Terms  are  of  two  kinds,  viz.,  long  terms,  for  instance,  for
500  or  1,000  years,  and  terms  which  rarely  exceed  99  years,
and  are  created  by  lease.  A  term  of  years  may  be  made  to
commence  in  futuro,  and  is  in  this  respect  unlike  a  freehold
estate.  2  Blac.  Com.  143.  With  regard  to  long  terms,  they
are  in  general  created  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  trustees
or  others  to  raise  (usually  by  way  of  mortgage)  portions  or
other  monies  when  required  for  the  purposes  for  which  the
terms  were  created,  or  to  secure  the  payment  of  jointures,
rent-charges  or  the  like;  and  there  is,  in  general,  a  proviso
for  cesser  of  the  term  when  the  purposes  for  which  it  was
created  have  been  accomplished.
Formerly,  when  a  term  had  thus  become  satisfied,  it  was


Terms  of  Years.  225

nevertheless  existing,  and  was  cajjable  of  being  assigned.
On  conveyances  of  freehold  property  it  was  constantly  the
practice  to  assign  such  terms  to  a  trustee  for  the  purchaser,
for  the  protection  they  afforded  against  incumbrances  mesne
between  the  creation  of  the  term  and  the  assignment  of  it.
Now,  by  the  8  &  9  Vict.  c.  112,  it  is  enacted  that  every
satisfied  term  which  by  express  declaration  or  construction
of  law  shall  on  the  31st  December,  1845,  be  attendant  on  the
inheritance  shall  cease,  but,  nevertheless,  every  term  so
attendant  by  express  declaration  shall  afford  the  same  pi'o-
tection  against  incumbrances,  &c.,  as  if  it  had  continued  but
had  not  been  assigned,  and  for  the  purposes  of  such  pro-
tection shall  be  considered  as  subsisting  (s.  1).  See  Doe  v.
Langdon,  J2  Q.  B.  711  ;  Doe  v.  Price,  16  M.  &  W.  603  ;
Doe  V.  Moulsdale,  lb.  689 ;  Plant  v.  Taylor,  7  H.  &  N.
211.
