348 = 52 
English Land Laiv. 
statutes, and can be assigned over by them to any other person. 
The cheapness and simplicity of the procedure thus prescribed 
should recommend it for general adoption ; and whatever maj 
be the evils inseparable from a limited ownership of land, thf 
English Legislature cannot at any rate be charged with having 
omitted the attempt to provide a remedy. 
The law of No sketch of the ownership and succession of land in Englanc 
mortmain. would be complete which omitted reference to the laws affecting 
gifts for charitable uses. What is called, though not quit( 
accurately, the Statute of Mortmain, was passed in the reign o 
George II., taking effect in the year 1736, but was realb 
founded on principles long recognised by the English law 
It was entitled, " An Act to restrain the Disposition of Lands 
whereby the same may become inalienable;" and its recital, o 
preamble, sets forth the reasons which led the Legislature ti 
adopt it : — " Whereas gifts or alienations of lands, tenements 
and hereditaments in mortmaih are prohibited or restrained b 
Magna Charta, and divers other wholesome laws, as prejudicia 
to and against the common safety: nevertheless, this publi 
mischief has of late greatly increased, by many large and im 
provident alienations or dispositions made by languishing c 
dying persons, or bj other persons, to uses called charitabl 
uses, to take place after their deaths, to the disherison of the: 
lawful heirs." 
This statute does not go on wholly to prohibit such gift 
but enacts that no lands, nor money to be laid out in pu 
chasing lands, shall be given 'or in any way conveyed to ar 
persons in trust, or for the benefit of any charitable uses wha 
soever, unless such gift is made by deed, duly witnessed, ar 
enrolled in the Court of Chancery within six months after exec 
tion, and unless also such gift is absolute, without power of rev 
cation, and is further made to take effect immediately aft 
execution. Moreover, all such gifts are declared void if f 
donors die within twelve months after executing the dee 
Thus, in England, no gift of any estate in land for charital 
(including religious) uses can be made by will, which only tak 
effect, of course, on the death of the testator. 
Certain exceptions were introduced into the statute in favour 
the two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, or any of t 
colleges within those Universities, or the great schools of Etc 
Winchester, and Westminster. 
General policy Since the passing of the Mortmain Act, statutes have bo 
advcrse'to 'pel-- ^"'^^ted to facilitate the grant of sites for schools, and for otl 
petual 8UCC0S- purposcs of public utility. But the general law remains st 
sion in land. more strongly opposed to that perpetuity of title in the case 
Corporations, which is forbidden in the case of individuals ; a i 
