Price.] 276 [Dec. 18, 



tute a new system which has beeu the subject of serious criticism and 

 constant complaint ? "We do not approve of such judicial legislation, and 

 are therefore of opinion that the Auditor and the Court below erred in 

 declaring that there was no estate vested in the trustees of the testator's 

 will, and, so far, the decree must be reversed." That is, the Court de- 

 cided that the trustee should hold the title and manage the estate, for 

 the benefit of the beneficiaries ; and must hold and protect it upon the 

 trusts specified by the testator. 



Another occasion of Judge Read's delivering the opinion of the Su- 

 preme Court had a direct interest for this Society ; and is also interesting 

 to the science of jurisprudence, though the occasion for its citation as 

 authority may not be frequent. When the square upon which this hall 

 stands belonged to the Commonwealth, the Legislature granted to this 

 Society the perpetual use of this lot for the purposes of this Society, 

 esteeming our objects to be of such public benefit as to comport with 

 those for which the square was held by the State. Though this is a per- 

 petual right in the Society, it was not such a title as could be aliened by 

 the Society to others to be held on other uses, without the authority of 

 the State. This title is, therefore, unique ; is unlike any other title in 

 the State. It is a great principle of the common law that titles shall be 

 freely alienable, so that they shall best subserve the interests of civilized 

 society. This is the reason of the rule of law against perpetuities, 

 established by judges who were wisest of British statesmen. The 

 exception allowed by this rule is limited by the duration of designated 

 lives in being and a minority or twenty-one years thereafter. During 

 that period titles may be limited into a succession of limited interests, or 

 clothed with trusts for the maintenance of those deemed incompetent to 

 manage their property for themselves. A special exception was created 

 by the British Parliament, when the nation granted Blenheim and its 

 princely domains to the Duke of Marlborough, to guard the country's 

 gift from alienation by his heirs ; and to that immunity it is owing that 

 that splendid castle and domain have not been sold to pay the debts of 

 the heirs of the great Duke. A partial exception exists in Pennsylvania, 

 by an act of the Legislature of 1871 (P. Laws, 879), under which the 

 descendants of the Indian Chief, Cornplanter, now hold their lands in 

 severalty, but inalienably to any but Indians, so that white men may not 

 defraud them, or intermix in the colony. Such a feature should be in- 

 corporated into the titles of our Western Indians, when they also shall 

 have lands allotted to them in severalty ; a step of progress that must 

 soon be reached if they are to be preserved in existence. 



The purpose of the restricted grant to this Society was to preserve the 

 property forever for public uses ; for in public and charitable uses lands 

 may be held unalienable in perpeturity. The opinion gives a history of 

 this society, and the following extract will show the grounds of the 

 decision of the Supreme Court, with the friendly estimate of Judge 

 Read, when our library was levied upon for taxes assessed upon the lot 

 and hall : 



