BOOK II. therefore that every part of it, be (if possible) made to take effect; and no word but what may operate in fome shape or other h. "Nam verba debent intelligi cum effectu, ut res magis "valeat quem pereat 1." 4. THAT the deed be taken most strongly against him that is the agent or contractor, and in favour of the other party. "Verba fortius accipiuntur contra proferentem." As, if tenant in fee-fimple grants to any one an eftate for life, generally, it fhall be construed an estate for the life of the grantee j. For the principle of self-preservation will make men sufficiently careful, not to prejudice their own interest by the too extensive meaning of their words: and hereby all manner of deceit in any grant is avoided; for men would always affect ambiguous and intricate expreffions, provided they were afterwards at liberty to put their own conftruction upon them. But here a diftinction must be taken between an indenture and a deed-poll: for the words of an indenture, executed by both parties, are to be confidered as the words of them both; for, though delivered as the words of one party, yet they are not his words only, because the other party hath given his consent to every one of them. But in a deed-poll, executed only by the grantor, they are the words of the grantor only, and shall be taken moft ftrongly against him *. And, in general, this rule, being a rule of some strictness and rigour, is the last to be reforted to; and is never to be relied upon, but where all other rules of expofition fail'. 5. THAT, if the words will bear two fenfes, one agreeable to, and another againft, law; that sense be preferred, which is moft agreeable thereto ". As if tenant in tail lets a lease to have and to hold during life generally, it shall be construed to be a lease for his own life only, for that ftands with the law; and not for the life of the leffee, which is beyond his power to grant. h1 P. Wms. 457. i Plowd. 156. j Co. Litt. 42. k Ibid. 134. 1 Bacon's Elem. c. 3. m Co. Litt. 42. 6. THAT, 6. THAT, in a deed, if there be two claufes fo totally repugnant to each other, that they cannot ftand together, the first shall be received and the latter rejected": wherein it differs from a will; for there, of two fuch repugnant clauses the latter fhall ftand. Which is owing to the different natures of the two inftruments; for the first deed, and the last will are always most available in law. Yet in both cafes we fhould rather attempt to reconcile them P. 7. THAT a devife be moft favourably expounded, to purfue if possible the will of the devifor, who for want of advice or learning may have omitted the legal or proper phrases. And therefore many times the law difpenfes with the want of words in devifes, that are abfolutely requifite in all other inftruments. Thus a fee may be conveyed without words of inheritance; and an eftate-tail without words of procreation. By a will alfo an eftate may pass by mere implication, without any exprefs words to direct it's courfe. As, where a man devifes lands to his heir at law, after the death of his wife: here, though no eftate is given to the wife in exprefs terms, yet she shall have an estate for life by implication; for the intent of the teftator is clearly to poftpone the heir till after her death; and, if the does not take it, nobody else can. So alfo, where a devife is of black-acre to A and of whiteacre to B in tail, and if they both die without iffue, then to C in fee; here A and B have cross remainders by implication, and on the failure of either's iffue, the other or his iffue fhall take the whole; and C's remainder over fhall be postponed till the iñue of both fhall fail. But, to avoid confufion, no fuch cross remainders are allowed between more than two devifees" and, in general, where any implications are allowed, they must be fuch as are necessary (or at least highly n Hardr. 94. See pag. 115. 1 Vern. 30. H. 13 Hen. VII. 17. 1 Ventr. 376. t Freem. 484. u Cro. Jac. 655. 1 Ventr. 224. 2 Show. 139. probable) probable) and not merely poffible implications". And herein there is no diftinction between the rules of law and of equity; for the will, being confidered in both courts in the light of a limitation of uses, is conftrued in each with equal favour and benignity, and expounded rather on it's own particular circumstances, than by any general rules of positive law. AND thus we have taken a tranfient view, in this and the three preceding chapters, of a very large and diffusive subject, the doctrine of common affurances: which concludes our obfervations on the title to things real, or the means by which they may be reciprocally loft and acquired. We have before confidered the estates which may be had in them, with regard to their duration or quantity of interest, the time of their enjoyment, and the number and connections of the perfons entitled to hold them: we have examined the tenures, both antient and modern, whereby those estates have been, and are now, holden: and have distinguished the object of all these inquiries, namely, things real, into the corporeal or substantial, and incorporeal or ideal kind; and have thus confidered the rights of real property in every light wherein they are contemplated by the laws of England. A system of laws, that differs much from every other fyftem, except those of the fame feodal origin, in it's notions and regulations of landed eftates; and which therefore could in this particular be very feldom compared with any other. ་ THE fubject, which has thus employed our attention, is of very extensive use, and of as extenfive variety. And yet, I am afraid, it has afforded the ftudent lefs amusement and pleasure in the pursuit, than the matters difcuffed in the preceding volume. To fay the truth, the vaft alterations which the doctrine of real property has undergone from the conquest to the present time; the infinite determinations upon points that continually arise, and which have been heaped one upon another for a courfe of feven centuries, without any order or w Vaugh. 262. x Fitz. 236. 11 Mod. 153. method; method; and the multiplicity of acts of parliament which ́ have amended, or fometimes only altered, the common law : these causes have made the study of this branch of our national jurifprudence a little perplexed and intricate. It hath been my endeavour principally to select such parts of it, as were of the most general use, where the principles were the most fimple, the reasons of them the most obvious, and the practice the leaft embarraffed. Yet I cannot presume that I have always been thoroughly intelligible to such of my readers, as were before ftrangers even to the very terms of art, which I have been obliged to make ufe of: though, whenever those have first occurred, I have generally attempted a fhort explication of their meaning. These are indeed the more numerous, on account of the different languages, which our law has at different periods been taught to speak; the difficulty arifing from which will infenfibly diminish by use and familiar acquaintance. And therefore I fhall close this branch of our inquiries with the words of fir Edward Coke : “al"beit the student shall not at any one day, do what he can, "reach to the full meaning of all that is here laid down, yet "let him no way difcourage himself but proceed; for on some "other day, in fome other place," (or perhaps upon a fecond perufal of the fame) "his doubts will be probably removed." y Proeme to I Inst. CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FOURTH. OF THINGS PERSONAL. UN NDER the name of things perfonal are included all forts of things moveable, which may attend a man's perfon wherever he goes; and therefore, being only the objects of the law while they remain within the limits of it's jurifdi&tion, and being also of a perishable quality, are not efteemed of fo high a nature, nor paid fo much regard to by the law, as things that are in their nature more permanent and immoveable, as lands, and houses, and the profits iffuing thereout. Thefe being conftantly within the reach, and under the protection of the law, were the principal favourites of our firft legiflators: who took all imaginable care in afcertaining the rights, and directing the difpofition, of such property as they imagined to be lafting, and which would answer to pofterity the trouble and pains that their ancestors employed about them; but at the fame time entertained a very low and contemptuous opinion of all perfonal eftate, which they regarded as only a tranfient commodity. The amount of it indeed was comparatively very trifling, during the scarcity of money and the ignorance of luxurious refinements, which prevailed in the feodal ages. Hence it was, that a tax of the fifteenth, tenth, or fometimes a much larger proportion, of all the moveables of the fubject, was frequently laid without fcruple, and is mentioned with much unconcern by our antient hiftorians, though now it would juftly alarm our opulent merchants and ftockholders. And hence likewife may be derived the frequent forfeitures inflicted by the common law, |