xv.] DISTRIBUTION OF LAND IN ENGLAND. 63 



whom the first estate in tail had been given 

 (generally, of course, the eldest) attained twenty- 

 one, then with the consent of his father, or of his 

 own authority supposing the father to have died, a 

 recovery might be suffered, the estate sold, and the 

 other subsequent interests given by the settlement 

 entirely defeated. As a son is usually born within 

 three or four years after a marriage, a settlement on 

 marriage generally becomes liable to be set aside 

 within some five-and-twenty years after its execution. 

 In the rare case of the eldest son marrying and dying 

 in infancy, and leaving an infant heir, the liability 

 would, no doubt, be deferred till that heir attained 

 twenty-one. Marriage settlements of land have 

 remained subject to the liabilities I have men- 

 tioned ever since their introduction, and so remain 

 at the present day. 



We sometimes hear it said that the "law of 

 settlement" should be abolished, asif there were some 

 law in existence which favoured settlements of land. 

 No such law can, however, be pointed out, although 

 there are rules of law, by which the power of making 

 settlements is restrained within the narrow limits 

 which I have mentioned, and which will be more 

 fully stated below. 



It cannot have been long after the liability of 

 estates tail to alienation had been established, 

 when settlements, nearly in the form I have ex- 

 plained and now in use, were introduced. The 



