called reditus nigri, or black-maile[1]. Rack-rent is only a rent of the full value of the tenement, or near it. A feefarm-rent is a rent-charge iſſuing out of an eſtate in fee; of at leaſt one fourth of the value of the lands, at the time of it's reſervation[2]: for a grant of lands, reſerving ſo conſiderable a rent, is indeed only letting lands to farm in fee ſimple inſtead of the uſual methods for life or years.
These are the general diviſions of rent; but the difference between them (in reſpect to the remedy for recovering them) is now totally aboliſhed; and all perſons may have the like remedy by diſtreſs for rents-ſeck, rents of aſſiſe, and chief-rents, as in caſe of rents reſerved upon leaſe[3].
Rent is regularly due and payable upon the land from whence it iſſues, if no particular place is mentioned in the reſervation[4]: but, in caſe of the king, the payment muſt be either to his officers at the exchequer, or to his receiver in the country[5]. And, ſtrictly, the rent is demandable and payable before the time of ſunſet of the day whereon it is reſerved[6]; though ſome have thought it not abſolutely due till midnight[7].
With regard to the original of rents, ſomething will be ſaid in the next chapter: and, as to diſtreſſes and other remedies for their recovery, the doctrine relating thereto, and the ſeveral proceedings thereon, theſe belong properly to the third part of our commentaries, which will treat of civil injuries, and the means whereby they are redreſſed.
