she shall be allotted a portion from his leases, and
other personal estate, not exceeding one third of his whole clear
substance. The laws in this instance, as well as in the former, have
presumed that the husband has omitted to make all the provision which he
might have done, for no other reason than that of her religion. If,
therefore, she chooses to balance any domestic misdemeanors to her
husband by the public merit of conformity to the Protestant religion,
the law will suffer no plea of such misdemeanors to be urged on the
husband's part, nor proof of that kind to be entered into. She acquires
a provision totally independent of his favor, and deprives him of that
source of domestic authority which the Common Law had left to him, that
of rewarding or punishing, by a voluntary distribution of his effects,
what in his opinion was the good or ill behavior of his wife.

Thus the laws stand with regard to the property already acquired, to its
mode of descent, and to family powers. Now as to the new acquisition of
real property, and both to the acquisition and security of personal, the
law stands thus:--

All persons of that persuasion are disabled from taking or purchasing,
directly or by a trust, any lands, any mortgage upon land, any rents or
profits from land, any lease, interest, or term of any land, any
annuity for life or lives or years, or any estate whatsoever, chargeable
upon, or which may in any manner affect, any lands.

One exception, and one only, is admitted by the statutes to the
universality of this exclusion, viz., a lease for a term not exceeding
thirty-one years. But even this privilege is charged with a prior
qualification. This remnant of a right is doubly curtailed: 1st, that on
such a short lease a rent not less than two thirds of the full improved
yearly value, at the time of the making it, shall be reserved during the
whole continuance of the term; and, 2ndly, it does not extend to the
whole kingdom. This lease must also be in possession, and not in
reversion. If any lease is made, exceeding either in duration or value,
and in the smallest degree, the above limits, the whole interest is
forfeited, and vested _ipso facto_ in the first Protestant discoverer or
informer. This discoverer, thus invested with the property, is enabled
to sue for it as his own right. The courts of law are not alone open to
him; he may (and this is the usual method) enter into either of the
courts of equity, and call u