a thesis - Institute of Advanced Legal Studies

88 EXPRESS TRUSTS.
in default of such issue to the use of Charles Henry Gust for the
term of ninety-nine years, if he should so long live; remainder to
trustees to preserve contingent remainders ; remainder to the use of
the heirs male of his body, subject as to all these estates to the
provisoes thereinafter contained. One of these was, " that if Lord
Alford shall die without having acquired the title of Duke or
Marquis of Bridgewater to him and the heirs male of his body,
then and in such case the use and estate hereinbefore directed to be
limited to the heirs male of his body shall cease and be absolutely
void." The judges were called in to advise the House of Lords,
and the latter held by a majority of four to one, in accordance
with the opinion of two judges against eight, that the limitations
were void, as being against public policy; the ratio decidendi
being that the limitations "amounted in effect to a gift of pecuniary
means to be used in obtaining a peerage, and offered a direct
temptation to the improper use of such means, and the improper
admission of private motives of interest in political conduct: in
short, because in the opinion of the court they had a manifest
tendency to the prejudice of good government and the administration
of public affairs." (Pollock, Contracts, 7th ed. 317.)