pectedly arise, in which a larger allowance for repairs is necessary, a formal decree for such allowance must be obtained from the Sovereign. (a) The holders of majorats, who shall have themselves formed the endowment, may, in case of necessity, or when it is of advantage, obtain authority to exchange the whole, or part of the property of which it is composed. This authority is granted upon a demand previously made, and supported by such documents as were required for the original institution of the majorat. (b) After a similar reference and examination, if the report be in favour of it, a decree is made, authorizing such alienation, or exchange, and specifying the mode, and the conditions of the sale, and ordering, if there be occasion, the deposit of the price, until it be re-invested. (c) The sale may be made by contract, or by auction. (d) Until the contract has been perfected, the holder continues to receive the income of the majorat. (e) When the conseil du sceau des titres, to whom the scheme of the proposed sale, or exchange, must be previously submitted, has made a report in its favour, and it has been approved of, letters patent are granted, which are to be registered, published, and transcribed, in the manner required when the grant of the majorat was first made. From this moment the property, of which the alienation is permitted, becomes the subject of free disposition. (f) The observance of the regulations prescribed by this section is essential to the validity of the alienation. (g) The nullity of the alienation is pronounced by the Council of State on the proceeding of the Procureur General, and the courts and tribunals are prohibited from taking cognizance of it. (h) (a) Decree 1st March, 1808, § 2, art. 53. (b) Tit. 4, art. 56, 57. (d) Art. 59. (e) Art. 60. (ƒ) Art. 62, 63. (9) Art. 65. (c) Art. 58. (h) Art. 66. The interest of the price is due by the person who acquires the property, without any express stipulation on the subject. (a) The investment of the price must, within six months after the alienation, be made in such property as may be the subject of a majorat. (b) If it be proposed to make the investment in real estates, the holder lays before the conseil du sceau des titres the nature of the property he desires to acquire, the title to, and value of it, the documents which show its annual produce, and, if required, the conditions of the sale. (c) If the report be favourable, and approved of, a decree is made, and letters patent issued, which are to be delivered, published, and registered in the manner prescribed when the original majorat was instituted. (d) If the acquisition be not authorized, there is a power reserved of prolonging the term for making the investment. (e) When the investment is authorized to be made in rents sur l'état, or in bank stock, the minister of the public treasury, or the governor of the bank, must give the declaration of their being made immoveable. (ƒ) If the male legitimate line of the holder from whom the property composing the endowment has been derived becomes extinct, the title will be suppressed, and the property belonging to the majorat will become free as part of the succession of the last holder, and will be taken by his heirs. The crown retains, however, according to circumstances, and upon the demand of the holder, the power of transferring the title and majorat to one of his sons-in-law, or if he has no children, to one of his collateral heirs. (g) By an ordinance of the 25th August, 1817, none are to be called to the Chamber of Peers, ecclesiastics excepted, who have not previously obtained authority to form a majorat, and have actually instituted it. (a) It establishes three degrees of the majorats of peers. Those attached to the title of duke must be composed of property netting an income of not less than 30,000 francs; the income of a majorat attached to the title of marquis and of count must not be less than 20,000 francs; and that of a majorat attached to the title of viscount and baron not less than 10,000 francs. (b) The majorats of peers are transmissible for ever with the title of the peerage to the eldest son, born, or to be born, to the founder of the majorat, and to his natural and lawful descendants, in a direct male line, and according to primogeniture, in such wise that the majorat and peerage shall be always united in the same person. (c) The ordinance admits into the majorat such property only as is free from all privileged debts and mortgages, and not charged with restitution by virtue of articles 1048 and 1049 of the Code Civil, and rents sur l'état, after they have been made immoveable. (d) By an Ordonnance, dated January 21st, 1829, the majorats founded en dehors de la pairie must, for the title of marquis, amount to, at least, 15,000 francs, and for that of vicomte to 7,000 francs, of clear annual income, and by the ordonnance, dated October, 1829, titles granted by the king are required to be registered by the Garde des sceaux, or such grants will be null and void. The law of majorats has been recently abolished. After a very protracted discussion in the two Chambers, the law of the 12th of May, 1835, was passed. It prohibits the future institution of majorats. (e) It declared that those already instituted shall not extend beyond two degrees, not including the institution. (f) The founder of the majorat may revoke it wholly, or in part, or (c) Art. 3. (d) Art. 4. (ƒ) Art. 2. (a) Art. 1. modify its conditions. He is not, however, at liberty to exercise this power of revocation, or modification, if there exists a person called who had previously to that law contracted a marriage which was still subsisting, or of which there were children surviving. In this case, the majorat will have effect only for the two degrees as limited by the preceding article. (a) SECTION III. MODIFICATIONS OF, OR ESTATES AND INTERESTS IN REAL PROPERTY, UNDER THE LAW OF SPAIN. The jurisprudence of Spain adopts the substitutions of the civil law. The mayorazgo. Its various kinds.-Temporary and perpetual.-In what manner, and by whom, it may be instituted. Of what property.-General rules relative to the institution of it.-Of the descent of mayorazgos and of the different lines. Of the computation of degrees.-The liabilities of the possessor. He has not the power of alienating the property.-His rights and interests therein.-In what cases the founder may revoke the mayorazgo.-The aggregation of mayorazgos. THE jurisprudence of Spain adopted not only the several substitutions admitted by the civil law, but also a species of entail much more strict than could have been created by means of those substitutions. This entail is called mayorazgo. It imports the right of succeeding to property which the founder has granted or bequeathed, on the condition that it should be for ever preserved entire in his family, and that it should be taken and possessed by the first-born, being the next in ordine successivo, (b) "El derecho de suceder en los (a) Art. 3. (b) Molina, de Hispan. Primogen. lib. 1, c. 1, n. 5. Partida 6, tit. 4. bienes dejados por el fundador con la condicion de que se conserven integros perpetuamente en su familia, para que los lleve y posea el primogénito mas próximo por orden sucesivo." (a) The crown of Spain, according to its ancient course of descent, was a true and real mayorazgo. The mayorazgo of private property was distinguished as regular when it followed, and as irregular, when it deviated from that course. In all doubtful cases it was presumed to be the regular mayorazgo, and was governed by the rules which regulated the succession to the crown. (b) It might be temporary, that is, it might be founded only for certain lives or persons, and no mention made of its continuing in perpetuity, and it might be directed by the founder that at a certain period the entail should be extinguished, and the last possessor freely enjoy and dispose of the property as its absolute owner, exonerated from the fetters of the entail. (c) The mayorazgo was perpetual when it was so declared by its founder. Under it, the property would, after those who were first called, pass not only to other relations, but even to strangers whom the last possessor may have selected, by virtue of a power for that purpose conferred on him by the founder. Its perpetuity was effected by means of subrogation, or substitution. (d) The is said to be regular when the persons mayorazgo called first in the succession are the eldest male issue, and his lawful descendants, the eldest always to be preferred to the younger, and the male to the female, and afterwards all others in the same order, preserving between them the preference, and attending to the line, grade, sex, and age. The following are some amongst the various forms by which a mayorazgo was instituted: "I constitute a mayorazgo of such property; or, I be (a) Febrero, tom. 2, tit. 3, c. 1, § 1. (b) Molina lib. 2, c. 2, n. 19; L. 8, tit. 17, lib. 10, Nov. Rec. (c) Molina, lib. 1, c. 1, n. 15. (d) Ibid. n. 16. |