12. A twelfth ſpecies of conveyance, called a covenant to ſtand ſeiſed to uſes: by which a man, ſeiſed of lands, covenants in conſideration of blood or marriage that he will ſtand ſeiſed of the ſame to the uſe of his child, wife, or kinſman; for life, in tail, or in fee. Here the ſtatute executes at once the eſtate; for the party intended to be benefited, having thus acquired the uſe, is thereby put at once into corporal poſſeſſion of the land[1], without ever ſeeing it, by a kind of parliamentary magic. But this conveyance can only operate, when made upon ſuch weighty and intereſting conſiderations as thoſe of blood or marriage.
13. A thirteenth ſpecies of conveyance, introduced by this ſtatute, is that of a bargain and ſale of lands; which is a kind of a real contract, whereby the bargainor for ſome pecuniary conſideration bargains and ſells, that is, contracts to convey, the land to the bargainee; and becomes by ſuch bargain a truſtee for, or ſeiſed to the uſe of, the bargainee; and then the ſtatute of uſes completes the purchaſe[2]: or, as it has been well expreſſed[3], the bargain firſt veſts the uſe, and then the ſtatute veſts the poſſeſſion. But as it was foreſeen that conveyances, thus made, would want all thoſe benefits of notoriety, which the old common law aſſurances were calculated to give; to prevent therefore clandeſtine conveyances of freeholds, it was enacted in the ſame ſeſſion of parliament by ſtatute 27 Hen. VIII. c. 16. that ſuch bargains and ſales ſhould not enure to paſs a freehold, unleſs the ſame be made by indenture, and enrolled within ſix months in one of the courts of Weſtminſter-hall or with the cuſtos rotulorum of the county. Clandeſtine bargains and ſales of chattel intereſts, or leaſes for years, were thought not worth regarding, as ſuch intereſts were very precarious till about ſix years before[4]; which alſo occaſioned them to be overlooked in framing the ſtatute of uſes: and therefore ſuch bargains and ſales are not directed to be enrolled. But how impoſſible is it to foreſee, and
