8io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ancing makes it necessary to reserve that interesting chain of 

 events for future consideration. 



That the early law took no cognizance of ownership apart from 

 possession was strikingly exhibited in the view which it took of 

 inheritances. The estate of a possessor in lands was palpably ter- 

 minated by his death. Yet his heir acquired no estate in the lands 

 except by entering into the possession. If the heir died before 

 entry, the lands went, not to his heir, but to the next heir of the 

 ancestor who died in possession. In like manner, though one had 

 received a deed of lands, yet if he died before entering into posses- 

 sion, he was deemed not to have acquired any estate, and conse- 

 quently left nothing which his heirs could inherit, or of which his 

 widow could have dower. And so it was, although he had actu- 

 ally entered into the possession under a deed, unless he had been 

 publicly invested by the ceremony of livery of seisin. 



It was among the miscellaneous corollaries of the livery of 

 seisin that it was impossible for a landlord to sell his interest in 

 the land without the concurrence of his tenant. The tenant be- 

 ing in possession, the landlord could only make livery of seisin to 

 the purchaser by arranging with the tenant to temporarily retire, 

 so that he, the landlord, could take the possession and deliver it, 

 after which the tenant would resume possession under the new 

 owner. In this and a variety of other ways the livery of seisin 

 entered into the law of attornment. 



We have remaining space only for casual reference to some 

 of the processes, in addition to those already mentioned, by which 

 the old notions and customs, which have been our theme, were 

 gradually displaced or assimilated by modern legal conceptions. 

 The idea of possession was gradually enlarged, so that one who 

 had been in the actual possession was deemed to continue in it 

 until it was seized by another, even though the property were in 

 fact vacant. 



Delivery, which at first must be made on the land, was after- 

 ward permitted to be made in presence of the neighbors at any 

 place in sight of the land, and later at public places even more 

 remote ; and delivery of one tract might be made for several 

 tracts in the same county ; but in none of these cases did the 

 estate pass until, in pursuance of such constructive deliveries, 

 possession had been actually taken. So it became the custom to 

 substitute a symbolic for an actual delivery, as by delivering a 

 turf from the land or a key of the house. And so there came a 

 time when, if one had bought and paid for land from another, 

 who then refused to make livery of seisin, courts of equity would 

 specifically enforce the agreement by compelling the delivery. 



The celebrated statute of uses, 27 Henry VIII, opened up the 

 way for conveyances without delivery. Into these newly opened 



