cestui que vie, the motion being supported by an affidavit stating the deponent's belief that the cestui que vie was dead; the Lord Chancellor made an order, that the tenant should produce the cestui que vie before A. B. and C. D., at the porch of the parish church of Stoke Damarel, (where the estate lay,) on Saturday the 15th of June, a fortnight after making the order, between the hours of ten and twelve in the forenoon; which was said to be the usual manner of making orders under the act of parliament. And a similar order was more recently made by Lord Lyndhurst, C. (p).

And in a later case (g) a similar order was obtained, and served upon the lessee, who, however, neglected to produce the cestui que vie, as appeared by affidavit, and by the return made by the two persons to whom the cestui que vie was ordered to be produced; whereupon another order was obtained, commanding him to produce the cestui que vie at the bar of the court, at the sitting of the court, at ten o'clock in the morning of the 1st of May, 1841. The lessee having disobeyed this as well as the former order, the registrar doubted whether the act did not require that some return to the last order should be made into the Petty Bag office, before an order entitling the reversioner to enter on the demised premises could be drawn up; but the Vice-Chancellor only considered it necessary that the registrar should insert a minute in the book of the proceedings of the court, that, at the sitting of the court at ten o'clock in the morning, no person represented to be the cestui que vie was produced or appeared.

The court has no power to order a remainder-man expectant upon the determination of an estate pur autre vie to pay to the tenant pur autre vie the expenses of producing the cestui que vie under the act of Queen Anne (r).

Notwithstanding the fifth section of the statute of Anne, Lord Chancellor Parker held, that a party continuing to hold under an expired lease pur autre vie was not liable either at

(p) Ex parte Whalley, 4 Russ. 561.

(2) Re Lingen, 12 Sim. 104.

(") In the matter of Isaac, 4 My 1. &Cr. 11.

law or in equity to account for mesne profits, it being the lessor's own negligence not to enter. But he determined that, in a case of fraud, or where an infant might be concerned, or the lessor mistaken as to his right of entry in consequence of the lessee's having two daughters of the same name by different wives, and one of these daughters being cestui que vie, and dying, the other being still alive, the person in possession would be decreed to account for the mesne profits from the time of the expiration of the lease (s).

(8) Duke of Bolton v. Deane, Prec. Ch. 516.

RENEWABLE leases are not of such common occurrence

in this country as in Ireland, where great part, oneseventh it is said (a), of the lands are held under leases for lives with covenants for perpetual renewal on payment of certain fines (b). In the West of England (c), however, and in some districts of the North also (d), leases are usually granted with covenants for renewal.

It has long been customary for the crown, ecclesiastical corporations, and collegiate bodies (e), and it is often usual with private individuals, on the determination of a lease, or the surrender of the existing portion of it, to grant a new term to the lessee in possession; from which practice an erroneous notion has sprung (f), that such lessee has a prescriptive right to continue in the tenancy in preference to

(a) Lloyd & Goo. 401, temp. Plunk. (b) Irish Tenantry Act, 19 & 20 Geo. 3. c. 30, Preamble. Boyle v. Lysaght, 1 Ridgew. P.C. 384. 402; S. C. 1 Vern. & Scriv. 135. Sir Samuel Romilly, in Iggulden v. May, 9 Ves. 331, said that the greatest part was so held. In a note to O'Neil v. Jones, 1 Ridgew. P. C. 179, the 7th part is said to have been so held; and see 1 Scho. & Lef. 447.

(c) Daniels v. Davison, 16 Ves, 254. Pickering v. Vowles, 1 Bro. C. C. 198. Brown v. Tighe, 8 Bli. P. C. N. S. 272.

S. C. 2 Cla. & Fin. 396.

(d) 14 Ves. 332. Brown v. Tighe, sup. Doe dem. Bromley v. Bettison, 12 East, 305.

(e) As to leases, generally, by corporations ecclesiastical, eleemosynary, and municipal, and the restraints imposed on their powers of granting re newals, see p. 238. 251; and p. 312, et seq.

(f) Watson v. The Master &c. of Hemsworth Hospital, 14 Ves. 339. And see 1 Bro. C. C. 198. 12 Ves. 86.

any other person (g). Serious hardship would, indeed, be occasioned, if a landlord, by repeated renewals to the same individual, his descendants, or representatives, granted, perhaps, in consideration of family connexion, punctuality in payment of rent, or superior agricultural qualifications, were to create an ownership against himself, and in favor of others who might be destitute of any of these claims upon his indulgence. Accordingly, we find that, independently of local custom (h), the demand is not enforceable at law, nor have applications to equity for the purpose been attended with greater success (i). The technical expression, tenant right of renewal, is therefore extremely inaccurate (j). This right (as it is termed) confers no positive interest, either vested or contingent it is a naked possibility, depending solely on the caprice of the lessor; and Lord Eldon said (k) that he had known family settlements that had gone on for 150 years put an end to by the lessor's refusal to renew; though in a later case (1) a presumption was held to have arisen, under peculiar circumstances, on an uninterrupted possession of nearly 150 years. In the case alluded to, successive leases for twenty-one years of the tithes of corn, grain, and hay, in the parish of S., at a rent and fine certain, had been granted by the impropriate rectors for the time being, to the vicars for the time being of S., from the year 1682 to the year 1805, when the last lease for the same term of twenty

(g) According to Anon. 2 Ch. Ca. 207-8; A. D. 1675, by the French law, no churchman could make a lease to any but the old tenant, unless it were first refused by him.

(h) See Watson v. The Master &c. of Hemsworth Hospital, 14 Ves. 324. 332.339.

() Lee v. Vernon, 7 Bro. P. C. 432; Toml. Ed. Vol. 5, p. 10. And see Darrell v. Whitchot, 2 Rep. in Ch. 59. 60. Ed. 1715, where it is said, that there is no tenant right against the King; and Norris v. Le Neve, 3 Atk. 27. 38.

(1) Pickering v. Vowles, 1 Bro. C.

C. 198.

(k) White v. White, 9 Ves. 557. And see the evidence of Vincent Stuckey, Esq. before the Select Committee on Church leases, 7th of June, 1838, p. 33. No. 443; and Bell dem. Smyth v. Nangle, 1 Jebb & Sy. 199; S. C., nom. Smyth v. Nangle, 7 Cla. & Fin. 405; 1 West's Appeal Cases, 184; S. C. Bell dem. Smyth v. Nangle, 2 Jebb & Sy. 629. Nangle v. Smith, 1 Irish Eq. Rep. 119.

(1) The Attorney-General . The Bishop of Ely, 4 Russ. 102.

one years was made; and the court presumed that what had been enjoyed so long by one party, and conceded by the other, was founded on a rightful title, and could not have depended on the mere caprice or pleasure of the rector for the time being; and that, as the lease had been originally granted by way of augmentation of the vicarage under the letter of Charles the 2nd (m), and as such augmentation was confirmed and made perpetual by the act of 29 Car. 2. c. 8. s. 2, the vicar was entitled to a renewal of the lease.

So valuable, however, is the prospect of renewal considered, being available, as it is, for most purposes of sale, mortgage, devise, and family settlement, that it enhances the price of the lease on a sale, the purchaser speculating on the improbability of his being removed so long as he pays the fines and rent demanded, and otherwise performs the duties of a tenant (n). And lately, on the petition of trustees of a renewable leasehold held under the Bishop of Winchester, this tenant-right or interest was so far recognised by the court of Chancery, that an order was made that they should be at liberty to take steps for obtaining a clause for compensation for it inserted in an act pending in parliament for making a new street, which would require part of their property (0).

Strictly speaking, a right of renewal must be the result of express compact; and to secure it is the object of the covenant for renewal occasionally contained in leases. This will be examined in the next section.

(m) This letter (dated, 1 June, 12 Car. 2.) to the bishops contained the following clause :-"That no lease be granted of any rectories or parsonages belonging to your see, belonging to you or your successors, until you shall provide that the respective vicarages or curates' places where are no vicarages endowed, have so much revenue in glebe, tithes, or other emoluments, as commonly will amount to 100%. or 801. per annum, or more if it will bear it; and in good form of law settle it upon

them and their successors. And where the rectories are of small value, and cannot admit of such proportions to the vicar and curate, our will is, that one half of the profit of such a rectory be reserved for the maintenance of the vicar or curate, as is agreeable to the rates and proportions formerly mentioned." Gibs. Codex, 756; & 2 ed.

p. 721.

(n) Lee v. Vernon, sup.

(0) Jones v. Powell, 4 Beav. 96.