rance of the law, and ex consuetudine clericorum, upon observing of a common form, and not upon purpose or meaning, and therefore whether by particular and precise words a man may not control the intendment of the law.

To this I answer, that no precise nor express words will control this intendment of law; but as the general words are void, because they say that which the law saith; and so are thought to be against the law: and therefore if I devise my land being knight's service tenure to my heir, and express my intention to be, that the one part should descend to him as the third part appointed by the statute, and the other he shall take by devise to his own use; yet this is void: for the law saith, he is in by descent of the whole, and I say he shall be in by devise, which is against the law.

But if I make a gift in tail, and say upon condition, that if tenant in tail discontinue and after die without issue, it shall be lawful for me to enter; this is a good clause to make a condition, because it is but in one case, and doth not cross the law generally: for if the tenant in tail in that case be disseised, and a descent cast, and die without issue, I that am the donor shall not enter.

But if the clause had been provided, that if tenant in tail discontinue, or suffer a descent, or do any other act whatsoever, that after his death without issue it shall be lawful for me to enter: now this is a void condition, for it importeth a repugnancy to law; as if I would over-rule that where the law saith I am put to my action, I nevertheless will reserve to myself an entry.

REGULA XXII.

Non videtur consensum retinuisse si quis ex præscripto minantis aliquid immutavit.

ALTHOUGH choice and election be a badge of consent, yet if the first ground of the act be duress, the law will not construe that the duress doth determine, if the party duressed do make any motion or offer.

Therefore if a party menace me, except I make unto him a bond of 40l. and I tell him that I will not do it, but I will make unto him a bond of 20/. the law shall not expound this bond to be voluntary, but shall rather make construction that my mind and courage is not to enter into the greater bond for any menace, and yet that I enter by compulsion notwithstanding into the lesser.

But if I will draw any consideration to myself, as if I had said, I will enter into your bond of 407. if you will deliver me that piece of plate, now the duress is discharged; and yet if it had been moved from the duressor, who had said at the first, You shall take this piece of plate, and make me a bond of 40%. now the gift of the plate had been good, and yet the bond shall be avoided by duress.

REGULA XXIII.

Licita bene miscentur, formula nisi juris obstet.

THE law giveth that favour to lawful acts, that although they be executed by several authorities, yet the whole act is good.

As when tenant for life is the remainder in fee, and they join in a livery by deed or without, this is one good entire livery drawn from them both, and doth not inure to a surrender of the particular estate, if it be without deed;* or confirmation of those in the remainder, if it be by deed; but they are all parties to the livery.

So if tenant for life the remainder in fee be, and they join in granting a rent, this is one solid rent out of both their estates, and no double rent, or rent by confirmation.

Semble clerement le ley d'estre contrary in ambideux cases, car lou est sans fait, est livery solement de cestui in le rem' et surr' de partic' ten', autrement sera forfeiture de son estate, et lou est per fait, le livery passa solement de tenant, car il ad le frank-tenement, vide accordant Sur Co. 1. 1. 79. b. 77. a Com. Plow. 59. a. 140. 2 H. 5. 7. 13 H. 7. 14. 13 Ed. 4. 4. a. 27 H. 8. 13. M. 16 et 17. El. Dy. 339.

So if tenant in tail be at this day, and he make a lease for three lives, and his own, this is a good lease, and warranted by the statute of 32 H. VIII. and yet Query. it is good in part by the authority which tenant in tail hath by the common law, that is, for his own life, and in part by the authority which he hath by the statute, that is, for the other three lives.

So if a man, seized of lands deviseable by custom and of other land held in knight's service, devise all his lands, this is a good devise of all the land customary by the common law, and of two parts of the other land by the statutes.

So in the star chamber a sentence may be good, grounded in part upon the authority given the court by the statute of 3 H. VII. and in part upon that ancient authority which the court hath by the common law, and so upon several commissions.

But if there be any form which the law appointeth to be observed, which cannot agree with the diversities of authorities, then this rule faileth.

And if three coparceners be, and one of them alien

her purparty, the feoffee and one of the sisters cannot Vide 1 Injoin in a writ de part' facienda, because it behoveth stit. 166. b. the feoffee to mention the statute in his writ.

REGULA XXIV.

Præsentia corporis tollit errorem nominis, et veritas nominis tollit errorem demonstrationis.

THERE be three degrees of certainty.

1. Presence.

2. Name.

3. Demonstration or reference.

Whereof the presence the law holdeth of greatest dignity, the name in the second degree, and the demonstration or reference in the lowest, and always the error or falsity in the less worthy.

And therefore if I give a horse to I. D. being present, and say unto him, I. S. take this; this is a good gift, notwithstanding I call him by a wrong name: but so had it not been if I had delivered him to a stranger to the use of I. S. where I meant I. D.

So if I say unto I. S. Here I give you my ring with the ruby, and deliver it with my hand, and the ring bear a diamond and no ruby, this is a good gift notwithstanding I name it amiss.

So had it been if by word or writing, without the delivery of the thing itself, I had given the ring with the ruby, although I had no such, but only one with a diamond which I meant, yet it would have passed.

So if I by deed grant unto you, by general words, all the lands that the king hath passed unto me by letters patent dated 10 May, unto this present indenture annexed, and the patent annexed have date 10 July, yet if it be proved that that was the true patent annexed, the presence of the patent maketh the error of the date recited not material; yet if no patent had been annexed, and there had been also no other certainty given, but the reference of the patent, the date whereof was mis-recited, although I had no other patent ever of the king, yet nothing would have passed.

Like law is it, but more doubtful, where there is not a presence, but a kind of representation, which is less worthy than a presence, and yet more worthy than a name or reference.

As if I covenant with my ward, that I will tender unto him no other marriage, than the gentlewoman whose picture I delivered him, and that picture hath about it ætatis suæ anno 16, and the gentlewoman is seventeen years old; yet nevertheless if it can be proved that the picture was made for that gentlewoman, I may, notwithstanding this mistaking, tender her well enough.

So if I grant you for life a way over my land, according to a plot intended between us, and after I grant unto you and your heirs a way according to the first plot intended, whereof a table is annexed to these presents, and there be some special variance between the table and the original plot, yet this representation shall be certainly sufficient to lead unto the first plot; and you shall have the way in fee nevertheless, according to the first plot, and not according to the table.

So if I grant unto you by general words the land

which the king hath granted me by his letters patent, quarum tenor sequitur in hæc verba, etc. and there be some mistaking in the recital and variance from the original patent, although it be in a point material, yet the representation of this whole patent shall be as the annexing of the true patent, and the grant shall not be void by this variance.

Now for the second part of this rule, touching the name and the reference, for the explaining thereof, it must be noted what things sound in demonstration or addition as first in lands, the greatest certainty is, where the land hath a name proper, as "the manor of "Dale, Grandfield," etc. the next is equal to that, when the land is set forth by bounds and abuttals, as "a close of pasture bounding on the east part upon "Emsden-wood, on the south upon," etc. It is also a sufficient name to lay the general boundary, that is, some place of larger precinct, if there be no other land to pass in the same precinct, as "all my lands in Dale, "my tenement in St. Dunstan's parish," etc.

A farther sort of denomination is to name lands by the attendancy they have to other lands more notorious, as" parcel of my manor of D. belonging to such "a college lying upon Thames bank."

All these things are notes found in denomination of lands, because they be signs local, and therefore of property to signify and name a place: but those notes that sound only in demonstration and addition, are such as are but transitory and accidental to the nature of the place.

As modo in tenura et occupatione of the proprietary, tenure or possession is but a thing transitory in respect of land; Generatio venit, generatio migrat,

terra autem manet in æternum.

So likewise matter of conveyance, title, or instru

ment.

As, quæ perquisivi de I. D. quæ descendebant a 1. N. patre meo, or in prædicta indentura dimissionis, or in prædictis literis patentibus specificat.'

So likewise, continent' per æstimationem 20 acras, or if per æstimationem be left out, all is one, for it is