AND Laws 
 
 AS THEY ARE 
 
 BY 
 
 H, GREENWOOD
 
 Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 OUE LAND LAWS 
 
 AS THEY AEE 
 
 A HANDBOOK FOR LANDOWNERS, 
 CANDIDATES AND ELECTORS 
 
 BY 
 
 H. GREENWOOD, M.A., LL.M. 
 
 BAERISTER-AT-LAW; AUTHOR OF " EF.CENT EEAL PROPERTY STATrTES," 
 EDITOB OF " GBEENWOOD's MANUAL OF CONVEyANCING," ETC. 
 
 UonKon : 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVING TON, 
 
 CEOWN BUILDINGS, 188, PLEET STREET. 
 
 1885. 
 
 [_All viglits reserved.']
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PKINTED BT GILBEET AND EIVINGTON, LIMITED, 
 
 ST. JOHN'S SQUAEE.
 
 m 
 
 sn 
 
 55y 
 
 39rticattB 
 
 TO 
 
 MY WIFE. 
 
 1 063946
 
 ERRATA AND ADDENDA. 
 
 Page 24, line 16, for enroll read enrol. 
 
 „ 26. A clergyman, though practically in the position of a 
 tenant for life might be more properly described as 
 a tenant in fee, unable to sell.
 
 PEEFACE 
 
 At a time wlien further Reform of our Laud Laws 
 forms part of the professed programme of both 
 political parties, it may be that landowners, land- 
 reformers and other thoughtful laymen will not 
 deem useless or unwelcome an attempt to explain, 
 in clear and simple language, the main principles 
 of the system of lavv'S to which their attention is 
 ever more and more directed. 
 
 Much of the information contained in the fol- 
 lowing pages is necessarily drawn — consciously 
 or unconsciously — from the standard text-books 
 which are as familiar to lawyers as they are un- 
 known to laymen; and my indebtedness to the 
 authors and editors of those works is great. The 
 mode in which the information is presented to the 
 reader is my own. For such errors as my work may 
 contain, I must crave the indulgence of those who 
 may detect them. 
 
 To those among my personal friends — both at the 
 Bar and outside the ranks of the profession — 
 whose ready help and valuable suggestions have 
 been of service to me, I take this opportunity of 
 tendering my thanks. 
 
 H. GREENWOOD. 
 
 4, New Square, Lincoln's Inn, 
 Oct., 1885.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEK 
 
 I. Introduction 
 II. The Tenure of Land . 
 
 III. Legal Estates in Land 
 
 IV. Examples of Legal Estates in 
 V. Equitable Estates in Land 
 
 YI. Copyhold Land . 
 VII. Leasehold Land . 
 VIII. Charges on Land 
 IX. The Dead Hand 
 
 X. Primogeniture and Entail 
 XI. Settlements of Land 
 XII. Powers of Limited Owners 
 
 XIII. Transfer op Land 
 
 XIV. Recent Eeforms . 
 
 Appendix 
 
 Index 
 
 Land 
 
 PAGE 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 15 
 
 . 27 
 
 32 
 
 . 39 
 . 47 
 , 59 
 . 72 
 , 79 
 . 86 
 . 97 
 . 105 
 . 116 
 , 125 
 . 129
 
 OUE LAND LAWS 
 
 AS THEY ARE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The existing system of English Real Property Law 
 is a vast and heterogeneous fabric. Its foundations 
 are based partly upon customs of remote antiquity, 
 and its summit is, for the moment, crowned by the 
 Land Law legislation of the present year. 
 
 Like the English Constitution, it has grown by 
 slow degrees, and is not the fuU-iledged invention 
 of any man or age. Every century of our history 
 has conti'ibuted materials and supplied workmen 
 who have helped to mould the structure. Ancient 
 general customs — which perchance arose in the 
 earliest days of our national history — complexity 
 
 now crystallized into the principles of of existing 
 
 .T /~i T • 1 1 1 J. land laws, 
 
 the Common Law ; special local customs 
 
 of unknown antiquity and persistent vitality ; direct 
 
 legislative enactments from the days of John to the 
 
 B
 
 Z OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 latest session of Victoria; varied aud complex doc- 
 trines of Courts of Equity^ invented to moderate the 
 rigour of the Common Law ; canons of construction 
 adopted by the Courts in the interpretation of deeds, 
 statutes, and wills — all enter into the composition of 
 the complicated structure. As in the case of the 
 Constitution, too, innovations intended for special 
 purposes have sometimes, in the long-ruu, produced 
 precisely opposite effects. Ancient Statutes passed 
 to protect particular interests have been so con- 
 strued as to defeat the objects of their authors, and 
 to destroy the interests they were invented to pre- 
 serve. 
 
 Nor are modern Statutes always framed with 
 the clearness and accuracy that might be desired. 
 Notwithstanding the legislation of the past fewyears 
 
 P -osiDects of ^^ ^^""^ scarcely be that the present system 
 
 further re- is destined to endure for lonof without 
 ■f 
 
 further alteration. Changes in the con- 
 ditions of social life have rendered necessary many of 
 the changes in the law which have recently been 
 made. Further amendments are now proposed by 
 the leaders of both political parties, are by many 
 eagerly desired, and are by some deemed imminent. 
 The lapse of centuries has, doubtless, made doctrines 
 once sound in theory, and distinctions once well 
 founded in practice, seem indefensible when con- 
 sidered with regard to the circumstances and 
 requirements of modern life. What direction future
 
 INTKODUCTION. O 
 
 reforms ought to take, and to what extent they ought 
 to go, are questions upon which much difference of 
 opinion exists. Bat it may safely be affirmed that 
 at no period of our history have questions relatiug 
 to our land laws engrossed more of the attention of 
 thoughtful laymen than at the present time. Yet it 
 can scarcely be doubted that comparatively few 
 laymen have any clear or definite knowledge of even 
 the leading principles of the existing law; while, 
 with regard to some branches of the subject, very 
 inaccurate notions extensively prevail. 
 
 It is, surely, incumbent upon those who advocate 
 changes in so complicated a structure as Dggij-abiiitv 
 our present land laws to take some of accurate 
 pains to make themselves familiar with 
 the system which they seek to change. Nor will 
 accurate knowledge of that system render less in- 
 telligent the opposition of those who think things 
 are very well as they are, and who feel inclined to 
 meet the demand for reform with the watchword 
 of " laissez faire." But here a great difficulty 
 presents itself. So complex is the system, so 
 multitudinous in its details, so varied in its applica- 
 tion to varying circumstances, that it is only after 
 the study of half a lifetime that a man can achieve 
 reputation as a thoroughly sound and experienced 
 Real Property Lawyer. The technical terms, which 
 are familiar as household words in the mouths o! 
 lawyers, are unintelligible to the ears of laymen. 
 
 B 2
 
 4 OUU LAXD LAWS AS THEY AEE. 
 
 Words in common use are capable, when applied to 
 tlie mysteries of the law, of meanings which at first 
 cause some surprise. 
 
 An amusing instance of this happened in the 
 chambers of a friend o£ the present writer. After 
 discussing with a pupil a case in which redemption 
 of a mortgage was sought, he remarked, " A case 
 has come in for an opinion, in which we shall have 
 to consider the doctrines of election ^ and equitable 
 conversion.-'^ " " Eedemption, election and con- 
 version ! '' said the pupil. " 1 suppose we shall have 
 to advise upon the infallibility of the Pope next ! " 
 Difficulty of It is difficult for a lawyer, accustomed 
 system dfar- *o technical modes of expression, to 
 ly. speak or write upon any branch of real 
 
 property law, in clear, simple and accurate lan- 
 guage, so as to be easily understood by laymen; but 
 it ought not to be impossible. 
 
 Object of tMs 111 ^^^ following pages an attempt 
 Work. is made to explain, as accurately as 
 
 possible, and as clearly and simply as the nature 
 of the subject will permit, the various interests 
 which now exist in English land, the chief inci- 
 dents of such interests, the powers possessed by 
 their owners, and the changes Avhich have been 
 made by recent legislation. This can be done only 
 in briefest outline. 
 
 1 Election to take under or against a deed or will. 
 
 2 Eqnitable conversion of land into money, or vice versa.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 The roots of the present system are so firmly 
 emljedded in the past that it will be impossible to 
 avoid reference to questions of historical interest ; 
 but as the object is to present a clear view of the law 
 as it now exists, such questions, however interesting 
 as historical studies — and they are often intensely 
 interesting — will only be dealt with so far as they 
 throw light upon the present state of the law. 
 
 It is not within the scope of the present work 
 to discuss historical questions as such. Still less 
 will any attempt be made to achieve the impossible 
 task of placing in the hands of laymen a complete, 
 comprehensive and intelligible ti-eatise upon Real 
 Property Law. The utmost that can be attempted 
 is to present an outline of the system as a whole. 
 Such an outline may indeed enable a thoughtful man 
 to grasp the main principles of the law with suffi- 
 cient clearness and thoroughness to form his own 
 opinions as to the wisdom or folly of such reforms 
 as are likely to become practical questions. It will 
 also be sufficient to bring into relief the obstacles 
 to reform which are inherent in our present system. 
 How far such obstacles are insuperable, how far 
 they can and ought to be sui-mounted, and to what, 
 if any, extent they ought to be swept away, are 
 questions upon which it is not proposed to enter. 
 But, assuredly, the existence of such obstacles can- 
 not be wisely disregarded by either the advocates 
 or opponents of reform.
 
 OUR LA.XU LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 The following pages may, also, enable a land- 
 owner to dispense with continual explanations in 
 discussing questions of detail with his pi'ofessional 
 adviser ; but it will by no means enable him to dis- 
 pense with legal advice and assistance in any of the 
 multitudinous difficulties which must constantly 
 arise, in relation to small as well as large estates, so 
 long as our land laws retain their present intricate 
 and complicated character.
 
 THE TENURE OF LAND. 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 THE TENQEE OP LAND. 
 
 The seeker for accurate knowledge of any subject 
 often finds that liis first task is rather to unlearn 
 than to learn — to clear away erroneous ideas before 
 laying the foundations of his new acquisition. To 
 no subject does this apply with greater force than 
 to the existing system of laws relating to English 
 land. Before the student can grasp the first prin- 
 ciples of that system^ he must forget much of what 
 
 he thinks he already knows. He must ,t . , . 
 
 -' _ No absolute 
 
 realize at the outset that — except in the ownership of 
 case of the Crown — the absolute owner- 
 ship of land is a thing unknown to the law of Eng- 
 land. A British subject — and since 1870 a foreigner 
 — may, indeed, be the absolute owner of an estate 
 or interest in land ; but he cannot be the absolute 
 owner of the land itself, in the same sense in which 
 he is the absolute owner of his horse, his furniture, 
 his clothing, or even his coins of the realm. 
 
 At first sight it seems a paradox to say that every 
 landowner is merely a tenant of his land, yet such 
 is the actual and undeniable fact.
 
 8 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY AEE. 
 
 In strict legal theory, the Sovereign is Lady 
 
 n,„„^- Paramonnt of every acre of English 
 
 Queen is jo 
 
 Lady Para- land ; and every landowner is said to 
 " hold '•" his land either directly from 
 the Crown or from some intermediate lord. He is 
 therefore called the tenant of the land which he 
 holds; the terms upon which he holds it constitute 
 "Tenure " oi ^^^ tenure ; and the land itself is, in legal 
 land. phraseology, his tenement} W^hether 
 
 or not this was the case in the earlier days of English 
 history, before the feudal system became firmly 
 established, is a question of gi*eat interest, but of no 
 practical importance for our present purpose. It 
 has certainly been the fundamental principle of the 
 English land laws for many centuries ; and we 
 cannot understand them without bearing it con- 
 stantly in mind. Moreover, it occasionally has 
 practical effects of a very real and somewhat startling 
 nature. It is, doubtless, a relic of the feudal system, 
 which has survived the conditions of national and 
 social life, of which it was an important and not 
 unfitting principle. 
 
 To realize how natural it originally seemed we 
 Land held miist go back, in fancy, to the days 
 from the when the monarch was the leader of his 
 
 army, when that army consisted of his 
 barons and knights and their retainers, and when 
 the whole frame of society was so bound together 
 
 Latin tcneo, I bold.
 
 THE TENDKE OF LAND. 
 
 9 
 
 by the bond of personal service, that it was alike 
 dano-erous and dis^racef al to be a " lordless '' man. 
 We must also remember tliat under William of 
 Normandy, England was a conquered country, and 
 that the chief who had led his Norman barons to 
 victory would naturally claim the right to dispose 
 amono- his followers of the broad lands whose 
 Engrlish owners had fallen at Hastings, fled into 
 the western wildernesses or been dispossessed to 
 make way for their conquerors. 
 
 In those days nothing would seem more natural 
 or convenient than that the Sovereign should grant 
 to his most prominent and powerful subjects the 
 rio-ht to hold larg-e tracts of land, and that they 
 should, in return, ackiTOwledge him as their lord 
 and agree to render him some specified personal 
 services when demanded, or to supply him with a 
 stipulated number of knights and men-at-arms for 
 the defence of his kingdom whenever the need to 
 defend it should arise. 
 
 It would be an easy and natural step for the 
 king^s tenants to grant portions of their sub-tenures 
 holdings to knights and other retainers, of land, 
 upon similar terms ; and for these, again, to grant 
 still smaller holdings to the freemen who fought 
 under their banners and to the serfs who tilled 
 their land. For there were serfs in those days, 
 and they held, as we shall see, by a peculiar 
 tenure.
 
 10 OUK LAND LAWS AS THEY AKE. 
 
 Wlietlier this system originated befoi'O or after 
 
 the Conquest, it is cei'tain that it existed during 
 
 the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries, and had become 
 
 firmly established before the days of Edward I. 
 
 The tenures then existing were of two 
 Bifferent . ^ .„ . ° ^ , , , 
 
 classes of classes, w Inch still exist ; and altnough 
 
 tenure. ^j^^ relation between landlord and tenant 
 
 was not deemed to constitute a " tenure '^ at com- 
 mon law, we may now^ for all practical purposes, 
 consider it as a third. It may, therefore, be said 
 that all English landowners hold either by — 
 
 (a) Freehold tenure. 
 
 (b) Copyhold tenure, or — 
 
 (c) Leasehold tenure. 
 
 (a) Freehold tenure was a holding 
 
 upon terms that a freeman did not deem 
 
 it derogatory to accept. 
 
 „ , ,, (b) Copyhold tenure was the tenure 
 
 Copyhold. ^ ' 
 
 subsisting: between the lord oi a manor 
 
 and the villeins or serfs who tilled his land. He, 
 
 of course, held the manor, itself, by freehold tenure 
 
 from his own superior lord — either the Crown, or a 
 
 tenant or sub-tenant of the Crown — and his free 
 
 retainers often held portions of it under him by 
 
 freehold tenure. 
 
 , ,, (c) Leasehold tenure is a convenient 
 
 Leasehold. ^ ' t i i t • • 
 
 term to describe the holding existing 
 
 between a person entitled to a term of years in land 
 
 and his immediate lord, or "landlord." 
 
 There was, and is still, also a hybrid sort of
 
 THE TENURE OF LAND. 11 
 
 tenure known as *' customary freehold^' which is, 
 really, a modified form of copyhold tenure. 
 
 Copyhold and leasehold tenures will be dealt 
 with, separately, hereafter; and we must, for the 
 present, direct our thoughts to land of freehold 
 tenure only. 
 
 When we remember that, up to the time of 
 Edward I., the freehold tenants of the j^pi^g^tg ^f 
 Crown possessed and exercised the right freehold 
 of creating subsidiary freehold tenures 
 between themselves and their dependants, it is not 
 surprising to find that English land was held by 
 several distinct kinds of freehold tenure, and that 
 these tenures were subject to various and burden- 
 some incidents, such as a liability on Ihe part of the 
 holder, or tenant, to do homage, swear fealty, 
 render personal services, supply military retainers, 
 and contribute monetary *'aids^' to his lord. 
 Equally burdensome in some cases were such inci- 
 dents of tenure as the lord's right of guardianship 
 over his infant tenants. 
 
 In the year 1290, however, a celebrated Statute* 
 was passed, which took away the right of 
 creating subsidiary tenures. Freeholders might 
 still sell the whole or portions of their land, but 
 they could no longer create any tenure between 
 themselves and their purchasers. The tenure, as 
 well as the land, was thenceforth transferred ; and 
 the purchaser became the tenant, not of the vendor, 
 ' " Quia Emptores " (18 Edw. I. cap. 1).
 
 12 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY AEE. 
 
 _,„ ^ ^ but of the vendor's lord. For instance, 
 Effect of 
 
 "QuiaEmp- Suppose Lord A. held half a dozen 
 °'^^^" manors from the Crown by the freehold 
 
 tenure known as " Grand Serjeanty.'^ Before this 
 Statute he granted one of the manors to Sir B. C. 
 to hold by the tenure, of " Knight's service/^ also 
 a freehold tenure, but with different incidental 
 burdens. Sir B. C. thereupon became tenant to 
 Lord A., but the tenure between them — though 
 still freehold — was different from that between 
 Lord A. and the Crown. After the Statute Lord 
 A. granted one of his manors to Sir D. E., but he 
 could then create no new tenure. Sir D. E. there- 
 upon became tenant to the Crown of that manor, 
 and held it by the oi^iginal tenure of " Grand Ser- 
 jeanty.'^ The result is that, with the exception of 
 the few existing tenures which were created before 
 the year 1290, all English freeholders held their 
 Land princi- land directly from the Crown ; and the 
 dfrect^from ^'"^^ ^^^^ presumes this to be the fact in 
 Crown. every case until the contrary is proved. 
 
 It would, indeed, in most cases be most difficult 
 — if not impossible — to prove the contrary ; for in 
 the reign of Charles II. all the then existing free- 
 hold tenures were, by Act of Parliament ^ turned 
 Abolition of into the sim]3lest kind of freehold tenure, 
 ^nddentrof ^^^ ^^^ ^^^'^ burdensome incidents of 
 tenure. such tenures were abolished. 
 
 3 12 Charles II. cap. 24.
 
 THE TENURE OF LAND. 13 
 
 In some caseSj liowever, tlie services whicli tlie 
 tenant was bound to render to his lord had, before 
 the reign of Charles II., been commuted for a small 
 fixed annual rent, which still exists under the name 
 of a quit-rent. Where such a quit-rent is payable 
 to, and has been enforced by, any intermediate lord, 
 the presumption in favour of the right of the 
 Crown could, of course, be rebutted. 
 
 The Statute which abolished the more burden- 
 some incidents of freehold tenui-e left p^ggent inci 
 untouched the rights of the parties with dents of free- 
 regard to such quit-rents, and also with 
 regard to other incidents of tenure known as (a) 
 Belief, (b) Forfeiture, (c) Escheat, and (d) Fealty. 
 
 (a) A EELIEP is a fine of a year's rent payable 
 to the lord on the death of a freeholder, by his 
 successor, in cases where the land is subject to a 
 quit-rent. 
 
 (6) Forfeiture was abolished in 1870. Pre- 
 viously, upon sentence of death for high treason 
 being passed upon a freeholder, his land was for- 
 feited to the Crown, irrespective of the rights of any 
 intermediate lord. 
 
 (c) Escheat is a modified kind of forfeiture, being, 
 in efiect, a forfeiture to the immediate lord. Before 
 1870 it took effect, upon sentence of death for any 
 capital felony other than high treason. Where, 
 liowever, the Crown was not the immediate lord, 
 the Crown was entitled to the profits of land which
 
 14 OUK LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 esclieatecl for felony, for a year and a day. 
 
 Escheat for felony was also abolished in 1870. 
 
 But if a tenant of freehold land dies intestate and 
 
 without leaving any ascertainable heir^ his estate 
 
 still escheats^ on suchdeath^ to the immediate lord, 
 
 unless during his lifetime he has sold^ or entered 
 
 into a binding contract to sell it. 
 
 ((?) Fealty. It will, doubtless^ surprise xoanj 
 
 landowners to be told that every freeholder is bound, 
 
 if called upon, to take an oath of fealty to his lord. 
 
 Yet, such is still undoubtedly the case. The right 
 
 to exact this oath is, of course, in the great majority 
 
 of cases, in the Crown. 
 
 Until the year 1870, the law of Eng- 
 Aliens may . . 
 
 now hold land did not permit a foreigner to hold 
 ^^ ' freehold land, unless made a " denizen " 
 
 by letters patent, or naturalized by or certificated 
 under Act of Parliament. He might hold a lease 
 for twenty-one years for purposes of residence, trade 
 or manufacture, but if he became a freeholder, the 
 Crown was entitled, upon proper proof of the facts, 
 to enforce a forfeiture of his land. The Naturalization 
 Act, 18 70, however, made "aliens^^ — i.e. foreigners — 
 capable of acquiring and holding English land in 
 the same manner, in all respects, as natural-born 
 British subjects. 
 
 Tenure subject to the customs of gavelkind and 
 borough-English will be more conveniently dealt 
 with in connection with the subject of primo- 
 geniture.
 
 LEGAL ESTATES IN LAND. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 LEGAL ESTATES IN LAND. 
 
 When a layman speaks of an estate in connection 
 Avitli land, lie usually means a definite area of land 
 or buildings, held by a single landowner, irrespec- 
 tive of the nature of the landowner's interest. When 
 a lawyer speaks of an estate in land, he <4 Estate" 
 usually means the interest which the defined, 
 landowner possesses, irrespective of the area of his 
 property. 
 
 To a layman the word " estate ''■' conveys the idea 
 of physical extent ; to a lawyer it conveys the ideas 
 of quantity and quality of interest. 
 
 Speaking, then, of estates in the latter sense, we 
 find that the law of England recognizes Two classes 
 two distinct classes of estates or interests °^ estates, 
 in laud. These two classes are known to lawyers 
 as freehold estates, and estates less than free- 
 hold. 
 
 Just as Sb freehold tenure was one by which a free- 
 man was willing to hold, so a freeJiold estate was 
 originally such an interest in land as a freeman 
 might with dignity accept. In ancient days a free- 
 man deemed it derogatory to accept, as the reward
 
 IG OUK LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 Freehold ^^ ^^^^ services, any less interest in land 
 
 estates. than tlie right to liold and enjoy it as 
 
 long as he might live. Any interest less than an 
 estate for life is therefore less than freehold. 
 
 The chief distinction between a freehold estate 
 Distinction and a less estate is that the former is 
 hold^aiid less' i^clefinite — or at least uncertain — in 
 estates. duration, while the latter lasts only for a 
 
 certain and definite time. This is well illustrated 
 by comparing the interest of a tenant for life with 
 that of a tenant for twenty-one years. It requires 
 but a moment^s consideration to see that the duration 
 of an estate for life is wholly uncertain. The tenant 
 may die nest year, or he may live for fifty years. 
 On the other hand the end of a lease for twenty-one 
 years is absolutely and certainly fixed from the 
 moment it is granted. It is, therefore, less than 
 freehold. For the same reason all interests in laud 
 for terms of years are less than freehold. We thus 
 arrive, by easy and logical steps, at a conclusion at 
 once sound in law and paradoxical to the popular 
 mind, namely, that a term even for 1000 years is a 
 less interest than an estate for life. There is yet 
 another important distinction which it may now be 
 convenient to point out. A freehold is known as 
 Real and per- '''^'^^ estate, while a leasehold, or term of 
 soiial estate, years, is — like a horse, furniture, cloth- 
 ing, or money — ijersonal estate. The distinction 
 between real and personal estate has reference to the
 
 LEGAL ESTATES IN LAND. 17 
 
 different forms of action by wliicli riglits to estates 
 in land and rights in respect of property, usually 
 described as " goods and cbattels/' were formerly, 
 and to some extent are still, enforced. Land is 
 practically immovable and indestructible. Chattels 
 are, on the other hand, both movable and destrac- 
 tible. If a trespasser takes wrongful possession of 
 land, the rightful claimant may bring an action to 
 compel him to give up the real, actual land upon 
 which he has dishonestly entered. But if a man 
 has wrongfully appropriated a horse he may have 
 killed or lamed itj if he has taken furniture or 
 clothing he may have destroyed it ; if he has 
 taken money he may have spent it. The remedy 
 of the rightful owner is, therefore, in this case 
 ao-ainst the ijerson who has been guilty of the 
 wrongful act. Seldom, indeed, can he recover tha 
 specific articles of which he has been deprived, and. 
 the utmost that the law can do for him is to give 
 him judgment, not for recovery of the real articles, 
 but for pecuniary damages against the ^lerson who 
 has wronged him. 
 
 In the days when an estate for life was the 
 smallest interest in land which a freeman cared to 
 ' hold, a term of years was not i-ecognized as an 
 " estate " at all. The relation betw^een a tenant 
 for years and the freeholder whose land he culti- 
 vated was a mere personal one created by contract, 
 and the remedy of either party against the other 
 
 c
 
 18 OUR LAKD LA.WS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 was by personal action. A leasehold interest was^ 
 therefore, naturally considered personal estate ; and 
 notwithstanding the rapid increase and great present 
 importance of such interests^ the law, in this re- 
 spect, remains unchanged. 
 
 Leasehold interests are more fully considered in 
 Chapter VII. Turn we, therefore, to the considera- 
 tion of the three well-known freehold estates in 
 Three kinds E^^&lish land, which are known as estates 
 of freehold in fee simple, estates tail, and estates 
 for life respectively, and the several 
 modified forms which they are capable of assuming* 
 When granted by deed, each of these three estates 
 is created by appropriate words, which are called 
 " words of limitation,^^ because they limit or mark 
 out the nature and extent of the estate. The person 
 to whom an estate in land is granted is usually 
 called a "'grantee.^' 
 
 A TEE SIMPLE — which is the largest es- 
 Fee simple. ^7 -, n 
 
 tate known to the law — was, until 1882, 
 
 created by a limitation by deed to the grantee and Ms 
 
 heirs, the words " and assigns for ever '' being often, 
 
 but unnecessarily, added. Now, it can be created 
 
 by a limitation to the grantee " in fee simple.'' 
 
 When created by will, words of limitation have, 
 
 since 1836, been unnecessary. 
 
 Although, in legal theory, an owner in fee simple 
 
 " holds " his land as tenant to the Crown, or some 
 
 intermediate lord, he has, for all practical purposes.
 
 LEGAL ESTATES IN LAND. 19 
 
 absolute dominion over it. He may dispose of his 
 estate by sale or by gift, he may encumber it by 
 mortgages, he may carve less estates out of it, or he 
 may leave it by will to any person or set of persons 
 — except trustees for charitable purposes — that he 
 may think fit. If he dies intestate it will descend 
 to his heir-at-law, and only in the rare event of the 
 owner /or the time being dying intestate and without 
 any heir, will an estate in fee simple come to an 
 end, and the land escheat to the superior lord. 
 So unfettered is his right of dealing with his land 
 that a tenant in fee simple commonly imagines he 
 has that absolute ownership which the law, even in 
 these days, refuses to recognize. The writer often 
 recalls, with feelings of amusement, the intense 
 indignation of a young Yorkshire landowner when 
 his solicitor told him that ho was tenant in fee 
 of an old family property, and the conviction of 
 certainty with which he replied, " Tenant indeed — I 
 am absolute owner ! '^ 
 
 However often an estate in fee simple may change 
 hands, each successive tenant in fee holds it from 
 the Crown or some intermediate lord subject to such 
 incidents of freehold tenure as still exist. ^ In the 
 hands of each holder, too, the duration of his estate 
 is for so long as his own heirs — and not the heirs of 
 the original tenant — may exist ; and if any owner 
 knows that he is likely to die without an heir-at-law, 
 ^ See " Tenure of Laud,'" p. 13, ante. 
 c 2
 
 20 OUE LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 lie can prevent the esclieat of his estate, either by 
 selKng it in his hfetime or leaving it by his will. An 
 estate in fee simple may therefore be regarded, for 
 practical purposes,as an estate which will lastf or ever. 
 It must not be supposed that the present un- 
 fettered right of alienation was always incident to an 
 
 ■n- r.^ . J- estate in fee simple. It has been firmly 
 Eight to dis- . '■ _ . "^ 
 
 pose of fee established for centuries ; but it grew 
 simp e. 1^^ slow degrees. The right of a tenant 
 
 in fee simple to dispose of the whole of his estate 
 being once recognized, he soon claimed and exer- 
 cised the right of disposing of portions of that estate. 
 To permit him to dispose of his whole estate, and 
 yet forbid him to split it up by carving out of it 
 successive estates of shorter duration, or by dividing 
 it into concurrent estates, would have been deemed 
 as illogical as to say that the greater does not 
 Fee simple include the less. He may, therefore, deal 
 
 S iVss'ei^ ""^'^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ *^^'^® different ways, 
 tates. First, he may, without parting with his 
 
 own estate in the land, carve less estates out of it 
 by granting estates for life or estates tail to other 
 persons. The estates so granted are called '' par- 
 ticular estates,'' and each of the persons to whom 
 they are granted will be entitled to the beneficial 
 enjoyment of the laud {i.e. to possession or receipt 
 of rents) so long as his particular estate lasts. His 
 estate is then said to be an estate " in possession." 
 When the particular estates come to an end, the
 
 LEGAL ESTATES IN LAND. 21 
 
 beneficial enjoyment will return or '^ revert '^ to the 
 tenant in fee simple. While the persons entitled to 
 the particular estates are in possession the fee simple 
 is, therefore, said to be an estate in reversion. 
 Secondly, he may, by a single deed or will, not only 
 carve out successive particular estates, but also dis- 
 pose of the reversionary estate left in himself after 
 doing- so. Where this is done the estate in fee 
 simple (which will take effect in possession at the 
 termination of the particular estates) is called a 
 remainder instead of a reversion. It is what remains 
 to be disposed of after the particular estates have 
 been created. Tldrdhj, a tenant in fee may, by 
 deed or will, dispose of his entire estate, in the 
 whole or a portion of his land, either to a single 
 person or to any number of persons. In the latter 
 case he may so arrange matters that each person 
 shall talvo an estate in fee simple in a specified 
 separate part of the land, or that the several persons 
 collectively shall all take a fee simple in the whole. 
 The consequence of this unlimited power of partial 
 alienation is, that although a fee simjDle in possession 
 is at once the largest, the most beneficial, and the 
 simplest estate in land known to the law, it is by 
 no means the most common. Large properties are, 
 as a rule, split up into particular estates and 
 interests vested ia a number of limited owners, 
 whose interests must necessarilv be in constant 
 conflict. It is by the process of carving par-
 
 22 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 ticular estates out of a fee simple tliat the lesser 
 freeliold estates^ known as estates tail and estates 
 for life^ are now usually created. 
 
 An estate tail orio-iually differed from 
 Estates tail. ^ . . . ° •; . 
 
 au estate m lee smiple only m one par- 
 ticular. "While an estate in fee simple was '^ limited " 
 to the grantee and " Jiis heirs" generally, an estate 
 tail was limited to the grantee and the " heirs 
 of his hochj." It might be further limited to heirs 
 male only^ or to heirs female only. In any event_, 
 if the original tenant died without issue (or with- 
 out male or female issue, according to the terms of 
 the grant), or if such issue subsequently failed, his 
 estate came to au end and the reversion in fee took 
 effect iu possession. If he left issue of the specified 
 kind, such issue inherited the estate at his death, 
 and it descended in a regular line to such issue as 
 long as they existed. In the thirteenth century a 
 custom had arisen, which enabled any tenant in tail 
 to dispose of his estate, just as if it were a fee 
 simple, immediately upon the birth of a child 
 capable of inheriting. Until that event, he was 
 practically in the position of a tenant for life. He 
 could, however, sell his estate as a fee simple con- 
 ditionally upon such birth subsequently taking 
 place. His estate was, therefore, then called a 
 '' fee simple conditional." In 1295, the Statute 
 known as De don is put an end to this power of 
 alienation by providing in effect that every such
 
 LEGAL ESTATES IN LAND. 23 
 
 estate should follow tlie terms of tlie grant. The 
 power of alienation being thus cut down — or in 
 the then legal phraseology taiUo — the estate thence- 
 forth became known as an estate tailj which name 
 it still retains. For some two centuries after this 
 enactment, estates tail were, in practice as well 
 as in theory, inalienable. Then, and then only, 
 was the popular conception of entailed popular idea 
 land, which must necessarily descend in °^ entail, 
 unbroken sequence from father to son or from 
 mother to daughter, actually realized. But a mode 
 of evading the law was soon discovered. By means 
 of a collusive action, which has been well desci'ibed 
 as a " piece of solemn juggling,^' a tenant in tail 
 was enabled to sell his estate, and to convev it to 
 a purchaser in fee simple, thus barring the reversion 
 in fee simple expectant on the failure of his lineal 
 heirs. This form of judicial farce — known as a 
 '' common recovery " — went on unchecked until the 
 reign of William lY. In the year 1833 it was put 
 an end to bv the Statute known as the Fines and 
 Recoveries Abolition Act. This Statute enables 
 any tenant in tail in possession — with two excep- 
 tions — by a deed executed with specified formali- 
 ties and enrolled in Chancery, to turn -p . ^ ^ •, 
 his estate into a fee simple and to con- may be 
 vey it, as such, to himself or to any ^^^^ ' 
 other person. The exceptions exist only in the 
 case of Parliamentary entails created ia respect of
 
 24 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 estates granted for public services, and in the case 
 of a tenant in tail who cannot possibly have issue 
 of the kind specified in the grant. The latter case, 
 of course, arises where an estate is limited to a per- 
 son and his issue by a particular wife, and that wife 
 has died childless. 
 
 With these two exceptions an estate tail is now, 
 for all practical purposes, equal to a fee simple. 
 The deed, called a " disentailing deed,'' has the 
 effect of destroying the rights not only of any issue 
 of the tenant in tail by whom it is executed, but 
 of all persons who have estates in remainder or 
 reversion, either in tail or in fee, in the same 
 land. Where a tenant in tail is in possession, he 
 can execute and enroll such a deed, and so convert 
 his estate into a fee simple, or, as it is termed, 
 '^bar the entail," at his own pleasure. But where 
 his estate is a reversion, and the owner of a prior 
 particular estate — e.rj. a tenant for life — is in pos- 
 session, the consent of the owner of the estate in 
 possession is necessary. If he cannot obtain such 
 consent, he may, nevertheless, destroy the rights of 
 his own issue, but he cannot destroy the remainder 
 or reversion in fee. By executing and enrolling a 
 disentailing deed without the necessary consent he 
 creates, not a fee simple, but what is called a " base 
 fee," which he can sell, and which will have all the 
 incidents of a fee simple so long as his issue exist. 
 But on failure of his issue the base fee will at once
 
 LEGAL ESTATES IN LAND. 25 
 
 come to an end, and tlie remainder or reversion in 
 fee simple will take effect as an estate in possession. 
 
 An estate for lipb^ as the name implies, ^^^^ estate 
 lasts only during the life of the holder. 
 A grautj by deed, to the grantee simply, without 
 further words of limitation, creates a tenancy for 
 life. Formerly this was also the case with regard 
 to a gift by will, but in the absence of Avords indi- 
 cating a contrary intention a simple gift of land by 
 will has, since 1836, been sufficient to pass the 
 whole of the testator's estate or interest. 
 
 Broadly, the legal rights of a tenant for life 
 — as distinguished from his statutory Eights of 
 powers — are to occupy, or receive the ^^^^ tenant, 
 income of, the land so long as he may live. But he 
 is, during his life, just as much tenant to the Crown 
 — or some intermediate lord — as is a tenant in fee 
 simple. At the moment of his death, however, his 
 tenancy ceases, and the person entitled to the next 
 estate in remainder or reversion — whether for life, 
 in tail, or in fee simple — thereupon succeeds him and 
 becomes tenant in possession in his place. A tenant 
 for life is subject to restrictions from which tenants 
 in tail and in fee are exempt. Unless his estate 
 were expressly conferred " without impeachment 
 of waste'' he bad, until 1883, no right to cut timber 
 except for fuel or repairs. Nor can he otherwise 
 deal with the land so as unduly to benefit himself 
 at the expense of his successor. Various Acts of
 
 26 OUE LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 Parliament from 185G to tlie present day have 
 
 conferred npon tenants for life very 
 Statutory ^ . ■ i i t a 
 
 powers of large powers of dealing witn land, 
 life tenants, ppg^io^^giy ^ tenant for life could not in 
 
 any way deal with the land so as to bind his 
 successors, or to create interests which would 
 extend beyond his own life, unless expressly autho- 
 rized to do so by the deed or will which created his 
 estate. He may, however^ deal with his own estate 
 in the land in any way he pleases. If he sells his 
 estate, the purchaser will be entitled to the land 
 during the vendor^s life, and his estate is therefore 
 called an estate ^oin* autre vie. 
 
 A widower has, in some cases, an estate for life, 
 called an estate " by the curtesy of England," in 
 lands of which his late wife was tenant in fee 
 simple ; and a widow has, also, in some few cases 
 a right to a life estate by way of dower, in a speci- 
 fied proportion of her late husband's lands. The 
 interest of a clei*gyman in glebe-lands is also an 
 estate for life, though he cannot exercise the same 
 statutory powers as other tenants for life. 
 
 - See Chapter XTI.
 
 EXAMPLES OF ESTATES IN LAND. 27 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 EXAMPLES OF ESTATES IN LAND.^ 
 
 A FEW illustrations may^ perhaps, render the various 
 estates ia land more easily intelligible. 
 
 Suppose a wealthy landowner, who may be called 
 Walter Broadlands, to have been tenant in fee 
 simple of lands in Middlesex, Berkshire, Essex, 
 Leicestershire, Yorkshire, and Cumberland. He 
 held them all from the Crown except a farm in 
 Leicestershire, which he held from the Lord-Lieu- 
 tenant of that county at an annual quit-rent of 2s. 6d. 
 
 He sold this Leicestershire farm and ^^^^ ^^ j^^._ 
 conveyed it to John Jones in fee simple. cestershire 
 John Jones thereupon became tenant 
 in fee simple, not to Mr. Broadlands, but to the 
 Lord-Lieutenant, and had to pay the quit-rent of 
 2s. Qd. a year, while Mr. Broadlands ceased to have 
 any interest in the farm. 
 
 Mr. Broadlands, some years ago, wished to provide 
 in a somewhat unusual way for his g^t^gj^.^jt of 
 second sou, William, who was about to Yorkshire 
 be married. He, therefore, conveyed his 
 
 1 Keaders who prefer to skip this chapter will not thereby 
 render sabsequent chapters unintelligible-
 
 28 OUE LAXD LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 Yorkshire property to William Broadlands for life^ 
 and after his death to his intended wife for her life. 
 He made no provision for any possible children of 
 the marriage^ as he knew they were already amply 
 provided for. The Yorkshire property then stood 
 thus : — William Broadlands had an estate for life 
 Effect of this in possession, his wife had an estate for 
 settlement. [[^^ j^ remainder expectant on her hus- 
 band^s death, and Walter Broadlands (the father) 
 had an estate in fee simple in reversion expectant 
 on the death of the survivor. Both the remainder 
 and reversion were vested ; because they were ready 
 to take effect in possession at once, if the previous 
 estate should come to an end. Mr. Broadlands 
 ultimately died without disposing of his reversion 
 in fee, and it thereupon descended to his eldest 
 son. William Broadlands got into debt and sold 
 his life estate to Solomon Isaacs, who then had an 
 estate ijour autre vie, which came to an end when 
 William died a few years later. The life estate of 
 Mrs, William Broadlands then became an estate in 
 possession, and the estate in fee simple in reversion 
 will become an estate in possession at her death. 
 As she is now sixty years of age, this reversion is, 
 of course, a valuable property. 
 
 ^ . ^ By his will, Mr. Walter Broadlands 
 
 Devise of -^ ^ -^ 
 
 Berksliire gave his Berkshire property to his son 
 proper y. Bobert, a widower, for life, and after 
 his death to his (Robertas) eldest son, Richard, in
 
 EXAMPLES OF ESTATES IN LAND. 29 
 
 tail male, and in default of issue of Robert, to 
 William Broadlauds in fee simple. 
 
 Immediately on the death of Walter Broadlands, 
 Robert became entitled to an estate for life, in 
 possession, in this property ; his infant son Richard 
 to an estate tail ia remainder ; and his brother 
 William to an estate in fee simple in remainder. 
 But as soon as Richard attained his majority, he 
 executed a disentailing deed with his father's con- 
 sent, and thus defeatedhis Uncle William's remainder 
 in fee simple, and became himself entitled to the 
 estate iu fee simple in reversion subject only to his 
 father's life estate. 
 
 By the same will Mr. Broadlands gave his Mid- 
 dlesex property to three friends in fee _ . , 
 i- r '' Devise of 
 
 simple upon trust to sell it and divide the Middlesex 
 proceeds of sale equally among his five P^^oper y- 
 daughters (who were all of age at his death). The 
 effect of this was, that the three friends became jom^- 
 tenanfs in fee of the Middlesex property, and though 
 one of them died before the property could be sold, 
 no inconvenience arose, for his interest vested at his 
 death in the other two. 
 
 With regard to the Essex property, however, a 
 different kind of joint ownership ulti- sale of Essex 
 mately arose. Mr. Broadlands had sold P^ope'^ty. 
 it before his death to a farmer, who thereupon became 
 owner in fee simple. The farmer made a will, leav- 
 ing this property (which consisted of three farms, of
 
 30 ODE LAND LAWS AS THEY AKE, 
 
 unequal size and value) to his fouv sons in equal 
 Subsequent sliares. The effect of this was, that 
 
 devise of when the farmer died each of the four 
 
 Essex pro- 
 perty, sons became entitled to an estate in fee 
 
 simple in an undivided fourth part of all three 
 
 farms. They are called "tenants in common 'Mn 
 
 fee simple ; and if oue of them dies before steps 
 
 have been taken to divide the property, or to sell it 
 
 and divide the proceeds, his share will pass by his 
 
 will, if he has made one, or go to his heir-at-law if 
 
 he dies intestate. It will not, as in the case of a 
 
 joint-tenancy, vest in the three surviving brothers. 
 
 The Cumberland property became 
 Sale of Cum- ^ . ^ . it 
 
 berland pro- divisible m yet another way. it con- 
 
 P^^*^' sisted of ten small farms, all of which 
 
 were sold by auction, and bought by separate 
 persons. Of these, one purchaser took a con- 
 veyance to himself for life, with remainder to his 
 only son in tail, with remainder to his only daughter 
 in tail, with remainder to his only brother in fee 
 simple. Out of the fee simple of this small farm, 
 therefore, four separate successive estates were 
 ca.rved. Each of the other nine purchasers had his 
 farm conveyed to himself in fee simple. The fee 
 simple in these nine farms, therefore, became split 
 up into nine entirely separate concurrent estates in 
 fee simple in different persons. Instead of a single 
 person being tenant in fee to the Crown of the 
 whole of the Cumberland property, there are now
 
 EXAMPLES OP ESTATES IN LAXD. 31 
 
 nine separate tenants, while four other persons 
 together constitute a tenth tenant in fee ! 
 
 How much further matters would have been 
 complicated if the various persons interested had 
 morto-aofed their estates, the reader will be better 
 able to judge, when he has grappled with the 
 chapter entitled '' Charges on Land/^ ^ The above 
 sketch will enable him to form some idea of the 
 care and attention with which it would be necessary 
 for a lawyer to investigate the past deaHugs with 
 the property, in order to be able to advise any 
 person who might purchase an acre forming part of 
 the Broadlands property, that he had a clear title 
 for forty years ; that being the length of title which 
 a purchaser is entitled to have — and usually insists 
 npon having shown and proved, in the absence of a 
 contrary stipulation. 
 
 •^ Chapter VIII.
 
 o 
 
 2 OUE LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 EQUITABLE ESTATES IN LAND. 
 
 Public companies^ registered under tlie Companies 
 Trusts of Acts, are by law compelled to keep 
 
 shares Eot ^^^yI and accurate reo^isters of tlie names 
 recognized by ° 
 
 companies. and addresses of tlieir sliareliolders. 
 But they are by law ^ forbidden to enter upon 
 such registers notice of any trust. It is well 
 known that the articles of association of many 
 companies go further still in this direction. They 
 contain clauses intended to enable the company to 
 refuse to recognize any trusts whatever in relation 
 to any of its shares,, and even to decline to be 
 bound by express notice that shares are subject to 
 trusts at all. 
 
 Shares may, indeed, be subject to the most 
 elaborate and complicated trusts, but of this the 
 company knows nothing. In such a case the names 
 of t\yo, three, or more persons appear on the com- 
 pany's register as the joint owners of the shares. 
 True it is that these persons generally have no 
 hene/icial interest whatever in the shares. As 
 ' Companies Act, 1862, § 30.
 
 EQUITABLE ESTATES IN LAND. 33 
 
 between themselves and the persons beneficially 
 interested they are merely trustees_, but as between 
 themselves and the company they are regarded as 
 absolute owners. The trustees^ as registered holders, 
 are liable to the company for payment of calls ; to 
 them, as registered holders, all dividends are paid ; 
 and they alone, as registered owners, have power 
 to vote at meetings of members of the company. 
 With any accounts or dealings between the 
 trustees and their beneficiaries, the company has 
 no concern. 
 
 If the reader imagines that this long digression 
 has nothing to do with the question of the land 
 laws, let him for a moment go back in fancy to the 
 age of feudal lords and military retainers. Let him 
 substitute for the trading company of the nineteenth 
 century the feudal lord of the fourteenth, for the 
 registered shareholders, military tenants, and for 
 shares, estates in land. 
 
 As the company now refuses to recognize trusts: 
 
 of its shares, so the feudal lord then Feudal lords. 
 
 refused to recognize trusts of estates in ^^^^s^*^. t° 
 o recognize 
 
 his land. A tenant in fee simple might trusts of land, 
 indeed ti'ansfer his estate to a couple of knights, 
 stipulating that they should hold it for the benefit 
 of monks, women, infants, or other weak and im- 
 potent folk. Whether he used the words, " to the 
 use," " upon trust," or " in confidence," the I'esult 
 was the same. It was to the knights, and not to 
 
 D
 
 34 OUE LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 the helpless beneficiaries, that the superior lord 
 looked for the performance of the services by virtne 
 of which the estate was held. As a natural conse- 
 quence the knig-hts, and not the beneficiaries, were 
 regarded as the feudal tenants of the land. The 
 same view was adopted by the Courts of Common 
 
 ,^ ^., Law. The estate of a feudal tenant they 
 
 Nor did ... . 
 
 Courts of were familiar with, but rights and 
 
 Common Law. • j. j. • • i. £ x i. 
 
 interests arisnig out ot uses, trusts, or 
 
 confidences were innovations whicli they refused to 
 recognize. Estates recognized by the Courts of 
 Common Law were called legal estates; and there- 
 fore, when land was subject to trusts, the legal 
 estate was always in the trustees. 
 
 But it was intolerable to the conscience of the 
 king that sacred undertakings should be violated by 
 his subjects, as well as disregarded by his Courts. 
 His Chancellor therefore, as the keeper of his con- 
 science, assumed jurisdiction over feudal tenants 
 whose estates had been granted to them for the 
 benefit of others. That the trustees — i.e. the persons 
 trusted — held the legal estate, was a question as to 
 which the decision of a Court of Common Law was 
 final and irreversible. But that they held it for 
 their own benefit was quite another question, and 
 one which the Chancellors promptly decided in the 
 negative. A trustee, said they, was bound in con- 
 science to carry out an}^ trust or confidence reposed 
 in him, and not to deal with the land for his own
 
 EQUITABLE ESTATES IN LAND. 35 
 
 benefit. As presiding- judges over the ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ 
 
 High Court of Chancery, where they pro- Chancery en- 
 
 fessed to administer justice according 
 
 to principles of equity, they therefore compelled 
 
 trustees to deal with their legal estates for the 
 
 benefit of the persons in whose favour any use or 
 
 trust had been declared. Whether the zeal of the 
 
 clerical chancellors of those days, for the consciences 
 
 of kings and subjects, was at all stimulated by the 
 
 fact that uses of land were then frequently declared 
 
 in favour of religious houses, who could not hold 
 
 legal estates without a licence in mortmain, is a 
 
 question into which we need not inquire. Certain 
 
 it is that they had both the inclination and the power 
 
 to compel trustees to act according to the trusts 
 
 reposed in them. Side by side with the system of 
 
 legal estates already described (which alone were 
 
 recosfnized in the Courts of Common ^ . , , 
 ^ Equitaole 
 
 Law), there thus arose a svstem of estates thus 
 corresponding equitable estates and ^™*®- 
 interests which were recognized and enforced in the 
 Court of Chancery alone. In this manner were laid 
 the foundations of the equitable jurisdiction which 
 can now be exercised by all divisions of the High 
 Court of Justice, but which, true to ancient tradi- 
 tion, is still the peculiar attribute of the Chancery 
 Division. 
 
 Before the reign of Henry VIII., if land was 
 limited — say in fee simple — to A and B, to the use 
 
 D 2
 
 36 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 of C for life^ in tail or in fee, A and B became 
 joint owners of the legal estate and trustees, and C 
 became equitable tenant for life, in tail or in fee, as 
 the case might be. A and B might recover the 
 land from all the world — even from C himself — in a 
 Court of Common Law ; but in the Court o£ Chancery 
 C was deemed the beneficial owner (or, as he would 
 still be called by a lawyer, the cestui que trust), and 
 he could compel A and B to render to him the 
 strictest account of the rents and profits, and of 
 their dealings with the land. Not the least con- 
 venient feature of equitable estates was the fact that 
 they could be transferred, and otherwise dealt with 
 by less cumbrous forms than were requisite for a 
 solemn transfer of the legal estate. 
 
 In the reign of Henry VIII. was passed the 
 Statute of Statute of Uses, an enactment which 
 Uses. signally failed to eS"ect the intention of 
 
 its framers, but which has not yet ceased to exercise 
 an important influence upon the practice of con- 
 veyancing. It provided, in effect, that any person 
 in whose favour a use was limited should have the 
 lesral estate. The result was to be the same where 
 land was limited *■* upon trust " or " in confidence " 
 for any person. To abolish equitable estates alto- 
 gether was undoubtedly the intention of the Legis- 
 lature. This intention was frustrated by the con- 
 struction put upon the Statute by the Judicature. 
 The Courts held that where a double use was limited.
 
 EQUITABLE ESTATES IN LAND. 37 
 
 or where both a use and a trust were limited, the 
 force of the Statute was spent upon the first use, 
 and that it did not affect the subsequent use or 
 trust. 
 
 Conveyancers desirous of creating equitable 
 estates, therefore, began to limit estates unto and to 
 the use of A and B in trust for C. By force of the 
 Statute A and B therefore took the leo-al „. 
 estate, and the trust m favour of B was equitable 
 still protected, as an equitable estate, by ^s'^^*^®^- 
 the Court of Chancery. 
 
 Therefore it came to pass that the practice of our 
 Courts was as stated by Lord St. Leonards, in 1869, 
 in the following words : '^ It must sound oddly to 
 a foreigner that on one side of Westminster Hall 
 a man shall recover an estate without argument on 
 account of the clearness of his title, and that on the 
 other side of the Hall his adversary shall, with 
 equal facility, recover back the estate." " 
 
 In 1875, the present High Court of Justice was 
 formed by the consolidation of the then existing 
 superior Courts of first instance; and Fusion of law 
 equitable jui'isdiction was conferred upon ^^* equity, 
 every division of the High Court. Then arose 
 many sanguine expectations and many fallacious 
 statements concerning the fusion of law and equity. 
 Then also arose, in some quarters, a strange con- 
 fusion between equitable jurisdiction and equitable 
 
 - " Handybook on Property Law," Stli edition, p. 3.
 
 38 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARB. 
 
 estates. Jurisdiction to recognize all equitable estates 
 and interests was, indeed, given to the whole Court; 
 but the distinction between legal estates and equi- 
 table estates was by no means swept away. Both 
 classes of estate still exist side by side ; and equi- 
 table estates are still capable of assuming shapes of 
 iufiuite complexity, and must still be reckoned with 
 by those who desire to simplify titles, and to render 
 less costly and more easy the transfer of English 
 land.
 
 COPYHOLD LAND. 39 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 COPYHOLD LAND. 
 
 Laxd held by copj^holLl tenure differs^ in many ma- 
 terial respects, from land lield by freehold tenure. 
 The latter, as we have seen, is now usually held 
 direct from the Crown — the former is invariably 
 held from the lord of some manor. The lord, in- 
 deed, holds the whole manor by freehold tenure 
 from the Crown; but a subsidiary and different 
 tenure exists between the lord and the copyholders 
 of the manor. 
 
 The distinction can be best realized by glancing 
 
 at what is e'enerally considered to ... „ 
 & -^ Origin of 
 
 have been the origin of copyhold copyhold 
 
 tenure, 
 tenure. 
 
 Let us picture, for one moment, the position of 
 
 a feudal knig^ht, some eio'lit centuries ao-o, who was 
 
 lord of a manor, which had been granted to him 
 
 by the king to hold in fee simple by freehold tenure. 
 
 As the kino-'s faithful kuio-ht he was „ . . „ 
 ^ _ « Position of 
 
 bound to serve under his monarch's ancient lord 
 banner when required; and one of the °-^"^^^°'- 
 incidents of his tenure was a liability to bring with
 
 40 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 liim say twenty men-at-arms. These twenty men- 
 at-arms were freemen, who acknowledged liim as 
 their lord, and must be remunerated in some way 
 for following him to war. Dependent on his bounty 
 were also a number of serfs, as well as the per- 
 sonal retainers who were emploj' ed at his castle or 
 manor-house. His manor comprised many acres 
 of broad lands of various capacities of production. 
 Part of it might be convenient to hold with his 
 castle or manor-house ; and this he accordingly 
 kept in his own hands. Another part, consisting 
 of good and productive land, he would divide into 
 twenty holdings ; one of which he would grant to 
 each of his twenty men-at-arms, to hold by some 
 variety of freehold tenure. These became the free- 
 hold tenants of the manor, and thus arose the 
 freehold tenures which are more fully dealt with 
 in Chapter II. A third portion of the manor pro- 
 bably consisted of moorland or other rough ground 
 not worth the labour and expense of cultivation, 
 but yielding, it might be, enough grass to feed a 
 number of sheep and cattle — at any rate during the 
 summer months. This portion was left unenclosed 
 and unappropriated, the lord permitting each tenant 
 of the manor to turn out upon it a specified number 
 of sheep or cattle; and it therefore acquired the 
 Common name of common-land. There still re- 
 
 lands, mained in the lord's hands more good 
 
 land than he cared to cultivate, and his serfs yet
 
 COPYHOLD LAND. 41 
 
 remained to be provided for. Without creating any 
 freehold tenure (as would be necessary in dealing" 
 with freemen)^ he, therefore^ permitted his serfs to 
 occupy and cultivate this fourth portion of the 
 manor. So absolute was his dominion over his 
 serfs that they were originally allowed i^and held 
 to hold, only, at the will of their lord, ^^ s^^^^- 
 and the terms of their holdings or tenures depended 
 to a great extent upon his pleasure. No formal 
 grant or delivery of possession was made, as would 
 havs been the case if a freehold tenure were created, 
 but the serf was said to be " admitted " as tenant. 
 Such admittance took place with some degree of 
 formality, a rod being handed by the lord to his 
 tenant, as a symbol of the land to which he was 
 admitted ; and a record o£ the admittance was made 
 by the lord^s steward in the book which constituted 
 the Court Roll of the manor. This record stated 
 that the tenant was admitted to hold at the ivill of 
 the lord, and specified the interest taken by the 
 tenant, the rent to be paid by him, and the other 
 incidents of his tenancy. As time rolled on it be- 
 came usual to give a copy of this record to the 
 tenant. Such copy, of course, formed his title- 
 deed ; and he was, therefore, said to hold by copy 
 of the Court Roll. It is obvious that to style land 
 so held " copyhold " land, and the .^ . 
 
 holder a " copyholder," was an easy word copy- 
 and natural step.
 
 42 OUE LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 As time rolled on^ too^ the terms of tenancy be- 
 came gradually defined and settled, until; in each 
 manor, all the copyholders held upon similar terms, 
 which became well known in the district under the 
 name of the custom of the mauor. Even to this 
 Customs of day the tenure of copyhold land is 
 manors. governed, not by the Common Law of 
 
 the realm, but by the particular custom of the 
 various manors, as modified by the Acts of Parlia- 
 ment specially affecting copyhold land. 
 
 In some particulars, the customs of one manor 
 differ from those of others, but, in many respects, 
 the customs of all manors are alike. In all, the 
 copyholder theoretically — though not practically — 
 holds only at the will of the lord ; in all, he holds 
 according to the custom of the manor ; in nearly all 
 he pays a small annual rent, together with a fine 
 upon admittance, whether the occasion of admittance 
 be a purchase, or a devolution by will or in- 
 testacy. In many manors the lord is entitled to a 
 " heriot," i.e. the tenant's best beast, on the death 
 of a tenant. In every manor a transfer of copyhold 
 land is carried out by a surrender to the lord by 
 the vendor, and the admittance by the lord of the 
 purchaser, instead of by a simple transaction be- 
 tween vendor and purchaser alone. The customs 
 of different manors vary as to the mode of descent 
 on death intestate, and as to the rights of widows 
 to "freebench,^' which corresponds to the ''dower"
 
 COPYHOLD LAXD. 43 
 
 ai'isiDg- out of freehold land, and in other Descent of 
 minor matters. When a copyholder copyliclds. 
 dies without a will, the person entitled to claim, 
 admittance is his heir according to the custom of 
 the manor, who is by no means necessarily the 
 same person as the lieir to his freehold land. 
 
 It is thought by some writers, whose views are 
 entitled to great respect, that, in addition to the 
 land whicli serfs were allowed to occupy, other land 
 which, had from very ancient days been held by 
 freemen, became gradually subject to the incidents 
 of copyhold tenure, so as, in the lapse of time, to 
 be undistinguishable in any material respect from 
 that held by serfs. Be this as it may, there can be 
 no doubt that a right of alienation very soon became 
 part of the custom of every manor, and that land 
 held by a serf might be disposed of by him to a 
 freeman. So that, even before the status of a serf 
 or 'Willein^' was abolished, no inconsiderable por- 
 tion of the copyhold land of the kingdom was held 
 by freemen. But it is important to observe that 
 the transfer to a freeman did not change the tenure. 
 If a freeman desired to hold copyhold laud he must 
 hold it by copyhold, and not by freehold tenure. 
 At the present day, although the status of a serf 
 has been unknown to Eno'lishmeu for centuries, 
 the incidents of a servile tenure still affect the 
 holders of all copyhold land. Among the most 
 obnoxious of these incidents are the facts that the
 
 44 OUE LAXD LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 „. , , timber and the minerals belono^ to the 
 
 Timber and ^ 
 
 minerals be- lord of the manor^ and that^ unless au- 
 
 long to lord. ^-i^Q^.^^ed by custom, a copyholder has no 
 power to grant a lease for more than a year 'without 
 the licence of the lord. No difficulty is usually 
 experienced in obtaining a licence for such a lease 
 as a prudent man would grant ; and the right of 
 the lord to minerals and timber is a somewhat barren 
 one, for he cannot enter upon the land to dig for 
 the one or to cut the other without the consent of 
 the copyholder. But neither can the copyholder 
 Transferor himself get or cut them. One of the 
 copyholds. most amusiug incidents of copyhold 
 tenure is the form of transfer of the legal estate. 
 Equitable estates may, as in the case of freeholds, 
 be created and transferred by deed, but the 
 legal estate must be transferred by surrender and 
 admittance in the followiug manner : — The vendor 
 and purchaser (or their agents) appear before the 
 steward or deputy-steward of the manor, and the 
 vendor, taking up a stick, ruler, or umbrella, hands 
 it to the steward, saying that, by such rod, he sur- 
 renders into the hands of the lord the specified land. 
 The steward then hands the rod to the purchaser, 
 saying that, in the name of the lord, he, by such 
 rod, admits the purchaser to the land to hold at the 
 will of the lord, according to the custom of the 
 manor, at the rents, suits, and service due therefor, 
 and of right accustomed, or words to a similar
 
 COPYHOLD LAND. 45 
 
 effect. Entries of the surrender and admittance 
 are made on the Court Roll, and the transaction is 
 complete. 
 
 Estates analogous to the fee simple, the estate 
 tail, and the life estate, which have been spoken of 
 in previous chapters, subsist in copyhold, Estates iu 
 as well as in freehold land ; and a cop j- copyholds, 
 holder can also create estates or interests analogous 
 to the various equitable estates and joint estates, 
 which so often complicate freehold titles. 
 
 It is perhaps scarcely necessary to remark that, 
 when copyhold land escheats, it goes to the lord of 
 the manor and not to the Crown. 
 
 The inconveniences of this tenure are so great that 
 it is obviously to the interest of a copy- Enfranchise- 
 holder to turn his land into freehold if °^^^*- 
 he can do so upon reasonable terms. When the 
 copyholder and the lord agi-ee upon this course, it 
 is accomplished by a simple grant by the lord to the 
 copyholder of the land in fee simple, freed and dis- 
 charged from all the incidents of copyhold tenure. 
 This s-rant is called a deed of enfranchisement. If 
 either party is unwilling to enfranchise, the other 
 can apply to the Land Commissioners, who have 
 power to fix what amount shall be paid to the lord 
 as compensation — either in a lump sum or as a rent 
 charge, according to whether the application is made 
 
 bv the copyholder or by the lord — and. Compulsory 
 
 . 6iifrB.iicliis6* 
 
 upon such amount being paid or properly j^g^t^
 
 4G OUE LAKD LAWS AS THEY AKE. 
 
 secured, the Commissioners may execute an award 
 of enfranchisement which vests the freehold in the 
 copjhokler. But the disadvantage of this compul- 
 sory enfranchisement is that it leaves untouched the 
 lord^s right to minerals and timber, unless his con- 
 sent in writing to the transfer of such right is 
 obtained. 
 
 Under recent Statutes, tenants for life and other 
 
 _. .^ , limited owners of manors are empowered 
 
 Limited _ -i 
 
 owners of to enfranchise copyholds, and to grant 
 manorb. licences for copyholders to lease. Special 
 
 provision is also made for the case of any lord of a 
 manor being an infant. 
 
 It should be added that there exists, principally 
 Customary in the north of England, a peculiar kind 
 freeholds. Qf copyhold tenure known as customary 
 freehold. It differs from the ordiiiarj^ copyhold 
 tenure substantially in the circumstance that the 
 tenant, though holding according to the custom of 
 the manor, is not expressed in the Court Roll to hold 
 also " at the will of the lord.-'^ Probably the land 
 held by this tenure was always alienable ; and it 
 may well be that it was never, even in the earliest 
 days, held by serfs (or villeins), but that it is the 
 last surviving relic of an ancient tenure by which 
 freemen held, in the remote past of which no 
 authentic history remains.
 
 LEASEHOLD LAND. 47 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 LEASEHOLD LAND. 
 
 The term " leasehold laud " applies, in this cliapter, 
 to land held for any fixed and definite , i, n >. 
 
 loeriodj whether for a single year^ a thou- means a term 
 sand years, or any fixed term of years ° y^^^^. 
 between the two. Such a holding constitutes what 
 is populai'lj' known as the relation between land- 
 lord and tenant. It will, therefore, be convenient 
 to use the words " landlord '^ and " tenant,'" instead 
 of "■ lessor " and " lessee ^' or " leaseholder.''' 
 
 Leases for tlii-ee years or for shorter periods may 
 be made verbally, if the rent agreed to 
 be paid is equal to at least two-thirds 
 of the full annual value of the land. 
 
 Other leases must be by deed; but the Courts 
 will recognize and enfoi'ce an agree- Leases by 
 ment for a lease, acting upon the equi- ^^^'^• 
 
 table principle that what is agreed to be done 
 ought, for the purpose of ascertaining the rights 
 of the parties, to be treated as already done. 
 
 It should be observed that what is Yearl/ 
 
 commonly called " a yearly agreement " tenancy.
 
 48 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY AEE. 
 
 is, in the eye of the law, either a lease for a year 
 or a lease from year to year, according to the terms 
 of the agreement. 
 
 When the relationship between landlord and 
 tenant has once been constituted, the rights and 
 liabilities of the parties are, in some respects, the 
 same, whether the lease be for a long or short 
 period, and whether it be for purposes of agricul- 
 ture, mining, manufacture, building, or habitation. 
 Other rights and liabilities depend upon the nature 
 of the lease and the terms agreed upon by the 
 parties. 
 
 Whenever a money-rent is reserved, and the 
 Power of tenant fails to pay it, the landlord may, 
 distress. instead of bringing an action, cause 
 
 the tenant's goods to be seized and sold, to such 
 an extent as may be necessary to realize the over- 
 due rent and the costs of seizure and sale. This 
 summary method of procedure obviates the delay 
 which would be caused by bringing an action, in 
 which it would be necessary to prove the tenancy, 
 the agreement or covenant to pay rent, the non- 
 payment, and the amount due. But by distraining 
 for rent the landlord incurs serious risks ; for if he 
 happens to make such a mistake as to his rights as 
 to render the distress illegal, the tenant can recover 
 double the value of the goods sold, together with a 
 substantial sum for costs. In the case of an agri- 
 cultural tenancy a distress can only be levied within
 
 LEASEHOLD LAND. 
 
 49 
 
 a year (or in some cases a few montlis longer) 
 after the rent became due. 
 
 A lease usually contains a covenant by tbe land- 
 lord guaranteeing quiet enjoyment of the property 
 to the tenant during the term. Where ^^^^^ .^^ 
 no such covenant is expressly given it enjoyment 
 is implied by law, and if the tenant ^^^'^ 
 is turned out by any one claiming either through 
 the landlord or by a better title, he has a right of 
 action against his landlord. 
 
 In the case of an unfurnished house, however, 
 there is no implied covenant that the house is fit for 
 habitation ; and unless there is an express covenant or 
 representation to that effect, the tenant has no remedy 
 if it proves uninhabitable through bad drainage, 
 want of repair, or any other defect. In the case of 
 furnished houses or apartments, the rule is different. 
 
 Leases of houses or other buildings usually contain 
 express stipulations as to repairs, but 
 where this is not the case, neither party 
 is bound to repair, nor even to rebuild in case of 
 destruction by fire, flood, or tempest. In the latter 
 case, the landlord loses his building, but the tenant 
 is bound to pay his rent during the rest of his term, 
 although the building for the occupation of which 
 he pays has ceased to exist. 
 
 A lease almost invariably contains a clause en- 
 abling the landlord to enter and put an Power of 
 end to the lease, in case the rent falls re-entry. 
 
 £
 
 50 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 into arrear beyond a specified period : and it is by 
 no means nnusnal for such clause to extend to any 
 breach of covenant by the tenant. If no agreement 
 is made with reference to such a clause, during the 
 negotiations for a lease, the law entitles the land- 
 lord to insist upon the insertion in the lease of the 
 clause so far as it applies to nonpayment of rent, 
 but not so far as it extends to any other breach of 
 covenant. The legal effect of the clause, of course, 
 is that the tenant may forfeit all right and interest 
 under his lease if he allows his rent to fall into 
 arrear beyond the specified time, and also (in cases 
 where the extended clause is inserted) if he commits 
 any breach of covenant, however trivial. But, in 
 this case — as in many others — ecjuity tempers the 
 rigour of the law. 
 
 Where a tenant had incurred a forfeiture by non- 
 Eelief against payment of rent, or by failure to insure, 
 breach of *^^ the Court has for many years prevented 
 covenant. the landlord from enforcing it, on the 
 terms of the tenant paying all arrears, or effecting 
 a proper insurance, as the case might require. 
 
 Until 1882, there was, however, no power to 
 interfere in the case of forfeiture through breach of 
 any other covenant. But now the Courthas, under 
 § 14 of the Conveyancing Act, 1881, very ample 
 jurisdiction to relieve against forfeiture incurred 
 by breach of covenant; and a landlord must now, 
 before taking proceedings to enforce a forfeiture, 
 serve the tenant with a notice specifying the breach
 
 LEASEHOLD LAM). 51 
 
 of covenant of which he complains, and requiring- 
 
 the tenant to remedy it or make compensation for 
 
 itj as the case may require. If the tenant complies 
 
 with such notice he cannot be ejected ; if he fails 
 
 to do so the landlord may bring an action to enforce 
 
 the forfeiture. But even then the tenant can apply 
 
 to the Court for relief, and will be able to obtain it 
 
 if he proves that the landlord has acted harshly, and 
 
 been unreasonable in his demands. 
 
 The few cases in which the Court has still no 
 
 power to relieve against forfeiture are 
 
 ? I T t I P Esceptions. 
 
 where it is incurred through breach oi 
 
 covenants or conditions precluding the tenant from 
 assigning', underletting, or parting with the pos- 
 session of the land leased to him, through bank- 
 ruptcy or execution, and through breach of cove- 
 nants securing a right of inspection to the landlord 
 in a mining lease. 
 
 It is well known that trees planted and buildings 
 put up by a tenant on his landlord's Eight to 
 land become the pi'operty of the land- structural 
 lord. The rule is the same with regard additions. 
 to structural additions and improvements to build- 
 ings made by a tenant, even though they may be 
 made with the knowledge and express consent of 
 the landlord. The rule with regard to fixtures is 
 much more difficult to state clearly and Right to 
 accurately; and cases constantly arise fixtures, 
 in which the most experienced lawyers are unable 
 to advise with certainty whether particular fixtures, 
 
 E 2
 
 52 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 which have been paid for by a tenant, belong to 
 
 him or to his landlord. Speaking broadly, how- 
 
 ever, it may be said that trade fixtures bought by a 
 
 tenant usually belong to him, and may be removed 
 
 by him at any time during his tenancy ; and that 
 
 the same rule applies to other fixtures which can 
 
 be removed without digging up the land or injuring 
 
 the buildings to which they are attached. Bat if a 
 
 tenant attaches fixtures to the land or buildings 
 
 (either by building them in or otherwise) in such a 
 
 way that they cannot be removed without injury, 
 
 they must be left for the benefit of the landlord. 
 
 Indeed, they become the property of the landlord 
 
 from the moment they are attached to the freehold. 
 
 For instance, a tenant who adds a billiard-room or 
 
 bath-room to his house, or puts up a greenhouse on 
 
 a brick foundation let into the ground, or lets a 
 
 cupboard into a wall, does so for the ultimate 
 
 benefit of his landlord. But if he simply lays 
 
 planks on the surface of the land, and puts up a 
 
 wooden and glass greenhouse on the planks, or puts 
 
 a cupboard up against a wall, merely fastening it so 
 
 as to steady it, he may remove his greenhouse or 
 
 his cupboard when his tenancy expires. 
 
 However much a tenant may spend upon new 
 
 buildings, alterations, additions, improvements, or 
 
 fixtures which he is bound to leave for his landlord's 
 
 benefit, he cannot claim a single farthing 
 Tenant has ° ° 
 
 no right to from the landlord by way of compensa- 
 
 cDmpensation. ^-^^ ^^^ ^^^^ expenditure ; unless, indeed,
 
 LEASEHOLD LAND. 53 
 
 he has had the prudence to stipulate that compen- 
 sation shall be paid, and the good fortune to 
 induce his landlord to agree to terms so unusual. 
 
 In the solitary case of agricultural Exception 
 tenancies, indeed, certain exceptions cuitiu-al^"' 
 have been made in favour of the tenant Holdings Act. 
 by the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1883, and it is 
 impossible for him, by contract, to deprive himself 
 of the benefits conferred by the Act. 
 
 This Act gives to every agricultural tenant a right 
 to compensation for specified improve- j-^f f * 
 ments of a permanent nature made by Agricultural 
 him with his landlord's consent, and ° ^^^^ 
 for improvements by drainage and specified modes 
 of manuring made by him after giving his land- 
 lord notice of his intention to make them, and 
 waiting for at least two months so as to give the 
 landlord the opportunity of making them himself. 
 It also confers on agricultural tenants limited rights 
 to remove engines, fencing, machinery, and other 
 fixtures and specified buildings put by them at 
 their own cost upon the land, if their landlords do 
 not elect to purchase them at a fair price. 
 
 It follows from what has been said with regard 
 to buildings erected by a tenant, that the notion of 
 divided ownership which prevails with Building 
 regard to sites and houses held under leases, 
 building leases is altogether erroneous. It is not 
 uncommon to hear a person describe the house 
 which he occupies as his own, and the laud upon
 
 54 OUR LAND LAWS AS THBY ARE. 
 
 wliich it is built as his landlord's. This idea is 
 probably based upon the facts that the rent payable 
 under a building lease is usually called a " ground 
 rent/' and that the tenant has himself built, or paid 
 Erroneous for the building of, the house. But the 
 popular ideas, p^gj^t to receive his ground rent by no 
 means exhausts the rights of a landlord who has 
 granted a building lease. Every brick, tile, slate, 
 and piece of timber Avhich is brought upon the 
 ground becomes the property of the landlord from 
 the moment it is built into, or fixed to, the rising 
 structure. Neither the builder, who is usually the 
 original tenant under a building lease, nor any 
 person to whom he may sell and transfer his 
 tenancy, has any legal right to remove a single 
 article which has once been affixed to the freehold. 
 „ , At the end of the term granted by the 
 
 longs to lease, the landlord will be entitled to 
 
 possession of the building as well as the 
 land. Moreover, the lease usually contains clauses 
 binding the tenant, at his own expense, to keep the 
 building in such a state of repair that at the end of 
 the term it may be as nearly as practicable equal in 
 value to the sum which it originally cost. Where 
 the lease also contains a clause providing for 
 forfeiture on breach of covenant, there was always, 
 up to the year 1882, the risk that the landlord 
 might take advantage of soma trifling and even 
 unintentional breach to euforce a forfeiture, and thus
 
 LEASEHOLD LAND, 55 
 
 acquire for his own benefit the building which had 
 been erected, at the tenant's expense, perhaps only 
 a few mouths before. 
 
 Unless prohibited by the terms of his lease or 
 agreement, a tenant for years may sell or otherwise 
 dispose of his estate or interest in the Tenant may 
 land just as any other landowner may. ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^s® 
 He may either transfer his entire term to a pur- 
 chaser, or he may grant an underlease for a shorter 
 period at the same rent he pays, or at a lai'ger or 
 smaller rent, according to circumstances. If he 
 
 grants an underlease he becomes land- , , 
 
 f' . . or underlet. 
 
 lord to the subtenant, and still remains 
 
 liable to his own landlord for the payment of the 
 
 rent reserved by, and the due performance of the 
 
 covenants contained in his own lease. 
 
 If, on the other hand, he transfers or " assigns " 
 
 his entire term to another person (called an 
 
 '^ assignee"), he ceases to have any interest under 
 
 the lease, and the assignee takes his place as tenant. 
 
 But, though he parts with all his interest, he by no 
 
 means gets rid of his liability under the liability of 
 
 lease, unless indeed he is himself an lessee after 
 -rp , . ,, ■ ■ ^ , j_ assignmeut. 
 
 assignee, it he is the original tenant 
 
 (or lessee) he must have entered into a covenant to 
 
 pay the rent, and may also have covenanted to 
 
 insure, to repair, and to do other things ; and so 
 
 long as the term granted by the lease subsists, he 
 
 remains liable under these covenants. Of course
 
 53 OUK LA.ND LAWS AS THEY AEE. 
 
 the assignee who hn.s the actual enjoyment nnder 
 the lease is also liable, but if he is insolvent, or if, 
 for any reason, the landlord prefers to sue the original 
 tenant, he may do so. An instance where this right 
 Avas productive of great hardship came before the 
 present writer a few years ago. 
 
 Three gentlemen took a lease, for a long term, of 
 mining property, as trustees for a company of which 
 they were directors. Under this lease a royalty was 
 payable on all coal or iron got by the tenants ; but 
 if in any year the royalty amounted to less than 
 2000/. a year, or if no coal or iron was got, then a 
 certain rent of 2000/. a year was payable. The com- 
 pany sold the lease, and the three trustees assigned 
 it to the purchaser. Forty or fifty years after the 
 lease had been granted it was the property of 
 another limited company, which became insolvent 
 and was wound up, after all the best coal had been 
 worked out and the workings abandoned. Two of 
 the trustees were dead, and the third, who was about 
 eighty years of age, had forgotten all about the 
 transaction. His surprise may be imagined when 
 he was served with a notice by the landlord de- 
 manding payment of 1000/., being arrears of cer- 
 tain rent for the past half-year ! The surprise 
 deepened to dismay when the demand was followed 
 by an action, to compromise which he ultimately 
 had to pay 3000/. or 4000/. Had it not fortu- 
 nately happened that the lease contained a clause
 
 LEASEHOLD LAND. 57 
 
 enablinsf liim to determine it at the end of two or 
 
 three years, his loss would have been much heavier. 
 
 If, however, a person to whom a lease has been 
 
 assio-ned, assisrns it to a third person, he ^. ,.,.^ „ 
 !^ ' o ^ i ' Liability of 
 
 ceases to be liable to the landlord in assignee after 
 
 respect of future rent or future breach ^^^^5^"^^^ • 
 
 of covenant, though he may be liable to his assignor. 
 
 Not only may a tenant assign or underlet the 
 
 land comprised in his lease, but he may _ 
 
 J^ , . ■" "^ Tenant may 
 
 mortgage or charge it just as the owner mortgage his 
 of a freehold estate may mortgage or ^^^^" 
 charge his land. 
 
 He may also leave it by will, and if he dies in- 
 testate it will descend, not to his heir, but to his 
 legal personal representative as trustee for his next 
 of kin, together with his money and other personal 
 estate. 
 
 It should be observed that if a tenant becomes 
 bankrupt, his trustee in bankruptcy may disclaim 
 the lease and surrender it to the landlord. If the 
 bankrupt has granted an underlease, the subtenant 
 thereupon becomes tenant to the original landlord. 
 
 In addition to leases for years there are, in some 
 parts of the country, leases for lives — usually the 
 lives of three specified persons — at |Leases"for 
 nominal rents. These leases, when, as is ^^'^^^• 
 often the case, they are perpetually renewable, are 
 for practical pui'poses equivalent to a fee simple held 
 at a small rent.
 
 58 OUE LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 In other parts of the country there exist very long 
 
 T ^ terms of years at nominal rents, which, 
 
 Long terms. . . -^ _ \ ' 
 
 in practice, are rarely, if ever, paid. The 
 Conveyancing Act, 1881, enables persons entitled to 
 such terms to turn them by deed into freehold 
 estates in fee simple in most cases where the rent 
 has no mouey value, and at least 200 years remain 
 unexpired of a term which was originally not shorter 
 than 300 years. Long terms created by way of 
 charge are dealt with in Chapter XI.
 
 CHARGES ON LAND. 59 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CHARGES ON LAND. 
 
 Charges on land are of two kinds^ namely, those 
 imposed by the State, and those created charges hj 
 by the owners of estates. TfnlvT^ ^^ 
 
 The principal charges imposed by the . _ g^^^^.^ 
 State are Succession Duty, Tithe Rent 
 Charge, Land Tax, Property Tax, Inhabited House 
 Duty, the various rates — such as Poor Rate, Local 
 Board Rates, and School Board Rates — which local 
 authorities are authorized to make and collect from 
 occupiers of land, and Stamp Duty. 
 
 Succession Duty is a charge of modern origin, 
 having been first imposed in 1853. It Succession 
 is payable by any person who becomes outj. 
 entitled to an estate in land on the death of 
 another person, and it varies in amount, accord- 
 ing to the relationship between the person liable to 
 pay it and his predecessor. Thus, a son, becoming 
 entitled to an estate in land on the death of his 
 father or mother, pays what is virtually a tax of 
 one per cent, on the value to him (according to 
 tables adopted by the Government) of the estate
 
 CO OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY AEE. 
 
 whicli he acquires. A person succeediug to an 
 estate on tlie deatli of a predecessor who is no rela- 
 tion to him pays a similar tax at the rate of ten per 
 cent. Duties at the intermediate I'ates of thi*ee, five, 
 and six per cent, are payable by brothers and sisters, 
 cousins, and other relations. It will be remembered 
 that a proposal to impose an additional duty at the 
 rate of three per cent., similar to the probate duty, 
 payable in respect of personal estate, upon all estates 
 in land devolving by will or through intestacy, 
 formed part of the Budget of 1885. 
 
 Tithe Rent Charge is a charge now substituted. 
 Tithe Rent by Statute, for the ancient charge called 
 Charge. ec i[f}^Q^^--' which was a recognized 
 
 charge on English land ' long before the Norman 
 Conquest. It is payable either to the rector of 
 the parish in which the land lies, or to the rector 
 of some other parish to whose predecessor some per- 
 son liable to pay tithes may have granted them. The 
 rector of a parish is not necessarily the same per- 
 son as the vicar. In some cases the rector is a 
 layman, or "^lay impropriator^' to whose predeces- 
 sors in title the tithes formerly payable to monas- 
 teries have been granted by the Crown. 
 
 Land Tax has existed in some shape or other for 
 
 _ , many centuries. In its present shape it 
 
 was imposed in the reign of Charles II., 
 
 soon after the abolition of the more burdensome 
 
 ' Or, strictly speaking, on the 2^i"oduce of the land.
 
 CHARGES ON LAND. 61 
 
 varieties of feudal tenures, and various subsequent 
 Statutes have provided for assessment of land and 
 collection of this tax. In many cases the owners of 
 estates in land have taken advantage of subsequent 
 Statutes enabling them to redeem and free their land 
 from this tax by payment of a lump sum. Where 
 this has not been done the Land Tax is still a sub- 
 sisting burden on English land. 
 
 Peopekty Tax is well known, under the name of 
 '' Income Tax/' to be an annual tax on 
 the annual value or rent of land, vary- 
 ing in amount from year to year according to the 
 amount of the national expenditure under the 
 Ministry of the day. It is collected from the occu- 
 pier of every house, farm, and other description of 
 land, but if he is not the owner he has, by Statute, 
 the right to deduct the amount so paid by him from 
 his rent, and it thus becomes a direct charge on the 
 owner of the existing estate in possession. 
 
 House Duty is a similar tax, imposed on and pay- 
 able by the occupiers of inhabited houses. House Duty. 
 
 The various rates made and collected Kates, 
 by local authorities to provide for the support 
 and relief of the poor, the education of poor 
 children, the expenses of police, draining, road- 
 making, and other matters within the powers of 
 municipal corporations, local boards of health, and 
 similar bodies, are also imposed on and payable by 
 the occupiers of land and houses within the districts
 
 62 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 of the various authorities by which they are imposed. 
 As house duty and local rates are, in the absence of 
 any arrangement to the contrary, payable by 
 occuijiers, they are not, theoretically^ charges upon 
 land at all. But, in consequence of the mode in 
 which they are calculated and collected, they are so 
 habitually associated with rent, and regarded as 
 part of the cost incidental to the occupation of land 
 and houses,, that they undoubtedly do, practically, 
 constitute an important burden on the owners of 
 How far local estates inland. How far this is the case 
 tute^a Charee ^^^^ ^® estimated by considering to what 
 on land. extent rents would rise if local rates were 
 
 calculated with regard to the incomes of occupiers 
 instead of with regard to the rents which they pay. 
 
 The so-called rates of water and gas companies 
 Gas and are in no sense charges upon land. They 
 
 Water Eents. ^-^q ^jqJ- pi^operly rates or rents at all, but 
 merely purchase-money for goods supplied. In the 
 case of gas this is obvious when .the mode of 
 measurement is considered. Where water is sup- 
 plied by meter, and where extra payments are made 
 for additional facilities in the suppl}^ of water^ the 
 same remark applies. Where, however, water is 
 charged for, according to the value of the house to 
 which it is supplied instead of according to the 
 quantity consumed, it seems at first sight to be, 
 though it is not in reality, a charge upon the land. 
 
 Another charge imposed by the State, which
 
 CHAKGES ON LAND. 63 
 
 greatly increases tlie cost of land transfer, is the 
 stamp duty upon conveyances. It is an 
 ad valorem duty of 2s. 6d. to 3s. 9d. per 
 cent, on the amount of the purchase-money. Duties 
 are payable at different rates on the rents reserved 
 by leases and sums secured by mortgages, and on 
 various other instruments affecting land ; and heavy 
 penalties are incurred in the event of any conceal- 
 ment or misstatement as to the amount on which 
 duty is payable. 
 
 Charges created by owners of estates in land may 
 be conveniently considered as divided charges by 
 into two classes ; the first consisting of owners, 
 ordinary mortgages and similar securities for money 
 borrowed by the owner of an estate, and the second 
 of charges by will or settlement for raising jointures, 
 portions for children, and other sums Mortgages; 
 for purposes prescribed by the will or ^^^ ^j. gg^^^ 
 settlement. Charges of the latter class tlement. 
 will be most conveniently dealt with in connection 
 with settlements of land. We therefore now turn 
 our attention to ordinary mortgages. 
 
 Suppose John Jones to be a farmer who has in- 
 vested all his spare cash in the purchase of a free- 
 hold fai^m, which now belongs to him for an estate 
 in fee simple, and is free from incumbrances. He 
 has paid 1000/. for it, and he wants to Mortgage by 
 'raise 500/. in order to purchase stock owner in fee. 
 and provide working capital. This he can easily
 
 64 OUK LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 do by pledging Ms farm as security. Indeed, his 
 neighbour, Thomas Brown, agrees at once to lend 
 him the 500Z. on a mortgage of the farm. His title 
 to the farm is investigated by Brown's solicitor, and 
 found to be satisfactory; and a mortgage is ac- 
 cordingly prepared (by Brown's solicitor at the 
 expense of Jones) to secure the repayment to Brown 
 of his bOOl. with interest. This mortgage is a deed 
 
 „ ,. by which Jones covenants (or an^rees) 
 
 Ordinary •'. . . 
 
 mortgage witli Brown that he will, six months 
 
 explained. ^^^^^ ^-^^ ^^^^ ^f ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^j^^ ^qq^^ 
 
 with six months' interest at say 41. per cent, per 
 annum to Brown. There is also a further covenant 
 that if the 500Z. shall not then be repaid, he will 
 continue to pay interest on it at the same rate, until 
 actual repayment. By the same deed, Jones then 
 conveys his farm to Brown in fee simple, just as if 
 Brow'n had bought it. Then follows a stijDulation 
 that if Jones pays the 500Z. and interest, according 
 to his covenant, Brown will reconvey the farm to 
 him. As Jones will remain in possession of the 
 faim, the deed will, probably, also contain a clause 
 to the effect that Jones agrees to become Brown's 
 tenant of it, at a rent equal to the interest on the 
 mortgage viz. 20/. a year. In case difficulties should 
 arise, this provision would, prior to the 1st of Novem- 
 ber, 1882, have enabled Brown, in addition to his 
 other remedies, to distrain for any overdue interest, 
 juEt as a landlord may distrain for rent in arrear.
 
 CHARGES ON LAND. G5 
 
 If matters go on smootlily, Jones will pay liis in- 
 terest regularly every half-year until lie Effect of 
 can afford to pay off the 500/., when mortgage. 
 Brown will reconvey the farm to him, and he will 
 then hold it as before in fee simple, free from incum- 
 brances. Or if Brown should require repayment 
 of his 500L before Jones finds it convenient to pay 
 it off, Jones will probably have no difficulty in 
 obtaining a loan on similar terms from his neigh- 
 bour Robinson. The money lent by Robinson will, 
 in that case, be paid to Brown, and his mortgage 
 will be transferred to Robinson. But if the parties 
 should quarrel, or if Jones should get into difficulties 
 through bad harvests, injudicious management, ex- 
 travagance, speculation, or any other cause, litigation 
 and other troubles may follow, and it may be ne- 
 cessary to ascertain with accuracy the legal position 
 of the parties. 
 
 The reader will observe that the deed binds 
 
 Brown to reconvey the farm only in the legal and 
 ■^ . '' equitable 
 
 event of Jones paying the 500L and m- rights of 
 
 terest according to Jiis covenant, viz. in ^°d mon-'^ 
 
 six months from the date of the deed. gagee. 
 
 After the expiration of this period, therefore, Brown 
 
 becomes, accordins: to the strict letter of the deed 
 
 and the doctrines of the Common Law, entitled to 
 
 retain the farm as if he had purchased it. But the 
 
 Court looks at the intention of the parties, and 
 
 regards a mortgage only as a security for money. 
 
 1'
 
 66 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 Therefore if, after the six months have elapsed, 
 Jones desires to redeem his farm, but Brown refuses 
 to reconvey it, or to transfer his mortgage to 
 Robinson at Jones' request, Jones may commence 
 an action for redemption, and the Court 
 e emp ion. ^ .^^ order Brown to convey the farm to 
 Jones, or as he may direct, upon payment of the 
 500/., with interest aud the costs of such, con- 
 veyance. On the other hand, the Court will not 
 compel a lender to hold his security for ever on the 
 chance of the borrower being, some day, able to 
 redeem it. Therefore, if Jones allows his interest 
 to fall into arrear, or if, for any other reason. Brown 
 wishes to call in his 500/., he may commence an 
 action of foreclosure against Jones. In 
 such action the Court will direct an 
 account of what is due to Brown, and fix a time 
 (usually six months after the taking of the account) 
 for Jones to pay the amount found due, and will 
 order that Brown shall reconvey the farm if the 
 amount is paid within the specified time, but that, 
 if not, Jones' equity of redemption shall be fore- 
 closed. The effect of this order is that, if Jones 
 fails to pay the amount within the specified time, 
 he will lose all his interest in the farm (which now 
 consists of his right to redeem it, or, in legal 
 language, his equity of redemption), and that 
 Brown will be entitled to hold the farm for an 
 estate in fee simple free from all claims by Jones.
 
 CHAEGES ON LAND. 67 
 
 But foreclosure is not the only remedy of a lender 
 (or mortgagee) who cannot get paid. Q^j^gj. ^eme- 
 Prior to 1882 it had been the custom to dies of mort- 
 insert in mortgages express provisions, ^^^®®* 
 empowering the mortgagee to sell the mortgaged 
 property ; and under all mortgages by deed exe- 
 cuted since 31st of Decembei', 1881, the mortgagee 
 now has, in the absence of a contrary agreement, 
 similar powers, by virtue of the Conveyancing- 
 Act 1881. 
 
 The effect of the present statutory provisions is 
 that Brown may, at any time after six 
 months from the date of the deed, give powers under 
 Jones notice to pay off the 500Z. If ' ' 
 Jones fails to do so within thi-ee months after re- 
 ceivinor such notice, or if his interest falls into 
 arrear more than two months, Brown may then sell 
 the farm and convey it to a purchaser in fee simple 
 free from any claim by Jones. It is in order to 
 facilitate the exercise of this power of sale that a 
 mortgage usually takes the form of a conveyance to 
 the mortgagee instead of a mere agreement that the 
 land shall be a security for the debt. The Con- 
 veyancing Act 1881 also confers upon mortgagees 
 powers to insure, to appoint receivers, and to cut 
 timber, and otherwise regulates the exercise of 
 their powers by mortgagors and mortgagees. 
 
 A mortgagee may also take possession of the pro- 
 perty, but if he adopts this course he is Possession. 
 
 F 2
 
 68 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY AEE. 
 
 liable to render a very strict account of all rents 
 and profits wliicli he either has actually received 
 or might have received but for wilful neglect. 
 
 The supposed mortgage by Brown to Jones 
 is an example of the simplest o£ ordinary legal 
 mortgages in fee simple. But where money has 
 been actually advanced the Court will enforce 
 an agreement to give a mortgage to secure it, espe- 
 cially if accompanied by a deposit of deeds. The 
 agreement may be either verbal or in writing, and 
 will, if necessary, be enforced by foreclosure. But 
 Equitable unless the agreement is hy deed the 
 mortgage. mortgagee will not be able to sell or 
 exercise any other powers conferred by the Con- 
 veyancing Act 1881. Such agreements are called 
 equitable mortgages, and are coustantly accepted 
 as security by bankers, and others. 
 
 It is well-known that persons often give second 
 Puisne mort- and third mortgages upon the same pro- 
 gages, perty ; and in such cases it is by no 
 means a rare event for the security to prove insuflfi- 
 cient and for difficult questions to arise as to the 
 rights and priorities of the unfortunate lenders. 
 
 Suppose Jones to be the owner of a leasehold shop, 
 in a neighbouring village, which is let to a thriving 
 
 , , tradesman. When he gets into difficul- 
 Example of ° 
 
 puisne mort- ties, he raises 40 OL more by mortgagmg 
 gages. ^^^ g^^p |.Q go^iit]^^ ]3a(j times and fur- 
 
 ther losses follow, and he remembers that he and his
 
 CHARGES ON LAND. 69 
 
 two brotliers are entitled in equal shares to a street 
 of about thirty freehold cottages^ in which^ however, 
 his mother (who is alive) has a life interest. So 
 that the estate of Jones and his brothers, in these 
 cottages, though a fee simple, is at present only a 
 reversion which will not fall into possession until 
 the death of the mother. However, he finds that 
 Black (who is a regular money-lender) will advance 
 him a substantial sum on the security of his re- 
 versionary estate in one-third of the cottages ; and 
 he accordingly gives a very stringent mortgage of 
 that estate to Black. Black also stipulates for a 
 second charge on the freehold farm. Further diffi- 
 culties not unnaturally follow, and Smith threatens 
 to sell the shop. Jones, however, induces Grreen 
 to lend him 700Z., of which 400Z. goes to pay off 
 Smith and the rest to appease pressing creditors. 
 The security given to Green consists of a transfer 
 of Smithes mortgage of the shop, a third charge on 
 the farm, and a second charge on the reversion in 
 the cottages. The inevitable catastrophe comes at 
 last, and the discovery is made that the various 
 properties have so fallen in value as to be quite 
 insufficient to realize the amounts secured upon 
 them. Is it matter for surprise that the position of 
 the parties is such as to afford ample materials for 
 expensive litigation, from which some Litigation 
 members of the much maligned legal w^v 
 profession derive much more substan- charges.
 
 70 OUR LAND LAWS AS 'JHEY ARE. 
 
 tial advantage tlian any of the unfortunate mort- 
 gagees ? And yet this hypothetical case is by 
 no means so complicated as many that occur in 
 actual practice. Where questions of priority arise, 
 the possession of the legal estate in the land is often 
 a great advantage to a mortgagee. Questions of 
 notice of other charges also assume great importance. 
 
 It must be remembered that the owner of any 
 estate or interest in land, whether for years, for life, 
 in tail, or in fee, and whether in possession or re- 
 version, is perfectly at liberty to raise as much 
 money on the secuinty of his estate or interest as he 
 can induce any one to advance. Nor should it be 
 forgotten that professed money-lenders are almost 
 always willing to lend upon any security upon 
 terms which can never be described as liberal, and 
 which increase in rigour in proportion to the risk of 
 loss. Of course a charge created by a limited 
 Mortgage of owner (unless under some special power) 
 life estate. ^g^^ affect only his own estate in the 
 land. For instance, a mortgage by a tenant for life 
 is no charge upon the reversion in fee ; and in 
 order to secure payment of the principal he is 
 usually required to insure his life, as the security 
 will cease to affect the land on his death. 
 
 The illustration which has been given in this 
 paper relates to transactions upon a very small 
 scale ; but very similar transactions of greater 
 magnitude not unfrequently affect much more ex-
 
 CHARGES ON LAND. 71 
 
 iensive properties. The effect o£ a mortgage of a 
 life estate in laud of ioimense extent is well-described 
 at the end of Letter II. of the 8th edition of the late 
 Mr. Joseph Kay's " Free Trade in Land/' and the 
 instance there given is very similar to a case which 
 has come under the notice of the present writer in 
 actual practice. 
 
 If the reader will turn to the settlement by will 
 of the property described in Chapter IV., and 
 imagine that every person entitled to an estate 
 therein had created two or three mortgages upon 
 that estate, he will be able to form some idea of the 
 number of incumbrances which may, at the same 
 time, affect a single plot of English land. 
 
 Some remedy for this state of things has been 
 provided by § 5 of the Conveyancing Act 1881, 
 the effect of which is to enable the High Coui't of 
 Justice to clear the title to incumbered land, upon 
 a sale, by declaring it to be free from existing 
 incumbrances. In such a case the purchase-money 
 is paid into Court, and the rights of the incum- 
 brances are transferred from the land to the pro- 
 ceeds of sale. 
 
 It may be added that prior to 1882 neither a 
 mortgagor nor mortgagee could, alone, Power to 
 
 grant a lease binding upon the other ; \^a.s&. 
 
 but under the Conveyancing Act 1881 a binding 
 lease may now be granted by either a mortgagor 
 or mortgagee in possession.
 
 72 OUK LAND LAWS AS THEY AliE. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE DEAD HAND. 
 
 Foe several centuries tlie inconvenience of per- 
 Provisions of mittiner lars^e tracts of land to be 
 land^held by permanently withdrawn from ttie control 
 corporations, of individual proprietors, and vested in 
 bodies having a perpetual existence, who might 
 be unable or unwilling to sell their estates, 
 has been recognized and guarded against by the 
 law. 
 
 The provisions intended to guard against such 
 permanent withdrawal, fall naturally into two 
 divisions, namely, those which restrict the power of 
 corporations to hold land, and those which restrict 
 gifts and conveyances of land for charitable purposes, 
 whether such gifts and conveyances be made to 
 charitable corporations or to individual trustees 
 for the benefit of charities. 
 Confusion These two divisions of the subject 
 
 between law Jiave been unnecessarily confused in 
 relating to n ■ . p , i 
 
 corporations consequence 01 an inaccurate use or tne 
 
 of charities. ^.^^^ .. mortmain."
 
 THE DEAD HAND. 
 
 73 
 
 Strictly speaking, the lioldiug of land in mort- 
 main—or by a '' dead hand "—has, from before the 
 date of Magna Gharta, meant the holding of land 
 by a corporation. It may be laid down as a general 
 rule that (although corporations may acquire land) 
 no corporation can legally hold any land without a 
 
 licence from the Crown— called a licence Licence in 
 
 , . f, mortmain 
 
 in mortmam — or the authority oi an required by 
 
 Act of Parliament. Various Acts of corporations. 
 Parliament have rendered licences in mortmain 
 unnecessary in several cases, which will be referred 
 to hereafter ; but before dealing with such cases 
 it is desirable to explain briefly the meaning of the 
 word " corporation." 
 
 A corporation is &\ body consisting of Corporations 
 one or more persons, having, for legal <iefined. 
 purposes, a perpetual existence. In other words, 
 although the persons who, from time to time, com- 
 pose a corporation may be difterent, the corporation 
 itself is considered by the law to be at all times 
 the same, and to have a continuous existence. 
 Corporations are of two distinct kinds, called " cor- 
 porations sole " and " corporations aggregate," 
 and each of these may be either a lay corporation 
 or an ecclesiastical coi-poration. A corporation sole 
 consists of a single individual who fills some par- 
 ticular office, while a corporation aggregate consists 
 of more persons than one incorporated by Royal 
 Charter or Statute. The following examples will
 
 74 OCR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 enable the above definitions to be more readily 
 understood. 
 
 A vicar is an ecclesiastical corporation sole. 
 
 The dean and chapter of a cathedral constitute an 
 ecclesiastical corporation aggregate. 
 
 The Chamberlain of Londonis a lay corporation sole. 
 
 Examples of lay corpiorations aggregate may be 
 found in the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of a 
 borough, the masters, fellows, and scholars of a 
 college, and the members of an incorporated joint- 
 stock company. 
 
 A licence in mortmain is now unnecessary to 
 
 ^ . ^ enable corporations to hold land in 
 Exceptions to ^ 
 
 rule requir- several cases, of which the following are 
 
 ing licence. ,i , • , , 
 
 ^ the most important : — 
 
 (a) Land conveyed for augmentation of poor 
 livings. 
 
 (6) Land held by the parson and churchwardens 
 iu certain London parishes for parish purposes. 
 
 (c) Land held by a clerk of the peace for county 
 purposes. 
 
 {d) Land conveyed to corporations for cei'tain 
 charitable purposes, and land acquired by charitable 
 corporations with the consent of the Charity Com- 
 missioners. 
 
 (e) Joint-stock companies incorporated under the 
 Companies Acts may hold land if authorized by 
 their memoranda of association ; but a company 
 for promoting art, science, religion, charity, or for
 
 THE DEAD HAND. 75 
 
 other objects not involving tlie acquisition of gain, 
 cannot hold more than two acres without the sanction 
 of the Board of Trade. 
 
 Such bodies as local boards of health and sanitary 
 authorities may also hold land without a licence in 
 mortmain. 
 
 The statutory restrictions upon the power of cor- 
 porations to hold land date from so long ago as the 
 reign of Edward I. The corporations which then 
 existed were in most, if not all cases, origin of 
 religious bodies ; and their capacity for mortmain 
 the acquisition of laud was so great that 
 fears were entertained lest they should gradually 
 absorb the greater part of the soil of England. 
 These religious bodies had a perpetual corporate 
 existence; their land could never escheat to the 
 lord of the fee. Moreover, no member of such a 
 corporation was bound to contribute men or money 
 for the defence of the realm; and such corporations 
 were subject to the Ecclesiastical Courts, and not to 
 the Common Law Courts of the realm. So far as 
 the common law was concerned they were treated 
 as non-existent, and were, in fact, commonly 
 described as civilly dead. 
 
 Land held by these corporations was therefore 
 said to be held by a " dead hand,'' and in legal 
 phraseology it is still proper to describe land held 
 by corporations as land " in mortmain.'' 
 
 Land held by a corporation without a licence is.
 
 76 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 in cases wliere a licence is necessary, liable to for- 
 
 ^ . feifcure. Subject to tliis rule, it does not 
 
 Power of cor- -J _ ^ , 
 
 porations to appear that corporations were, originally, 
 under any restriction as to the alienation 
 of their land. At the present day many cor- 
 porations possess powers of alienation as extensive 
 as those of individuals; but others are subject to 
 various restrictions. 
 
 It may be laid down as a general rule that lay 
 corporations aggregate, other than collegiate and 
 municipal corporations, may alienate their lands at 
 pleasure, while ecclesiastical corporations (whether 
 sole or aggregate), and lay corporations of an aca- 
 demical or municipal character, can only exercise 
 limited powers of alienation with certain specified 
 consents. In particular, an ecclesiastical corporation 
 sole, though for many purposes in the position of a 
 tenant for life, does not possess the powers of aliena- 
 tion conferred upon ordinary tenants for life by the 
 Settled Land Acts. For practical purposes it may 
 therefore be fairly said that land held by eccle- 
 siastical, municipal, and collegiate corporations is 
 still held by a dead hand, while land held by trading 
 corporations is by no means permanently withdrawn 
 from the market. Two exceptions must, however, 
 be noticed. Much laud, formerly belonging to 
 ecclesiastical corporations, is now vested in the 
 Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who have full powers 
 of alienation. On the other hand, land held by rail-
 
 THE DEAD HAND. 77 
 
 ■way and otlier companies for specified purposes is, 
 for all practical purposes, permanently withdrawn 
 from tlie market. But such companies are bound 
 to sell within a limited period all land not actually 
 required for their undertakings^ and if they fail 
 to do so^ such "superfluous land^' vests in the 
 adjoining owners. 
 
 The law relating to the acquisition and disposition 
 of land by charities may be very shortly ^^.q^ig-tj^n 
 disposed of. It is governed by an Act of land by 
 passed in the reign of George II., and ^ ^" ^^^' 
 various amending Acts, which are often erroneously 
 spoken of as the " Mortmain Acts/^ although they 
 would more properly be called the Statutes of Chari- 
 table Uses. Their general eifect may be summarized 
 as follows : — No estate or interest in land can be given 
 by will upon trust for any charitable „. . . « 
 purposes, except in favour of the uni- charitable 
 versities of Oxford or Cambridge, or any ^^^' 
 of their colleges, or the colleges of Eton, Winchester, 
 or "Westminster. Conveyances by way of gift for 
 charitable purposes are invalid unless executed at 
 least twelve months before the death of the grantor, 
 and enrolled in Chancery within six months of 
 execution, and unless they take effect in possession 
 immediately on execution. Conveyances by way of 
 sale are subject to the same rules as conveyances by 
 way of gift, unless they are for a full and valuable 
 consideration, in which case they are not invalid in
 
 78 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE., 
 
 the event of the death of the vendor within twelve 
 months, but they must take effect in possession im- 
 mediately on execution, and be enrolled in Chancery 
 within six months. In addition to the exceptions 
 in favour of specified universities and colleges, there 
 are certain exceptions in favour of land (not exceed- 
 ing two acres in each case) for sites for schools, for 
 literary and scientific institutions, play-grounds, and 
 other useful purposes. 
 
 Land belonging to a charity cannot be sold so as 
 Sale of land ^o confer a clearly good title on the pur- 
 by chanties, chaser, except under the authority of an 
 express power in some enabling document, an Act 
 of Parliament, an order of the Chancery Division 
 of the High Court of Justice, or with the approval 
 of the Charity Commissioners.
 
 PRIMOGENITUEE AND ENTAIL. 79 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PRIMOGENITURE AND ENTAIL. 
 
 The word primogeniture, when used in connection 
 with land, may mean either the law of Distinction 
 
 primogeniture or the custom of prime- between law 
 
 ., ^_-., . , m 1 ,1 and custom 
 
 geniture. VV hat is commonly called tne ofprimogeni- 
 
 law of primogeniture is, in reality, a *^^®- 
 portion of the general law relating to the descent of 
 land. It comes into operation only in the compara- 
 tively rare event of a person entitled to an estate in 
 land (capable of descending to his heir) dying in- 
 testate and leaving more children than one. In 
 such a case the estate will, in the absence of a con- 
 trary custom, descend to the eldest son, the other 
 children being excluded. In other words, the eldest 
 sou of an intestate is, by the common law of England, 
 liis heir-at-law. 
 
 But the limitations of this law should be carefully 
 noted. In the first place it applies only when law 
 to certain estates in land. There are applies, 
 several estates or interests which ai'e not capable of 
 descending" to the heir of an intestate at all. An 
 estate for life comes to an end at the death of the
 
 80 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY AEE. 
 
 tenant ; an estate tail goes to the next heir-in-tail. 
 Descendible ^^^^^ a leasehold estate or any interest 
 estate. f^y g^ term of years goes to the admini- 
 
 strator for the benefit of the next-of-kin, viz. the 
 widow and children (if any). With regard to an 
 estate in tail male or tail general, the heir-in-tail is 
 usually the same person as the heir-at-law; but if 
 so, he does not take by virtue of the law of primo- 
 geniture, but as being the person next entitled under 
 the terms of the grant of the estate. In the next 
 place it must be observed that the law of primo- 
 geniture comes into operation only in the event of 
 intestacy. The owner of every estate 
 capable of descending to his heir is in- 
 variably at liberty to prevent it from so descending 
 by making a will, whether such heir be his eldest 
 son or not. A man may, of course, die intestate as 
 to his real estate, either by accident or design. 
 He may intend to dispose of it by will, and postpone 
 his intention until it is too late, either because the 
 contemplation of death is distasteful to him, or from 
 some other cause. Or he may purposely refrain 
 from making a will because he prefers his property 
 — both land and money — to descend according to the 
 existing law. The writer recently heard of a wealthy 
 self-made man, who, on being advised to make a 
 will, replied, " Why should I make a will ? The 
 law will do for me just what I should have to pay a 
 lawyer to do. It will divide the bulk of my property
 
 rRIMOGENITUEE AND ENTAIL, 81 
 
 among all my children, and give my bit of land to 
 my eldest son ; I could not do better tlian that if 
 I made a dozen wills/' 
 
 The next point to be noted is that the law of 
 primogeniture can only come into opera- 
 tion when the intestate leaves a son and and other 
 also other children. If he leaves an only 
 child the question of primogeniture of course cannot 
 arise. If, on the other hand, he leaves a number of 
 daughters and no sons, the daughters together 
 constitute his heir-at-law, and take his real estate — 
 like his personalty — in equal shai-es. If he leaves 
 no children at all, his father, if living, is his heir, 
 and if his father be dead his heir must be sought 
 for among collateral relations. Moreover, the 
 common law rules of descent are in some cases 
 excluded by special customs. For instance, freehold 
 land in the county of Kent and else- . 
 
 where descends, on death intestate, customs of 
 according to the custom of " gavelkind," ascent. 
 by virtue of which all the children of the intestate 
 take in equal shares. Again, in some ancient 
 boroughs the descent of freehold land is governed 
 by the custom of '' borough English," according to 
 which the youngest — and not the eldest — son is heir. 
 
 Copyhold laud always descends according to the 
 custom of the manor. In some manors the cus- 
 tomary heir is the same person as the heir-at-law, 
 in others he is not. 
 
 G
 
 82 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 A'\^hatever opinions may be entertained as to the 
 ■wisdom or justice of the law of primogeniture as 
 thus limited^ it is clear that where a person abso- 
 lutely entitled to an estate in fee simple permits it 
 to descend to his heir^ no inconvenience is caused 
 to any person concerned, at any rate, if the heir is 
 of full age. Where, however, the heir was under 
 twenty-one years of age, the land could 
 nience in case not until three or four years ago have 
 of infant heir. ^^^^ ^^j^^ leased, or otherwise dealt 
 
 with, during the minority of the heir, without great 
 
 expense and inconvenience. The Settled Land Act 
 
 1882 has done much to remedy this state of things 
 
 by authorizing trustees to act on behalf of infant 
 
 owners. Still greater inconvenience arose when an 
 
 estate descended to an infant heir, who was only a 
 
 trustee for other persons. If it is permissible to 
 
 parody the common remark that 'Hhe unexpected 
 
 always happens/'' one may truly say that, in legal 
 
 matters, the inconvenient often happens. Yery 
 
 frequently a person who was entitled to a legal 
 
 estate in fee simple, either as sole mort- 
 Trust and ^ . . . ^ 
 
 mortgage g^g^Q or sole surviving trustee, died 
 
 estates. intestate, leaving an infant heir ; and it 
 
 then became necessary for the persons entitled to 
 
 the beneficial interest, either in the mortgage-money 
 
 or the land, to apply to the Court for an order 
 
 vesting this legal estate in some person of full age. 
 
 After some unsuccessful attempts, the legislature
 
 PEIMOGENITUEE AND ENTAIL. 83 
 
 has, by § 30 of the Conveyancing Act 1881, 
 provided a simple and effectual remedy for such 
 cases by enacting that the legal estate of a sole 
 trustee or mortgagee shall always pass to his legal 
 personal representative [i.e. his executor or ad- 
 ministrator) instead of his heir, whether he makes 
 a will or not. § 34 of the same Act also enables a 
 person who appoints a new trustee to vest trust pro- 
 perty in him in some cases by a simple declaration 
 in the deed of appointment. Thus, many of the 
 inconveniences which were formerly incident to 
 the law of primogeniture have now ceased to exist. 
 Passing away from the law of primogeniture, the 
 consideration of the custom of primogeniture leads 
 naturally to the subject of entail. For custom of pri- 
 whether the law of primogeniture arose mogemture. 
 out of a previously existing custom or not, there 
 can be no doubt that the present system of entails 
 is the outcome of a desire to keep up the custom of 
 primogeniture so far as the law will permit. For 
 the present law is so thoroughly in favour of the 
 utmost freedom of alienation that it is positively 
 antagonistic, not only to a strict system of primo- 
 geniture, properly so called, but also to p^p^^^j. ^^^^ 
 
 anything corresponding to the popular of entails 
 
 , . /. 1 -1 T J. J. erroneous, 
 
 notion 01 an entailed estate. 
 
 At the present day there exist only a very few 
 
 properties which are inalienable, and must descend 
 
 continuously from father to son so long as issue in 
 
 G 2
 
 84 OUE LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 the direct line shall exist. These few properties are 
 those which have been purchased with public money 
 as rewards for signal services^ and have been settled 
 as perpetual entails by Act of Parliament, the re- 
 version in fee simple being in the Crown. These 
 estates cannot be sold, under the Settled Land 
 Acts, nor the perpetual entail be transferred from 
 the land to the purchase-money, and thence to any 
 other land. Apart from these exceptional properties 
 (in regard to which the nation has exercised a 
 power which it denies to individuals) it may be 
 laid down as an invariable rule that no person, 
 
 ,. .^ ^ however desirous he may be of creating a 
 
 Limit of . •' . ° . 
 
 power to tie perpetual entail and handing down his 
 
 up ana. property intact to untold and unborn 
 
 generations, can, by any conceivable limitations or 
 
 trusts (except in favour of a charity), tie up any 
 
 land with absolute certainty for a longer period 
 
 than twenty-one years after the death of any 
 
 specified living person or persons whom he may 
 
 name in the deed or will by which he settles his 
 
 land. 
 
 Reference to the chapter on " Estates in Land " 
 
 will remind the reader that if land be limited to a 
 
 living person for life, and after his death to his son 
 
 (or any other person, born or unborn) in tail, the 
 
 tenant in tail may, as soon as he attains the age of 
 
 twenty-one, turn his estate tail into a fee simple 
 
 with the consent of the tenant for life, if one is in
 
 PKIMOGENITUEE AND EXTAIL. 85 
 
 existence, and then, forthwitli, turn his Power to 
 fee simple into hard cash by the pro- ^^^ entails, 
 cess of a sale. 
 
 It is nevertheless the fact that properties do 
 descend from generation to generation in the same 
 family, but this is because each successive tenant 
 in tail turns himself into a tenant for life instead 
 of a tenant in fee simple, and limits a fresh 
 estate tail to his sou. The manner in which this is 
 done will be more fully described in the next 
 chapter, from which it will be seen that tenants 
 in tail are almost invariably infants. 
 
 If any attempt is made to tie up land for a 
 longer period by means of trusts or equitable 
 estates, such attempt will be frustrated by the rule 
 of the Court which renders all estates and interests 
 beyond the limit which has been specified absolutely 
 void.
 
 86 OCJR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 SETTLEMENTS OF LAND. 
 
 Successive strict settlements are the instruments 
 by whicli persons entitled to large pro- 
 stiict settle- perties have, for more than two centuries, 
 ^^^^^- contrived to comply with and keep up 
 
 the custom of primogeniture. To understand how 
 this object is effected it will be necessary to con- 
 sider with some care the principal provisions of an 
 ordinary settlement. Strict settlements are usually 
 executed on the marriage or majority of a land- 
 owner, according to circumstances ; and it is de- 
 sirable, first, to give a short sketch of an ordinary 
 marriage settlement of land. 
 
 Let us then imagine that Mr. John Oldacre, who 
 
 is about to be married, is the fortunate 
 Ordinary . , ■ n • ^ ■ 
 
 strict settle- possessor ot an estate m tee simple, m 
 
 ^^^^- land free from incumbrances, which 
 
 yields an income of 10,000/. a year; and he in- 
 structs his solicitor to prepare a settlement which 
 will " tie it up " as tightly as possible for the benefit 
 of himself and his future wife and family. 
 
 The objects of such a settlement are twofold :
 
 SETTLEMENTS OF LAND. 87 
 
 first, to keep the land iu the eldest male branch of 
 the family; and, secondly^ to provide for the in- 
 tended wife, and any younger children there may 
 be. Marriage is a good cousideration, in the eye of 
 the law, for a settlement even as against creditors -, 
 but the settlement must be executed before the 
 marriage. Therefore, in order to provide against 
 the possible proverbial slip between the cup and 
 the lip, the settlement will be in such a form that 
 
 Mr. Oldacre will remain tenant in fee 
 
 Owner be- 
 
 simple until the marriage, but imme- comes tenant 
 diately the knot is tied he will become 
 only tenant for life, while the first son of the marriage 
 will, immediately upon his birth, become tenant in 
 tail in remainder, though, of course, his estate will 
 not come into possession until the death of his 
 father. Nor can such son deal with his estate 
 during his minority. In case he dies Eldest son 
 unmarried, and without having barred tenant in tail, 
 his estate tail, the next son of the marinage will, 
 under the provisions of the settlement, thereupon 
 become tenant in tail in his place. The deed is 
 also so framed, that if there should be no sons, the 
 eldest daughter (and in case of her death the other 
 daughters, according to seniority) will become tenant 
 in tail. If John Oldacre has brothers there may also 
 be limitations in tail in favour of them and their 
 sons and daughters, in the event of John Oldacre 
 having no children.
 
 88 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 No attempt will be made to give any interest to 
 grandcliildren, or more remote descendants of Jolin 
 Oldacrej as any sucli interests would be void. In 
 default of any tenancy in tail taking effect an ulti- 
 mate remainder in fee simple is limited to John 
 Oldacre. Such are the main provisions which have 
 for their object the maintenance of the custom of 
 primogeniture, and the preservation of the property 
 in the family of the settlor. 
 
 Before considering how these provisions will 
 Provision work under different circumstances, it 
 for wife. y^^Yl be advisable to glance at the 
 
 provisions for the benefit of the intended Mrs. 
 Oldacre and any younger children of the marriage. 
 
 In such a settlement it is usual to charge the 
 
 land with a small annual sum — e.g. 
 Pin money. -,^r.^ r»A/^7 • n ,i 
 
 ibvL or zQOl — as pin money tor the 
 
 wife during the joint lives of herself and her hus- 
 band, and with a rent-charge of larger amount — 
 
 T . , say 2000Z. a year — by way of jointure 
 
 Jointure. -^ . -^ . . 
 
 during her widowhood if she should 
 survive him. The charge for pin money has priority 
 over the husband's life estate, while the jointure 
 rent-charge takes effect immediately after it and has 
 priority over the estate tail of the eldest son. If 
 the settlement had been made before 1882, long 
 terms of years would have been limited to two 
 different sets of trustees to secure the pin money 
 and jointure ; and elaborate provisions would have
 
 SETTLEMENTS OF LAND. 89 
 
 been inserted^ empowering tliem to enter, distrain, 
 receive rents, and to lease, mortgage, or sell tlie 
 land for the terms vested in them (or any shorter 
 periods) in the event of default in payment of the 
 pin money or jointure. But in settlements made 
 since 1881, such provisions are unnecessary. A 
 simple charge of the pin money and jointure on the 
 land will entitle the wife to exercise ample similar 
 powers under § 44 of the Conveyancing Act 1881 , 
 if the necessity should arise. 
 
 lu order to secure portions for younger children a 
 term of years in the land is limited to portions for 
 trustees, which has priority over the es- younger 
 tate tail. The trusts of the term are to 
 raise a specified sum — e.g. 40,000Z. — by sale or 
 mortgage of the land for the extent of the term or 
 for any shorter period. 
 
 Prior to 1883, a well-drawn modern settlement 
 of large property would have con- powers of 
 tained provisions empowering the tenant management 
 for life, or the trustees with his consent, to manage 
 the property, to grant leases, to cut timber, to 
 make specified improvements, to raise money for 
 improvements, &c., to a limited extent by mortgage, 
 and, perhaps, also to sell or exchange the whole or 
 part of the property, together with provisions as 
 to the investment or other application of the money 
 to arise from any sale or exchange. Having regard 
 to the very extensive powers conferred on tenants
 
 00 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY AEE. 
 
 Eowun- for life by the Settled Land Act 1882, 
 
 necessary. -4. ■ • pj_ . 
 
 It IS not now orten necessary to insert 
 
 these provisions. 
 
 Various clauses for the protection of trustees and 
 other matters must also be inserted ; but they call 
 for no particular notice. 
 
 Let us now consider the position of the par- 
 ties : — 
 
 From his wedding day Mr. John Oldacre will 
 Effect of ^® tenant for life in possession ; and if 
 
 settlement. \q pays his wife's pin money regularly 
 Husband's he will be entitled to occupy any por- 
 "^ ^' tion of the property he may think 
 
 fit^ and to receive the rents of the remaining por- 
 tion. He may also, by virtue of the Settled Land 
 Act, exercise the powers explained in Chapter XII. 
 
 So long as Mrs. Oldacre^s pin money is punc- 
 
 ,„., , . , tually paid she will have no right to 
 Wife's rights. "^ ^ • n . , 
 
 enter upon, or mterfere with the manage- 
 ment of the land. If however her husband allows 
 the payments to fall into arrear, or if his life estate 
 becomes vested in some other person by sale, mort- 
 gage, bankruptcy, or any other means, she will have 
 the following rights : — 
 
 (a) When it is three weeks in arrear she may 
 Eemedies for enter and distrain for the arrears, 
 pin money (^) ^\iQn it is forty days in arrear 
 
 she may enter and receive the rents and profits of 
 the land till the arrears are made up.
 
 SETTLEMENTS OF LAND. 91 
 
 (c) When it is forty days in arrear^ she may also 
 create a long term of years in ttie land, and vest 
 such term in a trustee to provide for future 
 punctual payment, by selling, mortgaging, or 
 letting the land during the term, or for any shorter 
 period. 
 
 After her husband's death she will — if she survives 
 
 him — be entitled to exercise similar 
 
 f .-. J2 1 • • . and jointure, 
 
 powers tor the recovery ot her jointure 
 
 rent charge. 
 
 Let'us now suppose that some twenty-five years 
 have elapsed since the marriage^ during which period 
 matters have gone smoothly so far as Mr. and Mrs. 
 John Oldacre, their children, and their property are 
 concerned. The eldest sou, William, has attained 
 his majority, and there are four other children who 
 are still under twenty-one years of age. A solemn 
 interview takes place between John and William 
 Oldacre and the family solicitor, during which the 
 position of William is explained to him somewhat to 
 the following effect : — 
 
 " You are tenant in tail of the family estate, 
 subject to your father's life interest^ your Position of 
 mother's pin money or jointure and a taU^on a^ 
 charge of 40,000Z. for your brothers and taining2l. 
 sisters. At your father's death you will be able to 
 bar the entail and deal with the property (subject to 
 the charges) as you like, unless it is previously 
 resettled. But you cannot effectually bar it during
 
 92 OUR LAND LAWS AS TEET ARE. 
 
 your fatlier^s life witliout liis consent, nor can you, 
 during liis life, toucli tlie income. I£ you were to 
 attempt to raise money upon your remainder in tail 
 you would probably have to pay an exorbitant rate 
 of interest, wliicli miglit go on accumulating by way 
 Oi compound interest for many years, and be an 
 additional heavy burden on the estate. On the 
 other hand, if you join your father in resettling the 
 property, it will be possible to provide an immediate 
 income for you, and the estate will be kept in the 
 family for another generation certainly, and perhaps 
 for longer.'^ 
 
 Possibly John Oldacre may hint that if William 
 will not concur in resettling the property he will 
 have to do without any allowance until he comes into 
 possession at his father's death. 
 
 The chances, of course, are that William will 
 
 consent to bar his estate tail and to 
 Resettlement. 
 
 resettle the property. This will be 
 
 done by two deeds, by one of which William^s estate 
 tail will be barred and turned into a fee simple. 
 By the second deed his fee simple will be cut 
 down again to a life estate, but an immediate in- 
 come will be provided for him, and powers of 
 providing for a future wife and family will be given 
 to him. 
 
 After the resettlement the rights of interest of 
 the parties will take effect as follows : — 
 
 1, Mrs. John Oldacre's pin money.
 
 SETTLEMENTS OF LAND. 93 
 
 2. Rent cliarge of (say) lOOOL a year in favour 
 
 of William Oldacre durino- his father^s Effect of re- 
 -.„ settlement. 
 
 Iiie. 
 
 3. Mr. Jolin Oldacre's life estate. 
 
 4. Mrs. John Oldacre's jointure. 
 
 5. Charge of 40,000Z. for Mr. John Oldacre's 
 younger children. 
 
 6. Mr. William Oldacre^s life estate. 
 
 7. Limitations of estates tail in favour of William 
 Oldacre's first and other possible sons and daughters, 
 successively according to seniority. 
 
 8. Similar limitations in favour of William Old- 
 acre's brothers (and perhaps sisters). 
 
 9. Provisions enabling William Oldacre to charge 
 the property with piu money and. jointure for his 
 possible future wife, and with portions for his 
 possible younger children. 
 
 10. Ultimate remainder to William Oldacre in fee 
 simple. 
 
 In addition to the above clauses will, almost 
 certainly, be found a provision called Overriding 
 by lawyers an " overriding power " of power, 
 appointment enabling John and William Oldacre 
 jointly to convey the land (subject to John Oldacre's 
 marriage settlement) just as if the resettlement had 
 not been made. If V/illiam Oldacre were to marry 
 during his father's life, advantage would probably 
 be taken of this power to make a new resettlement, 
 which would practically revoke the previous one.
 
 94 OUE LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 But neither John nor AYilliam could exercise that 
 power alone^ so if John died before Wilham's 
 marriage, the original resettlement would stand, 
 and William, on his marriage, would simply exercise 
 his powers of charging the estate in favour of his 
 intended wife and younger children. 
 
 During his life John Oldacre will, notwithstanding 
 the resettlement, he able to exercise the powers 
 conferred upon tenants for life by the Settled Land 
 Acts ; but after his death, if William, as tenant for 
 life under the resettlement, attempts to exercise 
 them he will be hampered by the charges in favour 
 of his mother, and his brothers and sisters, created 
 by the marriage settlement. 
 
 To illustrate a somewhat different state of cir- 
 cumstances, let us now suppose that 
 Settlement ^^' ^ , . ^ . 
 
 where infant Thomas Newlauds, on his marriage m 
 
 f™L«il'^ 1873, made a settlement precisely 
 m possession. ' -i- J 
 
 similar to that made by John Oldacre. 
 
 As the marriage was before the passing of the 
 
 Settled Land Acts a power of sale was given to 
 
 certain trustees. Thomas Newlands died in 1883, 
 
 leaving a widow, an eldest son, Frank, nine years of 
 
 age, two younger sons and two daughters. Frank 
 
 Newlands is now tenant in tail in possession, 
 
 ^ . . subject to his mother's jointure and the 
 Exercise of '' , •' 
 
 powers dur- charge for portions for his brothers and 
 ing mmori y. gjg{.gpg_ During the next twelve years 
 
 he will be unable, personally, to deal with the pi'O-
 
 SETTLEMENTS OF LAND. 95 
 
 perty, but as there are trustees with a power 
 of sale, they can, during his minority, exercise 
 on his behalf all the powers which his father might, 
 if living, have exercised as tenant for life. Had 
 there been no such trustees the powers under the 
 Settled Land Act would have been in abeyance 
 until the Court had been applied to by Frank's 
 guardian to appoint a proper person to exercise the 
 powers of the Act on his behalf. 
 
 The trustees may also maintain and educate the 
 infant tenant in tail during his minority out of the 
 income of the settled estate. In this case there 
 will, of course, be no resettlement when the 
 tenant in tail attains his majority. He will 
 probably then bar his estate tail and constitute 
 himself tenant in fee simple, subject to his 
 mother's jointure and his brothers' and sisters' 
 portions ; and when he marries his settlement will 
 probably be in the same form as that made. on his 
 father's marriage. 
 
 In addition to the strict settlements already 
 described, land is often settled by means of a con- 
 veyance to trustees in trust for sale. Trusts are 
 then declared of the proceeds of sale, . 
 and the land and the income derived by way of 
 from it are subject to such trusts until ^^^ °^ ^^ ®' 
 sold, all powers of management being vested in the 
 trustees, either subject to or without the consent of 
 the person entitled to the income. In such a case
 
 96 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY AEE. 
 
 the trustees, can exercise tlieir powers irrespective 
 o£ tlie Settled Land Acts ; but tlie person entitled 
 to tlie income may apply to tlie Court for leave to 
 exercise tlie powers of a tenant for life under those 
 Acts, and tlie Court may give leave to exercise 
 such powers as it thinks fit, and may name the 
 person by whom they are to be exercised.
 
 POWEES OP LIJIITED OWNERS. 97 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 POWEES OP LIMITED OWNERS. 
 
 It has been tlie fashion, in some quarters, to de- 
 scribe the Settled Land Act of 1882 as settled Land 
 a revolutionary measure. ^'^^• 
 
 It would be more correct to say that it extends^ 
 and stamps with the approval of the Powers not 
 legislature, powers which had long been i">vel. 
 recognized as necessary _, and which had, in some cases, 
 been expressly conferred by settlors, and in others 
 exercised with the sanction of the judicature. In 
 well-drawn settlements, powers very similar to those 
 of this Act have, for many years, been conferred 
 on the tenants for life or trustees of large settled 
 properties ; and in cases where this was not done, 
 tenants for life could — unless expressly prohibited — 
 exercise somewhat similar powers if authorized by 
 the Court under the Settled Land Act 1877. The 
 chief novel feature of the Act of 1882 powers can- 
 is that the powers it contains cannot be not be ex- 
 adopted or excluded by settlors at plea- 
 sure, but apply to all settlements as defined in the 
 
 H
 
 98 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 Act, wlietlier of previous or subsequent date. By- 
 no possible exercise of ingenuity has it been 
 found practicable so to frame a settlement of land 
 as to deprive the tenant for life — or otlier limited 
 owner who may be entitled to an estate in pos- 
 session of settled land — of his right to exercise 
 the powers conferred upon him by this Act. 
 What those powers are, and by whom, and sub- 
 ject to what limitations they may be exercised 
 ai^e the questions which now arise for considera- 
 tion. 
 
 A limited owner, as defined by the Act, may 
 exercise the following powers : — 
 
 (a) He may sell the settled land or any part of 
 Power to it. For a sale of the principal man- 
 
 sell, &c. giQj2 and the land occupied with it he 
 
 must obtain the consent of the trustees of the 
 settlement, or the sanction of the Chancery Divi- 
 sion of the High Court. For a sale of heirlooms 
 the sanction of the Court is also necessary. With 
 these exceptions, he may sell at pleasure, bearing 
 in mind that he is in the position of trustee as 
 regards the interests of his successors, and must, 
 therefore, not make an improvident bargain, 
 such as no ordinarily prudent man would enter 
 into. 
 
 Surface and minerals may be sold apart. 
 Sales may be by private contract or public 
 auction, and subject to special conditions.
 
 POWERS OF LIMITED OWNERS. 99 
 
 {h) He may excliange tlie settled Power to ex- 
 land or any part of it. ^^*°^^' ^'=- 
 
 (c) He may concur in a partition in cases where 
 the land in settlement is an undivided share. 
 
 {d) He may, in the last-mentioned case, con- 
 cur with other joint owners in exercising all the 
 statutory powers. 
 
 (e) He may raise money for equality of ex- 
 change or partition by mortgage of the settled 
 land. 
 
 (/) He may transfer charges which affect any 
 settled land sold, exchanged, or par- Power to 
 titioned from such land to other mortgage, 
 land subject to the settlement, if the person 
 entitled to the charg^e consents. 
 
 {g) He may at pleasure accept surrenders of 
 leases, and grant leases not exceeding Power to 
 the following" terms : — lease. 
 
 (1) Building leases, 99 years. 
 
 (2) Mining leases, 60 years. 
 
 (3) Other leases, 21 years. 
 
 (7t) He may with the sanction of the Court 
 grant still longer leases, when desirable, having 
 regard to the custom of the country, or other 
 special circumstances. 
 
 (i) He may if the settlement comprises a 
 manor grant licences to copyholders to grant 
 similar leases. 
 
 (j) He may appropriate land for streets, 
 
 H 2
 
 100 OUR LAND LAWS AS TKEY ARE. 
 
 Streets and squares, gardens, open spaces, &c., 
 
 open spaces, whensellingorgrantingbuilding leases, 
 (A-) He may make any improvements specified 
 
 Improve- i^ the Appendix to this book, subject 
 
 ments. ^q certain limitations.^ 
 
 He may execute conveyances, leases, and other 
 deeds necessary to give effect to any of his statutory 
 powers. 
 
 A conveyance on a sale by a limited owner will 
 effectually pass the whole estate comprised in the 
 Eifect of con- settlement, whether it be a fee simple 
 veyance. q^. ^ Jess estate, and will bind all persons 
 
 interested under the settlement. 
 
 But it will not prejudice — 
 
 (a) Charges on, or estates or interests in, the 
 
 land which existed before, and have priority over, 
 
 the settlement. 
 
 (h) Charges for money then actually raised 
 
 under powers in the settlement. 
 
 (c) Leases, or grants of rights, already made to 
 
 other persons, under the settlement or the Act. 
 
 Nor will it prejudice persons entitled to charges 
 on the limited owner's own particular estate or 
 interest in the land, unless they consent. 
 
 Before exercising the statutory powers, a limited 
 owner must give a month's notice of his intention 
 Notice to to the trustees of the settlement, as de- 
 trustees, fined by the Act ; and if no such trustees 
 1 See page 125, joost.
 
 POWEES OP LIMITED OWNERS. 101 
 
 existj they will be appointed by the Court on the 
 application of the limited owner. 
 
 A purchaser from a limited owner will (subject to 
 the foregoing exceptions) hold the land freed from 
 the settlement, and from all estates, interests, rights, 
 and powers created by it; and such trusts attach 
 estates and rights will thereupon be to purchase- 
 transferred to and affect the purchase- °^°^^y- 
 money instead of the land. 
 
 The purchase-money must be paid to the trustees 
 of the settlement or into Court, at the option of the 
 limited owner. A fine received on the grant or 
 renewal of a lease is treated as capital. So is a 
 certain proportion of the rent received under mining 
 a lease. All other rents are treated as income. 
 
 Purchase-money and other capital must be in- 
 vested in specified securities, or applied in the pur- 
 chase of land, or minerals, orthe discharge investment 
 of incumbrances, or paid for equality of of proceeds 
 exchange or partition, for authorized 
 improvements, or for costs and expenses. Or it 
 may be paid to any person who becomes absolutely 
 entitled (to use the popular phrase) to the settled 
 land, or be invested in any mode authorized by the 
 settlement. 
 
 The limited owner for the time being has the right 
 to select the mode of investment ; but if questions 
 arise between him and the trustees they may be 
 decided by the Court on a summary application.
 
 102 OUE LAND LAWS AS THEY AEE. 
 
 Land bought with capital money arising from any 
 exercise of the statutory powers must, of course, be 
 Purchased made subject to the settlement ; and the 
 ^^^^- proceeds of English land must not be 
 
 invested in the purchase of land out of England 
 unless the settlement expressly authorizes such 
 investment. 
 
 Improvements must be according to a scheme 
 Improvement approved by the trustees of the settle- 
 scheme, ment or the Court, and paid for pursuant 
 to a cercificate of the Land Commissioners, or of a 
 surveyor approved of by them or the Court, or under 
 an order of the Court. 
 
 Such are the principal powers of limited owners 
 under the Settled Land Act. They may also still 
 exercise the powers under the Improvement of Land 
 Act 1864, and the Acts of 1870, 1871, and 1877 
 relating to mansions, reservoirs, &c,, mentioned 
 in Chapter XIV.^ They may also sell under the 
 Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, and the various 
 Acts empowering companies and municipal corpora- 
 tions to take land compulsorily for railways, docks, 
 canals, artizans^ dwellings, and other purposes of 
 public utility, which either incorporate that Act or 
 contain special enabling powers. 
 
 The provisions of the Settled Land Acts relating 
 to the protection of trustees and purchasers and other 
 matters do not require specific mention. 
 ^ See page 121, 2:ost.
 
 POWERS OF LIMITED OWNEES. 103 
 
 To specify wiih strict accuracy the various persons 
 entitled to exercise the powers of limited ^^^ ^^^ 
 owners would be to transcribe § 58 of limited 
 the Act of 1882. It must suffice to say °^ 
 that^ generally all tenants for life, and tenants in tail 
 (whether legal or equitable), and tenants in fee 
 simple whose estates may possibly be defeated, are 
 included in the term "limited owners'^ as used in 
 these pages. 
 
 When a married woman is a limited owner 
 her husband''s concurrence is necessary, Married 
 unless her estate is her separate pro- Woman, 
 perty. 
 
 Trustees of the settlement, or other persons 
 appointed by the Court, may act on j t + 
 behalf of infants who are either limited 
 owners or tenants in fee simple. 
 
 When the person entitled to exercise the statutory 
 
 powers is a lunatic, the committee of 
 ' . . , , Lunatic, 
 
 his estate may act for him, with the sanc- 
 tion of the Lords Justices who act in lunacy 
 matters. 
 
 When land is settled upon trust for sale the Act 
 does not override the trusts and powers 
 of the settlement, unless the Court orders sale, 
 the powers of the Act to be exercised.^ 
 
 The Settled Land Act 1882, came into operation 
 on the 1st of January, 1883. It may be mentioned 
 As to this, see page 95, a7ite.
 
 104 OUE LAND LAWS AS THEY AEE. 
 
 that before that date tenants for life and other 
 limited owners could, under the Settled Estates Act 
 1877, grant similar leases to those now authorized, 
 and could apply to the Court for leave to sell and 
 exercise other powers now exercisable at their 
 pleasure. By the Act of 1882 a considerable step 
 has been taken towards making all settled land 
 readily saleable, but limited owners are still some- 
 what hampered in their powers of alienation by the 
 provisions which have been deemed necessary for 
 the protection of incumbrancers and remaindermen. 
 Yet it is only necessary to glance through the long 
 list of reported cases in which questions arising 
 under the Act have already been decided by the 
 Court, to satisfy the most sceptical that even during 
 the three years of commercial and agricultural 
 depression which have almost elapsed since the 
 Settled Land Act 1882 came into operation, the 
 beneficent powers of that Act have been very 
 extensively exercised.
 
 TRANSFER OF LAND. 105 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 TRANSFER OF LAND. 
 
 All legal estates in freehold, land can be transferred. 
 
 by deed. Equitable estates and in- 
 
 terests may be transierred by deed or 
 
 by written agreement not under seal, but not 
 
 verbally. 
 
 Legal freehold estates in possession may also be 
 
 transferred by an ancient form of transfer called a 
 
 feoffment which is, in effect, a delivery 
 
 „ • • • 1.+ P ^-u ^y feoffment. 
 
 01 possession upon or m sight oi the 
 
 land, or, in legal language, a " livery of seisin/' 
 
 which is usually evidenced by deed. It is by far 
 
 the simplest mode of transfer, requiring, as it does, 
 
 no more formality than the gift of a book or the 
 
 sale of a horse ; but it is inapplicable to cases where 
 
 the title is complicated by charges and equitable 
 
 interests. It is, consequently, almost obsolete, and 
 
 is only mentioned here because it is the only means 
 
 by which an infant can, perhaps, perso nally make 
 
 a valid transfer of a legal estate in infant 
 
 possession. Trustees may, however, 
 
 since 1882, convey an infantas estate under the 
 
 powers of the Settled Land Acts.
 
 106 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 Married womeu are, in some cases, under an 
 Married incapacity to convey land without speci- 
 
 women. ^g^ formalities. Women married since 
 
 1882 can convey their land just as if they were 
 unmarried. Women mai-ried before 1883 are in 
 the same position, with regard to land acquired by 
 them since that date. With regard to land acquired 
 by a married woman before that date, it is necessary 
 for her husband to concur, and for the conveyance 
 to be acknowledged by the married woman as her 
 own deliberate act before a Judge or a Commis- 
 sioner under the Fines and Recoveries Act, as 
 amended by the Conveyancing Act 1882. 
 
 Land belonging to a person of unsound mind 
 
 T ,. cannot be conveyed at all until he is 
 
 Lunatics. "^ . 
 
 found lunatic by inquisition. It may 
 then be conveyed by the committee of his estate, 
 with the sanction of the Lords Justices having 
 jurisdiction in lunacy matters. 
 
 Legal estates in copyhold land ai^e conveyed by 
 , , , surrender and admittance evidenced by 
 
 Copyholds. . t n -r. n T -i i 
 
 entries on the Court Eoll as described 
 in Chapter VI. Equitable estates in copyhold land 
 may be transferred in the same mode as equitable 
 estates in freehold land. 
 
 Where land is in mortgage or subject to charges, 
 land in all persons entitled to money charged 
 
 mortgage. upon it must concur in the conveyance 
 on a sale, as well as the owner of the estate, unless
 
 TRANSFER OF LAND. 107 
 
 the Court declares the laud to be freed from tlie 
 incumbrauces under § 5 of the Conveyancing Act 
 1881, upon payment of a sufScient sura of money 
 into Court. In such a case the charge is transferred 
 from the land to the money. 
 
 In many cases persons entitled to equitable in- 
 terests in land must concur in a sale Equitable 
 and conveyance by the owner of the interests, 
 legal estate^ in order that the purchaser may acquire 
 a clear title. 
 
 The above remarks apply to the transfer of free- 
 hold estates or of absolute interests in terms of 
 years. Conveyances by tenants in tail must also 
 be enrolled in Chancery. So must con- Enrolment 
 veyances to charity trustees. Where of deeds, 
 settled land is sold and transferred, recourse must 
 be had to the powers of the Settled Land Acts ; 
 and often an order of Court is necessary. AVhen 
 land belonging to several joint owners is sold, they 
 must all concur, and if any of them are unwilling 
 to do so or under any legal disability, an order of 
 the Chancery Division must be obtained for sale 
 under the Partition Acts. This usually involves an 
 expensive inquiry in Chambers as to the persons 
 interested. 
 
 The reader will easily realize that, except in very 
 simple cases, the mere cost of obtaining costs of 
 the concurrence of the necessary parties transfer, 
 to a transfer of the several interests which together
 
 108 OUE LAND LAWS AS THEY AEE. 
 
 constitute an estate in fee simple must be consider- 
 able. Much Las recently been said and written 
 about the heavy expenses which attend a transfer 
 of land as compared with a transfer of shai'es or 
 stock ; and much unmerited blame has been showered 
 upon the legal profession. It may be frankly ad- 
 mitted that if landowners, lawyers, and the State 
 were all to exercise considerable self-denial the 
 expense of transfers of land might be considerably 
 reduced. 
 
 The self-denial on the part of landowners would 
 be evinced by limitation of the present power of 
 creating complicated estates, interests, and charges, 
 that of lawyers by the acceptance of unremunerative 
 fees, and that of the State by a reduction of stamp 
 duty. 
 
 It should be remembered that the stamp duty on a 
 
 transfer of land is often many times as 
 Stamp duty. '' 
 
 much as the stamp duty on a transfer of 
 stock or shares of equal value. It should, also, be borne 
 in mind that, in a conveyance of land, it has often 
 been necessary to show, by a series of recitals, the 
 various rights and interests of the several persons 
 whose concurrence is necessary. This is really 
 the chief reason of the great length of deeds, 
 about which such loud complaints are made. 
 Recitals may now, in some cases, be dispensed 
 with by making conveyances supplemented to 
 other deeds under § 53 of the Conveyancing Act 
 1881. Since that Act came into operation the
 
 TEANSPEE or LAND. 109 
 
 writer litis frequently settled a conveyance of 
 an estate in fee simple which scarcely — if at all 
 — exceeded in length any ordinary transfer of 
 stock. And, even before the passing of that Act, 
 he has found it possible to compress such a con- 
 veyance {including the reservation of a right to 
 use a well and pump), into little more than 200 
 
 words. This is pretty clear proof that „ , 
 
 , , . ^ -' ^ . . Reason of 
 
 the responsibility for such cost as is in- lengthy 
 curred by mere length of deeds might, ^^ ^' 
 without injustice, be shifted from the shoulders of 
 the lawyers who prepare them to those of the land- 
 owners who persist in creating the complicated 
 estates, interests, and charges which render them 
 necessary. It is, indeed, undeniable that, until a few 
 years ago, solicitors were in many cases under a 
 strong temptation to add unnecessarily to the length 
 and verbosity of legal documents. Their remunera- 
 tion for preparing a deed was usually dependent 
 upon the number of words contained in it, wholly 
 irrespective of the time and labour expended upon 
 it. In such cases, the preparation of a concise and 
 easily intelligible document would often have in- 
 volved more care and attention than an adherence 
 to the usual lengthy forms, while the remuneration 
 would have been utterly inadequate. 
 
 The reforms effected by the Conveyancing Act 
 1881, and the Solicitors^ Remuneration Act 1881, 
 have done much tobring aboutabetter state of things. 
 The former Statute renders it safe to omit many
 
 110 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 common clauses wliicli were previously necessary, 
 while the latter makes the solicitor's remuneration, 
 in many cases, a percentage on the value of the 
 property dealt with. In small transactions the 
 present scale sometimes barely pays expenses, 
 while in large transactions, solicitors frequently have 
 to accept a commission considerably less than they 
 are strictly entitled to. Yet there is, undoubtedly, 
 a strong feeling in both branches of the legal pro- 
 fession in favour of crisp, concise, and easily 
 intelligible documents. 
 
 But, after all, the heaviest of the expenses attend- 
 ing a transfer of land are incurred 
 Costs of in- f . 
 
 vestigating neither in payment of stamp duty nor in 
 *^^ ®' the preparation of transfer, but in the 
 
 investigation and verification of the vendor^s title. 
 
 A purchaser is, by law, entitled to call upon his 
 Length of vendor to show a clear title for forty 
 title. years past, unless this right is restricted 
 
 by the contract or conditions of sale, as the case 
 may be. This period is scarcely too long, if the 
 purchaser desires to be absolutely certain that no 
 outstanding estate or interest can possibly exist 
 that is not barred by the Statutes of Limitation. 
 
 For, although the period within which a claim to 
 Period of land can be asserted and enforced is, 
 limitation. -j^ most cases, only twelve years, there 
 are some few instances in which the rights of a 
 claimant can only be barred by adverse possession
 
 TRANSFER OF LAND. Ill 
 
 for tMrfcy years. A clear title for twenty years is 
 however generally considered, and constantly ac- 
 cepted as a good holding title; and in many cases 
 contracts and conditions of sale stipulate for still 
 shorter periods. 
 
 The investigation and verification of title are 
 necessarily costly except in the simplest cases. In 
 the first instance, the vendor's solicitor must prepare 
 and send to the purchaser's solicitor a concise 
 abstract of the contents of all the deeds Abstract of 
 aSecting theproperty from the stipulated ^*^®- 
 commencement of title to the day of sale. If 
 a material deed be intentionally omitted the 
 vendor and his solicitor are liable to a criminal 
 prosecution. Even where mortgages have been 
 created and paid oS" many years ago, they must 
 (unless merely equitable charges) be comprised in the 
 abstract ; for inasmuch as the ordinary form of 
 mortgage transfers an estate in the land, the pur- 
 chaser is entitled to satisfy himself that such estate 
 has been properly reconveyed. He is equally 
 entitled to satisfy himself that all equitable estates 
 and interests which have been created in the land 
 during the period over which the abstract extends 
 have become vested in the vendor or in persons 
 willing and competent to concur in the sale. 
 
 This abstract must be read with the greatest 
 attention by the purchaser's solicitor, Perusal of 
 for if he carelessly overlooks a flaw in abstract.
 
 112 OUE LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 the title lie may liave to pay heavy damages 
 to his client iu an action for negligence. In 
 complicated cases the additional cost of instructing 
 counsel to peruse and advise upon the abstract is 
 almost a necessity. The abstract must be care- 
 fully compared with the original deeds and probates 
 of wills in the possession of the vendor or other 
 Verification persons entitled to interests in the 
 of title. land ; and the purchaser's solicitor 
 
 must see that all deeds are properly stamped^ that 
 all succession duties have been paid, and obtain 
 satisfactory evidence as to the births, marriages, 
 deaths, and other events stated in the abstract 
 which are material to the title. As to all points 
 which are not clear on the face of the abstract, 
 Requisition written questions must be sent to the 
 and replies, vendor's solicitor and satisfactory replies 
 obtained ; and it often becomes absolutely necessary 
 to take the opinion of a Judge in Chambers under 
 § 9 of the Vendor and Purchaser Act as to disputed 
 points of law. In many cases, petitions for vesting 
 orders of legal estates have been necessarily pre- 
 sented to the Court; but the recent provisions 
 which prevent the estates of mortgagees and 
 trustees from descending to infant heirs will render 
 this costly proceeding much more rare in the future 
 than in the past. 
 
 Conveyance When all difficulties as to title are 
 
 itself cheap, cleared up, the preparation and execution
 
 TEANSFEE OF LAND. 113 
 
 of the deed whicli constitutes tlie actual transfer 
 is comparatively simple and inexpensive. 
 
 Large properties are often dealt with by way of 
 settlement, resettlement, mortgage, charge and 
 otherwise, en bloc ; and in such cases it is clear that 
 the investigation o£ the title to a single acre may 
 cost just the same as if the purchase had included 
 1000 acres, or even more. 
 
 On the purchase of a small plot forming part of a 
 pi^operty which has been frequently dealt with 
 during the previous twenty or thirty years, it is fre- 
 quently necessary to peruse, and carefully consider 
 the effect of thirty, forty, fifty, or even a greater 
 number of documents of title ! 
 
 On the other hand, where a large or small pro- 
 perty has, for a generation or more, been in the 
 possession of a tenant in fee simple, who has kept 
 it free from incumbrances and derivative estates, it 
 may well happen that the necessary expense of 
 transfer (including investigation of title) exceeds 
 the cost of a ti-ansfer of stock of equal value only to 
 the extent of the difference in stamp duty. 
 
 Bearing these considerations in mind, it is impos- 
 sible to wonder that the expense attending the 
 transfer of a small plot of land is sometimes a 
 grievous burden, out of all proportion to its intrinsic 
 value ; and it is equally impossible, with any show 
 of justice, to attribute to the legal profession such 
 blame as may properly attach to a state of cir- 
 
 I
 
 114 OUR LAND LAWS A3 THEY ARE. 
 
 cumstances which arises solely in consequence of the 
 exercise by landowners of the powers which they now 
 possess of heaping up charge after charge upon, and 
 carving estate after estate out of, EngHsh land. 
 
 It is this power^ too^ which forms the chief 
 Obstacles to obstacle to a cheap and effective system of 
 registration, registration. Mere registration of deeds, 
 even if compulsory, would only have the effect of 
 transferring the investigation of title from the deeds 
 in the vendor's possession to the entries of the same 
 deeds in the register. 
 
 An elaborate scheme of voluntary registration of 
 title, introduced ten years ago, has already failed as 
 completely as its worst enemies could have desired. 
 
 The scheme of compulsory registration of title, 
 which has been so ably advocated by Sir Eobert Tor- 
 rens, would indeed, in the long-run, have the effect of 
 substituting the perusal of short official entries in 
 the register for the present system of investigation 
 of title-deeds, so far as legal estates in land are cod- 
 cerned. The system of " caveats '^ suggested by 
 him would also appear to afford adequate protection 
 for equitable mortgages, charges and other interests, 
 and thus to avoid the blot which rendered necessary, 
 in 1885, the amendment of the Yorkshire Regis- 
 tries Act 1884. It would also enable equitable 
 charges and interests to be removed from the title, 
 as they ceased to exist. On the other hand, the 
 purchaser who found the register blocked by a
 
 TRANSFER OF LAND. 115 
 
 series of ^' caveats " would still find it necessary to 
 investigate the titles,, and to require the vendor to 
 clear away the claims, of persons entitled to equi- 
 table interests. Nor does the efficient registration 
 of easements, such as rights of way, water, air, light 
 and similar rights over land seem, at first sight, an 
 easy task. Having regard to the effect which must 
 in the future be gradually produced by the recent 
 reforms, which have enabled conveyancers so mate- 
 rially to curtail the length, increase the lucidity and 
 improve the style of legal documents, it may well 
 be considered open to argument, whether any 
 system of registration which has yet been suggested 
 would sufficiently decrease the future costs of land 
 transfer as to render the change either popular or 
 desirable. 
 
 I 2
 
 116 OUE LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 CHAPTER Xiy. 
 
 EECENT EEFOKMS. 
 
 The following list is not exhaustive^ but it contains 
 a summary of tlie principal provisions of the most 
 important of tlie Land Laws of the last ten years : — 
 
 1874. Real Property Limitation Act. 
 
 This Act reduced the period within which hostile 
 claims to land may be enforced in ordinary cases, 
 as to land itself, to twelve years instead of twenty ; 
 and as to arrears of rent or interest to six years. 
 It also reduced the extreme period allowed to per- 
 sons who had been under some legal disability from 
 forty to thirty years, and abolished the disability 
 formerly arising from absence beyond seas. 
 
 1874. Vendor and Purchaser Act. 
 
 This Act altered the rights, under open contracts, 
 of vendors and purchasers, by reducing the length 
 of title which might be called for from sixty to forty 
 years, by making statements in old deeds sufficient 
 evidence of facts, and in other particulars. It also 
 enabled vendors and purchasers to have questions
 
 EECENT EEFOEMS. 117 
 
 as to title decided by a clieaper and speedier mode 
 of procedure than an action. 
 
 1875. Land Transfer Act. 
 
 This Act is an unsnccessful attempt to simplify 
 the transfer of land by introducing a system of 
 voluntary registration of title. The cost and diffi- 
 culty of placing titles upon the register are such 
 that only in very few instances have landowners 
 availed themselves of the provisions of the Act. 
 
 1875. Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Act. 
 
 This Act, as amended by several subsequent 
 Statutes, empowers certain local authorities to decide 
 what are " unhealthy areas," to make schemes for 
 the improvement of such areas, and — in the event of 
 the schemes so made being confirmed by a Secre- 
 tary of State, or by the Local Government Board, 
 and by Parliament — to acquire compulsorily the 
 land and buildings comprised in the unhealthy 
 areas, and to provide for the erection of healthy 
 dwellino-s thereon. 
 
 Jgi^g I Agricultural Holdings Acts. 
 
 By these Acts, agricultural tenants became en- 
 titled to compensation for certain unexhausted 
 improvements in cases where the Acts were not 
 excluded either by notice from the landlord or by
 
 118 OUR LAND LAWS AS THEY ARE. 
 
 express contract between the landlord and tenant. 
 They were repealed by the Act next mentioned. 
 
 1883. Agricultural Holdings Act. 
 
 The provisions of this Act (as to which see p. 63, 
 ante), cannot be excluded by either landlord or 
 tenant, except in the case of § 33, which substitutes 
 a year's notice for half a year's notice to quit. 
 
 1876. Partition Act. 
 
 This Act amended the Partition Act of 1868 in 
 various particulars. Under the two Acts the Court 
 may, in an action, order the sale and distribution of 
 the proceeds of estates in land in which several 
 persons are jointly interested, although some of the 
 joint owners may be unwilling or legally incom- 
 petent to concur in a sale without the order of the 
 Court. 
 
 1877. Settled Estates Act. 
 
 By this Act the provisions contained in five 
 previous Acts conferring powers to sell, lease, &c., 
 upon limited owners were consolidated, with amend- 
 ments. The powers conferred by this Act have in 
 great measure been superseded by the Settled Land 
 Act 1884, which is fully explained in Chapter XII. 
 
 1877. Exoneration of Charges Act. 
 This Act merely amended the Act of 1854, known 
 as Locke King's Act, by which the mortgage debts
 
 RECENT EEFORMS. 119 
 
 of deceased persons are thrown upon the mortgaged 
 land to the exoneration of his general personal estate. 
 
 1881. The Solicitors' Eemuneration Act. 
 
 This Act provides that the remuneration of soli- 
 citors in certain conveyancing matters shall consist of 
 a commission or percentage on the value of the pro- 
 perty dealt with, according to an authorized scale, 
 instead of leaving it to depend upon the number of 
 words which they could contrive to introduce into 
 legal documents. It also enables them, in cases to 
 which the percentage is not applicable, to charge a 
 fair remuneration for the time and labour devoted 
 to various transactions. This Act and the Con- 
 veyancing Acts 1881 and 1882 are entitled to the 
 credit of having very materially shortened and 
 improved the form of legal documents. 
 
 1882 [ Conveyancing Acts. 
 
 These Statutes constitute a tolerably successful 
 attempt to cheapen and simplify the transfer of land 
 and to shorten legal instruments. By virtue of 
 their provisions, several clauses, previously usual in 
 contracts and conditions of sale, may now be safely 
 omitted. Covenants for title and other clauses 
 formerly inserted in conveyances, and powers of 
 sale, covenants for title, and other clauses usual in 
 mortgages, are rendered unnecessary ; the concur-
 
 J 20 OCE LAXD LAWS AS THEY AEE. 
 
 rence of fhe heir-at-law of a last-surviving trustee 
 or mortgagee is rendered unnecessarjj various 
 clauses usually inserted in wills and settlements are 
 to be implied unless expressly excluded^ and shoi'fc 
 model forms of various deeds are given. The law 
 relating to landlord and tenant is amended in various 
 particulars, some of which are mentioned in. 
 Chapter YII. The law relating to mortgages is 
 also amended. Mortgagees can no longer refuse 
 to produce the deeds relating to mortgaged pro- 
 perty, nor can they refuse to transfer their mort- 
 gages upon payment, by or on behalf of, the mort- 
 gagor. Powers of granting leases are given to 
 mortgagors and mortgagees in possession. 
 
 Other provisions enable the Court to bind the 
 interests of married women who would be incom- 
 petent to release interests in land, and upon pay- 
 ment of sufficient sums into Court to declare land 
 to be free from incumbrances. The acknowledge- 
 ment of deeds by married women (where still 
 necessary) is rendered simpler and less expensive. 
 The law is otherwise amended in various particulars 
 which all tend to simplify future titles, but cannot 
 be easily explained to non-professional readers. 
 
 1882 
 1884 
 
 The powers conferred by these Acts are so fully 
 
 dealt with in Chapter XII., that it is unnecessary 
 
 here to do more than refer to them ; but it may be 
 
 j The Settled Land Acts.
 
 RECENT EEF0RM3. 121 
 
 mentioned tliat^ in addition to such powers, limited 
 owners may still exercise the powers conferred by 
 the following four earlier Statutes. 
 
 1864. The Improvement of Land Act 
 
 This Act enabled limited owners to make specified 
 improvements with the approval of the Inclosure 
 Commissioners (now the Land Commissioners), and 
 to subscribe for shares in railways and canals ; 
 and for the purposes of the Act to borrow money, 
 and charge the settled land with repayment of such 
 money by instalments, payable out of income, ex- 
 tending over a series of years. 
 
 1870 1 
 
 -j,„- ^ Limited Owners' Residences Acts. 
 
 By these Acts the powers of the Improvement 
 of Land Act were extended, so as to include the 
 erection of mansion houses upon settled estates. 
 
 1877. Limited Owners' Reservoirs, &c., Act. 
 
 This Act extends the provisions of the Improve- 
 ment of Land Act to the construction of reservoirs, 
 the supply of water, and the subscription for shares 
 in water companies. 
 
 1884 1 ^^® Married "Women's Property Acts. 
 
 So far as these Acts relate to land their practical 
 effect may be summed up as follows : — 
 
 (a) Married women are enabled to hold estates
 
 122 ODR LAND LAWS AS THEY AEE. 
 
 iu land as if unmarried, Formerly tlie legal estate 
 must have been vested in trustees^ or in the husband 
 and wife jointly. 
 
 (h) Property to be subsequently acquired by 
 women then already married is to be their own 
 separate property. 
 
 (c) The property of all women married since the 
 passing of the Act is to be their own separate 
 property. 
 
 (d) The two last-mentioned provisions apply 
 only where the property is not subject to any 
 marriage settlement. 
 
 (e) Power is given to a married woman to take 
 and defend legal proceedings relating to her 
 separate property without the concurrence of her 
 husband. 
 
 (/) Married women enabled to act as trus- 
 tees and executrices without imposing liability 
 upon their husbands. 
 
 (g) Married women are rendered liable for the 
 maintenance of their pauper husbands and children. 
 
 1884 ■) ( The Yorkshire Registries Act, and 
 
 1885 3 (^Two Amending Acts. 
 
 These Acts provide an improved system for 
 registration of deeds — not of title — for the three 
 Ridings of the County of York. Registration is 
 practically compulsor}^, as all registered documents 
 have priority over those unregistered.
 
 KECENT EEEORMS. 123 
 
 The system of caveats relating to equitable in- 
 terests and charges provided by § 10 of the Act 
 of 1884 is considerably amended by the Second 
 Amending Act of 1885. 
 
 1885. Intestates' Estates Act. 
 
 This Act attempts to extend the law of escheat 
 to equitable as well as legal estates. But it is so 
 obscurely worded as to render litigation almost 
 unavoidable. 
 
 It also enables the Crown to waive the right of 
 escheat, and empowers the Court to sell the interest 
 of the Crown in [escheated ?] land with the consent 
 of the Attorney-General.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Improvements wliicli may be made by limited 
 owners on settled estates : — 
 
 1. Drainage, including the straightening, widen- 
 ing, or deepening of drains, streams, and water- 
 courses. 
 
 2. Irrigation, warping. 
 
 3. Drains, pipes, and machinery for supply and 
 distribution of sewage as manure. 
 
 4. Embanking or weii'ing from a river or lake, or 
 from the sea, or a tidal water. 
 
 5. Groynes, sea walls, defences against water. 
 
 6. Inclosing, straightening of fences, re-division 
 of fields. 
 
 7. Eeclamation, dry warping. 
 
 8. Farm roads, private roads, roads or streets in 
 villages or towns. 
 
 9. Clearing, trenching, planting. 
 
 10. Cottages for labourers, farm-servants, and 
 artizans, employed on the settled land or not. 
 
 11. Farmhouses, offices, and out-buildings, and 
 other buildings for farm purposes.
 
 126 APPENDCX. 
 
 12. Saw-mills^ scutch-mills, and other mills, 
 water-wheels, eiigiue-houses, and kilns, which 
 will increase the value of the settled land for 
 agricultural purposes or as woodland or other- 
 wise. 
 
 13. Reservoirs, tanks, conduits, watercourses, 
 pipes, wells, ponds, shafts, dams, weirs, sluices, and 
 other works and machinery for supply and distri- 
 bution of water for agricultural, manufacturing, 
 or other purposes, or for domestic or other con- 
 sumption. 
 
 14. Tramways, railways, canals, docks. 
 
 15. Jetties, piers, and landing places on rivers, 
 lakes, the sea, or tidal waters, for facilitatiag trans- 
 port of persons and of agricultural stock and pro- 
 duce, and of manure and other things required for 
 agricultural purposes, and of minerals, and of things 
 required for mining purposes. 
 
 16. Markets and market-places. 
 
 17. Streets, roads, paths, squares, gardens, or 
 other open spaces for the use, gratuitously or on 
 payment, of the public or of individuals, or for 
 dedication to the public, the same being necessaiy 
 or proper in connection with the conversion of land 
 into building land. 
 
 18. Sewers, drains, watercourses, pipe-making, 
 fencing, paving, brick-making, tile-making, and 
 other works necessary or proper in connection with 
 any of the objects aforesaid.
 
 APPENDIX. 127 
 
 19. Trial pits for mines, and other preliminary 
 works necessary or proper in connection with de- 
 velopment of mines. 
 
 20. Keconstruction, enlargement, or improve- 
 ment of any of those works.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ABSOLUTE OWNEESHIP OF LAND UNKNOWN, 7. 
 
 ABSTRACTS OF TITLE, 111. 
 
 ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE DESIRABLE, 3. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS ACTS, 52,117,118. 
 
 ALIENS MAY HOLD LAND, 14. 
 
 ARTIZANS' AND LABOURERS' DWELLINGS 
 ACTS, 117. 
 
 BOROUGH ENGLISH, 81. 
 
 BUILDING LEASES, 54, 55. 
 
 CHARGES ON LAND, 59—71. 
 
 CHARITIES, 
 
 conveyances to, 77. 
 
 gifts of land to, when void 77. 
 
 land held by, 77, 78. 
 
 COMMON LANDS, 
 origin of, 40. 
 
 COMPLEXITY OF LAND LAWS, 1. 
 
 CONVEYANCING ACTS, 119, 120. 
 
 COPYHOLD LAND, 
 descent of, 43. 
 origin of, 41. 
 
 K
 
 130 INDEX. 
 
 COPYHOLDS, 
 
 enfranchisement of, 45, 46. 
 timber and minerals, right to, 44. 
 transfer of, 45. 
 
 COEPOEATIONS, 
 definition of, 73. 
 land held by, 72 — 77. 
 mortmain Acts apply to, 75. 
 sale of land by, 75, 76. 
 
 CROWN, 
 
 land held from, 8, 12, 13. 
 
 CUSTOMAET FEEEHOLDS, 46. 
 
 DEAD HAND, THE, 72—78. 
 
 DE DONIS, 
 
 Statirte of, 22. 
 
 DESCENT, 
 
 copyholds, 43 — 81. 
 freeholds, 7i;*. 
 leaseholds, 57, 58. 
 trust estates, 82, 83. 
 DIFFICULTY OF EXPLAINING TECHNICALI- 
 TIES, 3, 4. 
 
 DISENTAILING DEED, 24. 
 
 DISTEESS, 
 power of, 48. 
 
 EASEMENTS, 115. 
 
 ENTAIL, 
 
 barring, 23. 
 
 may be barred, 84, 85. 
 
 popidar notion of, inaccurate, 20. 
 
 ENTAILS, 
 
 Parliamentary, 83, 84. 
 
 EQUITABLE ESTATES, 
 
 Chancery, recognized in, 35. 
 not formerly recognized, 33. 
 origin of, 34, 35.
 
 INDEX, 131 
 
 ESCHEAT, 13. 
 
 ESTATE, 
 
 defined, 15. 
 
 distinguished fx'om absolute ownersliip, 7. 
 
 examples of varioiis kinds of, 27 — 31. 
 
 fee simple, in, 18—22. 
 
 freehold, defined, 15, 16. 
 
 less carved out of greater, 20. 
 
 life, for, 25, 26. 
 
 possession, reversion and remainder, 20, 21. 
 
 real and personal, distinguished, 16. 
 
 tail, 22—21. 
 
 ESTATES, 
 
 equitable, 32—38. 
 
 EXONERATION OF CHARGES ACT, 118. 
 
 FEALTY, 14. 
 
 FEOFFMENT, 105. 
 
 FORFEITURE, 13. 
 
 FREEHOLD, 
 
 tenure, incidents of, 10, 13, 14. 
 
 FUSION OF LAW AND EQUITY, 37. 
 
 GAS RATES, 62, 
 
 GAVELKIND, 81. 
 
 GROWTH OF LAND LAWS, 2. 
 
 HOUSE DUTY, 61. 
 
 IMPROVEMENT OF LAND ACT, 121. 
 
 IMPROVEMENTS AUTHORIZED BY SETTLED 
 LAND ACT, 125. 
 
 INACCURATE IDEAS PREVALENT, 3, 23. 
 
 INCOME TAX, 61. 
 
 INFANT, POWERS OF, UNDER S. L. A., 103. 
 
 INTESTACY, 
 
 descent on, 80, 81. 
 
 K 2
 
 132 INDEX. 
 
 INTESTATES' ESTATES ACT, 123. 
 
 JOINTURE, 88. 
 
 remedies for recovery of, 90, 91. 
 
 JOINT TENANCY, 21, 29. 
 
 LADY PARAMOUNT, 
 
 Queen is, 8. 
 
 LANDLORD AND TENANT, 49—58. 
 l/iiilding leases, 54, 55. 
 compensation for improvements, 52. 
 fixtures, 51. 
 
 forfeiture, relief against, 50. 
 mortgage by tenant, 57. 
 re-entry, power of, 49. 
 rej^airs, 49. 
 sale by tenant, 55. 
 structural additions, 51. 
 
 LAND TAX, 60. 
 
 LAND TRANSFER ACT 1875, 117. 
 
 LEASEHOLDS, 47-58. 
 
 LEASES, 
 
 lives, for, 58. 
 
 parol, 47. 
 
 quiet eojoyment, 49. 
 
 LIABILITY OF LESSEE AND ASSIGNEE ON COVE- 
 NANTS, 56, 57. 
 
 LIMIT OF POWER TO TIE UP LAND, 84. 
 
 LIMITED OWNER. A7id see Tenant for Life. 
 
 LIMITED OWNERS, 
 
 statutory ]30wers of, 97 — 104. 
 who are, 103. 
 
 LIMITED OWNERS' RESERVOIRS ACT, 121. 
 
 LIMITED OWNERS' RESIDENCES ACTS, 121. 
 
 LIMITATION, 
 
 Statutes of, 110, 111, 116.
 
 INDEX. 133 
 
 LITIGATION, 
 
 chai'ges on land cause, (39. 
 
 LONG DEEDS, 
 
 causes of, 108, 109. 
 
 LOXG TERMS, 58. 
 
 MANOR, 
 
 customs of, 42. 
 
 MAINTENANCE OF INFANT OWNER, 95. 
 MARRIED WOMEN'S PROPERTY ACTS, 121. 
 
 MORTGAGE, 
 
 equitable, 68. 
 
 equitaljle, rights under, 66. 
 
 explained, 64. 
 
 foreclosure, 66. < 
 
 lease of land in, 71, 120. 
 
 legal rights under, 65. 
 
 redemption, 66. 
 
 remedies under, 66 — 68. 
 
 statutory powers under, 67. 
 
 MORTMAIN, 
 
 licence in, when necessary, 73, 74. 
 origin of word, 72, 75. 
 
 OBJECT OF THIS WORK, 4. 
 
 OBSTACLES TO REFORM, 5. 
 
 PARTITION ACTS, 118. 
 
 PIN MONEY, 88. 
 
 remedies for recovery of, 90, 91 
 
 PORTIONS CHARGED ON, LAND, 89 
 
 PRIMOGENITURE, 
 
 custom of, 83, 86. 
 inconveniences of law of, 82, 83. 
 law and custom of, 79. 
 law of, how limited, 80 — 82. 
 
 PROPERTY TAX, 61.
 
 1 34 INDEX. 
 
 QUIA EMPTORES, 
 
 Statute of, 11. 
 
 RATES, 
 
 local, 61, 62. 
 
 REAL PROPERTY LIMITATION ACT, 116. 
 
 REGISTRATION OF DEEDS, 114. 
 
 REGISTRATION OF TITLE, 
 obstacles to, 114. 
 
 RELIEF, 13. 
 
 REMAINDER DEFINED, 21. 
 
 vested, 28. 
 
 RESETTLEMENT, 
 
 effect of ordinary, 93. 
 entails continued by, 92. 
 
 REVERSION DEFINED, 21. 
 
 SERFS AS LANDHOLDERS, 41. 
 
 SETTLED ESTATES, 
 
 trusts attach to purchase-money after sale of, 101. 
 
 SETTLED ESTATES ACT, US. 
 
 SETTLED LAND ACT, 
 
 evasion of, impossible, 98. 
 not revolutionary, 97. 
 
 SETTLED LAND ACTS, 120. 
 beneficial effect of, 104. 
 
 SETTLEMENTS, 86—96. 
 
 powers of management, 89, 90. 
 principal provisions of strict, 87 . 
 rights of parties under, 90, 91. 
 trust for sale, by way of, 95, 103. 
 
 SOLICITORS' REMUNERATION ACT, 119. 
 
 STAMP DUTY, 108. 
 on conveyances, 63. 
 
 STATUTE OF USES, 36. 
 
 STATUTES OF LIMITATION, 110, 116.
 
 JNDEX. 135 
 
 SUCCESSION DUTY, 59. ■ 
 TENANCY IN COMMON, SO. 
 
 TENANT FOR LIFE, 
 
 effect of conveyance by, 100. 
 
 exchange by, 99. 
 
 improvements by, 102, 125. 
 
 infants, lunatics, and married women, 103. 
 
 leases by, 99. 
 
 legal rights of, 25. 
 
 may set out streets, &c., 100. 
 
 mortgage by, 70, 71, 99. 
 
 partition by, 99. 
 
 230wers under S. L. A. 94. 
 
 sale by, 98. 
 
 TENANT IN TAIL. And see Entail. 
 position of, under strict settlement, 91. 
 powers of infant, 94, 95. 
 
 TENURE OF LAND, 
 
 copyhold, 10, 39—46. 
 freehold, 10, 11—14. 
 incidents of freehold, 11, 13 
 leasehold, 10, 47—58. 
 origin of, 8, 9. 
 
 TITHE RENT CHARGE, 60. 
 
 TRANSFER OP LAND, 105—115. 
 actual deed of, cheap, 109, 112. 
 copyholds of, 44. 
 expense of, 113. 
 investigation of title, 110, 111. 
 necessary parties to, 106, 107. 
 verification of title, 112. 
 
 VENDOR AND PURCHASER ACT, 116. 
 
 WATER RATES, 62. 
 
 YORKSHIRE REGISTRIES ACTS, 114, 122.
 
 toiTDoir: 
 
 PEINTED nr GILBERT AJTD BIVINGTOX, UMITED, 
 
 sr. Joan's sqcaee.
 
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