EPITOME OF THE LAW ON LANDED PROPERTY, &c. &c. &c. SECT. I. Of Property in Land. THIS property being exclusive among mankind, is derived not otherwise from nature than from human convention. The end and intent of it is convenience and subsistence. Naturally we neither want nor assume more than we use; and in subsistence nature limits our desires and enjoyments, which in reality are but few, and of short duration. Civil laws enlarged the means of its continuation, first by descent, as a devolution of right, from ancestor to heir; and then by purchase, as an acquisition, by the consent of the parties; the one by the operation of law, the other by the contents of a deed; and both prevent its reverting to the common stock, as in an original state of nature, lest the fury of contention among strangers, should produce a war of all against all, to the destruction of social order. Hence rules of descent and purchase were formed; and man, in return for quitting an unconnected loose state of primeval barbarism, to incorporate with a civil one, enjoyed rights of inheritance, with the power of transfer by donation, emption, and devise. B |