English Land Laio. 
341 = 75 
wise it, by will, equally among his children or to whomsoever 
se he pleases. His disposing power is wholly unfettered. All 
lat the law says is that, in the event of his dying without a 
ill, the land shall go to his eldest son to the exclusion of other 
lildren. It has been stated that two per cent, of the land that 
inually changes hands is affected by the law of primogeniture, 
at this is probably largely in excess of the truth. It is obvious 
iiat the proportion of persons dying without wills to the whole 
amber of annual deaths, or even to the number of wills annually 
•oved, will furnish no trustworthy guide ; since no persons are 
unlikely to die intestate as those who have landed property to 
•queath, and a considerable number, even of those who do, no 
)ubt frequently adopt the natural course of the law in place of 
aking a will, who would have taken the trouble to devise their 
operty specifically to their eldest sons, if the law had given it 
different destination. The object of this law has been mainly 
cured in two other voluntary and indirect ways — by the opera- 
m of the law of entail, and the law of settlement. It will be 
■cessary very briefly to consider the result of these influences. 
With the object of insuring that the royal lands should always « Estates tail." 
in the hands of some one able to discharge the burdens in- 
; parable from them, a large number of original grants were 
ade conveying to the tenants of the Crown what was called 
. estate tail. This estate or interest was created by a grant 
• the intended tenant and the heirs of his body, with a reversion 
• the grantor in case no such heirs should come into existence, 
nder such a grant the tenant took nothing, strictly speaking, 
t an estate for life, nor did his son, upon whom that estate 
' volved, stand in a better position. But it was not long before 
' law allowed such a tenant, upon the birth of an heir to 
: isfy the terms of the grant, to defeat both the interest of his 
; 1 and the reversion of the lord by alienating the whole estate, 
; d the practice, once sanctioned by legal authority, soon came 
! 0 very general use. To remedy what was then regarded in 
) > light of an evil, the Act known as the statute De Donis was The statute Do 
]ssed (13 Ed. 1, c. 1) towards the end of the thirteenth century, -Ooms. 
I which the power of the tenant in tail to alienate his lands 
1' a longer period than that of his own life was effectually 
<ecked. The result of this legislation was, that for nearly 200 
urs a series of life estates in a large proportion of English 
^ 1 prevailed without interruption, and the evils inseparable 
m a system of limited ownership in land were never more 
iphically illustrated. To borrow the words of Blackstone, 
Idren grew disobedient when they knew it was not in the 
rter of their father to interfere with their ri»ht to succeed 
o 
n, farmers took leases at haphazard and were ousted to their 
1 
