The Sun.
London, England, 1852-05-26 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, May 25.
The LORD CItAIiCRLLoR took his scat on the Wool-
sack at Five o'clock.
THE MILITIA. BILL.
The Marquis of BR,EADA.LBANE asked the Noble
lssrl at the head of the Government whether it was his
intention to proceed reith the Militia 13111 in this House
without laying before their Lordships the opinions of
the professienal earhoritlee on the snbjeet. He con-
sidered it to be a subject on which the House could not
legislate without having before it the opinions of the
military and navel authorities.
The Earl of DERBY said it was undoubtedly the in-
tention of her Majesty's Government to proceed with
the Bill without taking any farther steps to inquire into
the present state of the defences of the country, con-
sidering that they had already sufficient information on
the subject,
Lord BEAUMONT presented a petition from nume-
rous lords of manors against. the Copyheld Enfran-
chitement Bill,. and praying to be heard by counsel at
the bar against ire. .•• • •
On the .motion- of. Lord MINTO the Burehe (Scot-
land) Bill passed through Committee after a short dia
- • •
ENFRANCHISEMENT OF COPYHOLDS BILL.
Lord CRANVCOliitii, in meviog the second reading
of this Bill, observed that it would he as useless us ab-
surd in him to erotic- rho few o'steratiens which he
was about to make • by enythipg Llee a discussion at to
the origin of eapyhoid tenure. It was a question which
had puzzled antiquaries, anti might well be left to their
research while their Lordships applied themselves to the
practical grievances to be remedied. He should, there-
fore, very briefly call the attention of the House to the
evils of the law relating to copyholdin endeavour to
point out what from time to time had been done with
the view of pelliatine those evils, and then
dpi et
ved atten-
, the
tion to the Bill, whtch had received,
very general steeled -ea of the other House of Parliament.
The subject of the grievances arising out of copyhold
tEmere was not of recent date.
he attention of the
Real Property Commissior, which had been heeled
under the great seal in the latter part of the reign
of George IV., had been directed to it, and in a
very elaborate report—the third which they had made,
dated 1832_teep bad carefully enumerated the evils
existing in this part of our judicial system The ge-
naral outline of these evils mutt be familiar to all their
Lordships, but it might not be witheut use that he
should shortly recapitulate some of the most promi-
nent. Conn'holds were but the Isst fragment existing of
the laws of tenure that once prevailed universally
throughout this country. There were tenures of chi-
valry under which great lords held great estates, there
was the tenure of tree and common soc, commonly
celled freehold tenure, and there was the copyhold
tenure. One of the very first acts of the Parliament
after the restoration of Sing Charles If. was by legis-
latioa forma?ly to-abolish that which had practically,
during the Cemmonwealthe been abolished already,
namely. the greed tenures of chivalry, and to reduce
everything into what be would call our freehold, leaving
our copyhold untouched. It was a very old observation
made by a very accurate writer, and repeated in his
amusing " Life of Lord, Chancellor Guildford," that it
was somewhat unequal. when the great men abolished
the tenure that pressed upon themselves, and substituted
for it an excise....npoh the liquers which they consumed,
that they left the minor. teutire •of 'the poor people un-
touched, and open to the same abuses that existed pre-
viously. The consequences of this tenure were, prima-
rily the payments of fides, relate, reliefs, and so forth,
and a number of services and dues that were payable
from the tensity from time to time, calculated to inflict
upon them a serious .preedeal grievance. Ia the first
place, there was that strangest of all anomslies which
went by the name of " heriot, " which was a custom pre-
vailing in very mapy, manors, and in some places not con-
fined to copyhold tenures,_ that on the death of a person
holdiag land of that detceiptiou the lord might seize the
best chattel he possessed. In some manors the best live
chattel only could heeeizni, andin some it must be the
best chattel upon copyhold, but in ethers there was
no such restriction,--asst lord might seize anything, and
anywhere.- New, of this. were knitted as being the law
prevailing in hriaidegeterr, would they believe that such
a thing could pessiWy et:lst where law prevailed at all?
—(Hear, hear.) ,Ho did not mean that this was practi-
cally a very greet grievance, because human nature was
such that the right, was usually d waved. Bat instances
had occurred in quite modern, times when that law had
been enforced so ass to become a very grievous practical
hardship. Ha rememb red that the famous recehorse
Smeteneko, worth some 20001. or 3,0001 had been seized
upon the death of the then owner, Sir C. Banbury. A
somewhat similar etwatiestance, ho believed, bid occurred
on the death of Sir G. Heathcote. About 30 years ago,
when the late Lord Abinger was on the circuit, it was
falsely rumeuted that he had died, and the first intima-
tion which 41r.s.Scarlett rt twiverlof the melancholy event
was from the agent of the lord of the manor, who
who went to seize three of Lord Ahinger's horses. The
Piet diamond was at one time pledged to a pawnbroker
who had a small copyhold tenement is Westmoreland
liable to heriot, and upon his death the owner of the
copyhold manor either did sewe, or intimated to the par-
ties that he had a right to seize, and he (Lord Cram-
worth) believed that he had, that diamond. Another
curious illustration of the abaurdity of this law was ex-
hibited by what haepened to the late Sir R. Peel. The
Rght Hon. Ci,astlenian was the - cr)pyhold tenant of a
manor to which heriot "attached, and he was in the greet-
er!, apprehension that the celebrated " Chapeau de Pulite"
might be seized- in tatitfection. To avoid this Sir R.
Peel became the percheser of the manor. Was not this
sufficient to make ace seat Ca at the absurdity of the law?
He -confessed, however., that the greatest practical
grievances did sot 11 ass from this source, but from some-
tning of a mech- more ordinary and commonplace cha-
racter. The ordinary copyhold tenure reepiired that
upon every death sun every alienation the tenant should
psy to the lord atiati. In some cases it was what was
cis: d "arbitrary," which eracticetlY meant either a
year-end-a-half or two year:' improved value. In other
Cases it 71:13 merely n nominal fine, , 55., or 10s., or
soeoething of no real imp:Tat-ace. About two-thirds of
the manors in England were under a fine arbitrary.
Whae was the cocaereneece of that? Let their lend-
shipe reason upon it a priori. If he levi out money in
improving his land, should he derive the benefit of all he
on Itid out? Certainly 'new for at his death his heir
would have to pay to the leaf two years' improved vu,
lue: Mr. Blemiee, a gentleman eminent in all agdeul-
tural matters, who hadbeen many years at the head of
the Tithe Otommissioa: and who was also a Drainage
Commissioner, and was therefore- well competent to
speak upon this subject, had been examtued before the
Real Property Cemmidion, and he the stated that the
Dreinage Commissioners . never had an application to
drain copyhold lands; parsecs would not do it. The
very name of it was repulsive to them. Every one who
wished to drain wished to drain ,mething of which he
would. have the eutite and complete control.—(Hear,
hear.) Mr. Blamire's exparieece was that the profit
derived from laying out money upon drainage was
from 12 to 20 per cent.; the tenant, then—the country
sit large,—was thus deprived of an immense annual ad-
vantage by the operation of this tenure. And the
"i 1 was not limited to the non-drainage of copy-
hold lands merely, for these lands being so dispersed
as they were, forming as they did in so vast a number
`f eases parcels of estates at which the other portions
we freehold, the practical result was that the tenant
ce4
unviag s •
such estates, rather than drain the capyholel
R :rhea, t•
other "tea front draining all.—(Hetr, hear.)
petted g,reeat impteverneut of lands was largely im-
general:thaw
odperation of this tenure,—building. By the
even at lihertvt cupybold,t the cepyhold tenant was not
down buildinis on hit still less, if possible, to pull
billet
was as widely land, and the effect of this prohi-
letchieveus as the regulation with
regard to chaineenY
in the habit of not hceleeyhold land was thus very much
edit
sbuilt upon, to the infinite de-
trimeat of all Parties
ttwecnea,
might mention that le As in illeetration, he
near the Crystal Pelace,
hold, had
being
mt:i
with
the land ail about it,
live of only 301. per towetn",:d dear after year produc-
tive
freehold, vise covered
remunerative rents. At Iteridd:
by
at meeedingly
it
was
icinnethaLelycusout
fur
land was en-
chase, the landlord cad thebtith
4b,,y,aa arrangement en-
franchised;
chase, and was now, like the etteeoued3lso years' pur-
with houses at ceererpondine inebd, covered
among the Ittedieg evils of Cho 8 'These were
there were innumerable ()thews; but, if
; and
were none besides the mystery tile, if there
taitity attending the transfer of !suds, eet:dteuauendoehr-
these complicated varieties of tenure, there L
wo u,14 be
quire sufficient reason for correcting the
eviL_kuear,
htar.) 'S3 was not one of those who were Bo
sanguine
as to imagine that the transfer of land might be read:
as at -uPie a matter as the transfer of stock, but
thereii
was no question that dee transfer. inigiat be infinitely
simplified,- and leo was, very SDXIOU3 th2t 11:what:tee);
should not delay to take every practicable step in that
direction.—meed hear.)
_the special customs which
exieted in so great a number of copyhold estates were
in themselves a moat serious impßdiment to this very
desirable object,—(Hear, bear.) Nobody knew but that
at the very moment, after infinite trouble and expense,
he was on eke point o: completing the purchase of au
estate supposed to be ordinary copyhold, some special
castom might start tip, wholly attecing the wise so far
as he was concerned. For example, he knew of one case
in which a gentleman, having all bat completed the
purchase of an estate, which he had been assured, and
which tell the previous evidence went to show, was under
ordinary copyhold tenure, eras Wormed at the last
moment that the tenure was borough Eaglish—that was
to say, went to the younger end unt to the elder eon—
and, in consequence, all the trouble and all rte' expects°
that had been so fatdiccurreei were thrown away. An-
other vexation of the system , was the requirement
imposed upon the tenant of keeping the boundaries
distinct between his intermixed copyhold and free-
hold lands—a requirement very difficult to be observed,
hue which still letsan opening fee considerable vexation.
One evil which had formerly existed with reference to
copyhold lands, the difference acquired' to be observed
in testamentary dispositions a; between then and fr
eea-
holds, had been 'obviated by the Wills Awn' "'
In 1838 the
subject •
et copyhold tenured was referred to a Select
et the Mute Con "
Couennt '
-
Sir Robertetrus, presided over by
and in pursuance of the report of that
fCazotnilimtiesitteieo
of 1841 was passed, which provided
and ler the vGinntr :untary enfranchisement of copyholds,
services. There ha icio=reetation of hertote and other
which ths latter aearticldrp been only two cases in
400 in
which the former, at ceternutation, and only
all rather desirous
.of wrtattind taken piece, tenants being
would do in the way of eattwtouitee whet Parliament
And, in feat, there had been
no .snubs;
entranchisement.
which some portion of the time of ja-Equent session in
been occupied with the diseuesitee itrliament had not
for that purpose, all of thtm by ludteiddeurihe Introduced
rowliettsent, with the eeteeptdon of ‘e"'" Munthera of
that brought for-