Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/261

 Ch. 15. law, and not by his own act or agreement) than under the preent, by purchae. But it mut be remembered that in order to complete this title by echeat, it is neceary that the lord perform an act of his own, by entering on the lands and tenements o echeated, or uing out a writ of echeat : on failure of which, or by doing any act that amounts to an implied waiver of his right, as by accepting homage or rent of a tranger who uurps the poeion, his title by echeat is barred . It is therefore in ome repect a title acquired by his own act, as well as by act of law. Indeed this may alo be aid of decents themelves, in which an entry or other eiin is required, in order to make a complete title; and therefore this ditribution by our legal writers eems in this repect rather inaccurate: for, as echeats mut follow the nature of the igniory to which they belong, they may vet by either purchae or decent, according as the igniory is veted. And, though ir Edward Coke coniders the lord by echeat as in ome repects the aignee of the lat tenant, and therefore taking by purchae; yet, on the other hand, the lord is more frequently conidered as being ultimus haeres, and therefore taking by decent in a kind of caducary ucceion.

law of echeats is founded upon this ingle principle, that the blood of the peron lat eied in fee-imple is, by ome means or other, utterly extinct and gone: and, ince none can inherit his etate but uch as are of his blood and conanguinity, it follows as a regular conequence, that when uch blood is extinct, the inheritance itelf mut fail; the land mut become what the feodal writers denominate feudum apertum; and mut reult back again to the lord of the fee, by whom, or by thoe whoe etate he hath, it was given.

are frequently divided into thoe propter defectum anguinis and thoe propter delictum tenentis: the one ort, if the tenant dies without heirs; the other, if his blood be attainted. Rh