the effect of such release, and what are the estates or
interests of the various parties after such release ?

ANS.-Where there are three joint tenants and one of them executes a release to one of his companions of all the right he has in the land, the releasee has a third part of the land with himself and his companion in common; and he and his companion will hold the remaining two parts in joint tenancy (Litt. Ten. s. 304).

IV. What is the legal presumption as to the tenure of the lands of inheritance in the county of Kent? And how would they go by descent according to such tenure ?

ANS. In the county of Kent all estates of inheritance in land are presumed to be holden by gavelkind tenure, until the contrary is shown. The descent of such an estate, in case of intestacy, is not to the eldest son, but to all the sons in equal shares, and so to brothers and other collateral relations on failure of nearer heirs (Williams' Real Prop. p. 110, 4th ed.; F. Bk. 4-7).

V.-Where a person to whom real estate is devised for an estate tail dies in the lifetime of the testator, leaving issue who would be inheritable under the entail, and any such issue be living at the testator's death, what, if any, effect Will the devise have, and who will take the estate?

ANS.-Though formerly different, now, unless a contrary intention appear by the will, the issue will take, for by sec. 32 of 1 Vic., c. 26, such devise will not lapse, but takes effect, as if the death of such person had happened immediately after the death of the testator, unless a contrary intention appear by the will (F. Bk. 189.)

VI.-When would estates, held by the testator as trustee, pass under a general devise, and when would they not pass? Explain the reasons for your answer.

ANS. This is a question involving matters of great nicety, as may be seen by Mr. Jarman's Treatise on Wills (vol. 1, 638, and 11 Jarman's Conv. p. 279, 3rd ed.) The rule as to trust estates passing under a general devise is laid down by Lord Eldon in the case of Braybroke v. Inskip (8 Ves. 417), in the following terms :"Trust estates will pass under a general devise, unless it can be collected from expressions in the will, or from the purposes or objects of the testator, that he did not mean that they should pass." But if the devise be to prevent dower, to uses in strict settlement, or creates a general trust or charge for the payment of debts, &c., the trust estates will not pass (11 Jarm. Conv. 279).

VII.-How can the right to a sum of money owing be transferred by the creditor to a third party? And what are the

forms attending such transfer, and what precautions are to
be taken by the purchaser to guard his title, on the transfer
being completed, as distinguished from a transfer of an
estate in land?

ANS.-The right to a sum of money may in equity be transferred by a creditor to a third party by an assignment accompanied by a power of attorney by the assignor to permit the assignee to sue in his name. The title of the assignee is not complete until he has given to the debtor a notice of the assignment; for the debtor, if he has had no notice of the assignment, may lawfully pay his debt to the original creditor, and will be effectually discharged by his receipt (Williams' Person. Prop. 4th ed., p. 109; F. Bk. 197– 198, 2 L. C., 75-78; 3 Id. 371–153).

VIII.-On a sale of land in fee simple, without any conditions of sale, what length of title is the purchaser entitled to require; and by what law, or how, is the limit fixed or determined?

ANS.-On a sale of lands without conditions providing against the same, the period for which the title is investigated is the last sixty years, and every vendor of freehold property is, in the absence of stipulations to the contrary, bound to furnish the intended purchaser with an abstract of all deeds, wills, and other instruments relating to the lands during that period, and also to give him an opportunity of examining such abstract with the originals, for in every agreement to sell is implied by law an agreement to make a good title to the property to be sold. The ordinary duration of human life is, if not the origin of the rule requiring a sixty years' title, at least a good reason for its continuance, notwithstanding the acts shortening the period of limitations for the recovery of real estate (Hayes' Introd. Conv. 250-357, 4th ed.).

IX.-If land be given to a man and the heirs male of his body, and he has issue only a daughter, who has issue a son and dies, and then the donee dies; what is the effect as to the estate given ?

ANS-All the persons claiming through the entail. must make their claim entirely through males, and therefore, in the above case, the estate tail fails, and the remainders over (if any) take effect, or the estate reverts back to the original grantor. This is explained by Littleton, ss. 23 and 24, and see note to the latter section, in edit. of 1854.

X-In whom is the ownership of the sea-shore below highwater mark vested as a general rule, and what exceptions may there be to such rule?

ANS.-The ownership of the sea-shore below high-water mark (taking the line of medium of high tides between the springs and the neaps, Dart's Vend. 243, n.; F. Bk. 26), is primâ facie vested in the Crown; but the subject (such as a lord of a manor), may have a right to it either by grant or prescription, that is by exerting such acts of ownership as would be sufficient to lead a jury to presume that there was once a grant of the foreshore (13 Jur. 713; Burt. Comp. pl. 1048, and notes by Cooper). By gradual accretions and encroachments the Crown and the subject may gain or lose (Burt. pl. 1049, and note; 6 Bac. Abr. 396, et seq., 7th edit.; 5 M. & W. 327).

XI. What is meant by the legal phrase of an interesse termini ?

ANS.-An interesse termini is that property or interest which a lessee for years acquires under a lease not operating under the statute of uses in the lands demised to him before he has actually become possessed of the lands. When a lease operating purely under the Common Law (if there is now such a lease) is made, the lessee does not become complete tenant by lease to the lessor until he has entered on the lands let. Before entry he has no estate, but only a right to have the lands for the term by force of the lease called in law an interesse termini (Will. Real Prop. 4th ed. p. 340; Burt. Comp. pl. 61-837-907; Hayes' Convey. 471, n. 20, 4th ed.; 17 Jur. 1053; F. Bk. 131-132).

XII.-Describe fully the various searches or inquiries for incumbrances or charges, affecting a landed estate purchased, which should be made by the purchaser before completing the purchase.

ANS.-Searches should be made in the Common Pleas Registry Office for judgments, crown debts, annuities, and lis pendens, for a period of five years next preceding the completion; and for writs of execution for three months under 23 & 24 Vic. c. 38 (Dart's Vend. ch. 11). Search ought also to be made for bankruptcy and insolvency where there is ground for supposing that either of them may have taken place. Where the property lies in a registry district as Middlesex, Yorkshire, Kingston-upon-Hull, and the Bedford Level, searches should be made in the local registers. As to succession duty, see next answer.

XIII. If A come into possession of an estate as tenant in fee on the death of another, who died since the Succession Duty Act of 1853, and sells it, what are the duties of the purchaser's solicitor with regard to any liabilities imposed by that statute?

ANS.-Except in the case of a devise to a person not liable to legacy duty in the case of personalty, the purchaser in such a case as that above mentioned should see that the succession duty is paid, as the duty imposed by this Act is a first charge on the interest of the successor, and of all persons claiming in his right, on real property whereon the duty is assessed. And the duty is a debt due to the Crown, having, as to the real property comprised in the succession, priority over all charges and interest created by the successor, but does not charge any other real property of the successor. But a bonâ fide purchaser for value, and without notice, is protected by the receipt for the duty notwithstanding any misstatement (Dart's Vend., 182-301–359–382—551),

XIV. What would be the effect of a devise or gift of a leasehold for years by words which would create an estate tail, if the estate were a freehold ?

ANS.-The words will confer an absolute interest, as a gift of personal property of any kind to a person, and the heirs of his body, will simply vest in him the property given. And in the construction of wills, where many informal expressions are allowed to vest an estate tail in lands, the general rule is, that expressions which, if applied to real estates, would confer an estate tail, shall, when applied to personal property, simply give the absolute interest (Williams' Person. Prop., p. 219, 4th ed.; Dunk v. Fenner, 2 Russ. Jury, 557; Tudor's Real Prop., 700-701). Still there are exceptions; and objections have been made to the mode of expressing the general rule (See 18 Jur., 664).

XV.-When trustees sell land under a power or trust for sale, with the assent of the tenant for life of the property, what covenants are the trustees and tenant for life respectively bound to enter into with the purchaser ?

ANS-In conformity with the well-established rule, the trustees covenant that they have done no act to encumber. In 13 Sim. 179, Shadwell, V. C., assumed that upon a sale under a power, with the consent of a tenant for life, the tenant for life was, as a matter of course, obliged to enter into the usual covenants for title for the acts of the settlor and his representatives. But it seems to be the general opinion of conveyancers that although a tenant for life or other owner of a particular estate may be required so to covenant in respect and to the extent of his beneficial interest, yet that as respects the reversion (in which he has no beneficial interest) his liability under the covenants should be confined to the acts of himself and parties claiming under him (2 David. Preced., 194, 2nd ed.; Dart's Vend., 353, 3rd ed.; see Id., p. 354, where a

form of covenant is given, which has been adopted in 2 David. Convey., 195, 2nd ed).

CRIMINAL LAW.

1.-State what offences are triable at the assizes only; and which are triable at either the assizes or the quarter sessions.

ANS.-The quarter sessions cannot, but the assizes may, try any prisoner for treason, murder, or capital felony, or for any felony which, when committed by a person not previously convicted of felony, is punishable with penal servitude for life, nor for any of the particular offences enumerated in the 5 & 6 Vic., c. 38, namely, for misprision of treason, offences against the Queen's title, prerogative, or Government, or against either House of Parliament, offences subject to the penalties of præmunire, blasphemy, and offences against religion; administering or taking unlawful oaths, perjury and subornation of perjury, &c., forgery, malicious firing corn, grain, &c., wood, trees, &c., or heath, gorse, &c., bigamy, or offences against the laws relating to marriage, abduction of women and girls, concealing births, offences against the bankrupt and insolvent laws, seditious, blasphemous, or defamatory libels; bribery, unlawful combinations and conspiracies, with certain exceptions, stealing, &c., records, &c., titles, &c., and written documents relating to real estate. Small felonies and misdemeanours, not being any of those above prohibited, may be tried at the sessions, or at the assizes (4 Step. C. 383, 4th ed., F. Bk. 374).

II. What cases of larceny are triable before justices in petty sessions; and what is the difference in their jurisdiction when the accused is above, and when he is under, the age of sixteen ?

ANS.-The 10 & 11 Vic. c. 82, and 13 & 14 Vic. c. 37, provide in the case of juvenile offenders, that any person charged with having committed, or attempted to commit (or with having been an aider, abettor, counsellor, or procurer in the commission of) any offence, then or thereafter to be by law deemed, or declared to be, simple larceny, or punishable as simple larceny, and whose age shall not appear to exceed sixteen years, may, on conviction before two justices, in open court at petty sessions, be imprisoned for three months, with or without hard labour (to which whipping may be added, if the offender be a male, and not exceeding the age of fourteen years). By the 18 & 19 Vic., c. 126, if the accused admits