341 the direction of whom all acts or things on the part of any lessees, their executors, administrators, or assigns, to be observed, done, or performed, before or with the consent or under the direction of any officer of the duchy, may be observed, done, or performed, instead of before or with the consent or under the direction of the officer named or described in such leases; and declared, that in every case in which in any lease theretofore granted and then subsisting of any part of the lands or possessions of the duchy there are contained any covenants, agreements, or conditions, as to any acts or things on the part of the respective lessees, their executors, administrators, or assigns, to be observed, done, or performed, before or with the consent or under the direction of any officer of the duchy therein named or described, all and every such acts and things shall and may be lawfully and effectually observed, done, or performed, before, with the consent, or under the direction, of any such other officer of the duchy, or other person for the time being so appointed or authorised in that behalf; and that every lessee and other person who, under any covenant, agreement, or condition, in any such lease contained, then was or thereafter should be bound or liable to observe, do, or perform, any such act or thing, before or with the consent or under the direction of such other officer of the duchy in the said lease named or described, should at all times thereafter be bound and liable to observe, do, or perform, every such act or thing before or with the consent or under the direction of such other officer of the duchy, or other person for the time being so appointed or authorised in that behalf; and that in case of any such lessee or other person refusing, omitting, or neglecting, to observe, do, or perform, any such act or thing before or with the consent or under the direction of such officer of the duchy, or other person for the time being to be so appointed. or authorised, then his royal highness, his heirs and successors, are to have the same rights of entry, action, and suit, and other rights and remedies, against the lessee or other person so refusing, omitting, or neglecting, and upon the demised premises, as his royal highness, his heirs or successors, would or might have had if such lessee or other person had refused, neglected, or omitted, to observe, do, or perform, the same act or thing before the officer of the duchy in the lease named or described in that behalf; and every such appointment may be made either for any one case, or for any class of cases, or for all cases generally. Another section (g) enables her Majesty, or any persons acting under her authority, during the minority of his royal highness, to exercise, in his name and on his behalf, all the rights and powers given to or which might be exercised by his royal highness by virtue of the act; and declares, that all acts, matters, and things, which shall be done during such minority, by virtue of the act, in the name and on the behalf of his royal highness, by her Majesty, or any persons acting under her authority, in pursuance of the powers to them in that behalf committed by her Majesty, shall be as effectual in law as if the same had been done by his royal highness in his own person, and at his full and perfect age. It is further provided (h), that, where by the act any contracts, assurances, matters, or things, are directed to be entered into, made, or done, by the council of his royal highness, (except in cases which are therein otherwise specially provided for,) it shall be lawful and sufficient for such contracts, assurances, matters, and things, to be entered into, made, or done, by any three or more of the members of the council for the time being; and that all contracts and assurances purporting to be signed by any three or more members of the council shall be received in evidence without any further proof thereof. And further (i), that no license, grant, or lease, to search for or work or get mines, minerals, stone, or substrata, belonging to the duchy, for a period not exceeding one year from the date of such license, grant, or lease, shall be subject to any stamp duty whatsoever. (g) Sect. 41. (h) Sect. 42. (i) Sect. 43. IX.-Master of the Rolls. The Master of the Rolls for the time being and his successors, masters of the rolls, were empowered by an act passed in the reign of King Charles the 2nd (k) to make leases for one-and-forty years, or for any lesser term, of the rolls estate, or any part thereof, (the chapel of the rolls, with a convenient mansion-house, court-yard, garden, stable, coach-house, and other outhouses, and buildings, fit for the use and habitation of the master of the rolls, only excepted): and the act (among other clauses) contained a provision that the master of the rolls for the time being, or any succeeding master of the rolls, after the premises had been once letten according to the power, should not grant or make any new or concurrent lease until within seven years of the expiration of the lease then in being; nor for any less rent than was reserved upon the former lease; nor for any longer term than for the term of one-and-twenty years from the making of such lease (7). This statute was afterwards repealed by an act of the reign of George the 3rd (m), which, among other provisions relative to the leasing of the rolls estates, enacted (n) that it should be lawful for the master of the rolls for the time being to make any lease of the rolls estates, (the chapel of the rolls, and the mansion-house, court-yard, gardens, stables, coachhouses, and other outhouses, and buildings, then used for the habitation and accommodation of the master of the rolls, only excepted,) for any term or number of years not exceeding twenty-one years in possession, from the making thereof, or from the quarter-day next preceding the date and making of such lease, at the best and most improved rent, without taking foregift or gratuity; such rent to be thereby reserved and made payable to the master of the rolls making such (k) 12 Car. 2. c. 36; Confirmed by 13 Car. 2. stat. 1. c. 14. (1) See, as to the construction of this act, Wilson v. Sewell, 4 Burr. 1795; S. C. 1 W. Blac. 617. (m) 17 Geo. 3. c. 59. s. 2. leases respectively, and his successors, during the term or terms not exceeding the said term of twenty-one years; and the lessees in such leases respectively executing counterparts thereof, and thereby covenanting to pay such rents accordingly, and thereby also covenanting to keep the premises thereby demised in good and tenantable repair during the term, and to leave the same in such good and tenantable repair, at the end or other sooner determination of the term. And the 11th section provided, that no lease of the said premises thereafter to be made by any master of the rolls, otherwise than according to the power thereby given, should be binding on his successors. A later act (0) empowered the master of the rolls, with the consent and approbation of any three of the lords commissioners of his Majesty's treasury for the time being, testified by their being parties to such lease, to grant to the society of judges and serjeants at law, at a peppercorn rent, a lease, for a term not exceeding ninety-nine years, of such part of the rolls estate as might be necessary for the erection of commodious chambers for the use of the judges for judicial purposes, together with convenient avenues and approaches to the same from Serjeants'-inn; such lease nevertheless to contain such covenants, provisoes, and restrictions, as three of the said lords commissioners of his Majesty's treasury for the time being should order and direct. In pursuance of which, a lease has been granted of part of the garden belonging to the mansion-house to the society of judges and serjeants at law for a term of ninety-nine years, at a peppercorn rent, and chambers for the judges have been built thereon. More recently (p), however, the act of 17 Geo. 3, c. 59, has been repealed, though without reviving the statute of Charles, or disturbing existing leases; and the rolls estate is now vested in the Queen, as part of the possessions and land revenues of the crown, and is placed within the ordering and survey of (0) 6 & 7 W. 4. c. 49. (p) 1 Vict. c. 46. the court of Exchequer in England, and is subject to the provisions, powers, and authorities, contained in the acts of 10 Geo. 4. c. 50, and 2 W. 4. c. 1, and to all such other provisions, powers, and authorities, in every respect, as the other possessions and land revenues of the crown within the ordering and survey of the said court of Exchequer are subject to. For further information on this subject the reader is referred to the section on Crown Leases (q). x.-Trustees in general. A trustee of lands, being owner of the legal interest, may grant leases at law which cannot be impeached so long as they are justified by the quantity of his estate (r). But a party taking a lease from a trustee with notice of the trust, and without the concurrence of the cestui que trust, is subject to the control of equity. No specific term has been named which the court will deem applicable indiscriminately to all cases. It appears that the trustee may do what is reasonable (s), a term which renders a reference to the circumstances of each particular case indispensable; for what may be reasonable in one case may be very unreasonable in another. In one case (t), where a testator devised his real estates to trustees, upon trust, out of the yearly rents and profits, to pay certain annuities, and, subject thereto, to permit W. H. N. to receive the rents and profits for life, and after his decease to permit his wife to receive them for her life, with limitations over in favor of their children, it was held that the trustees had power to demise for a term of ten years. But with reference to a devise to A. in fee, in trust for his infant son, to be conveyed to him at the age of twenty-one, and without imposing terms (q) Ante, p. 186. (r) As to leases by cestui que trust, see ante, p. 123; by trustees of charities, post, p. 347. (s) The Attorney-General v. Owen, 10 Ves. 555. 560. (t) Naylor v. Arnitt, 1 Russ. & Myl. 501. |