constitutes the whole fabric of 16th-century music; except where polyphonic device is dispensed with altogether, as in Palestrina's two settings of the Stabat Mater, his Litanies, and all of his later Lamentations except the initials. A 16th-century mass, when it is not derived in this way from those secular melodies to which the council of Trent objected, is so closely connected with Gregorian tones, or at least with the themes of some motet appropriate to the holy day for which it was written, that in a Roman Catholic cathedral service the polyphonic music of the best period co-operates with the Gregorian intonations to produce a consistent musical whole with a thematic coherence almost suggestive of Wagnerian Leitmotif. In later times the Protestant music of Germany attained a similar consistency, under more complicated musical conditions, by the use of chorale-tunes; and in Bach's hands the fugal and other treatment of chorale-melody is one of the most varied and expressive of artistic resources. It seems to be less generally known that the chorale plays a considerable though not systematic part in Handel's English works. The passage "the kingdoms of the world" in the "Hallelujah Chorus (down to "and He shall live for ever and ever") is a magnificent development of the second part of the chorale Wachet auf (“Christians wake, a voice is calling "); and it would be easy to trace a German or Roman origin for many of the solemn phrases in long notes which in Handel's choruses so often accompany quicker themes. From the use of an old canto fermo to the invention of an original one is obviously a small step; and as there is no limit to the possibilities of varying the canto fermo, both in the part which most emphatically propounds it and in the imitating or contrasted parts, so there is no line of demarcation between the free development of counterpoint on a canto fermo and the general art of combining melodies which gives harmony its deepest expression and musical texture its liveliest action. Nor is there any such line to separate polyphonic from non-polyphonic methods of accompanying melody; and Bach's Orgelbüchlein and Brahms's posthumous organ-chorales show every conceivable gradation between plain harmony or arpeggio and the most complex canon. In Wagnerian polyphony canonic devices are rare except in such simple moments of anticipation or of communion with nature as we have before the rise of the curtain in the Rheingold and at the daybreak in the second act of the Götterdämmerung. On the other hand, the art of combining contrasted themes crowds almost every other kind of musical texture (except tremolos and similar simple means of emotional expression) into the background, and is itself so transformed by new harmonic resources, many of which are Wagner's own discovery, that it may almost be said to constitute a new form of art. The influence of this upon instrumental music is as yet helpful only in those new forms which are breaking away from the limits of the sonata style; and it is impossible at present to sift the essential from the unessential in that marvellous compound of canonic device, Wagnerian harmony, original technique and total disregard of every known principle of musical grammar, which renders the work of Richard Strauss the most remarkable musical phenomenon of recent years. All that is certain is that the two elements in which the music of the future will finally place its main organizing principles are not those of instrumentation and external expression, on which popular interest and controversy are at present centred, but rhythmic flow and counterpoint. These have always been the elements which suffered from neglect or anarchy in earlier transition-periods, and they have always been the elements that gave rationality to the new art to which the transitions led.' (D. F. T.) CONTREXÉVILLE, a watering-place of north-eastern France, in the department of Vosges, on the Vair, 39 m. W. of Epinal by rail. Pop. (1906) 940. The mineral springs of Contrexéville have been in local repute since a remote period, but became generally known only towards the end of the 18th century; and the modern reputation of the place as a health resort dates from 1864, when it began to be developed by a company, the Société des Eaux de Contrexéville, and more particularly from about 1895. In the ten years after this latter date many improvements | | were made for the accommodation of visitors, for whom the season is from May to September. The waters of the Source Pavillon, which are used chiefly for drinking, have a temperature of 53° F. and are characterized chiefly by the presence of calcium sulphate. They are particularly efficacious in the treatment of gravel and kindred disorders, by the elimination of uric acid. See Thirty-five years at Contrexéville (1903), by Dr Debout d'Estrées. CONTROL (Fr. contrôle, older form contre rolle, from Med. Lat. contra-rotulus, a counter roll or copy of a document used to check the original; there is no instance in English of the use of "control" in this, its literal, meaning), a substantive (whence the verb) for that which checks or regulates anything, and so especially command of body or mind by the will, and generally the power of regulation. In England the "Board of Control," abolished in 1858, was the body which supervised the East India Company in the administration of India. In the case of "controller," a general term for a public official who checks expenditure, the more usual form comptroller" is a wrong spelling due to a false connexion with "accompt or account." A "control" or "control-experiment," in science, is an experiment used, by an application of the method of difference, to check the inferences drawn from another experiment. CONTUMACY (Lat. contumacia, obstinacy; derived from the root tem-, as in temnere, to despise, or possibly from the root tum-, as in tumere, to swell, with anger, &c.), a stubborn refusal to obey authority, obstinate resistance; particularly, in law, the wilful contempt of the order or summons of a court (see CONTEMPT OF COURT). In ecclesiastical law, the contempt of the authority of an ecclesiastical court is dealt with by the issue of a writ de contumace capiendo from the court of chancery at the instance of the judge of the ecclesiastical court; this writ took the place of that de excommunicato capiendo in 1813, by an act of George III. c. 127 (see ExCOMMUNICATION). CONUNDRUM (a word of unknown origin, probably coined in burlesque imitation of scholastic Latin, as "hocus-pocus" or "panjandrum "), originally a term meaning whim, fancy or ridiculous idea; later applied to a pun or play upon words, and thus, in its usual sense, to a particular form of riddle in which the answer depends on a pun. In a transferred sense the word is also used of any puzzling question or difficulty. CONVENT (Lat. conventus, from convenire, to come together), a term applied to an association of persons secluded from the world and devoted to a religious life, and hence to the building in which they live, a monastery or (more particularly) nunnery. The diminution "conventicle" (conventiculum), generally used in a contemptuous sense as implying sectarianism, secrecy or illegality, is applied to the meetings or meeting-places of religious or other dissenting bodies. CONVENTION (Lat. conventio, an assembly or agreement, from convenire, to come together), a meeting or assembly; an agreement between parties; a general agreement on which is based some custom, institution, rule of behaviour or taste, or canon of art; hence extended to the abuse of such an agreement, whereby the rules based upon it become lifeless and artificial. The word is of some interest historically and politically. It is used of an assembly of the representatives of a nation, state or party, and is particularly contrasted with the formal meetings of a legislature. It is thus applied to those parliaments in English history which, owing to the abeyance of the crown, have assembled without the formal summons of the sovereign; in 1660 a convention parliament restored Charles II. to the throne, and in 1689 the Houses of Commons and Lords were summoned informally to a convention by William, prince of Orange, as were the Estates of Scotland, and declared the throne abdicated by James II. and settled the disposition of the realm. Similarly, the assembly which ruled France from September 1792 to October 1795 was known as the National Convention (see below); the statutory assembly of delegates which framed the constitution of the United States of America in 1787 was called the Constitutional Convention; and the various American state constitutions have been drafted and sometimes revised by constitutional the Terror the number of those voting averaged only 250. The members of the Convention were drawn from all classes of society, but the most numerous were lawyers. Seventy-five members had sat in the Constituent Assembly, 183 in the Legislative. According to its own ruling, the Convention elected its president every fortnight. He was eligible for re-election after the lapse of a fortnight. Ordinarily the sessions were held in the morning, but evening sessions were also frequent, often extending late into the night. Sometimes in exceptional circumstances the Convention declared itself in permanent session and sat for several days without interruption. For both legislative and conventions. In the party system of the United States the nomination of party candidates for office or election is in the hands of delegates, chosen by the primaries, meeting in the convention of the party; the convention system is universal, from the national conventions of the Republican and Democratic parties, which nominate the candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency, down to a ward convention, which nominates the candidate for a town-councillorship. In diplomacy, "convention" is a general name given to international agreements other than treaties, but not necessarily differing either in form or subject-matter from a treaty, and sometimes used quite widely of all forms of such agreements. Many conventions have been made for the formation of international | administrative purposes the Convention used committees, with "unions" to regulate and protect various economic, industrial and other non-political interests, such as postal and telegraphic services, trade-marks, patents, copyright, quarantine, &c. Thus the Latin Monetary Union was created in 1865 by the Convention of Paris, and the abolition of bounties on the production and exportation of sugar by the Convention of Brussels in 1902 (see TREATIES). CONVENTION, THE NATIONAL, in France, the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from the 20th of September 1792 to the 26th of October 1795 (the 4th of Brumaire of the year IV.). On the 10th of August 1792, when the populace of Paris stormed the Tuileries and demanded the abolition of the monarchy, the Legislative Assembly decreed the provisional suspension of the king and the convocation of a national convention which should draw up a constitution. At the same time it was decided that the deputies to that convention should be elected by all Frenchmen 25 years old, domiciled for a year and living by the product of their labour. The National Convention was therefore the first French assembly elected by universal suffrage, without distinctions of class. The age limit of the electors was further lowered to 21, and that of eligibility was fixed at 25 years. powers more or less widely extended and regulated by successive laws. The most famous of these committees are those of Public Safety, of General Security, of Education (Comité de salut public, Comité de sûreté générale, Comité de l'instruction). The work of the Convention was immense in all branches of public affairs. To appreciate it without prejudice, one should recall that this assembly saved France from a civil war and invasion, that it founded the system of public education (Muséum, École Polytechnique, École Normale Supérieure, École des Langues orientales, Conservatoire), created institutions of capital importance, like that of the Grand Livre de la Dette publique, and definitely established the social and political gains of the Revolution. See FRENCH REVOLUTION; GIRONDISTS; MOUNTAIN; DANTON; ROBESPIERRE; MARAT, &c. BIBLIOGRAPHY.-The Convention published a Procès-verbal of its sessions, which, although lacking the value of those published by Copies of it are rare, however, and it has been too much neglected assemblies to-day, is an official document of capital importance. by historians. See F. A. Aulard, Recueil des actes du comité de Salut Public avec la correspondance officielle des représentants en mission, et le registre du conseil exécutif provisoire (Paris, 1889 et seq.); M. J. Guillaume, Procès-verbaux du comité d'Instruction Publique de la Convention Nationale (Paris, 1891-1904, 5 vols. 4to); F. A. Aulard, Histoire politique de la Révolution française (Paris, 1903); Mortimer-Ternaux, Histoire de la Terreur (1862-1881), a work based on and comprising documents, but written with strong royalist bias; Eugène Despois, Le Vandalisme révolutionnaire (1868), for the scientific work of the Convention. A detailed bibliography of the documents relating to the Convention is given in the Répertoire général des sources manuscrites de l'histoire de Paris pendant la Révolution française, vol. viii. &c. (1908), edited by A. Tueléy under the auspices of the municipality of Paris. For a more summary bibliography see M. Tourneux, Bibliog. de l'histoire de Paris pendant la Révolution française, i. 89-95 (Paris, 1890). (R. A.) CONVERSANO, a town and episcopal see of Apulia, Italy, Pop. (1901) 13,685. It has a fine southern Romanesque cathedral in the province of Bari, 17 m. S.E. by rail from the town of Bari. of the end of the 11th century, with a modernized interior, and a castle which from 1456 belonged to the Acquaviva family, dukes of Atri and counts of Conversano. The convent of S. Benedetto is one of the earliest offshoots of Montecassino. (See S. Simone, Il Duomo di Conversano, Trani, 1896). Here, or in the vicinity, is the site of the unimportant ancient town of Norba. The first session was held on the 20th of September 1792. The next day royalty was abolished, and on the 22nd it was decided that all documents should be henceforth dated from the year I. of the French Republic. The Convention was destined to last for three years. The country was at war, and it seemed best to postpone the new constitution until peace should be concluded. At the same time as the Convention prolonged its powers it extended them considerably in order to meet the pressing dangers which menaced the Republic. Though a legislative assembly, it took over the executive power, entrusting it to its own members. This "confusion of powers," which was contrary to the philosophical theories those of Montesquieu theories-those especially-which had inspired the Revolution at first, was one of the essential characteristics of the Convention.' The series of exceptional measures by which that confusion of powers was created constitutes the "Revolutionary government" in the strict sense of the word, a government which was principally in vigour during the period called "the Terror." It is thus necessary to distinguish, in the work of the Convention, the temporary expedients from measures intended to be permanent. The Convention held its first session in a hall of the Tuileries, then it sat in the hall of Manège, and finally from the 10th of May 1793 in that of the Spectacles (or Machines), an immense hall in which the deputies were but loosely scattered. This last hall had tribunes for the public, which often influenced the mediate inference by which a conclusion is obtained directly 1. In logic, conversion is one of three chief methods of imdebate by interruptions or applause. The full number of deputies from a single premise without the intervention of another was 749, not counting 33 from the colonies, of whom only a section arrived in Paris. Besides these, however, the depart-when the subject and the predicate change places; the original premise or middle term. A proposition is said to be "converted" ments annexed from 1792 to 1795 were allowed to send deputa- proposition is the "convertend," the new one the "converse." tions. Many of the original deputies died or were exiled during The chief rule governing conversion is that no term which was not the Convention, but not all their places were filled by suppléants. distributed in the convertend may be distributed in the conSome of those proscribed during the Terror returned after the verse; nor may the quality of the proposition (affirmative or 9th of Thermidor. Finally, many members were sent away either to the departments or to the armies, on missions which negative) be changed. It follows that of the four possible forms lasted sometimes for a considerable length of time. For all 1 A term is said to be "distributed" when it is taken universally: in the proposition men are mortal" (meaning all men ") the these reasons it is difficult to find out the number of deputies term men is distributed " while mortal is undistributed, present at any given date, for votes by roll-call were rare. because there are mortal beings which are not men. In CONVERSION (Lat. conversio, from convertere, to turn or change), a general term for the operation of converting, changing, or transposing; used technically in special senses in logic, theology and law. of propositions A, E, I and O (see article A), E and I can be converted simply. If no A is B (E), it follows that no B is A; if some A is B, it follows that some B is A. This form of conversion is called Simple Conversion; E propositions convert into E, and I into I. On the other hand, A cannot be converted simply. If all men are mortal, the most that can follow by conversion is that some mortals are men. This is called Conversion by Limitation or Per Accidens. Only if it be known from external or non-logical sources that the predicate also is distributed can there be simple conversion of a universal affirmative. Neither of these forms of conversion can be applied to the particular negative proposition O, which has to be dealt with under a secondary system of conversion, as follows. The terminology by which these secondary processes are described is not altogether satisfactory, and logicians are not agreed as to the application of the terms. The following system is perhaps the most commonly used. We have seen that the converse of "all A is B" is "some B is A"; we can, in addition, derive from it another, though purely formal, proposition "no A is not-B"; | i.e. an E proposition. This process is called Obversion, Permutation or Immediate Inference by Privative Conception; it is applicable to every proposition including O. A further process, known as Contraposition or Conversion by Negation, consists of conversion following on obversion. Thus from "all A is B," we get "no not-B is A." In the case of the O proposition we get (by obversion) "some A is not-B" and then (by conversion) some not-B is A" (i.e. an I proposition). In the case of the I proposition the contrapositive is impossible, as infringing the main rule of conversion. Another term, Inversion, has been used by some logicians for a still more complicated process by the alternative use of conversion and obversion, which is applicable to A and E, and results in obtaining a proposition concerning the contradictory of the original subject; thus "all A is B" becomes " some not-A is not B." Considerable discussion has centred on the problem as to whether the process of conversion can properly be regarded as inference. The essence of inference is that the conclusion should embody knowledge which is not in the premise or premises, and many logicians have contended that no fact is stated in the converse which was not in the convertend, or, in other words, that conversion is merely a transformation or verbal change of the same statement. Hence the term Eductions and Equivalent Propositional Forms have been given to converse propositions. It is clear, for instance, that if the universal affirmative is taken connotatively as a scientific law, and not historically, no real inference is achieved by stating as another scientific fact its converse, the particular affirmative. Moreover, even if the convertend is stated as an historic fact, though there is acquired a certain new significance, it may well be argued that the inference is not immediate but syllogistic. For this controversy see J. S. Mill, Logic, II. i. 2; Bradley, Logic, III. pt. i. chap. ii. 30-37: H. W. B. Joseph, Introduction to Logic (1906), pp. 209 foll.; J. N. Keynes, Formal Logic (3rd ed., 1894). 2. In theology, conversion (the equivalent of the Gr. σrpéda, жστρépeɩv) is originally the acceptation of Christianity by heathens. It is also used generally for a change from one religion to another, or in a narrower sense for a complete change of attitude towards God, involving a deeper conviction of the ultimate religious and moral truths. Considerable difference of opinion has always existed, and still exists, within the Christian Church as to the true nature and the causes of conversion, especially in the sense last described. Some have held that man is merely the passive recipient of the Divine Grace, a view based largely on the rendering of the Authorized Version of Isaiah vi. 10 as quoted in Matt. xiii. 15, Mark iv. 12, and John xii. 40. Others again hold that baptism, as involving a second birth of the baptized person, makes subsequent conversion unnecessary or even meaningless, or conversely that conversion is this very second birth and renders baptism unnecessary. The reply generally made to such arguments is that baptism implies regeneration only, which is a change wrought from the outside by the Divine Spirit in general disposition or spiritual status, | while conversion is a positive or concrete demonstration of that change, not merely the negative beginning of a new life but the positive "returning" to God in faith and repentance. The precise connexion between conversion and repentance is again a vexed question. How far and in what sense does man take an active part in his own conversion? To this it is frequently answered that while the initial stage of conversion is and can be the work of the Holy Spirit alone, it lies with man to make it complete by accepting the proffered grace in repentance and faith (cf. Acts vii. 51, "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost"). A man may of his own free will avoid those surroundings which predispose him to such "resistance." The view that man cannot convert himself is clearly stated in Article X. by the Church of England. "The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn (sese convertere) and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works, to faith, and calling upon God: wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will." Further problems are connected with the possibility of repeated conversions of the same man, the necessity of a single strongly marked conversion completed in a single process, the significance of sudden conversion of persons in a highly emotional state, such as has been common in revivalist meetings, especially in Wales and the United States of America. Conversions of the last kind have followed frequently on striking physical phenomena, perceived in many cases only by the convert himself, such as a sudden bright light or a noise like a clap of thunder.1 In all cases of conversion, however, the criterion of its validity is generally taken to be the resultant change of a man's character as manifested in his mode of life and thought, in the abstention from sin, and in devotion to good works. (X.) 3. In English law, conversion is the unauthorized exercise of dominion by one person over the property (other than money or chattels real) of another, in a manner inconsistent with his rights of possession, or the unauthorized assumption by another of the powers of the true owner of goods. The history and exact definition of this form of actionable wrong have occupied the attention of many learned writers, and the incidents of actions to assert the rights of the true owner form a considerable part of treatises on the rules and forms of civil pleading. There are many ways in which the wrong may be committed. In some cases the exercise of the dominion may amount to an act of trespass or to a crime, e.g. where the taking amounts to larceny, or fraudulent appropriation by a bailee or agent entrusted with the property of another (Larceny Acts of 1861 and 1901). But in such cases, except where money is taken, the civil remedy of the owner is by action for conversion or detention of the property, subject in the case of larceny to the rule that criminal prosecution should precede restitution by the taker. The remedy in use in these cases used to be by what was called an action on the case for trover and conversion, the plaintiff putting aside all suggestions of trespass and of crime, and resting his case on the fiction that the defendant had found and used goods not his own. The fictitious averment of loss was abolished in 1852, and under the present procedure, in which the old forms of action are not in use, the remedy is by a claim (still usually called conversion) for wrongfully depriving the true owner of personal property of its use by some specified act inconsistent with his dominion over it, usually by dealing with the property in a manner inconsistent with the owner's rights. Originally, the action of trover and conversion was limited to goods and chattels, but it is now accepted as applying to valuable securities, such as cheques and bills of exchange. The gist of the action is in the unauthorized dealing, for however short a time and for however limited a purpose, with the personal property of another. Even refusal to deliver up to the owner is sufficient to prove conversion, though it is often 1 Numerous instances, drawn from other religions besides Christianity, are given in Professor William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). made the ground of an action for detinue, if the plaintiff desires | transferee was publicly invested with the feudal possession or to have the property returned in specie. The knowledge, motive seisin, usually through the medium of some symbolic act peror good faith of the person wrongfully dealing with the property formed in the presence of witnesses upon the land itself. A deed of another is for civil purposes immaterial, and the action is or charter of feoffment was commonly executed at the same often brought to try the title of two claimants to the same goods; time by way of record, but formed no essential part of the e.g. where a person who has innocently bought or taken in pledge conveyance. In the language of the old rule of the common law, goods stolen or illegally procured resists the claim of the original the immediate freehold in corporeal hereditaments lay in livery, owner for the return of the goods. A warehouseman may whereas reversions and remainders and all incorporeal hereditarender himself liable to the owner of goods deposited with him, ments lay in grant, i.e. passed by the delivery of the deed of through delivering the goods to a third person on a forged conveyance or grant without any further ceremony. The authority or without authority, or by issuing a warehouse process by which this distinction was broken down and the receipt representing the goods to be in his possession or control present uniform system of private conveyancing by simple deed when they have ceased to be so. was established, constitutes a long chapter in English legal history. The exact measure of compensation due to a plaintiff whose goods have been wrongfully converted may be merely nominal if the wrong is technical and the defendant can return the goods; it may be limited to the actual damage where the goods can be returned, but the wrong is substantial; but in ordinary cases it is the full value to the owner of the goods of which he has been deprived. Fraudulent conversion by any person to his own use (or that of persons other than the owner) of property entrusted to him is a crime in the case of custodians of property, factors, trustees under express trusts in writing (Larceny Act, 1861, ss. 77-85; Larceny Act, 1901). The law of Ireland, of most British possessions, and of the United States, follows that of England as to the civil or criminal remedies for conversion. The term "conversion" is also used in English law with reference to the rule of courts of equity which, in certain cases (following the maxim of treating as done what ought to have been done), treats as converted into personalty land which has been directed so to be converted by a will, contract or settlement, or as converted into land personalty which has been by such instrument directed to be applied for purchase of realty. The rule is also applied where a vendor of land dies between the making of the contract of sale and its completion by conveyance of the land. The importance of the rule lies in the different destination of realty and personalty under the laws relating to inheritance and succession. See Bullen and Leake, Precedents_of_Pleading (3rd ed., 1868, 6th ed. by Dodd and Chitty, 1905); F. Pollock, on Torts (7th ed., 1904); Clerk and Lindsell, on Torts (3rd ed., 1904); Lewin, on Trusts (11th ed., 1904); Jarman, on Wills (5th ed., 1893); Dart, (W. F. C.) Vendors and Purchasers (11th ed., p. 301). CONVEX (Lat. convexus, carried round, rounded, from con-, with, and vehere, to carry), a term for the exterior side of a curved or rounded surface, as opposed to concave (Lat. con-, and cavus, hollow), the inner surface. 66 CONVEYANCE, primarily the act or process of conveying anything. The verb " to convey," now used in the senses of carrying, transporting, transmitting, communicating or handing over, originally had the same meaning as "convoy" (q.v.), i.e. to accompany, a meaning which still survived in the 18th century. Like" convoy "it is ultimately derived from the Late Lat. conviare (not from convehere), but through the old Norman French form conveier, which in central France passed into the form convoier, mod. Fr. convoyer, whence convoy." Apart from the general sense given above the word conveyance is now used in three special senses: (1) a carriage or other means of transport, (2) in law, the transference of property by deed or writing between living persons, and (3) the written instrument by which such transference is effected. (See CONVEYANCING.) CONVEYANCING, in English law, the art or science of conveying or effecting the transfer of property, or modifying interests in relation to property, by means of written documents. In early legal systems the main element in the transfer of property was the change, generally accompanied by some public ceremony, in the actual physical possession: the History. function of documents, where used, being merely the preservation of evidence. Thus, in Great Britain in the feudal | period, the common mode of conveying an immediate freehold was by feoffment with livery of seisin—a proceeding in which the The land of a feudal owner was subject to the risk of forfeiture did not allow him to dispose of it by will. By the law of mortfor treason, and to military and other burdens. The common law main religious houses were prohibited from acquiring it. The desire to escape from these burdens and limitations gave rise to the practice of making feoffments to the use of, or upon trust for, persons other than those to whom the seisin or legal possession was delivered. The common law recognized only the legal tenant; but the cestui que use or beneficial owner gradually secured for his wishes and directions concerning the profits of the land the strong protection of the chancellors as exercising the equitable jurisdiction the feudal dues and privileges, coupled with the public disadvantages of the king. The resulting loss to the crown and the great lords of arising from ownership of land which, in an increasing degree, was merely nominal, brought about the passing in the year 1535 of the famous Statute of Uses, the object of which was to destroy altogether the system of uses and equitable estates. It enacted, in substance, that whoever should have a use or trust in any hereditaments should be deemed to have the legal seisin, estate and possession for the same interest that he had in the use; in other words, that he should become in effect the feudal tenant without actual delivery of possession to him by the actual feoffee to uses or trustee. In its result the statute was a fiasco. It was solemnly decided that the act transferred the legal possession to the use once only, and that in the case of a conveyance to A to the use of B to the use of or upon trust for C, it gave the legal estate to B, and left C with an interest in the position of the use before the statute. Thus was completed the foundation of the modern system of trusts fastened upon legal estates and protected by the equitable doctrines and practice of the judicature. But the statute not only failed to abolish uses: it also opened the way to the evasion of the public ceremony of livery of seisin, and the avoidance of all notoriety in conveyances. Other ways, besides an actual feoffment to uses, of creating a use had been in vogue before the statute. If A bargained with B, in writing or not, for the sale the court of chancery enforced the use or equitable interest in favour of land, and B paid the price, but A remained in legal possession, of B. The effect of a bargain and sale (as such a transaction was called) after the statute was to give B the legal interest without any livery of seisin. This fresh danger was met in the very year of the statute itself by an enactment that a bargain and sale of an estate of inheritance or freehold should be made by deed publicly enrolled. But the Statute of Enrolments was in terms limited to estates of freehold. It was allowed that a bargain and sale for a term, say, of one year, must transfer the seisin to the bargainee without enrolment. And since what remained in the bargainor was merely a reversion which "lay in grant," it was an easy matter to release this by deed the day after. By this ingenious device was the publicity of feoffment or enrolment avoided, and the lease and release, as the process was called, remained the usual mode of conveying a freehold in posession down to the 19th century. It was not until 1845 that the modern system of transfer by a single deed was finally established. By the Real Property Act of that year it was enacted that all corporeal hereditaments should, as regards the immediate freehold, be deemed to lie in grant as well as in livery. Since this act the ancient modes of conveyance, though not abolished by it, have in practice become obsolete. Traces of the old learning connected with them remain, however, embedded in the modern conveyance. Many a purchase-deed recites that the vendor is seised in fee-simple of the property. It is the practice, moreover, to convey not only to but also "to the use of a purchaser. For before the Statute of Uses, a conveyance made without any consideration or declaration of uses was deemed to be made to the use of the party conveying. In view of the operation of the statute upon the legal estate in such circumstances, it is usual in all conveyances, whether for value or not, to declare a use in favour of the party to whom the grant is made. 66 the vendor's wilful default, and also that the vendor shall be at liberty to rescind the contract without paying costs or compensation if the purchaser insists upon any requisition or objection which the vendor is unable or, upon the ground of expense or other reasonable ground, is unwilling to comply with or remove. Upon a sale by auction it is the rule to require a deposit to be paid by way of security to the vendor against default on the part of the purchaser. In its popular usage the word " conveyance" signifies the | shall be delayed beyond the day fixed for any cause other than document employed to carry out a purchase of land. But the term "conveyancing" is of much wider import, and comprises the preparation and completion of all kinds of legal instruments. A well-known branch of the conveyancer's business is the investigation of title-an important function in the case of purchases or mortgages of real estate. With personal estate (other than leasehold) he has perhaps not so much concern. Chattels are usually transferred by delivery, and stocks or shares by means of printed instruments which can be bought at a law-stationer's. The common settlements and wills, however, deal wholly or mainly with personal property; and an interest in settled personalty is frequently the subject of a mortgage. Of late years, also, there has been an enormous increase in the volume of conveyancing business in connexion with limited joint-stock companies. of title. The signature of the agreement is followed by the delivery to the purchaser or his solicitor of the abstract of title, which is an epitome of the various instruments and events Abstract under and in consequence of which the vendor derives his title. A purchaser is entitled to an abstract at the vendor's expense unless otherwise stipulated. It begins with the instrument fixed by the contract for the commencement of the title, or, if there has been no agreement upon the subject, with an instrument of such character and date as is prescribed by the law in the absence of stipulation between the parties. From its commencement as so determined the abstract, if properly prepared, shows the history of the title down to the sale; every instrument, marriage, birth, death, or other fact or event constituting a link in the chain of title, being sufficiently set forth In the preparation of legal documents the practitioner is much assisted by the use of precedents. These are outlines or models of instruments of all kinds, exhibiting in accepted legal phraseology their usual form and contents with additions and variations adapted to particular circumstances. Collections of them have been in use from early times, certainly since printing became common. The modern precedent is, upon the whole, concise and businesslike. The prolixity which formerly character-in its proper order. The next step is the verification of the ized most legal documents has largely disappeared, mainly through the operation of statutes which enable many clauses previously inserted at great length to be, in some cases, e.g. covenants for title, incorporated by the use of a few prescribed words, and in others safely omitted altogether. The Solicitors' Remuneration Act 1881, has also assisted the process of curtailment, for there is now little or no connexion between the length of a deed and the cost of its preparation. So long as the draftsman adheres to recognized legal phraseology and to the well-is perused by the purchaser's advisers with the object of seeing settled methods of carrying out legal operations, there is no reason why modern instruments should not be made as terse and businesslike as possible. Contracts for sale. 66 It is not usual for land to be sold without a formal agreement in writing being entered into. This precaution is due, partly to the Statute of Frauds (§ 4), which renders a contract for the sale of land unenforceable by action "unless the agreement upon which such action shall be brought, or some memorandum or note thereof, shall be in writing and signed by the party to be charged therewith or some other person thereunto by him lawfully authorized," and partly to the fact that there are few titles which can with prudence be exposed to all the requisitions that a purchaser under an open contract" is entitled by law to make. Such a purchaser may, for example, require a forty years' title (Vendor and Purchaser Act 1874). Under an open contract a vendor is presumed to be selling the fee-simple in possession, free from any incumbrance, or liability, or restriction as to user or otherwise; and if he cannot deduce a title of the statutory length, or procure an incumbrance or restriction to be removed, the purchaser may repudiate the contract. The preparation of an agreement for sale involves accordingly an examination of the vendor's title, and the exercise of skill and judgment in deciding how the vendor may be protected against trouble and expense without prejudice to the sale. Upon a sale by auction the agreement is made up of (1) the particulars, which describe the property; (2) the conditions of sale, which state the terms upon which it is offered; and (3) the memorandum or formal contract at the foot of the conditions, which incorporates by reference the particulars and conditions, names or sufficiently refers to the vendor, and is signed by the purchaser after the sale. The object of the agreement, whether the sale is by private contract or by auction, is to define accurately what is sold, to provide for the length of title and the evidence in support of or in connexion with the title which is to be required except so far as it is intended that the general law shall regulate the rights of the parties, and to fix the times at which the principal steps in the transaction are to be taken. It is also usual to provide for the payment of interest at a prescribed rate upon the purchase money if the completion abstract on the purchaser's behalf by a comparison of it with the originals of the deeds, the probates of the wills, and office copies of the instruments of record through which the title is traced. The vendor is bound to produce the original documents, except such as are of record or have been lost or destroyed, but, unless otherwise stipulated, the expense of producing those which are not in his possession falls upon the purchaser (Conveyancing Act 1881). After being thus verified, the abstract whether a title to the property sold is deduced according to the |