3U = 78 
English Land Law. 
in trade. Such criticisms, it will be seen, have no real foun- 
dation. We have shown how small is the effect produced in 
practice upon the succession to property by the law which pre- 
scribes that upon intestacy land should devolve upon the eldest 
son alone. We have also shown how large estates in England are 
kept unbroken, and handed down in the male line, not by force 
of law but at the wish and by the act of the persons chiefly 
interested. What is done, therefore, is done voluntarily by 
the individuals, the law merely giving effect to certain family 
arrangements, under which it is desired that estates should pass 
from father to son, or to the next heir, without essential change or 
Power of entail diminished acreage. So far, indeed, is the law from encouraging 
limited by law. ^j^-g prevailing wish among English landowners, that it places 
obstacles in its way, by facilitating, as we have seen, the release 
of estates from entail, and, further, by limiting the period during 
which a landowner, by deed or by will, may tie up either land 
or money with a view to benefit remote descendants. This is 
what is known in English law as the rule against perpetuities. 
No attempt to restrain the alienation of land is effectual beyond 
a period of 21 years after the expiration of a life or lives ir 
existence when the will or deed begins to operate. Thus, th( 
English law peremptorily forbids all attempts to perpetuat< 
families by an indefinite restraint upon the future alienation o 
property. It allows to an absolute owner of land full liberty o 
sale, and full liberty also as to the objects of his testamentar 
bounty. He may divide his property, landed or personal, amon; 
all his children, or leave it to one of them, or to strangers, a 
his pleasure ; the only obstacle to his free dealing with hi 
property is that the law will not permit him to fetter in tur 
the freedom of his successors in title beyond the period ju; 
mentioned. 
The reason for prescribing this period of 21 years after a life 
lives in being, is because then the first unborn heir in the dire»l 
line of the entail must, at the end of that period, have attained h 
majority and have acquired in his turn a legal power of dis 
sition over the property to which, by force of the instrument, 
Examples of succeeds. The usual course of family settlement in England w" 
English settle- best be illustrated by examples. Thus, A. on his marriage sett' 
his property on himself for life, reserving a dower or jointure f 
his widow, and a power to charge the inheritance by way 
mortgage with portions for daughters, and fixed sums or ye 
allowances for younger sons. The settlement further provid 
that, on the death of A., the whole shall devolve in the form 
an estate tail upon his eldest son and the heirs of this son's bod 
or, in the event of the eldest son's death without issue, t* 
upon the next son ; and so on, providing for the probable 
