Thellusson, who in his will directed the produce of his estates, both real and personal, to the amount of about 800,000l., to be accumulated and laid out in land, during (in effect) the lives of all his descendants, however numerous and remote, who should be living at his death. At the end of that period, the estates, as well devised as directed to be purchased, were to be divided in lots between the eldest male lineal descendants, then living, of his three sons. The trust, after having been contested in chancery, and on appeal in the lords, was finally established, and is in operation while I write; but it occasioned an act restrictive of accumulation, which will be noticed hereafter.

• The rule, however, is still in full force as to capital. In its defence it is often urged, that all the candles are burning at the same time. Luminous as may be the illustration, it is somewhat defective in exactness: the candles are of equal length-but among a number of lives selected, a few will probably occur who far outlive the ordinary period of mortality. So calculate the life insurance companies; and so did the testator, or his legal adviser, in a cause of Bengough v. Edridge, which now awaits the judgment of the Vice-Chancellor, on the following singular will, which I shall cite somewhat at length, as strongly illustrative of the extent of perversion to which the defective terms of the rule in question exposes it. The object of an opulent testator, who had no issue, was to give his landed estates, and those which might be purchased with their produce during twenty-one years (the period still allowed by law for accumulation), to his collateral relations, consisting of five nephews and grandnephews, a niece and a grandniece, and their several male descendants, for successive life-interests, as far as the restrictions of the law against perpetuities would allow. For this purpose, all such estates were vested, and directed to be vested, in fee-simple, in trustees, who were to hold the same for a period of 120 years from the testator's death, if twenty-eight persons therein named (of whom the first seven were the above relations, and the other twenty-one strangers), or any of them, shall so long live; and then for a further period of twenty years, from the determination of the first term. These terms were intended as nearly commensurate with the periods during which estates might be tied up: viz. any lives in being and twenty-one years; and might be termed the machinery of the contrivance. Then followed its working, or the beneficial interests carved out of the terms. They consisted in a series of trusts for a term of ninety-nine years, if each successive donee should so long live, for the nephews, greatnephews, niece, and grandniece named, and the respective heirs male of their bodies in succession, forming, in effect, successive estates for life; and finally, failing the whole of these, for the individuals successively answering the description of the testator's right heirs, during similar derivative and determinable terms of ninety-nine years each, until the above technical terms of 120 years and twenty years should be exhausted, either by lapse of time, or the deaths of all the nominees. As to the reversion expectant on the above two terms of 120 years and twenty years, testator directs it to be conveyed on the determination of these two terms, and not before, to his nephews and greatnephews, niece and greatniece before specified, and their respective issue male, in the like order of succession in a course of strict

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all those of Cuckfield, are terrestrial, lacustrine or fluviatile. We have not sufficient information concerning the bones, teeth, and palates of the various fishes and sharks to decide that any two of them agree in species. This remark applies with still greater force to the remains of cetacea and birds. No Didelphis has yet been found in the Tilgate beds, no Iguanodon at Stonesfield. That the bones of gigantic dimensions procured at Cuckfield belong strictly to the same genus as the Megalosaurus of Stonesfield, we have little doubt, although the bones of the skeleton hitherto found in actual apposition at either place are so few, that to determine this point, much less to decide on their specific identity, is impossible. The same may be said of the Plesiosaurus and Crocodile. Although the tortoises are numerous in both localities, none have yet been shown to be of the same species. The correspondence, in short, of the remains at Stonesfield and Tilgate Forest, imbedded in strata totally dissimilar in mineralogical characters, is what we might expect to find between the same formations and the deltas of the Nile, Ganges, and all large rivers of the present day in hot climates.

We have only space to allude briefly to some of the geological papers in this volume. They contain a great mass of new information, and we cannot but express our regret that the Geological Society, possessing so many zealous members, and engaged in promoting a science so fertile in new discoveries, should have permitted a lapse of two years to intervene between the completion of the volume we have been reviewing, and a new part, published whilst we are concluding this Article. There are two papers by Mr. Colebrooke on the valley of the Sutluj river, in the Himalaya mountains, and on the north-eastern border of Bengal, and another by Mr. Fraser on the country between Delhi and Bombay, which, when considered together, are sufficient to establish a remarkable resemblance in the leading geological features of the vast continent of India to that of Europe and North America. The primary rocks in Central India and in the Himalaya mountains are identical in mineralogical character with those of the Alps, and, in fact, of all primary ranges in the world. The striking analogy of the fossils from the north-east of Bengal to those of the formations above the chalk in England, is extremely curious, and quite consistent with the conclusions already deduced from the organic remains procured in the strata near Madras, and deposited with specimens from various parts of India in the museum of the Geological Society. The identity of the basalts and amygdaloids, and other varieties of trap brought by Mr. Fraser from India, with those found in similar situations in England, is no less interesting; and lastly, the coal formation, consisting consisting of micaceous sandstone, bituminous shale and coal, con the banks of the Tista and Subuk rivers, which descend from the Bhotan mountains, cannot fail to recal to the mind of the geologist the ancient coal formations of Europe and North America,

The joint paper on the south-western coal district of England, by Dr. Buckland and Mr. Conybeare, deserves attention no less for the variety than the importance of its contents. It establishes the relations of some of the most remarkable British rocks, and furnishes us with an accurate description of the physical geography of a large district. It may also be regarded as a statistical document of the first authority, containing numerous detailed sections of collieries and a determination of the limits of the coal fields of Bristol, the Forest of Dean, and several of minor extent, by which their present productive powers and future resources may be estimated; lastly, it supplies data, founded on multiplied observations, which may direct the search of the miner to new discoveries, and often prevent a fruitless expenditure of capital in insuccessful trials. The Bristol coal district, illustrated by the beautiful map and sections accompanying this memoir, may be pointed out to the student as full of instruction, for a great variety of formations are here comprized within a small space; and, while a knowledge of their regular order of superposition may be easily obtained, instructive examples occur of the occasional absence of different members of the series and of the leading features of disturbance exhibited on so immense a scale in high mountain chains. We regard this country also as the more entitled to the student's préference, because trap rocks, so abundant in the coal fields of Scotland and the north of England, are here entirely wanting, at least in every formation from the old red sandstone to the oolite inclusive. Geologists have in general commenced their investigations in countries where the derangement of the strata was greatest, and all the phenomena attending them the most complicated. They have studied the exceptions before the rule; and when to this we add disregard to the present operations of nature, whether with reference to aqueous deposits or volcanic products, we cannot be surprized that the theories of the earlier professors of this science, even when founded exclusively on facts and observations, were contradictory; and that the generalizations of Werner and Hutton, though bearing impressed upon them the decided marks of genius, have required considerable modifications.

Two great series of rocks occupy the south-western coal district. In the first, comprizing the lowest and most ancient formations, (the greywacke transition limestone, old red sandstone, mountain limestone and coal measures,) the strata are highly inclined,

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clined, and exhibit marks of disturbance in every form of fracture and irregular position. Those of the second series, on the contrary, (the newer red sandstone, lias and oolite,) are either perfectly level or inclined imperceptibly to the horizon: they seldom show traces of internal derangement, and they rest transversely on the truncated edges of the strata of the former series. That the inclined strata were formed originally in a nearly horizontal position is highly probable; for the order of their superposition is very regular. But the convulsions to which they owe their present fractures, curvature and elevation, must have been long subsequent to their formation; for all the members of the series are affected in the same manner. As these disturbances very rarely extend to the over-lying beds, the lapse of a considerable interval of time between the deposition of the two series is clearly indicated. In consequence of the total want of conformity between these, and the occasional absence of some of the overlying formations, any member of one series may in this district be in contact with any member of the other.

We regret that we cannot present to such of our readers as may not be familiar with the first principles of geology an intelligible analysis of this admirable memoir without extending the present Article to an unreasonable length. But even those who have never before directed their attention to this subject will readily perceive the advantages derivable from the knowledge of the superposition of a succession of formations once ascertained to be constant and regular. In the eastern part of England, where few formations, reckoning from the new red sandstone upwards, are ever wanting, costly trials have been often made to obtain coal; and in some instances the operations have commenced in very recent deposits. In the present state of geological science such futile attempts will scarcely be repeated. In the west of England trials have been frequently made to reach coal by shafts sunk through strata now known invariably to occupy an inferior position to the coal measures when both are present. Wherever, in the map to which we have alluded, we find greywacke, transition limestone, mountain limestone, or old red sandstone, depicted as the superficial rock, it would be clearly absurd to sink for coal. As the coal measures are divisible into groups of strata, preserving among themselves a regular order of succession, and distinguishable by mineralogical character and organic remains, an attention to these points may often assist the judgment when the propriety of enlarging operations in mines already worked with profit is to be decided on. An extensive comparison moreover of the relations of the two series of formations enables the geologist to form an opinion of the probability of obtaining estate, I give and dispose (without saying "of the same") as follows;"again, where the charge of debts or legacies is not upon the devisee personally, or upon the land in his hands: in these, and similar cases, the devisee has been held to take for life only.'

He then adds or alludes to various other cases, in which, for different reasons of strong intention, a fee has been held to pass, though words of inheritance were wanting. Constructive estates tail in wills also fall under his consideration. The entire class of these cases evinces, according to him, the systematic disposition of judges, in modern times, to evade technical rules in favour of a testator's intention.

'As they were not prepared, however,' says the author, 'to go the full length of holding, in cases of implied fees-simple, that the gift of the land was a gift of all the testator's property in it, they have effected their object by distinctions so numerous and so complicated, as to render their decisions of doubtful benefit. The refinements on testamentary estates tail by implication, which have converted a settled formula (namely that by which an estate tail is created by deed) into a series of individual cases, obscurely shading down from a fee-simple to a feetail, and often terminating in a mere estate for life, with remainder to the issue by purchase, amply demonstrate, that rules of law, where they work injustice, should be repealed, not evaded.'

The author next treats of Powers, and of appointments under powers, by means of which a greater interest may be conferred than the alienor himself possesses. After a brief, but lucid exposition of the law on these important subjects, he concludes with a description of the mode in which courts of Equity have thought themselves called on to interfere, in aid of informal or defective, and in avoidance of what are technically termed, illusory, appointments. These he has succeeded in rendering plain to the comprehension of the most unlearned reader; and his exposition is better calculated to expose the radical absurdity of a distinct equitable jurisdiction, than any other text which could be selected for a similar purpose.

We must leave it, however, and pass to the next head of discussion-that which treats of involuntary alienation, or the rights of creditors, a subject which the author has subdivided into the liabilities of the living debtor, and those which affect his property or assets, as they are called, when dead. The origin and character of the distinction between legal and equitable assets is curious, as affording another specimen, at least equal in extent and importance, of the early interposition of equity to correct the imperfections and inequalities of the strict legal system, and the consequent glaring anomaly of two conflicting principles, applied to the government and distribution of one and the same description of property. The statement is too long to be transcribed; nor