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See also:ESTATE (through O. Fr. estat, mod. See also:flat, from See also:Lat. status, See also:state, See also:condition, position, stare, to stand)
, the See also:state or See also:condition in which a See also:man lives, now chiefly used poetically and in such phrases as " man's See also:estate," or " of high estate "; " state
has superseded most of the uses of the word except (I) in See also:property and (2) in constitutional See also:law
.
DIsestablishment
.
1
.
In the law of property the word is employed in several senses
.
In the widest sense a man's estate comprises his entire belongings; so much of it as consists of See also:land and certain other interests associated therewith is his " real estate "; the See also:rest is his " See also:personal estate." The word is more particularly applied to interests in land, and in popular and See also:general use " an estate " means the land itself
.
The strict technical meaning of " an estate " is an See also:interest in lands, and this conception lies at the See also:root of the See also:English theory of property in land
.
" The first thing that the student has to do," says See also:Joshua See also:Williams (Law of Real Prol erty), " is to get rid of the See also:idea of See also:absolute ownership
.
Such an idea is quite unknown to the English law
.
No man is in law the absolute owner of lands
.
He can only hold an estate in them." That is, the notion of See also:tenure, of holding by a See also:tenant from a See also:lord, prevails
.
The last lord of all from whom all land was ultimately held was the See also: Estates in land may be classified according to (I) the quantity of their interest or duration, (2) the See also:time of enjoyment, and (3) the number and connexion of the tenants . According to (1), an estate may be either a See also:freehold of See also:inheritance or a freehold not of inheritance . A freehold of inheritance may be (a) an estate in See also:fee See also:simple, which is the largest estate a man can hold in English law, and comes See also:close to the idea of absolute ownership, repudiated by Williams; an estate in fee simple is inheritable by a man's heirs generally, he has full See also:powers of disposition over it, and may alienate the whole or See also:part . (b) It may also be in limited fees, which are again subdivided into (i.) qualified or See also:base fee, (ii.) fee conditional, so called at the See also:common law, afterwards, on the passing of the See also:statute De Donis Conditionalibus, fee tail, which may be general as to the heirs of a man's See also:body, or See also:special, as to the heirs male (or See also:female) of his body . A freehold not of inheritance may be either (I) conventional, as an estate for See also:life, which may be either an estate for one's own life or for the life of another (pur autre See also:vie); (2) legal, or created by operation of law, as tenancy in tail after possibility of issue See also:extinct (i.e. where an estate is given to a man and the heirs of his body by his See also:present wife, and the wife See also:dies without issue, the See also:husband becomes tenant in tail after possibility of issue extinct) ; tenancy by See also:curtesy (see CuRTESY) ; tenancy in See also:dower (see DOWER) . Estates not of freehold or less than freehold are subdivided into (i.) estates for years (often called estates for a See also:term of years, the See also:instrument creating it being termed a See also:lease or See also:demise, and the estate itself a leasehold interest); (ii.) estates at will, that is, where lands or tenements are let by one man to another to have and to hold at the will of the lessor; (iii.) estates at sufferance, where one comes into See also:possession of land under a lawful See also:title, and continues in possession after his title has determined . According to (2), estates are either in possession or in expectancy . Estates in expectancy are either (a) in See also:remainder, which may be vested or contingent, or (b) in reversion (see REMAINDER, REVERSION) . According to (3), estates may be either (i.) in severalty, that is, the holding of an estate by a See also:person in his own right only, without any other person being joined or connected with him in point of interest therein; (ii.) estates in See also:joint tenancy (see JOINT); (iii.) See also:coparcenary (q.v.); and (iv.) tenancy in common, where two or more hold the same land, by several and distinct titles, but with unity of possession . (See also REAL . PROPERTY.) 2 . In constitutional law an estate is an See also:order or class having a definite See also:share as such in the body politic, and participating either directly or by its representatives in the See also:government . The See also:system of See also:representation by estates took its rise in western See also:Europe during the 13th See also:century, at a time when the feudal system was being broken up through various causes, notably the growing See also:wealth and See also:power of the towns . In the feudal See also:council the See also:clergy and the territorial nobles had alone had a See also:voice; but the 13th century, to quote See also:Stubbs (Const . Hist. ii.168, ed . 1875), " turns the feudal council into an See also:assembly of estates, and draws the constitution of the third estate from the See also:ancient See also:local machinery which it concentrates." This is, allowing for See also:differences of detail, true of other countries as well as See also:England . To the two estates already existing, clergy and nobles, is added a third, that of the See also:commons (burgesses and knights of the See also:shire) in England, that of the roturiers in See also:France (known as the tiers etat) . This See also:division into three estates became the norm, but it was not universal, nor inevitable.' Even in England there was a tendency to create other estates, the king for instance treating with the merchants separately for grants of See also:money to be raised by taxing the general body of merchants in the See also:country; and there was a similar tendency on the part of the lawyers . But for the See also:accident of their sitting and voting together, the burgesses and knights of the shire would also have formed See also:separate estates . In See also:Aragon the See also:cortes contained four estates (brazos or arms), the clergy, the See also:great barons (ricos hombres), the See also:minor barons (knights or infanzones), and the towns . The See also:Swedish See also:diet had also four—clergy, barons, burghers and peasants . The system of estates, based on the See also:medieval conception of society as divided into definite orders, formed the basis of whatever constitutional forms survived in Europe till the See also:French Revolution . In England, of course, it had See also:early become obscured, the See also:House of Commons representing the whole nation outside the narrow order of the peers . The creation of an estate of lesser nobles or landowners had been prevented by the See also:fusion of the knights of the shire with the burgesses; the spiritual estate was ruled out by the determination of the clergy to deliberate and tax themselves in their own See also:convocation, leaving the bishops, as spiritual peers, to represent their interests in See also:parliament .
The phrase " the three estates of the See also:realm " still survives, but to most men it conveys no clear meaning
.
The erroneous conception early arose—See also:Hallam says it was current among the popular lawyers of the 17th century—that the " three estates" were king, lords and commons, as representing the three great divisions of legislative authority
.
Such a conception might be possible in See also:Hungary, where the See also:crown of St See also:Stephen symbolizes not so much the royal power as the co-ordination of the powers of all the See also:organs of the state, including the king; but in England the king represents the whole nation and in no sense a separate interest within it, which is the essence of an estate
.
The phrase " three estates " as applied to the English constitution at present is, in fact, misleading
.
It is now usually understood of the lords spiritual, the lords temporal, and the commons
.
The conception of the " three estates of the realm " as the great divisions of legislative authority led in England to the coining of the phrase " See also:fourth estate," to indicate some power of corresponding magnitude in the state distinct from them
.
See also:Fielding thus spoke of "the See also:mob," and See also:Hazlitt of See also:Cobbett; but the phrase is now usually applied to the See also:press, a usage originating in a speech by See also:Burke (See also:Carlyle, See also:Hero-See also:worship,Lect. v.)
.
In the constitutional struggles of the See also:European See also:continent, from the Revolution onward, the See also:rival theories of representation by estates and of popular representation have played a great part
.
The See also:crucial moment of the French Revolution was when the See also:vote according to " order " was rejected and the estates of the clergy and nobles were merged with the tiers Nat, the states-general thus becoming the See also:National Assembly
.
This was the precedent followed, generally speaking, during the 19th century in the other countries in which constitutional govern-
' In See also:Scotland the three estates were the prelates, the tenants-inchief and the burgesses, the third estate joining the others for the first time about the beginning of the 14th century
.
In 1428 commissioners of shires, men elected by the minor tenants-in-See also:chief, were ordered to appear in parliament; the greater tenants-in-chief then coalesced with the prelates and the three estates were the lords, clerical and See also:lay, the commissioners of shires and the burgesses From 164o to 166o parliament was reorganized, the prelates being excluded, but at the Restoration the old order was re-established
.
The Scottish parliament was accustomed to depute much of its See also:work to a See also:committee, composed of members from each of the three orders, and the committee of the estates was very prominent during the struggle betvdeen See also:
ment was established
.
In most of them the medieval estates lingered on in provincial diets (Landtage),' and the famous See also:Article XIII. of the Federal See also:Act (Bundesakte) of See also:Vienna decreed that " assemblies of estates " should be set up, wherever not already existing, in the See also:German states
.
The efforts of Metternich and the statesmen of his school were directed, not so much to abolishing the constitutional See also:model, as to establishing it, if need were, on traditional and conservative lines
.
This is what was meant by the famous reply of the See also:emperor See also:Francis I. to the Magyar deputation: " All the See also:world is playing the See also:fool and demanding fanciful constitutions." When the need for making constitutional concessions became urgent, the See also:attempt was accordingly made to base them on the system of estates
.
But the central diet convoked in 1847 by See also:Frederick See also: When such an assembly is not merely local or provincial it is called the estates-general or states-general (ads generaux), e.g. in France the assembly of the deputies of the three estates of the realm as distinct from the provincial estates which met periodically in the so-called pays d'etats . For further details about the estates in England and elsewhere see W . Stubbs, Constitutional See also:History, vol. ii . (1896); H . Hallam, The See also:Middle Ages (1855); F . W . See also:Maitland, Constitutional History of England (1908); A . See also:Luchaire, Histoire des institutions monarchiques de la France (1883-1885); G . See also:Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte (See also:Kiel, 1865-1878); and A . S . Rait, The Scottish Parliament (1901) . See also REPRESENTATION .
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