sion in presence of witnesses, the instrument of conveyance being incomplete and of no effect until the performance of this ceremony of the delivery of actual possession. If the lands conveyed were in different counties, this form of delivering possession had to be performed in each of the counties. The party conveying by this form is called the feoffer, and the person to whom the conveyance is made is denominated the feoffee.

Conveyance by Gift was usually applied to the creation or transfer of an estate-tail, as that by feoffment was mainly confined to absolute estates. It was equally necessary that this should be perfected by delivery of possession.

A Grant was the common law form of transferring property not susceptible in its nature of actual delivery of possession, as rents, resulting from leased reversions in land. whereof the life estate is held in possession, &c.

A Lease is the conveyance of any real estate for a less period than that which the grantor has in the premises; it may be for life, for years, or at will.

An Exchange is a mutual grant or release of equal interests, and it was formerly held that the word exchange was so specifically required for, and appropriated to, this case, that it could not be supplied by any other word or phrase. Exchanges are now ordinarily accomplished by the interchange of deeds of release and quitclaim between the parties.

Deeds of Partition were similar in form, and were used where joint tenants, co-partners, or tenants in common, agreed to divide and hold in severalty that which before had been held in common between them.

A Release is a discharge or conveyance of the right which one has in real estate, and, at common law, must have been made to a party who had some former estate in possession.

A Confirmation is quite similar to a release, but is more commonly used to make sure, an estate conveyed by a previous deed, which is supposed to be, for some reason, voidable.

A Surrender is the opposite of a release or confirmation, and may be defined as the yielding up of an estate for life or years to him who hath the greater estate or reversion. No

delivery of possession is required to perfect either of the three last forms of conveyance.

An Assignment is a transfer to another of the entire estate which one has in any property. By a lease, one grants less than he has; by an assignment, he parts with his whole property, and the assignee stands precisely in his place.

A Defeasance is a collateral instrument, made at the same time with a principal deed, setting forth certain conditions upon the happening or performance of which the estate created by the principal deed shall become absolutely void or may be defeated. A common example of it is the condition of a mortgage deed.

Of Uses.

The Use is where the legal estate is in A., upon the trust, however, that he will permit B. to take the rents and profits, and will make and execute conveyances according to the direction of B.

Before the statute of 27 Henry VIII, commonly called the Statute of Uses, the performance by A. of the trusts reposed in him depended upon his good faith. A. was the real owner, at law, of the estate, and B., for whose use he held it, was dependent upon his good faith to carry out and perform the real purposes of the trust, having no remedy at the common law. This statute transferred the right to the use into an estate in actual possession, by changing what was a mere beneficial interest in B. into the legal estate, and doing away with the estate of A.: so that if conveyance be made to A. to the use of B., B. becomes seized of the legal estate, by force of the statute. It is upon this idea that form No. 35, being a "deed from husband to wife, vesting the estate directly in the wife by force of the Statute of Uses," is based.

Since the statute of uses, trusts in real estate have to be created by the expression of a double use, or a use upon a use. For example: if it be desired that the legal title remain in, and be controlled by, A., the form should be thus: "to have and to hold the same to A., to the use of A., his heirs and assigns, in trust for B., his heirs and Assigns."

So, if A. should convey an estate to the use of B., to be held for the use of C., the statute executes only the first use; the estate rests in B., and the use to C. is only a trust.

Having thus briefly and imperfectly defined the different forms of conveyance, we come now to speak,

SECTION 2.

Of Deeds and who may be Parties thereto.

Blackstone, Kent and other common law writers, define a deed to be, "A writing upon paper or parchment, sealed and delivered by the parties." That definition has been somewhat commonly followed, but seems to be neither entirely full, nor strictly accurate.

Printing, instead of writing, would be clearly sufficient; and cloth or leather, in the absence of express statute enactments calling for paper or parchment, would probably be held sufficient. Sealing has sometimes been dispensed with by modern statutes, but signing is in all cases requisite.

The original idea of a seal was, an impression upon wax, wafer, or some other tenacious and impressible substance. The early use of seals was rendered necessary, or at least greatly convenient, by the inability of grantors to write their names; and in the early times the nobility, and every person of estate and dignity, had each his special seal, with such distinctive marks and peculiarities as were sufficient for its identification. In modern times, the seal has become a mere collateral accompaniment of the signature of the parties, and so entirely a thing of form, rather than of substance, that its present use has no special practical utility.

In some of the States, the sealing, in the common law sense, is still practised: but, in most of them, the impression on wax or wafer has been abandoned, to such an extent as to induce the courts to allow them to be substituted by a flourish of the pen, a circle of ink, or a scroll.

Delivery is, in all cases, essential to the due operation of a deed, and the instrument, though perfectly executed, takes effect only from its delivery.

In English conveyancing, deeds are denominated indentures, being executed by several parties; duplicates being made on parchment or paper, the edges of which are indented, or cut like the teeth of a saw, so as to correspond with, and fit into, each other; the original idea being, to obtain thereby additional security against the substitution, by either party, of a spurious instrument. That idea has at present no force, nor is the deed, commonly in use in the United States for the conveyance of land, executed by more than one party: but, in many of the States, the old name 'indenture' is still retained, though the instrument has really become a deed poll. The instrument, now in most common use throughout the United States, is a deed of bargain and sale. The technical operative words of conveyance in such a deed are, bargain, sell, and convey.

By a statute of the State of New York, the word “grant” is substituted in place of all the phraseology used in the different forms of English conveyances. Originally, the

phrases peculiar to each conveyance, as “enfeoff,” “grant,” "give," "bargain and sale," "demise," "release," &c., were the operative words severally appropriated and set apart for each of the distinct forms of conveyance, which they distinctively denominate and to which they belong. By a strange confusion of the original meaning of the phrases, as used in, and specially appropriate to, each form of conveyance, the whole were often combined together, even in deeds drawn with professional care and skill; and the forms thus drafted have found their place in books upon conveyancing, and this indiscriminating use of terms is still kept up for the satisfaction of those who think there is danger in departing from established precedents. It is certain, however, that the use of words, the real definitions of which are contradictory, or, at least, quite different, can add nothing to the force of a deed, while it must be quite sure to introduce confusion.

The conservatism of professional book makers has so hindered and delayed a reform in this matter, that many of the States have legislated upon the subject; some of them, as in New York, prescribing the operative word, which shall take

the place of all the others; and others, as Iowa, Indiana, &c., prescribing brief forms of deeds as follows:-for a warrantee deed: For the consideration of dollars, I hereby

convey to A. B. the following tract of land, [describing it,] and I warrant the title against all persons whatsoever." For a quit claim:-"For the consideration of dollars, I hereby quit claim to A. B. all my interest in the following tract of land, [describing it.]" For a mortgage, the same as another deed, adding,-" to be void upon condition that I pay," &c., [" or upon any other condition."]

The above are adopted in Iowa, and in Indiana the phraseology is slightly changed, so that a warrantee reads, "A. B. conveys and warrants to C. D. the following tract of land, [here describe the estate,] for the sum of dollars." See forms Nos. 12, 13 and 14.

While it may be unsafe for a non-professional and inexperienced draughtsman to depart from established forms, it is clearly desirable that lawyers and practiced conveyancers should select words expressing, with reasonable accuracy, the purpose they have in hand; and it is, of course, to be expected that a modern book, prepared with care and containing forms to be followed, should carefully reject words and phrases which are contradictory or absurd, and which tend only to obscurity.

Chancellor Kent says, "I apprehend that a deed would be perfectly competent, in any part of the United States, to convey the fee, if it was to be to the following effect: “I, A. B., in consideration of one dollar to me paid by C. D., do bargain and sell [or in New York, grant] to C. D. and his heirs, [In New York, Virginia, &c., the word heirs, may be omitted,] the lot of land, [here describe it.]

Witness my hand and seal," &c.

He adds, "But persons usually attach so much importance to the solemnity of forms which bespeak care and reflection, and they feel such deep solicitude in matters that concern their valuable interests, to make assurance doubly sure,' that generally, in important cases, the purchaser would rather be at the expense of exchanging a paper of such in