xv.] DISTRIBUTION OF LAND IN ENGLAND. 61 



XV. 



STRICT SETTLEMENTS. 



THE decision of the Court of Common Pleas in the 

 year 1472, established, as I have pointed out, that 

 any person entitled to the possession of entailed land 

 could become, at his pleasure, the absolute owner, 

 by means of a friendly suit. The decision applied 

 no less to the lands of peers than to those of com- 

 moners. Indeed, notwithstanding the rooted popular 

 belief that estates of peers are, in some manner, 

 connected with their titles, in order that their dignity 

 may be maintained, the law has recognised no such 

 distinction. Where, however, the reversion of landed 

 property after the extinction of issue on whom the 

 land was entailed, belonged to the Crown, the entail 

 could not be barred by a common recovery, 34 & 35 

 Hen. VIII. c. 20, s. 2. Estates so circumstanced 

 were and are not numerous; and as to the great mass 

 of landed property in England, the power of strictly 

 entailing it, conferred by the Statute de Donis, 



