Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/385

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( 157 )

¬being nothing more than a chair in a country dance, the interest vesting in another, subject only to the jurisdiction of the court I have described. ¬The effects of this unexampled revolution were most disastrous. — Instead of the short and simple deeds of ancient times, with the clear and cheap evidence of public possession, a new system of conveyancing arose, which has ever since involved titles to land in the most expen- sive and perplexing intricacies, no man in Ar- mata not a lawyer having the least guess at the tenure of his estate, and even a large class of lawyers themselves existing upon their contro- versies with each other, which, with the most honest disposition to finish them, become darker the more they are brought to light — the venerable judges of the law having no more jurisdiction over them than the keeper of the wild beasts at the Tower has a right, ex officio, to sit in parliament, or as a privy counsellor to the King. ¬On ¬