THE ORIGIN OF USES. 137 Jideicommissum belongs essentially to the law of testaments. In the second place, if the English use were a Jideicommissum it would be called so, and we should not see it gradually emerging out of such phrases as ad opus and ad usum. What we see is a vague idea, which developing in one direction becomes what we now know as agency and developing in another direction becomes that use which the common law will not, but equity will, protect. Of course, again, our * equitable ownership ' when it has reached its full stature has enough in common with the praetorian bonorum possessio to make a comparison between the two instructive ; but an attempt to derive the one from the other would be too wild for discussion. F, W. Maitland.
