SS4 Inquests of Office. [Ch.XIL verse the inquest, and offer to take the same lands and tene- ments to farm ; and if he do, then the lands shall be com- mitted to him upon certain terms, till the traverse is decided : and if any letters patent of any lands and tenements be made to the contrary, or if they be let to farm within the said month, they shall be holden for none. The statute 18 Hen. 6. c. 6. recites the above provisions, and states that, to evade it, divers persons had sued to obtain gifts, grants and farms by patent, before any inquisition or title foimd for the King; pretending such gifts or grants were not comprised or remedied by the former Act, though they are within the same mischief; and therefore provides that no let- ters patent shall be made to any person of any lands or tene- ments before inquisition of the King's title in the same be found in the chancery, or in his exchequer returned, if the King's title in the same be not found of record, nor within the month after the same return ; if it be not to him or them which tender their traverses as before mentioned : and if any letters patent be made to the contrary, they shall be void and holden for none. In a recent case on this abstruse subject (a). Lord Ellenbo- rough remarked, "that the object of the legislature plainly was, according to the words of the Acts, that in all cases in which the King's title did not appear upon record, (" if the King's title in the same be not found of record") the possession should be open to whoever could claim against the King, till the final decision of the right; and that any grant to obstruct him should be void : and the authorities correspond with this object." The Statutes being passed to redress a grievance are entitled to a liberal construction {b) : and they relate not only to all cases of seizure of lands on inquisitions ; but even it seems to cases where the King, not having a title of record^ yet has a pos- session in law without office, and does not claim by inquisition, as in the cases of an escheat, &c. (c) ; and the other instances of a freehold fallmg on the King as in a descent remainder reverter {d). Though in such cases offices would, generally speaking, (a) 12 East, 111, 12. 105. Though on an attainder for high (A) Co. Lit. 77, b. treason, the actual possession and seisin (c) 12 East, 96, 112. of the land are by statute 33 Hen. 8. (rf) Ante, U9, 12 East, 96, 112, 13, c. 20. s. 2. in the King before office i yet 1
