annexed, becomes abſolute, and wholly unconditional. So that, as ſoon as the grantee had any iſſue born, his eſtate was ſuppoſed to become abſolute, by the performance of the condition; at leaſt, for theſe three purpoſes: 1. To enable the tenant to aliene the land, and thereby to bar not only his own iſſue, but alſo the donor of his intereſt in the reverſion[1]. 2. To ſubject him to forfeit it for treaſon: which he could not do, till iſſue born, longer than for his own life; left thereby the inheritance of the iſſue, and reverſion of the donor, might have been defeated[2]. 3. To empower him to charge the land with rents, commons, and certain other incumbrances, ſo as to bind his iſſue[3]. And this was thought the more reaſonable, becauſe, by the birth of iſſue, the poſſibility of the donor's reverſion was rendered more diſtant and precarious: and his intereſt ſeems to have been the only one which the law, as it then ſtood, was ſolicitous to protect; without much regard to the right of ſucceſſion intended to be veſted in the iſſue. However, if the tenant did not in fact aliene the land, the courſe of deſcent was not altered by this performance of the condition: for if the iſſue had afterwards died, and then the tenant, or original grantee, had died, without making any alienation; the land, by the terms of the donation, could deſcend to none but the heirs of his body, and therefore, in default of them, muſt have reverted to the donor. For which reaſon, in order to ſubject the lands to the ordinary courſe of deſcent, the donees of theſe conditional fee-ſimples took care to aliene as ſoon as they had performed the condition by having iſſue; and afterwards re-purchaſed the lands, which gave them a fee-ſimple abſolute, that would deſcend to the heirs general, according to the courſe of the common law. And thus ſtood the old law with regard to conditional fees: which things, ſays ſir Edward Coke[4], though they ſeem antient, are yet neceſſary to be known; as well for the declaring how the common law ſtood in ſuch caſes, as for the ſake of annuities, and ſuch like inheritances, as are not within the ſtatutes of entail, and therefore remain as at the common law.
