imaginary distinctions are to be made between the lands comprehended within those lines, or the quit-rents reserved on those which had been sold, the whole certainty of the division is lost, unless some other line, equally plain, equally rational, and equally justified by the words of the act, can be substituted. Is this practicable in the case before the Court? Extensive sales were made in a tract of country, supposed by the seller and the purchaser to be a manor. Other sales were made, containing in the contracts no intrinsic evidence that the parties understood the lands to be within a manor. The purchase money, in both cases, is paid, and deeds are made, reserving the usual quit-rents. To ascertain the real boundaries of the manor, to make a legal survey of it, if one had not before been made, a warrant of resurvey is issued, and a survey made and returned into the land office, comprehending both these classes of lands, with others which were at the same time vacant, as being within the manor. When the Legislature saves to the proprietaries the quitrents out of lands sold within the manors, can a distinction have been intended between those lands which were sold as part of the manor before, and those which were sold after the resurvey? If it be assumed, where the warrants contain no evidence of being intended for manor lands, that the parties or the proprietaries were ignorant of their being comprehended within a manor, what difference, in reason, can this make? The lands were equally liable to quit-rents in the one case and the other. They were equally within a manor, 1824. Kirk V. Smith. 1824. Kirk V. Smith. whether known or not known to be within it. Could the Legislature have a motive in the one case more than in the other, for abolishing these quit-rents? If the motive existed, it would be shown in the language adopted. But the search for it in the language of the Legislature, would be as fruitless as in the reason of the case. The Court cannot set up this distinction. If the word manor, when used as describing territory within which quit-rents are saved, comprehends lands sold before the resurvey, then the same word, when applied to the arrears of purchase money, retains the same meaning. It has been urged in argument, that the Legislature intended clearly to distinguish between the rights of Penn, as an individual, and his rights as proprietor. The first were reserved; the last were confiscated. This distinction, so far as respects the subject of the present controversy, is not to be found in the law. The 8th section confirms to the proprietaries all their private estates, "and likewise all the lands called and known by the name of the proprietary tenths or manors." These proprietary tenths or manors, then, did not compose a part of, but were in addition to, their private estates. They were held too by precisely the same title by which other lands in Pennsylvania, not sold nor reserved, were held Nor was there any new modification of that title. They were withdrawn from the mass of property offered for sale on the common terms; but were still held by Penn, solely as proprietor under the charter. The quit-rents, too, were clearly an appendage to the original grant, retained on the lands which were sold, and retained by Penn in his character as proprietor. Yet these are expressly saved to him. There is, then, in the act of 1779, no intention to make the private and proprietary rights of Penn the criterion by which the line of partition between him and the Commonwealth should be ascertained; but there is a clear intention to divide his proprietary estate, and to make his surveys of manors the criterion by which this line of partition should be ascertained. This result is, we think, very clearly produced, so far as respects the soil, by the 5th and 8th sections; and is, we think, produced not less clearly with respect to the arrears of purchase money, by the 9th and 10th sections. Strike out those sections, and there is nothing in the act which can reach the arrears of purchase money, within or without the manors. They would, like other debts, remain the property of the creditor. The 9th section expressly abolishes "the arrearages of purchase moneys for lands not within the tenths or manors aforesaid;" and if, as we think, the tenth, or manor, was in the minds of the Legislature, described by a survey thereof, made according to law or usage, and returned into the land office before the 4th of July, 1776, then the lands on which the arrearage of purchase money is claimed, in this case, are within one of the aforesaid tenths, or manors. We think, then, that the lands, or the purchase money, which the plaintiffs in the Circuit Court 1824. Kirk V. Smith 1824. claim in this case, are not confiscated by any act of the State of Pennsylvania. Kirk V. Smith. Before we take leave of the act of 1779, it may be proper to inquire, whether it has any operation on the lands lying within the manors, and which had been sold, but not granted, the terms of sale not having been complied with. It will be recollected, that those on whose property this law acted, were the subjects of an enemy, and that the Legislature possessed full power over their estates. Having the power to confiscate absolutely, they might modify that power in its exercise, as to them might seem proper. The 7th section provides and enacts, that all the rights, &c. which were derived from the proprietaries, or to which any person other than the said proprietaries were entitled, "either in law or equity," by virtue of any deed, patent, warrant or survey, of, in or to any part or portion of the lands contained within the limits of this State, or by virtue of any location filed in the land office before the 4th of July, 1776, shall be, and they are hereby confirmed, ratified, and established for ever, according to such estate or estates, rights or interests, and under such limitations or uses as in and by the several and respective grants and conveyances thereof are directed and appointed. This section comprehends all the lands within the State, whether within or without the manors, to which any individuals had derived a title from the proprietaries, either in iaw or equity, by virtue of any deed, patent, warrant or survey, and confirms such title according to the estate, right or in Kirk V. Smith. terest conveyed. That the section operates alike 1824. on lands within and without the manors, and that it confirms titles under warrants or surveys, for which the purchase money has been paid, are certain. It is equally certain, that it does not interfere with the arrears of purchase money which may still be Jue, because that whole subject is taken up and disposed of in the 9th and 10th sections of the act. The doubt is, whether it has any influence on any lands, the purchase money for which had not been paid; and if any, how it affects the title to such lands. . The right of re-entry was reserved as a security for the payment of the purchase money, but does not appear to have been exerted, and was probably considered in the light of a mortgage, to be used merely as the means of enforcing the fulfilment of the contract, not as absolutely terminating the estate. That the proprietaries looked on for a great number of years, and saw lands held under warrants void on their face, for the failure to fulfil the contract within the specified time of six months, and never, in a single instance, so far as appears in the case, or has been alleged in argument, attempted to avoid the estate, would certainly, afford a strong equity to such purchaser against the proprietary, should such an attempt be made. And that ejectments were maintained on such titles, is also evidence of the opinion entertained of them in the Courts of Pennsylvania. It seems to have been understood by all, that the proprietary was to avail himself of the condition in the warrant, for no other purpose than to coerce the payment of the |