of the fee, of which fealty is conſtantly one; and it tends in it's conſequence to defeat and deveſt the remainder or reverſion expectant: as therefore that is put in jeopardy, by ſuch act of the particular tenant, it is but juſt that, upon diſcovery, the particular eſtate ſhould be forfeited and taken from him, who has ſhewn ſo manifeſt an inclination to make an improper uſe of it. The other reaſon is, becauſe the particular tenant, by granting a larger eſtate than his own, has by his own act determined and put an entire end to his own original intereſt; and on ſuch determination the next taker is entitled to enter regularly, as in his remainder or reverſion. The ſame law, which is thus laid down with regard to tenants for life, holds alſo with reſpect to all tenants of the mere freehold, or of chattel intereſts; but if tenant in tail alienes in fee, this is no immediate forfeiture to the remainder-man, but a mere diſcontinuance (as it is called[1]) of the eſtate-tail, which the iſſue may afterwards avoid by due courſe of law[2]: for he in remainder or reverſion hath only a very remote and barely poſſible intereſt therein, until the iſſue in tail is extinct. But, in caſe of ſuch forfeitures by particular tenants, all legal eſtates by them before created, as if tenant for twenty years grants a leaſe for fifteen, and all charges by him lawfully made on the lands, ſhall be good and available in law[3]. For the law will not hurt an innocent leſſee for the fault of his leſſor; nor permit the leſſor, after he has granted a good and lawful eſtate, by his own act to avoid it, and defeat the intereſt which he himſelf has created.
Equivalent, both in it's nature and it's conſequences, to an illegal alienation by the particular tenant, is the civil crime of diſclaimer; as where a tenant, who holds of any lord, neglects to render him the due ſervices, and, upon an action brought to recover them, diſclaims to hold of his lord. Which diſclaimer of tenure in any court of record is a forfeiture of the lands to the lord[4], upon reaſons moſt apparently feodal. And ſo likewiſe, if
