will; though cuſtom, which is the life of the common law, has eſtabliſhed a permanent property in the copyholders, who were formerly nothing better than bondmen, equal to that of the lord himſelf, in the tenements holden of the manor: nay ſometimes even ſuperior; for we may now look upon a copyholder of inheritance, with a fine certain, to be little inferior to an abſolute freeholder in point of intereſt, and in other reſpects, particularly in the clearneſs and fecurity of his title, to be frequently in a better ſituation.
III. An eſtate at ſufferance, is where one comes into poſſeſſion of land by lawful title, but keeps it afterwards without any title at all. As if a man takes a leaſe for a year, and, after the year is expired, continues to hold the premiſes without any freſh leave from the owner of the eſtate. Or, if a man maketh a leaſe at will, and dies, the eſtate at will is thereby determined; but if the tenant continueth poſſeſſion, he is tenant at ſufferance[1]. But no man can be tenant at ſufferance againſt the king, to whom no laches, or neglect, in not entering and ouſting the tenant, is ever imputed by law: but his tenant, ſo holding over, is conſidered as an abſolute intruder[2]. But, in the caſe of a ſubject, this eſtate may be deſtroyed whenever the true owner ſhall make an actual entry on the lands and ouſt the tenant; for, before entry, he cannot maintain an action of treſpaſs againſt the tenant by ſufferance, as he might againſt a ſtranger[3]: and the reaſon is, becauſe the tenant being once in by a lawful title, the law (which preſumes no wrong in any man) will ſuppoſe him to continue upon a title equally lawful; unleſs the owner of the land by ſome public and avowed act, ſuch as entry is, will declare his continuance to be tortious, or, in common language, wrongful.
Thus ſtands the law, with regard to tenants by ſufferance; and landlords are obliged in theſe caſes to make formal entries upon their lands[4], and recover poſſeſſion by the legal proceſs of
