XL] DISTRIBUTION OF LAND IN ENGLAND. 47 



If, on the other hand, after issue born the donee 

 alienated the land, he, as we have seen, disinherited 

 his heirs, and also deprived the donor of his chance 

 of reversion. This as the statute says, "to the 

 giver seemeth hard," and it therefore enacted that, 

 for the future, the will of the giver should be 

 observed according to the form of the gift, and that 

 they, to whom the land was given, should have 

 no power to alienate it. It seems to me that the 

 hardship thus referred to in the preamble of the 

 statute De Donis, was sufficiently real to account for 

 its enactment, without attributing any deep political 

 designs to its authors. 



