But she is not left dependent upon this oblique influence:  for, if in any marriage settlement the husband has reserved to him a power of making a jointure, and he dies without settling any, her conformity executes his powers, and executes them in as large extent as the Chancellor thinks fit.  The husband is deprived of that coercive power over his wife which he had in his hands by the use he might make of the discretionary power reserved in the settlement.

But if no such power had been reserved, and no such settlement existed, yet, if the husband dies, leaving his conforming wife without a filed provision by some settlement on his real estate, his wife may apply to Chancery, where 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