FIDEICOMMISSITM, in the civil law, was a conveyance of property in trust to be transferred to a third person named by the truster. Fideicommissa, when first intro duced, were not supported by the law. The performance of them depended, therefore, on the conscience of the party intrusted, tad they were consequently frequently not carried out. They were originally adopted for the purpose of conveying property either where a party, from the circumstances of the case, as inability to procure the proper numberof witnesses, was prevented from executing a will; or where he desired to benefit those who, by law, were precluded from taking the property. To effect this purpose, an actual conveyance was made to a friend, coupled with a request that the property should be transferred to another. Fideicommissa having thus been introduced for a special purpose, were by degrees extended to conveyances of the whole inheritance, and finally were used for the purpose of estates in a particular order of suc cession, forming the earliest instance of entails (q.v.). Fideicommissa first received the sanction of positive law in the reign of Augustus, by whom authority was given to the praetor to enforce the performance of these fiduciary ii. 23, s. 1.
The emperor Claudius subsequently extended this authority to the consuls and presi dents of provinces. Fideicommissa were either particular or unicersal, the former being a bequest of a particular subject, or a part only of the inheritance; the latter compre hended the whole estate.
In Holland, the principles of the civil law as to fideicommissa form an important branch of the law in regard to landed estates. An heir may be required to transfer either the whole or a portion of his inheritance. The provisions of the senatus-con sultum trebellianum also have been adopted; but if an heir resist the intentions of the testator, and is compelled by law to execute the trust, he is not allowed to take the bene fit of these provisions. The benefit also may be excluded by express direction in the will. Children who have received their legal portions, and are required to transfer to a stranger the rest of the inheritance, are entitled to retain a fourth part for themselves. Grotius, Dutch, Jurisprudence, by Herbert, b. ii. c. 20.