74 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE [xvm. 



XVIII. 



POWERS OF SALE. 



THE invention of trustees to preserve contingent 

 remainders was followed by the introduction into 

 settlements of provisions, which enabled trustees to 

 sell the estate (subject generally to the consent of 

 the tenant for life), and to invest the moneys arising 

 from the sale in the purchase of other lands, to be 

 settled with limitations the same as those with which 

 the estate sold had been settled. Such powers were 

 found convenient, especially where some circumstance 

 had occurred rendering a settled estate less eligible 

 for residence, or had increased its value as a site 

 for building. These powers, however, occasionally 

 favoured accumulation. Before they were employed, 

 the settlement of an estate offered a barrier, for some 

 time at least, against its annexation to a neighbour- 

 ing property, although, of course, not so durable a 

 barrier as a strict entail. If settled estates could be 

 sold under a power, a rich neighbour, by a tempting 

 offer, might induce the trustees to sell, with the 



