Notice of the exercise of powers to be given as directed by the court. Payment and arising from sales or set aside out of rent, &c. reserved on mining leases. person or persons to effect such sale or dedication, and so as to operate (if necessary) by way of revocation and appointment of the use, or otherwise as the court shall direct. Many of the following sections refer to the mode in which the petition is to be presented, and to the formalities to be gone through in making an application to the court. These provisions seem to me to belong, less to the department of real property, than to that of the practice of the Chancery Division of the High Court. I shall therefore do no more than simply confine myself to this reference to them (7). The court is to direct that some sufficient notice of any exercise of any of the powers conferred on it by the Act shall be placed on the settlement or on any copies thereof, or otherwise recorded in any way it may think proper, in all cases where it shall appear to the court to be practicable and expedient for preventing fraud or mistake (m). All money to be received on any sale effected under the authority of the Act, or to be set aside out of the rent or payments reserved on any lease of earth, coal, stone, or minerals as aforesaid, may, if the court shall think fit, be paid to any trustees of whom it shall approve, or otherwise the same, so far as relates to estates in England, shall be paid into court ex parte the applicant in the matter of the Act, and so far as relates to estates in Ireland, shall be paid into the Bank of Ireland to the account of the Accountant-General ex parte the applicant in the matter of the Act; and such money shall be applied as the court shall from time to time direct to some one or more of the following purposes, namely,— So far as relates to estates in England the purchase or redemption of the land tax, and so far as relates to estates in Ireland the purchase or redemption The discharge or redemption of any incumbrance The payment to any person becoming absolutely entitled (n). cases without application to court. The application of the money in manner aforesaid Trustees may if the court shall so direct, be made by the trustees in certain apply moneys may, (if any) without any application to the court, or other wise upon an order of the court upon the petition of the person who would be entitled to the possession or the receipt of the rents and profits of the land, if the money had been invested in the purchase of land (o). Until Until money the money can be applied as aforesaid, the same shall can be applied be invested as the court shall direct in some or one of and dividends to be paid to the investments in which cash under the control of the court is for the time being authorized to be invested, and the interest and dividends of such investments shall be paid to the person who would have been entitled to the rents and profits of the land, if the money had been invested in the purchase of land (p). parties en titled. Where any purchase money paid into court under Court may direct applithe provisions of the Act shall have been paid in respect cation of of any lease for a life or lives or years, or for a life or money in lives and years, or any estate in lands less than the whole fee simple thereof, or of any reversion dependent on any such lease or estate, it shall be lawful for the just. respect of leases or reversions as may appear (n) Sect. 34. (0) Sect. 35. (p) Sect. 36. Court may exercise powers re may not exercise them if expressly negatived. Court not to authorize any court, on the petition of any party interested in such money, to order that the same shall be laid out, invested, accumulated, and paid in such manner as the said court may consider will give to the parties interested in such money the same benefit therefrom as they might lawfully have had from the lease, estate, or reversion in respect of which such money shall have been paid, or as near thereto as may be (2). The court is to be at liberty to exercise any of the powers conferred on it by the Act, whether the court peatedly, but shall have already exercised any of the powers conferred by the Act in respect of the same property or not; but no such powers shall be exercised if an express declaration that they shall not be exercised is contained in the settlement: provided always, that the circumstance of the settlement containing powers to effect similar purposes shall not preclude the court from exercising any of the powers conferred by the Act, if it shall think that the powers contained in the settlement ought to be extended (r). But nothing in the Act shall be construed to empower the court to authorize any lease, sale, or other act beyond the extent to which, in the opinion authorized by of the court, the same might have been authorized in and by the settlement by the settlor or settlors (s). And after the completion of any lease or sale or other act under the authority of the court, and purporting to be in pursuance of the Act, the same shall not be invalidated on the ground that the court was not thereby empowered to authorize the same, except that no such lease, sale, or other act shall have any effect against such person as therein mentioned whose concurrence or consent ought to be obtained, or who ought to be served with notice, or in respect of whom an order dispensing with such service ought to be obtained in the act which could not have been the settlor. Acts of the court in pro fessed pursuance of the Act not to be invalidated. case where such concurrence or consent has not been obtained and such service has not been made or dispensed with (t). to make or &c. Nothing in the Act is to be construed to create any No obligation obligation on any person to make or consent to any consent to application to the court, or to exercise any power (u). application, And nothing in the Act is to authorize any sale or lease Exception as beyond the term of twenty-one years of any settled to entails created by estates in respect of which, under the Act of the thirty- Act of Parfourth and thirty-fifth years of King Henry the eighth, liament. chapter twenty, "to embar feigned recovery of lands wherein the king's majesty is in reversion," or under any other Act of Parliament, the tenants in tail are restrained from barring or defeating their estates tail, or where the reversion is vested in the crown (~), and nothing in the Act is to interfere with the exercise of any powers to authorize or grant leases conferred by any Act of Parliament not expressly repealed by the Act (y). (t) Sect. 40. (u) Sect. 53. (x) Sect. 55. See Lectures on the Seisin of the Freehold, pp. 160, (y) Sect. 59. Infants. Vict. c. 43. LECTURE XXIV. We now come to the consideration of settlements by infants and voluntary settlements. An infant or person under the age of twenty-one years cannot generally make any conveyance of land so as absolutely to bind himself. A conveyance made by a person during minority is voidable by him when he comes of age. This was found to be a great inconvenience on the marriage of infants, whether male or female, entitled to landed property; and, accordingly, an Act was passed "to enable infants, with the approbation of the Court of Chancery, to make binding settlements of their real Stat. 18 & 19 and personal estate on marriage" (a). This Act recites. that great inconveniences and disadvantages arose in consequence of persons who marry during minority being incapable of making binding settlements of their Infants, with property. And it enacts (b) that from and after the passing of the Act, it shall be lawful for every infant, upon or in contemplation of his or her marriage, with the sanction of the Court of Chancery (now the Chancery Division of the High Court), to make a valid and binding settlement, or contract for a settlement, of all or any part of his or her property, or property over which he or she has any power of appointment, whether real or personal, and whether in possession, reversion, remainder, or expectancy. And every conveyance, appointment and assignment of such real or personal estate, or contract to make a conveyance, appointment or assignment thereof, executed by such infant, with the approbation of the said court, for the purpose of (b) Sect. 1. approbation of court, may make valid settlements on marriage. (a) Stat. 18 & 19 Vict. c. 43. |