good forms, to be used by way of precedent.

Contrary to the generally received opinion, no instrument requires more care than a lease. The covenants should be penned with great attention to the language, so as to keep all the parts consistent, and express the precise intention of the parties.

All covenants should be by the covenantor, for himself, his heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns. The assignee will be bound by all covenants which concern the land. In short, he will be bound, though not named.

And the covenants should be with the lessee, and his heirs and assigns, if the heirs are to be special occupants of a freehold lease; and, in all other cases, with the lessee, his executors, administrators, and assigns. And care should always be taken to use these relative terms according to the nature of the interest which is granted, and the persons who are to be bound by the covenants, or to have the advantage of them.

The general points to be observed in cove

nants are,

1st, The subject, viz. the thing to be done or omitted;

2dly, By whom, or to whom ;

3dly, At whose request, and at whose costs and charges;

4thly, The time;

5thly, The place;

6thly, The circumstances or conditions under which the covenants are to be performed.

And in preparing the covenants, these different points should always be kept in view, or at least as many of them as are applicable to the case.

Of the Theory of the Law as it applies to the Conveyance by Lease and Release.

As this is the common assurance which obtains in general practice, and as settlements and conveyances in fee and for lives to purchasers and mortgagees, are, for the most part, made by lease and release, almost to the exclusion of every other species of assurance, it is important that every part of the learning connected with this subject, should be fully understood; and it will be conveni

ent to trace:

1st, The origin of the conveyance and the principles on which it depends.

2dly, The parts.

3dly, Who may be the releasor, and 4thly, Who may be the releasee.

1. In respect of personal qualifications.

2. In respect of estate.

3. In respect of privity.

4thly, Of the form of a lease for a year. 5thly, Of the form of the release : And in the progress of these observations it will be proper to distinguish those cases in which the lease and release are necessarily parts of the same assurance, from those in which the release may operate in some other mode.

1st, Of the origin of this assurance. At the common law the conveyance in general use was feoffment, and livery of seisin was the efficient part of this conveyance. The advantages of this assurance, in passing the freehold by right or by wrong (a); of binding future as well as present rights; and of restoring the seisin of those who had been disseised; gave it, in more early times, a decided preference over every other species of assurance; and as lands were rarely in lease, but the possession generally accompanied the conveyance, this was the only species of assurance which, substantively and of itself, could transfer the possession, and complete the title to an estate of freehold, or of inheritance (b). That the feoffment might operate it was essential that the feoffor should be in possession, or should have the possession at the time of making livery (c). Even at this day a feoffment will be of no avail, unless the feoffor is in possession when livery is made; or livery is made with the consent of the person who retains the possession. The tenant must even give up the possession, at least for this occasion, though it may be on the terms of saving his own right. It has been accordingly decided, that livery made of lands in

(a) Co Litt. 9, a. 366, b. 367, a.
(b) Litt. § 611. Co. Litt. 330, b.
(c) Dyer, 106, 131.

the possession of a termor, with the consent of that person, is a good feoffment, and that the term may be saved by the lessee, in consequence of an express stipulation. (d) As at the common law, a termor was considered as the bailiff (e) of the freeholder,rather than as having a permanent interest of his own; and as by the rules of that law, before they were altered by the statute of Hen. VIII., (f) the interest of the termor might at any time have been defeated by the freeholder, the feoffment as a rightful conveyance was considered as the appropriate assurance of the person who had an estate of freehold, conferring a right to the possession. Two other cases might have occurred at the common law; 1st, the possession might have been in a tenant for years, or for life, and the intention might be to grant a reversion or remainder to a stranger; or 2dly, there might have been an interest for years or for life, or other particular estate, and an intention to grant a further interest to the tenant of that estate. The common law provided for each of these cases. A grant was the proper assurance (g) for the conveyance of the reversion to a stranger. This assurance was equally proper for transferring to a stranger an estate in remainder,since the owner of this reversion,

(d) Dyer, 362. Shep. T. 202.

(e) Essay on the Quantity of Estate, ch. Freehold.
(f) 21 H. 8. c 15.

(g) Litt. 567. Shep. T. 227, 228.