C. 14), pat an end to religious h and many other establishments w 'eh had been the special objects of the a; tes of mortmain and superstitious . The consideration of what are now legally called superstitious uses, properly comes under the head of USES, SUPERSTITIOUS AND CHARITABLE.
The king could always grant a licence to alien in mortmain, or, more correctly speaking, he could remit the forfeiture consequent upon alienation, so tar at least as concerned himself; but such remission could strictly only affect his own rights, and not those of the mesne lords, unless they also consented, It was the practice, before the king granted his licence, to sue out a writ of ad quod daaenum, in order that inquiry might be made and the king informed what damage himself or others might sustain from the licence. This practice, however, fell into disuse long before the statute of the 7 & 8 Will. III. c. 37, which authorises the king to grant to any person or persons, corporate or not, licence to alien in mortmain, and to purchase and hold in mortmain any lands or hereditaments, and that such lands shall not be subject to forfeiture. When a licence to hold lands in mort main is granted, it generally specifies the amount in value of the lands to be held by the corporation to which it is granted ; and if the corporation should be ever found to acquire lands beyond this value, such lands are forfeited to the lord.
Until the statute of 9 Geo. II. c. 36, presently mentioned, though lauds could not be aliened in mortmain, yet certain gifts to corporate bodies were held good. Thus, if a feoffment was made to a dean and chapter to perform a charitable use (within the 43 Mix., c. 4), it was good, though they could not be seined to another's use ; and a device to a college to a charitable use within this statute was also good. (Hob. 136; 1 Lev. 284.) The statute of the 9 Geo. II. c. 36, is now commonly, though not correctly, called the Statute of Mortmain. It ap plies only to England and Wales. It is entitled • An Act to restrain the Disposi tion of Lands, whereby the same become inalienable.' The provisions and object of this enactment cannot be otherwise expressed than by stating the first section at full length :—" Whereas gifts or alienations of lands, tenements, or heredi taments, in mortmain, are prohibited or restrained by Magna Charts and divers other wholesome laws, as prejudicial to and against the common utility ; never theless this public mischief has of late Featly increased by many large and improvicent alienations or dispositions made by languishing or dying or by other persons, to uses an uses, to take place after their death, to the disherison of their lawful heirs : fbr remedy whereof be it enacted, that from and after the 24th day of June, 1736, no manors, lands, tenements, rents, advowsons, or other hereditaments, cor poreal or incorporeal whatsoever, nor any sum or sums of money, goods, chattels, stocks in the public Ands, securities for money, or any other personal estate whatsoever, to be laid out or disposed of in the purchase of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, shall begiven, granted, aliened, limited, released transferred, assigned, or appointed, or any ways con veyed or settled to or upon any person or persons, bodies politic or corporate, or otherwise for any estate or interest what soever, or any ways charged or encum bered by any person or persons what soever, in trust or for the benefit of any charitable uses whatsoever, unless such gifts, conveyance, appointment, or settlement of any such lands, tenements, or hereditaments, sum or sums of money, or personal estate (other than stocks in the public funds), be made by deed in dented, sealed, and delivered, in the presence of two or more credible wit nesses, twelve calendar months at least before the death of such donor or grantor (including the days of execution and death), and be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months after the execution thereof; and unless such stocks be trans ferred in the public books usually kept for the transfer of stocks, six calendar months at least before the death of such donor or grantor (including the days of the transfer and death) ; and unless the same be made to hike effect in possiwsion for the charitable use intended imme diately from the making thereof and be without any power of revocation, reser vation trust, condition, limitation, clause, or agreement whatsoever, for the bene fit of the donor or grantor, or of any person or persons claiming under him."
The act provides that what relates to the time before the grantor's death or sealing the deed and making the transfer shall not extend to any pur chase to be made really and bona fide for a full and valuable consideration, actually paid at or before the making of such conveyance or transfer without fraud or collusion.' The two universities of Or ford and Cambridge, and the col leges within them, were excepted from the operation of the act ; and the colleges of Eton, Winchester, and Westminster, but in favour of the scholars only, were also excepted. This act limited the numbers of advowsons which any college or house of learning (before referred to in the act) could hold ; but this restric tion was removed by the 45 Geo. III. c. 101. By the 5 Geo. IV. C. 39, the British Museum is excepted from the statutes of mortmain; and various other public bodies have been in like manner excepted by act of parliament. The judicial interpretation of this act, called the Mortmain Act, has prevented a large amount of property from being given to charitable uses. A bequest of money for charitable purposes, to arise from the sale of land, is void ; or of money due on mortgages ; or of money to pay off the mortgage on a chapel ; or of money to build a chapel, unless some land already in mortmain is distinctly pointed out by the terms of the bequest ; or of mortgages both in fee and for years ; or of money to be laid out on mortgage security. This act can only be called a Mortinaux with any propriety so far as it relates to corporate bodies, and even with regard to them with no strict propriety, inas much as the Mortmaiu Acts were in tended to prevent corporate bodies holding binds to their own use, or to prevent other persons holding them to the use of corporate bodies. The act is in fact in tended to limit the power of giving property for charitable purposes to any person or persons, and is very improperly called a Mortmain Act, if we consider that many gifts of land for charitable purposes were not considered, before the passing of this act, as within the old statutes of mortmain.