ceſs of this conveyance was ſhortened, and rendered leſs ſubject to niceties, by either totally repealing the ſtatute de donis; which perhaps, by reviving the old doctrine of conditional fees, might give birth to many litigations: or by veſting in every tenant in tail of full age the ſame abſolute fee-ſimple at once, which now he may obtain whenever he pleaſes, by the colluſive fiction of a common recovery; though this might poſſibly bear hard upon thoſe in remainder or reverſion, by abridging the chances they would otherwiſe frequently have, as no recovery can be ſuffered in the intervals between term and term, which ſometimes continue for near five months together: or, laſtly, by empowering the tenant in tail to bar the eſtate-tail by a ſolemn deed, to be made in term time and enrolled in ſome court of record; which is liable to neither of the other objections, and is warranted not only by the uſage of our American colonies, but by the precedent of the ſtatute[1] 21 Jac. I. c. 19. which, in caſe of a bankrupt tenant in tail, empowers his commiſſioners to ſell the eſtate at any time, by deed indented and enrolled. And if, in ſo national a concern, the emoluments of the officers, concerned in paſſing recoveries, are thought to be worthy attention, thoſe might be provided for in the fees to be paid upon each enrollment.
2. The force and effect of common recoveries may appear, from what has been ſaid, to be an abſolute bar not only of all eſtates-tail, but of remainders and reverſions expectant on the determination of ſuch eſtates. So that a tenant in tail may, by this method of aſſurance, convey the lands held in tail to the recoveror his heirs and aſſigns, abſolutely free and diſcharged of all conditions and limitations in tail, and of all remainders and reverſions. But, by ſtatute 34 & 35 Hen. VIII. c. 20. no recovery had againſt tenant in tail, of the king's gift, whereof the remainder or reverſion is in the king, ſhall bar ſuch eſtate tail, or the remainder or reverſion of the crown. And by the ſtatute 11 Hen. VII. c. 20. no woman, after her huſband's death, ſhall ſuffer a recovery of lands ſettled on her in tail by way of jointure
- ↑ See pag. 286.
