the absolute powers fee-simple. which its possessor has over it enable him to commit any kind of waste on the property, or to sell, lease, or incumber it at his pleasure, and free him from any obligation, as between himself and his successors, to keep down the interest on any charges which may exist on the land. But a few remarks may be made on the subject of fixtures. During his lifetime, a Fixtures. tenant in fee-simple has uncontrolled power over any fixtures put up by a previous owner of the property, or by himself. He may also, if he pleases, dispose of them by his will. But if he dies, having neither removed them nor specifically bequeathed them, the right of his executor, or administrator, to claim them is less than in the case of any other deceased tenant. The old rule appears to have been that the executor or administrator of a tenant in fee-simple was not entitled to any kind of fixtures. And even in modern times, it has been laid down by the House of Lords that the decisions in other cases in favor of 1 Amos on Fixtures, 152; Warner v. Fleetwood, cited 4 Rep. 64a; Wood v. Smith, Cro. Jac. 129. Alienation of an estate in fee-simple. Voluntary. trade fixtures do not apply as between the heir and executor, or administrator, of a tenant in fee; and hence, that machinery put up by such a tenant for the purpose of better using his land went, in the absence of any disposition of it having been made by him, to his heir, and not to his executor.1 And as to undisposed of ornamental or domestic fixtures, such as kitchen ranges, stoves, grates, or blinds, it has been. held that they also belong to the heir.2 It would seem therefore that the executor, or administrator, has no right to undisposed of fixtures of any kind, except where they have been merely loosely affixed to the freehold, in a manner which showed a clear intention that they should be removable. Our previous remarks on the creation of a fee-simple apply equally to its voluntary alienation by the tenant. We have next, therefore, to see how this Involuntary estate can be the subject of involuntary alienation. Forfeitures of land, on account of its owner having committed some crime, having been recently abolished, the two principal grounds on which a tenant in fee-simple may now be deprived of his estate are, his having failed to pay debts declared to be due from him by the judgment of a court of justice, or his having become bankrupt. Judgments. It will be recollected that the question of the effect of judgments on the various estates in land which we have discussed in previous chapters, was purposely deferred until we should have reached the stage at which we have now arrived. We will proceed, there 1 Fisher v. Dixon, 12 Cl. & F. 312, 331; and see Trappes v. Harter, 2 Cr. & Mee. 153, 180. 2 See Winn v. Ingilby, 5 B. & Ald. 625; Colegrave v. Dias Santos, 2 B. & C. 76. 3 33 & 34 Vict. c. 23, § 1. fore, to state briefly the law of judgments, with reference to such estates generally. Westminster. Before the passing of the Statute of Westminster,1 Statute of freehold and copyhold estates could not be taken in execution for debt, but under that act (the provisions of which relating to judgments were somewhat extended by the Statute of Frauds 2), a creditor who had recovered a judgment in one of the King's courts might, at his option, have either a writ of fieri facias directing the sheriff, or other officer, to sell the debtor's chattels, including his leaseholds, in order, out of the proceeds, to satisfy the debt; or he might have a writ of elegit, under which the sheriff might Writ of elegit. deliver to him the chattels of the debtor at an appraised value, without having been sold, and also, if these were not sufficient to pay the debt, one half of the debtor's land, again including leaseholds; which the creditor might hold until he had repaid himself out of the rents and profits. 3 These statutes did not apply to an estate by the curtesy, or to an estate tail as against the issue in tail, or to copyholds, or to some forms of incorporeal hereditaments. Neither did they include an equitable estate in leaseholds, nor an equitable estate in freeholds if the trustee parted with it at any time before the writ of elegit was sued out. But where they did apply, a judgment became, under the Statute of Westminster, a general charge upon all the lands Judgment a which the debtor had at the time of entering up all the debt5 general lien on the judgment, and upon all those which he subse- or's lands. quently acquired; and no act of his, not even a sale 1 13 Edw. I. c. 18. 2 29 Car. II. c. 3, §§ 10, 14, 15. 3 Fleetwood's Case, 8 Rep. 171 a. 4 13 Edw. I. c. 18. 5 A judgment is "entered up" by inscribing the fact of its having been obtained on the records of the court. |