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CONVEYANCING 223 the presence of witnesses upon the land itself. A deed or statute upon the legal estate in such circumstances, it charter of feoffment was commonly executed at the same is usual in all conveyances, whether for value or not, to time by way of record, but formed no essential part of the declare a use in favour of the party to whom the grant is conveyance. In the language of the old rule of the made. common law, the immediate freehold in corporeal hereditaIn its popular usage the word “ conveyance ” signifies ments lay in livery, whereas reversions and remainders the document employed to carry out a purchase of land. and all incorporeal hereditaments lay in grant, i.e., passed But the term “ conveyancing ” is of much wider import, by the delivery of the deed of conveyance or grant without and comprises the preparation and completion of all kinds any further ceremony. The process by which this distinc- of legal instruments. A well-known branch of the tion was broken down and the present uniform system of conveyancer’s business is the investigation of title—an private conveyancing by simple deed was established, con- important function in the case of purchases or mortgages stitutes a long chapter in English legal history. of real estate. With personal estate (other than leasehold) The land of a feudal owner was subject to the risk of forfeiture he has perhaps not so much concern. Chattels are usually for treason, and to military and other burdens. The common law transferred by delivery, and stocks or shares by means of did not allow him to dispose of it by will. By the law of mort- printed instruments which can be bought at a law-stationer’s. main religious houses were prohibited from acquiring it. The desire to escape from these burdens and limitations gave rise to the The common settlements and wills, however, deal wholly practice of making feoffments to the use of, or upon trust for, or mainly with personal property • and an interest in persons other than those to whom the seisin or legal possession settled personalty is frequently the subject of a mortgage. was delivered. The common law recognized only the legal tenant; but the cestui que use or beneficial owner gradually secured for his Of late years, also, there has been an enormous increase in wishes and directions concerning the profits of the land the strong the volume of conveyancing business in connexion with protection of the chancellors as exercising the equitable jurisdic- limited joint-stock companies. tion of the king. The resulting loss to the Crown and the great In the preparation of legal documents the practitioner is lords of the feudal dues and privileges, coupled with the public much assisted by the use of precedents. These are outdisadvantages arising from ownership of land which, in an increasing degree, was merely nominal, brought about the passing in lines or models of instruments of all kinds, exhibiting the year 1535 of the famous Statute of Uses, the object of which in accepted legal phraseology their usual form and conwas to destroy altogether the system of uses and equitable estates tents with additions and variations adapted to particular It enacted, in substance, that whoever should have a use or trust circumstances. Collections of them have been in use from in any hereditaments should be deemed to have the legal seisin, estate, and possession for the same interest that he had in the use; early times, certainly since printing became common. The in other words, that he should become in effect the feudal tenant modern precedent is, upon the whole, concise and businesswithout actual delivery of possession to him by the actual feoffee like. The prolixity which formerly characterized most to uses or trustee. In its result the statute was a fiasco. It was legal documents has largely disappeared, mainly through solemnly decided that the Act transferred the legal possession to the operation of recent statutes which enable many clauses the use once only, and that in the case of a conveyance to A to the use of B to the use of or upon trust for C, it gave the legal previously inserted at great length to be, in some cases, estate to B, and left C with an interest in the position of the use e.g., covenants for title, incorporated by the use of a few before the statute. Thus was completed the foundation of the prescribed words, and in others safely omitted altogether. modern system of trusts fastened upon legal estates and protected The Solicitors’ Remuneration Act, 1881, has also assisted by the equitable doctrines and practice of the judicature. But the statute not only failed to abolish uses: it also the process of curtailment, for there is now little or no opened the way to the evasion of the public ceremony of “ livery connexion between the length of a deed and the cost of its •of seisin, and the avoidance of all notoriety in conveyances. preparation. So long as the draftsman adheres to recogOther ways, besides an actual feoffment to uses, of creating a nized legal phraseology and to the well-settled methods of use had been in vogue before the statute. If A bargained with B, in writing or not, for the sale of land, and B paid the price, but A carrying out legal operations, there is no reason why modern remained in legal possession, the Court of Chancery enforced the instruments should not be made as terse and businesslike use or equitable interest in favour of B. The effect of a “ bargain as possible. and sale (as such a transaction was called) after the statute was It is not usual for land to be sold without a formal to give B the legal interest without any “livery of seisin.” agreement in writing being entered into. This precaution This fresh danger was met in the very year of the statute itself by an enactment that a bargain and sale of an estate of inheritance is due, partly to the Statute of Frauds (§ 4), or freehold should be made by deed publicly enrolled. But the which renders a contract for the sale of land Statute of Enrolments was in terms limited to estates of freehold. unenforceable by action “unless the agreement orsae' It was allowed that a bargain and sale for a term, say, of one year, must transfer the seisin to the bargainee without enrolment. And upon which such action shall be brought, or some since vhat remained in the bargainor was merely a reversion which memorandum or note thereof, shall be in writing and “ lay in grant,” it was an easy matter to release this by deed the signed by the party to be charged therewith or some day after. By this ingenious device was the publicity of feoffment other person thereunto by him lawfully authorized,” and or enroiment avoided, and the lease and release, as the process was called,. remained the usual mode of conveying a freehold in partly to the fact that there are few titles which can with prudence be exposed to all the requisitions that a purpossession down to the 19th century. chaser under an “open contract” is entitled by law to It was not until 1845 that the modern system of transfer make. Such a purchaser may, for example, require a by a single deed was finally established. By the Real forty years’ title (Vendor and Purchaser Act, 1874). Property Act of that year it was enacted that all corporeal Under an open contract a vendor is presumed to be hereditaments should, as regards the immediate freehold, selling the fee-simple in possession, free from any incumbe deemed to lie in grant as well as in livery. Since this brance, or liability, or restriction as to user or otherwise-; Act the ancient modes of conveyance, though not abolished and if he cannot deduce a title of the statutory length, or by it, have in practice become obsolete. Traces of the old procure an incumbrance or restriction to be removed, the learning connected with them remain, however, embedded purchaser may repudiate the contract. The preparation of in the modern conveyance. Many a purchase-deed recites an agreement for sale involves accordingly an examination that the vendor is seised in fee-simple of the property. of the vendor’s title, and the exercise of skill and judgment It is the practice, moreover, to convey not only “ to ” but in deciding how the vendor may be protected against also “to the use of” a purchaser. For before the Statute trouble and expense without prejudice to the sale. Upon of Uses, a conveyance made without any consideration a sale by auction the agreement is made up of (1) the or declaration of uses was deemed to be made to the use which describe the property; (2) the conditions of the party conveying. In view of the operation of the particulars, of sale, which state the terms upon which it is offered ; and