Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/115

 Ch. 7.

HE next objects of our diquiitions are the nature and properties of etates. An etate in lands, tenements, and hereditaments, ignifies uch interet as the tenant hath therein: o that if a man grants all his etate in Dale to A and his heirs, every thing that he can poibly grant hall pas thereby. It is called in Latin, tatus; it ignifying the condition, or circumtance, in which the owner tands, with regard to his property. And, to acertain this with proper preciion and accuracy, etates may be conidered in a threefold view: firt, with regard to the quantity of interet which the tenant has in the tenement: econdly, with regard to the time at which that quantity of interet is to be enjoyed: and, thirdly, with regard to the number and connexions of the tenants.

, with regard to the quantity of interet which the tenant has in the tenement, this is meaured by it's duration and extent. Thus, either his right of poeion is to ubit for an uncertain period, during his own life, or the life of another man; to determine at his own deceae, or to remain to his decendants after him: or it is circumcribed within a certain number of years, months, or days: or, latly, it is infinite and unlimited, being veted in him and his repreentatives for ever. And this Rh