Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/729

 L I T L I T 705 joint tenants, where the interest does not pass to the heir of the deceased joint tenant, but devolves upon the surviving joint tenant; and tenants in common, where the interest is separate and descends to the heir of each of the co-tenants, though the land over which the right exists is undivided and held in common with one or more other persons. Next follows an elaborate discussion upon what are called estates upon condition, a class of interests which occupied a large space in the early common law, giving rise on one side to estates tail, on another to mortgages. In Littleton s time a mort gage, which he carefully describes, was merely a conveyance of land bythe tenant to the mortgagee, with a condition that, if the tenant paid to the mortgagee a certain sum on a certain day, he might re- enter and have the land again. If the condition was not fulfilled, the interest of the mortgagee became absolute, and Littleton gives no indication of any modification of this strict rule, such as was introduced by courts of equity, permitting the debtor to redeem his land by payment of all that was due to the mortgagee although the day of payment had passed, and his interest had become at law indefeasible. The remainder of the work is occupied with an exposition of a miscellaneous class of modes of acquiring rights of property, the analysis of which would occupy too large a space. The work is thus a complete summary of the common law as it stood at the time. It is nearly silent as to the remarkable class of rights which had already assumed vast practical importance equitable interests in lands. These are only noticed incidentally in the chapter on &quot; Releases.&quot; But it was already clear in Littleton s time that this class of rights would become the most important of all. Littleton s own will, which has been preserved, may be adduced in proof of this assertion. Although nothing was more opposed to the spirit of Norman feudalism than that a tenant of lands should dispose of them by will, we find Littleton directing by his will the feoffees of certain manors to make estates to the persons named in his will. In other words, in order to acquire over lands powers unknown to the common law, the lands had been conveyed to feoffees &quot; who had full right over them according to the common law, but who were under a conscientious obligation to exercise those rights at the direction and for the exclusive benefit of the person to whose &quot; use &quot; the lands were held. This conscientious obligation was recognized and enforced by the chancellor, and thus arose the class of equitable interests in lands. Littleton is the first writer on English law after these rights had risen into a prominent position, and it is curious to find to what extent they are ignored by him. Unlike their treatment of copyhold interests, the common lawyers wholly refused to recognize the right of the real or beneficial owner, when the legal interest was vested in another, though the latter had then but the semblance without the reality of ownership. Hence it was that the most important class of rights developed outside the common law. After an unhappy attempt to reunite the classes of legal and equitable interests by the Statute of L T ses (27 Henry VIII. c. 10), the effect of which was to introduce still greater technicality and complication into the law of real property, the two classes have continued to exist side by side, until in our own time the Judicature Act of 1873, by uniting in one court the tribunals the difference between which originally gave rise to the distinction between legal and equitable interests, has perhaps paved the way for a simpler and more rational classification of rights over land. The work of Littleton occupies a place in the history of typography as well as of law. The earliest printed edition seems to be that by John Lettou and William de Machlinia, two printers who probably came from the Continent, and carried on their business in partnership, as their note to the edition of Littleton states, &quot;in civitate Londoniarum, juxta ecclesiam omnium sanctorum.&quot; The date of this edition is uncertain, but the most probable conjecture, based on typographical grounds, places it about the latter part of 1481. The next edition is one by Machlinia alone, probably about two or three years later than the former. Machlinia was then in business alone &quot;juxta pontem quoe vulgo dicitur Fleta brigge.&quot; Next came the Rohan or Rouen edition, erroneously stated by Sir E. Coke to-be the earliest, and to have been printed about 1533. It was, however, of a much earlier date. Tomlins, the latest editor of Littleton, gives reasons for thinking that it cannot have been later than 1490. It is stated in a note to have been printed at Rouen by William le Tailleur &quot;ad instantiam Richardi 1 ynson.&quot; Copies of all these editions aie in the British Museum. In all these editions the work is styled Tcnores yovelli, probably to distinguish it from the Old Tenures.&quot; There are three early MSS. of Littleton in the University Library at Cambridge. One of these formerly contained a note on its first page to the effect that it was bought in St Paul s Churchyard on July 20, 1480. It was therefore in circulation in Littleton s lifetime. The other two MSS. are of a somewhat later date ; but one of them contains what seems to be the earliest English translation of the Tenures, and is probably not later than 1500. In the 16th century editions of Littleton followed in rapid succession from the presses of Pynson, Redmayne, Berthelet, Tottyl, and others. The practice of annotating the text caused several additions to be introduced, which, however, are easily detected by comparison of the earlier copies. In 1581 West divided the text into seven hundred and forty-six sections, which have ever since been pre served. Many of these editions were printed with large margins for purposes of annotation, specimens of which may be seen in Lincoln s Inn Library. The practice of annotating Littleton was very general, and was adopted by many eminent lawyers besides Sir E. Coke, amongst others by Sir M. Hale. One com mentary of this kind, by an unknown hand of earlier date than Sir E. Coke s, was edited by Gary in ls-_&amp;gt;9. Following the general practice of dealing with Littleton as the great authority on the law of England, &quot; the most perfect and absolute work that ever was written in any human language,&quot; Sir E. Coke makes it the text of that portion of his work which he calls the first part of the institutes of the law of England, in other words, the law of property. The first printed English translation of Littleton was by Rastcll, who seems to have combined the professions of author, printer, and sergeant-at-law, between 1514 and 1533. Many English editions by various editors followed, the best of which is Tottyl s in 1556. Sir E. Coke adopted some translation earlier than this, which has since gone by the name of Sir E. Coke s translation. He, however, throughout comments not on the translation but on the French text; and the reputation of the commentary has to some extent overlaid and obscured the intrinsic merit of the original. (K. E. D.) LITTRE, PAUL MAXIMILIEN EMILE (1801-1881), the compiler of the best dictionary of any living language, and the Frenchman of most encyclopaedic knowledge since Diderot, w r as born at Paris on February 1, 1801. His father had been a gunner, and afterwards sergeant- major of marine artillery, in the French nav}, and was deeply imbued with the revolutionary ideas of the day. Settling down as a collector of taxes, he married Sophie Johannot, a free-thinker like himself, and devoted himself to the education of his son Lmile. The boy was sent to the Lycee Louis-le-Grand, where he had for friends Hachette and Eugene Burnouf, and he distinguished him self alike in his work and in all athletic exercises. After he had completed his course at school, he hesitated for a time as to what profession he should adopt, and meanwhile made himself master, not only of the English and German languages, but of the classical and Sanskrit literature and philology. At last he determined to study medicine, and in 1822 entered his name as a student of medicine. He passed all his examinations in due course, and had only his thesis to prepare in order to obtain his degree as doctor when in 1827 his father died, leaving his mother absolutely without resources. He at once renounced his degree, and, while attending the lectures of Rayer and taking a keen interest in medicine, began teaching Latin and Greek for a livelihood. He carried a musket on the popular side in the revolution of February 1830, and was one of the national guards who followed Charles X. to Rambouillet. At last, in 1831, when quite thirty years of age, he obtained an introduction to Armand Carrel, the editor of the National, who gave him the task of reading the English and German papers for excerpts. Carrel by the merest chance, in 1835, discovered the ability of his reader, who from that time became a constant contributor, and eventu ally director of the paper. In 1836 he began to contribute articles on all sorts of subjects to the Revue des Deux Mondes; in 1837 he married; and in 1839 appeared the first volume of his edition of the works of Hippocrates. This volume at once placed Littre&quot; in the forefront of the literary and scientific world ; its ability was recog nized by his election the same year into the Acade mie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. At the age of thirty- eight then he had won for himself a high reputation as a learned man of letters and of science, but was still tormented by the unsettled ideas and thoughts which generally beset younger men, and were only increased by the study of his favourite authors Byron and Obermann. At this epoch he came across the works of Auguste Comte, the reading of which formed, as he himself said, &quot; the cardinal point of his life,&quot; and from this time onward appears the influence of positivism on his own life, and, what is of even more importance, his influence on positivism, for he gave at least as much to positivism as he received from it. He brought to it a wide knowledge of science and literature, a great and growing reputation, and a clear head. He soon became an intimate friend of Comte s, and set to work to popularize his ideas in numerous works on the positivist philosophy, while at the same time continu ing his edition of Hippocrates, which was not completed till 1862, publishing a similar edition of Pliny s Natural History, assisting after 1844 in the place of Fauriel at the committee engaged on the Histoire litteraire de la France, where his knowledge of the early French language and literature was invaluable, and contributing largely to the National and Revue des Deux Mondes. In the revolution XIV. 89