can it be presumed that they were lost, for except it be produced it makes no Title; except they be produced, it shall not be intended there was any; neither can it be help'd by any concurrent Evidence, for if their were (Page's Case 5 Rep. 53.) a true Creation, there would be some Evidence in some of the Offices; but there is not in any of them the least vestigia of proof to ground a Presumption.
2. That Dignitites must be limited according to legal Rules, as other Inheritances. That Honours may be intailed within the Statute De donis. Hereditaments comprehends Honours. That a Creation may be destroyed, and how, and when. That whatever is within the Statute de donis is within the Statute of Fines. That an Honour may be released and extinguished. Precedents. Argumentum ab inconvenienti.—Dignities, as well as other Inheritances, must be limited according to the Rules of Law; the Dukedom of Cornwal (in 8 Rep. 1. the Prince's Case) was limited according to the strictest Rules of Law. And whereas it hath been said that Dignities differ from other Inheritances, that is where there is some particular Reason for it, as in the Case of Transmission or Alienation, which depends not upon the Manner of Creation, as shall be shewn afterwards: And for the Case of 1 Inst. 27. which was that an Inheritance of a Dignity may be created by other Words than other Inheritances are, as an Estate-Tail without the Words of his Body, there's not any such Thing in the Book: 'Tis said indeed, that if the King for Reward of Services done do grant Armories to a Man and his Heirs Male, 'tis an Intail of the Coat without saying of his Body; but I think that will not be taken for the Case of a Dignity; the Statute De donis Conditionalibus extends to Honours; the Word terram would be thought an improper Word to comprehend all Things tailable, yet said to extend to all, and to Honours too, 1 Inst. 20. and if an Honour can't be intailed, then no Remainder can be limited; and yet there be many Lords that sit in this House by Remainder by good Title. The Statute of 26 Hen. 8. 17. saith, That if a Man be attainted of Treason, he shall forfeit his Lands, Tenements, and Hereditaments: Now 'tis adjudged that the Word Hereditaments comprehends Honours, which shew that they are subject to the same Rules of Law that govern other Kind of Inheritances, and are comprehended with other Particulars without general Words. This being premised, it's a known Maxim in all Laws, Nihil rationi magis consentaneum quam rem eodem modo dissolvi quo constituitur, which Rule is so general, that the highest Authority, i.e. the Parliament, is not exempt from it; for 'tis not possible to establish any Thing so firm by Statute, which cannot by another Statute be [6] annulled. Now in the Creation of a Peer there are three Things; the Person that creates, the Person that is created, the Matter of Record whereby he is created. Now if the King, who is the Person that creates, and his Successors, agree with the Person that is created Peer and his Successors, the one to undo their Parts, and the other to give away their Parts, and there is a Matter of Record of as high a Nature concurring to effect this Dissolution, &c. in some Cases 'tis in the Power of an Ancestor, by his own Act, to destroy a Patent; as if a Scire facias in Chancery be brought against his Patent, and Matter is suggested whereby to avoid it, this shall (Bro. Tit. Patent, 37, 97.) vacate whatsoever was created by the Patent, and yet 'tis there in the Power of the Ancestor, by good Pleading, to have supported the Patent, and by bad pleading to destroy it; and therefore when the Foundation, which is the Patent, fails, the Honour, and whatever it be that is erected upon it, shall fail also: Every Estate, by the Consent of all Persons interested and concerned in the Thing, may be taken away; for the Law is so set against Perpetuities, that a Clause intimating it is void, and tho' an Honour is not (Jones's Rep. 109, 123.) assignable, yet it may be extinguished. It's true, if a Man hath but a Part of an Estate, as only an Estate for Life, he can't alone pass away the whole Estate, but none who hath the Inheritance in Tail or in Fee, but he may destroy the whole, and tho' any one have but Part, yet by the Concurrence of all that are concerned the Whole may be destroyed: It is admitted if he commit Treason, and is attainted thereof, he loseth the Honour for himself and his Posterity; now 'twas in his Power to do this Act overt; and if by an Act unlawful he hath Power to defeat the Descent of the Intail upon his Issue, there is the same Reason that by a lawful Act he should part with it; there are two Acts of Parliament in force which fortify the Fine; it must
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