However, the courts of equity, in the exerciſe of this new juriſdiction, have wiſely avoided in a great degree thoſe miſchiefs which made uſes intolerable. They now conſider a truſt-eſtate (either when expreſſly declared or reſulting by neceſſary implication) as equivalent to the legal ownerſhip, governed by the ſame rules of property, and liable to every charge in equity, which the other is ſubject to in law: and, by a long ſeries of uniform determinations, for now near a century paſt, with ſome aſſiſtance from the legiſlature, they have raiſed a new ſyſtem of rational juriſprudence, by which truſts are made to anſwer in general all the beneficial ends of uſes, without their inconvenience or frauds. The truſtee is conſidered as merely the inſtrument of conveyance, and can in no ſhape affect the eſtate, unleſs by alienation for a valuable conſideration to a purchaſor without notice[1]; which, as ceſtuy que uſe is generally in poſſeſſion of the land, is a thing that can rarely happen. The truſt will deſcend, may be aliened, is liable to debts, to forfeiture, to leaſes and other incumbrances, nay even to the curteſy of the huſband, as if it was an eſtate at law. It has not yet indeed been ſubjected to dower, more from a cautious adherence to ſome haſty precedents[2], than from any well-grounded principle. It hath alſo been held not liable to eſcheat to the lord, in conſequence of attainder or want of heirs[3]: becauſe the truſt could never be intended for his benefit. But let us now return to the ſtatute of uſes.
The only ſervice, as was before obſerved, to which this ſtatute is now conſigned, is in giving efficacy to certain new and ſecret ſpecies of conveyances; introduced in order to render tranſactions of this ſort as private as poſſible, and to ſave the trouble of making livery of ſeiſin, the only antient conveyance of corporeal freeholds: the ſecurity and notoriety of which public inveſtiture abundantly overpaid the labour of going to the land, or of ſending an attorney in one's ſtead. But this now his given way to
