by elegit. What an elegit is, and why ſo called, will be explained in the third part of theſe commentaries. At preſent I need only mention, that it is the name of a writ, founded on the ſtatute[1] of Weſtm. 2. by which, after a plaintiff has obtained judgment for his debt at law, the ſheriff gives him poſſeſſion of one half of the defendant's lands and tenements, to be held, occupied, and enjoyed, until his debt and damages are fully paid: and, during the time he ſo holds them, he is called tenant by elegit. It is eaſy to obſerve, that this is alſo a mere conditional eſtate, defealible as ſoon as the debt is levied. But it is remarkable, that the feodal reſtraints of alienating lands, and charging them with the debts of the owner, were ſoftened much earlier and much more effectually for the benefit of trade and commerce, than for any other conſideration. Before the ſtatute of quia emptores[2], it is generally thought that the proprietor of lands was enabled to alienate no more than a moiety of them: the ſtatute therefore of Weſtm. 2. permits only ſo much of them to be affected by the proceſs of law, as a man was capable of alienating by his own deed. But by the ſtatute de mercatoribus (paſſed in the ſame year[3]) the whole of a man's lands was liable to be pledged in a ſtatute merchant, for a debt contracted in trade; though only half of them was liable to be taken in execution for any other debt of the owner.
I shall conclude what I had to remark of theſe eſtates, by ſtatute merchant, ſtatute ſtaple, and elegit, with the obſervation of ſir Edward Coke[4]. "Theſe tenants have uncertain intereſts in lands and tenements, and yet they have but chattels and no freeholds;" (which makes them an exception to the general rule) "becauſe though they may hold an eſtate of inheritance, or for life, ut liberum tenementum, until their debt be paid; yet it ſhall go to their executors: for ut is ſimilitudinary; and though, to recover their eſtates, they ſhall have the ſame remedy (by aſſiſe) as a tenant of the freehold ſhall have, yet it is but
