satisfied that such foreign corporation, joint stock company or express company, has fully complied with the requirements of the preceding section, and all other provisions of law governing such corporations or associations, deliver to such corporation or association, as the case may be, a license to transact business in this state, which such license shall continue in force until revoked. And such license shall contain the conditions upon which such foreign corporation or association is permitted to do business in this state. No such foreign corporation or association, except such as have heretofore filed with the secretary of state copies of their articles of incorporation or association and have complied with the laws then in force, shall transact any business in this state without first having paid the license fee prescribed by statute." "The circuit court shall have jurisdiction to give proper remedies to all persons injured or damnified or threatened with injury or damage, by any unlawful or illegal act of any such foreign corporation or association, or by any violation of any provision of law, and for the purpose of enforcing any of the penalties imposed upon such foreign corporations or associations by law."

Changes in law. -The statutes above quoted have been passed in the last few years. There have been quite a number of decisions in this state in regard to the law on foreign corporations, but the gist of them all is that the state has the right to regulate their admission to do business in this state, and may deny them such right altogether. It will be noticed by reading the statutes that the penalty against a foreign corporation for doing business without a license is very severe. Such corporation cannot enforce any contract made in this state, nor can it enforce any liability in this state growing out of transactions had by it therein in violation of law. The liability of the corporation, however, may be enforced. The Supreme Court has recently decided that this statute is to be given literal effect and that no foreign corporation not licensed can maintain a suit on a contract made in this state, nor can any assignee of the corporation.

The law in regard to foreign corporations will undoubtedly be changed from time to time by the legislature and the reader is advised to consult the session laws of Wisconsin subsequent to the year 1904 (the date of the present writing) to ascertain whether any changes have been made.

CHAPTER XXVI.

REAL PROPERTY.

SECTION I.

ESTATES IN LANDS.

Introductory. --An exhaustive treatment of the law of real property can hardly be undertaken in a work of this character and it will only be attempted to give the reader a general outline of this important branch of the law as it stands to-day. Property is either real or personal. Real property consists of such as is permanent, fixed and immovable, as lands or that which is permanently affixed thereto. It includes lands, tenements and hereditaments. One owning land owns all above it to the sky and all beneath it to the center of the earth; he owns the houses constructed upon it, and that which nature has produced upon or beneath it, as water, trees and minerals. But an annexation of personalty to real estate in order to constitute it a part of the realty, must be permanent in its nature, but the annexation may be either actual or constructive. -See Fixtures in the chapter on Landlord and Tenant.

Source of the law of real property. - Having formerly been a British dependency, it is only natural that our laws should find their origin in the laws as they were in England when the colonies were established. The English law generally was in force in the United States at the time of the Revolution. There is little disposition to change a system of law, especially in regard to real property, when once established, and the system of real estate tenure as it existed in England must be understood in order to get an insight into the present laws regarding real property. Real property has ever been a source of wealth and power and certain rules have always existed regarding its ownership and transmission. Our laws regarding real property may be traced back

to the feudal system, which seems to have first firmly taken foothold among the Romans, and was permanently introducted into England by William the Conqueror in the year 1066. Under this system, the king was the absolute owner of all the lands. Large parcels of land were allotted to persons of rank and distinction, called barons or lords, who, in return for the use and enjoyment of the same, bound themselves to be loyal to the king and to furnish him aid and service, both in times of war and peace. These barons or lords again allotted portions of their estate to the immediate workers of the soil, called vassals, who, in return therefor, obligated themselves to furnish certain aid and service. The estate conveyed to the vassal was at first only at will or for his life, but was later changed to an estate to him and his heirs, and was called a feud or fee.

The feudal system never gained a permanent foothold in the United States and our state constitution provides that all lands within this state are to be allodial, that is, free from and not subject to the burdens of feudal tenure. Leases and grants of agricultural land for a longer term than fifteen years in which rent or service of any kind is reserved, and all fines and like restraints upon alienation reserved in any grant of land, are declared to be void. The right of the individual to hold land, is, however, subject to the right of eminent domain, that is, the right of the public to take private property for public use, but our contitution provides that payment must be made for property so taken. The state also has the right to regulate the use of property, prescribe the mode of conveying land, to regulate the right of dower, curtesy, homestead or other interests created by reason of the domestic or other relations of the owner, and to make restrictions founded on motives of public policy and calculated to remedy or prevent public or private mischiefs or wrongs.

Kinds of estates.-An estate in land is the nature or extent of interest which a person has therein. There are many kinds of estates in lands, the important ones of which will be mentioned and defined.

As to the duration of the interest, our statute divides them into estates of inheritance, estates for life, estates for years and estates at will and by sufferance.

An estate of inheritance, termed a "fee-simple" or "feesimple absolute" is the highest estate in land known to the

law. The interest held thereunder is one of unlimited duration, free from all conditions, and it descends to the owner's heirs according to the rules of descent, if not otherwise disposed of. The title in fee to all property must be in some one, although lesser estates may have been carved out of the same. This is the estate usually conveyed by a warranty deed, and is generally created by a conveyance to the grantee and his heirs forever, although words of inheritance are not necessary in this state, when conveying a fee.

A freehold is either an estate of inheritance or for life. It is an estate in land which must or may endure during a life, but our statutes provide that an estate for the life of a third person, whether limited to heirs or otherwise, shall be deemed a freehold only during the life of the grantee or devisee, and after his death it shall be deemed a chattel real.

A life estate is a freehold estate but not an estate of inheritance. A life estate is one limited in duration by the life or lives of certain persons, usually the life of the grantee or devisee. This estate may be conveyed like any other estate but is, of course, of uncertain duration. When the owner of the life estate also becomes the owner of the fee, the lesser estate merges into the fee, but the estates must be of the same quality, without an intervening estate; they must be either both legal or both equitable or there will be no merger. A life tenant has the right to the full enjoyment of the estate, and to all the profits arising therefrom during the continuance of his estate. He may cut such timber growing on the land as is necessary for fuel, maintenance of buildings, fences, etc., but he must not commit waste. The three legal life estates are (1) dower, (2) homestead, (3) the estate by the curtesy, which will now be considered.

DOWER.

Dower is the estate or interest which the wife has in the real property of the husband, to take effect after his death. It attaches to all the lands of which the husband was seized of an estate of inheritance at any time during coverture. During the life of the husband, it is an inchoate right merely; it is not a future estate in land. It is not a vested right and may be changed by the legislature at will. The wife's interest is contingent, does not become vested until the death of the husband, and cannot be conveyed or relinquished except

in the manner pointed out by the statutes. The wife cannot, during coverture, convey or release her inchoate right of dower to one having no interest in the land, or to a stranger to the title, and where a wife, a few days after her marriage, made an agreement under seal with her husband, releasing all her interest in his estate, it was held to be null and void in law and not binding on her after his death. A divorce from the bonds of matrimony bars all right to dower unless secured in the decree originally, or by a subsequent revision of it. "A divorce from bed and board, and division of property between the parties to a divorce action, pursuant to the statutes of this state terminates the relation of the parties as regards property rights, except as preserved in the decree, in all respects the same as a divorce from the bonds of matrimony, accompanied by the same circumstance. bars the divorced wife from dower and homestead rights.' But in order to entitle a woman to dower, her marriage must be legal. If void, she is not entitled to dower; but if merely voidable, she is entitled, unless the marriage has been annulled by decree of court before her husband's death. On the subject of dower also see Wills. The statutory provisions will now be quoted:

It

Widow's right to dower.-"The widow of every deceased person shall be entitled to dower or use during her natural life of one-third part of all the lands whereof her husband was seized of an estate of inheritance at any time during the marriage, unless she is lawfully barred thereof, except as hereinafter provided."

A woman residing out of this state, is entitled to dower only in the lands of her husband in this state of which he died seized. In case a husband makes an exchange of lands, the widow is not entitled to dower in both. She may elect in which piece she will take dower, but if no election is made within one year after the death of her husband, she is deemed to have elected to take dower in the lands received in exchange.

Dower in mortgaged lands.-"When a person seized of an estate of inheritance in lands shall have executed a mortgage of such estate before marriage, his widow shall be entitled to dower out of the lands mortgaged as against every person except the mortgagee and those claiming under him."

A widow is not entitled to dower in lands on which there