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and is employed to revoke such as were then declared, and to appoint others in their stead (a i).

These are the several conveyances founded on the statute of uses; but before we proceed to consider alienation by record, we shall just mention some miscellaneous deeds in the nature of liabilities.

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Bonds. An obligation or bond is a deed containing a penalty, with a condition for payment of money, or to do or to suffer some act or thing. If it is without a condition, it is called a bill, which is sometimes with a penalty, and then it is called a penal bond. If it is without seal it is a single bill, and no deed (aj). If the condition of a bond be not performed, it becomes forfeited or absolute at law, and charges the obligor while living, and after his death his executors, and the liability descends upon his heir or devisee, who (on defect of personal assets) are bound to discharge it, provided they have real assets by descent or devise (ak). In the case of a bond, the condition of which is impossible, or is to do a thing contrary to law, or is uncertain or insensible, the condition alone is void, and the bond shall be good as a single bond; but if the condition be possible at the time of making it, and afterwards becomes impossible by the act of God, the act of law, or the act of the obligee himself, the penalty of the obligation is saved (al). By 4 & 5 Anne, c. 16, although the penalty of a bond become forfeited, yet payment, or tender of payment of the principal, interest, and costs, may be pleaded in satisfaction (am). By the 8 & 9 Will. 3, c. 11, the plaintiff must assign breaches, where it is not a simple money bond (a n).

Recognisances.]-A recognisance is an obligation of record, which a man enters into before some court of record or magistrate duly authorised with a condition to do some particular act, as to appear at the assizes, to keep the peace, to pay a debt, or the like. There are also other recognisances, which are sometimes called statutes, because they are framed upon certain acts of Parliament, and are of two kinds:-1, A statute-merchant; and 2, A statute-staple. The first was contrived for the security of merchants only, yet was used by others, and became one of the common assurances of the kingdom. The second was invented and was used only for merchants and merchandises of the same staple, and was of the same nature with a statute-merchant; but they are both of them become obsolete (a o).

Defeasances.]—A defeasance on a bond, on a recognisance, or on a warrant of attorney, is a condition which when performed defeats or undoes it, in the same manner as a defeasance of an estate before mentioned.

SECT. V.-ALIENATION BY RECORD.

[2 Black. Com. ch. 21; 1 Steph. Com. chap. 21.] Alienations by record are-1, Private acts of Parliament; 2, The King's grants; and, formerly, 3, Fines and common recoveries, which will be noticed in the next chapter.

Private Acts.]-A private act of Parliament, as a mode of alienating property, is never permitted to pass without evident necessity, and upon great caution and deliberation. The necessity may arise from the intricacies into which a large family estate

ROYAL GRANTS.

209

may in a course of years fall, by the number of limitations it has undergone, or from other causes which make it essential to the family interest of the possessor to apply to the Legislature for powers to abridge, enlarge, and dispose of it in such a way as the exigencies of his family may require (ap).

Royal grants.]—The King's grants, or letters patent, are first prepared by the Attorney and Solicitor-general, in consequence of a warrant from the Crown, and are then signed, that is, superscribed at the top with the King's own sign manual, and sealed with the privy signet, and afterwards pass under the great seal (a q).

CHAP. XXVII.

ALIENATION BY TENANTS IN TAIL AND MARRIED WOMEN.

[See 2 Black. Com. 348-364; 1 Steph. Com. chap. 19.]

In the previous chapter we mentioned that fines and recoveries were formerly conveyances of record, and we may now state that they were so until the 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 74, abolished them, and substituted in their place more simple modes of assurance. They were chiefly in use for the barring of entails, and the conveyance by married women of their real estate, and we have therefore thought it appropriate to notice fines and recoveries in a chapter treating of alienation by tenants in tail and married women. A short sketch of fines and recoveries is indispensable, as the student will continually meet with them in his reading, and it is very necessary that a proper notion of them should be obtained. That portion of Blackstone's Commentaries (vol. i. p. 348 -364) which treats of fines and recoveries should be carefully studied.

Fines.]-A fine was an amicable agreement or composition of a supposed suit, by which lands and

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tenements were transferred from one person to another, or any other settlement was made relating to lands and tenements. It was called a fine, because it put an end not only to the suit thus commenced, but also to all other suits and controversies concerning the same matters. A fine consisted of five parts:-1. The original writ, the foundation of the action being a supposed agreement or covenant, that the vendor should convey the lands to the purchaser, on the breach of which agreement the action was brought. 2. The licentia concordandi, or leave to agree the suit, which was granted on payment of a fine called the King's silver. 3. The concord or agreement entered into openly in the Court of Common Pleas, or before one of the justices of that court, or commissioners in the country duly authorised for that purpose, which was the foundation and substance of the fine. It was usually an acknowledgment from the deforceants, or those who kept the others out of possession, that the lands in question were the right of the demandant, and from the acknowledgment or recognition of right thus made, the party who levied the fine was called the cognizor, and the person to whom it is levied the cognizee. 4. The note of the fine, which was only an abstract of the writ of covenant and the concord. 5. The foot, chirograph, or indenture of the fine; which recited the whole matter. Of this there were indentures made or engrossed at the chirographer's office, reciting the whole proceedings at length; the fine was thus completely levied at common law. But when fines became a more general mode of assurance, it became necessary to render the levying of them a matter of the most public notoriety, on account of those whose rights might be barred by not making their claim in due time. For this purpose it was

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