Contrast between Estates in Fee, for Life, Chattel Interests Annuity in Fee must be granted for himself and his Heirs Of Liability to Waste of those who have the Fee, subject ib. Rent granted for Owelty of Partition is descendible ib. ESTATES. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. T O a free and commercial people, the laws concerning property are of primary im portance. When the great object of pursuit is the attainment of independence, or easy circumstances in point of fortune, the security of that fortune, when acquired, cannot fail to be interesting in a high degree. As these laws are of such importance, it will readily be acknowledged, that too much attention cannot be employed in cultivating the study of them; or in explaining their scope, and diffusing, as widely as possible, the knowledge of these laws; especially of those branches which occur every day in practice. The nice and subtle distinctions with which the laws of property abound, have been deemed sufficient to deter young men from entering on the pursuit, and prosecuting their studies with cheerfulness. The difficulty of comprehending the reason and the scope of the rules of property, will occasion to every person, at the commencement of his studies, some difficulties, and lay him under some embarrassments. The best advice to be given to him, or which he can address to himself, is, ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito. The success of perseverance is certain, and will abundantly compensate the labour. In no instance more than the profession of the law, is it justified by experience, that fortuna audaces juvat. Let the studies be systematic; let the foundation of knowledge be laid in first principles, and these principles be well understood! Afterwards, the subjects should be traced through all their varieties in connexion; keeping the mind closely to the subject under investigation. Thus the difficulty generally experienced will speedily vanish. Let any person study one or two heads of the law fully and minutely, and he will have laid the foundation. or acquired the aptitude, for comprehending other heads of the law. Preparatory to the commencement of such a course of reading, the student should be familiar with the terms and the definitions of the law; and have taken a general view of the system; such a view as Blackstone in his Commentaries, and Wooddeson in his Vinerian Lectures, will afford him. To those who have leisure, and to whom it is not requisite to qualify themselves for immediate practice, a perusal of Bracton and Fleta would be highly beneficial; laying the best foundation for the perusal of Co. Litt. and Lord Coke's Reports; and of these two works it may be justly said, they are the best books of the law. With this preparation, he will render those studies easy, which, if pursued without system, or without method, would perplex and confound him; giving him a chaotic mass of materials, which he cannot digest into order, unless his endowments be such as fall to the lot of a few individuals only. Till a recent period, the knowledge of this branch of the law had received a very moderate share of attention, as a science. The rules of property were scattered in books on the subject of the law in general. The doctrine of Merger affords a striking instance of the justice of this observation. The knowledge of these rules was not to be acquired with |