"Original titles rests in some degree on fiction, and denotes that state of ownership beyond which inquiry cannot be made, the land being held in paramount right.

"In its strict definition, original titles is that right by which a person attains property in a thing which at the time of its acquisition is not in the ownership of any other person. In the law of real property this definition must be modified by circumstances. It is actual possession is in another. Thus, in the case of disseisin or abatement, the right of possession is in the disseisee or heir, who may exert it, whenever he thinks proper, by an entry. And the actual possession is in the disseisor or abator. But this right of possession is of two sorts: an apparent right of possession which may be defeated by proving a better; and an actual right of possession, which will stand the test against all opponents. Thus, if the disseisor or other wrongdoer dies possessed of the land whereof he so became seised by his own unlawful act, and the same descends to his heir; now, by the common law, the heir has obtained an apparent right, though the actual right of possession resides in the person disseised; and it shall not be lawful for the person disseised to devest this apparent right by mere entry or other act of his own, but only by an action at law; for, until the contrary be proved by legal demonstration, the law will rather presume the right to reside in the heir,whose ancestor died seised, than in one who has no such presumptive evidence to urge in his favour. 2 Bl. Com. 195 - 7. Gilb. Ten. 21. But if he, who has the actual right of possession, puts in his claim and brings his action within a reasonable time, and can prove by what unlawful means the ancestor became seised, he will then by sentence of law recover that possession to which he has such actual right. Yet if he omits to bring this his possessory action within a competent time, his adversary may imperceptibly gain an actual right of possession. And by this, the party kept out of possession may nave nothing left in him, but the mere right of property, or jus proprietatis, without either possession or even the right of possession; and this estate is said to be devested and turned to a right. 2 Bl. Com. 197. It is devested because the rightful owner is turned out of possession; and it is turned to a right, because the right of possession, and consequently the right of entry, is lost, and nothing left but the jus merum, or mere right of property, which cannot be regained by a possessory, but only by a real action. 3 Cru. Dig. 370. Thus if a disseisor turns me out of possession of my lands, he thereby gains a mere naked possession, and I still retain the right of possession and right of property. If the disseisor dies, and the lands descend to his son, the son gains an apparent right of possession; but I still retain the actual right both of possession and property. If I acquiesce for thirty years, without bringing any action to recover possession of the lands, the son gains the actual right of possession, difficult to imagine a time when land upon the continents was not subject to some kind of human occupancy and proprietary right, and therefore the law has fixed points beyond which it will not suffer an inquiry to be made. These points mark the initiation of all recognized proprietary interests, and the right by which such interests are held, we call original title."2

In England the original title to land was in the King. In the United States the original title is in the United States Government, except in the original states,3 and Texas, where the original title to land is in the State governments.

Original title can never be in an individual. Original title may be acquired by a nation in four different ways, namely: by discovery, occupancy, conquest, and cession.4 and I retain nothing but the mere right of property. And even this right of property will fail, or at least it will be without a remedy, unless I pursue it within the space of sixty years. So also if the father be tenant in tail, and discontinues his estate-tail by alienating the lands to a stranger in fee, the alienee thereby gains the right of possession, and the son has only the mere right, or right of property. And hence it will follow, that one man may have the possession, another the right of possession, and a third the right of property. For if tenant in tail enfeoffs A. in fee-simple, and dies, and B. disseises A.; now B. will have the possession, A. the right of possession, and the issue in tail the right of property. A. may recover the possession against B.; and afterwards the issue in tail may evict A., and unite in himself the possession, the right of possession, and also the right of property. In which union consists a complete title to lands, tenements and hereditaments: for it is an ancient maxim of the law, that no title is completely good, unless the right of possession be joined with the right of property, which right is then denominated a double right, jus dupli-catum or droit droit. Infra, 266 a. And when to this double right the actual possession is also united, when there is, according to the expression of Fleta, juris et seisinoe conjunc-tio, then and then only is the title completely legal. 2 Bl. Com. 299. Infra. 266 a - Note to Thomas Edition of Coke's Institutes (1836). 2 Warvelle on Real Property, pp. 131, and 132, 2nd Edition.

3 Including States formed out of the original States, as Vermont and Maine.

4 The methods of acquiring land by a nation will be again referred to under the subject of Public International Law, Vol. XII, Subject 38.