378 AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF 



than where but a third part of one year s rent, as in a license 

 or writ of entry, or where only a tenth part, as in a writ of 

 covenant, is to be demanded. 



A license also and a pardon are to pass the charges of 

 the great seal, to the which the bargain and sale, the fine and 

 recovery are not subject. Sometimes upon one only alien 

 ation and change, the purchaser is to pass both license, 

 fine, and recovery, and is for this multiplicity of payments 

 more to be favoured, than he which bringeth but one single 

 pay for all his assurance. 



Moreover, it is very often seen that the same land suffer- 

 eth sundry transmutations of owners within one term, or 

 other small compass of time; by which return much profit 

 cometh to her majesty, though the party feel of some favour 

 in that doing. 



The end of con- Neither is it of small moment in this part, to behold to 

 veyances. what end the conveyances of land be delivered ; seeing that 

 sometimes it is only to establish the lands in the hands of 

 the owner and his posterity, without any alienation and 

 change of possession to be made: sometimes a fine is 

 levied only to make good a lease for years, or to pass an 

 estate for life, upon which no yearly rent is reserved ; or to 

 grant a reversion, or remainder, expectant upon a lease, or 

 estate, that yieldeth no rent. Sometimes the land is given 

 in mortgage only, with full intention to be redeemed within 

 one year, six months, or a lesser time. Many assurances 

 do also pass to godly and charitable uses alone; and it hap- 

 peneth not seldom, that, to avoid the yearly oath, for aver 

 ment of the continuance of some estate for life, which is 

 eigne, and not subject to forfeiture, for the alienation that 

 cometh after it, the party will offer to sue a pardon uncom- 

 pelled before the time; in all which some mitigation of the 

 uttermost value may well and worthily be offered, the rather 

 1 E.3. c. 12. for that the statute, 1 E. III. c. 12, willeth, that in this 



service generally a reasonable fine shall be taken. 

 Error and mis- Lastly, error, misclaim, and forgetfulness do now and 

 taking. then become suitors for some remission of extreme rigour: 



for I have sundry times observed, that an assurance, being 

 passed through for a competent fine, hath come back again 

 by reason of some oversight, and the party hath voluntarily 

 repassed it within a while after. Sometimes the attorney, 

 or follower of the cause, unskilfully thrusteth into the writ, 

 both the uttermost quantity, or more, of the land, and the 

 full rent also that is given for it ; or else setteth down an 

 entierty, where but a moiety, a third or fourth part only 



