" In the circumstances, therefore, the repeal of the Punjab Alienation of Land Act of 1900 has no effect on the continued operation of the Pre emption Act and the expression 'agricultural land ' in the later Act has to be read as if the definition in the Alienation of Land Act had been bodily transposed into it." F The doctrine of incorporation by reference to earlier legislation has been very aptly described by Lord Esher, M. R., in In re Wood 's Estate, Ex parte Her Majesty 's Commissioners of Works and Building(3) where he observed as follows: "If a subsequent Act brings into itself by reference some of the clauses of a former Act, the legal effect of that, as has often been held, is to write those sections into the new Act just as if they had been actually written in it with the pen, or printed in it, and, the moment you have those clauses in the later Act, you have no occasion to refer to the former Act at all For all practical purposes, therefore, those sections of the Act of 1840 are to be dealt with as if they were actually in the Act of 1855.