MAXIMS OF THE LAW. 187 



yet this cannot inure by way of surrender: for a petty 

 lease derived out of a greater cannot be surrendered back 

 again, but inureth only by dissolution of contract; for 

 a lease of land is but a contract executory from time to 

 time of the profits of the land, to arise as a man may sell 

 his corn or his tithe to spring or to be perceived for divers 

 future years. 



But to return from our digression : on the other side, if 

 I contract with you for cloth at such a price as I. S. shall 

 name ; there if I. S. refuse to name, the contract is void ; 

 but the parties cannot discharge it, because they have put 

 it in the power of the third person to perfect. 



So if I grant my reversion, though this be an imperfect n H. 7. 19. 

 act before atturnment ; yet because the atturnment is the l K - 2 - 

 act of a stranger, this is not simply revocable, but by a g att 

 policy or circumstance in law, as by levying a fine, or 

 making a bargain and sale, or the like. 



So if I present a clerk to the bishop, now can I not revoke 31 Ed. l. F. 

 this presentation, because I have put it out of myself, that ^4^ p 4 18 2 5 

 is, the bishop, by admission, to perfect my act begun. 38 Ed 3 35 



The same difference appeareth in nominations and elec- 14 Ed. 4. 2. 

 tions ; as if I enfeoffsuch a one as I. D. shall name within 

 a year, and I. D. name I. B. yet before the feoffment, 

 and within the year, I. D. may countermand his nomina 

 tion, and name again, because no interest passeth out of 

 him. But if I enfeoff I. S. to the use of such a one as I. D. 

 shall name within a year, then if I. D. name I. B. it is 

 not revocable, because the use passeth presently by opera 

 tion of law. 



So in judicial acts the rule of the civil law holdeth sen- 

 tentia iuterlocutoria revocari potest, that is, that an order 

 may be revoked, but a judgment cannot; and the rea 

 son is, because there is title of execution or bar given 

 presently unto the party upon judgment, and so it is 

 out of the judge to revoke, in courts ordered by the com 

 mon law. 



REGULA XXI. 



Clausula vel dispositio inutitis per presumptionem remotam 



vel causam ex post facto non fulcitur. 



Clausula vel dispositio inutilis are said, when the act or the 

 words do work or express no more than the law by intend- 

 ment would have supplied ; and therefore the doubling or 

 iterating of that and no more, which the conceit of law 

 doth in a sort prevent and preoccupate, is reputed nugation, 



