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

THE MILITIA BILL.

The Marquis of BREADALBANE asked the Noble
Bari at the head of the Government whether it was his
intention to proceed with the Militia Bill in this House
without laying before their Lordships the opinions of
the professional aufhoritfes on the subject. He con-
sidered it to Des subject on which the Roust) could not
legitidte without having before it the opinions of the
military and naval 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 further steps to inquire into
the present state of Inc defences of the
i country, con-
sidering that they had already sufficient information on
the subject.
Lord BEAUMONT presented a petition from nume-
rous lor.is .of manors against" the Copyhold Enfran-
chisement Bill, and praying to be heard by counsel at
the bar against it.
On the motion of Lord MINTO the Darghs (Scot-
land) Bill passed through Committee after a short dis-
cussion.

ENFRAITCHISEMIINT OF COPYHOLDS BILL.
Lori CRANWORIB, in moving tne second reading
of this Bill, observed that it would be as useless as ab-
surd in him to preface the few observations which ho
was about to make by anything like a discussion as to
the origin of copyhold tenure. It was a question which
had puzzled antiquaries, and 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 copyholds, endeavour to
point out what from time to time had been done with
the view of palliating those evils, and then direct atten-
tion to the Bill, which had received, he believed, the
very general sanction of the other Howe of Parliament.
The subject of the grievances arising oat of copyhold
tenure was not of recent date. The attention of the
Real Property Commission, which had been issued
under the great seal in the latter part of the reign
of George IV., bad been directed to it, and to a
very .elaborate report—the third which they had made,
dated 1839 —they had carefully enumerated the evils
existing in this part of our judicial system The ge-
neral outline of these evils must be familiar to all their
Lordships, but it might not be without use that he ,
should shortly recapitulate some of the most promi-
cepyholds ware but the last fragment existing of
laws of tenure that once prevailed universally
nth
(tent.
throughout; this country. There were tenures of chi-
valry under which great lerds held great estates, there
was the tenure of free and common -sec, commonly
called freehold tenure, end there was the copyhold
tenure. One of the very first acts of the Parliament
after the restoration of King Charles If. was by legis-
latioa formslly to abolish that which had practically,
during the Commonwealth, been abolished already,
namely, the great tenares of chivalry, and to reduce
everything into what he would call oar freehold, leaving
our copyhold untouched. It was a veny old obtervation
. made by a reey accurate writer, and repeated in his
amusing "Life of Lord Chancellor Guildford," that it
teat somewhat unequal, when the great men abolished
the tenure that pressed upon themselves, and substituted
for it an excise upon the liquors which they consumed,
that they left the minor tenure of the poor people uns
touched, and open to the same abuses' that existed pre-
viously. The consequences of this tenure were, prima-
rily the payments of finee, rents, reliefs, and so forth,
and a number of services and dues that were payable
from the tenants from time to time, calculated to inflict
upon them a serious practical grievance. In the first
place, there was that streagest of all anomalies which
went by the name of " heriot," which was a custom pre-
railing in very many manors, and in some places not eon-
fined to copyhold tenures, that on the death of a peracn
holdhbee land of that description the lord might seize the
best chattel he possessed. In some manors the best live
chattel only C9Ui.l be seized, and in some it must be the
best chattel upen tho copyhold, but in others there was
no such restriction,—the iordanight seize anything, end
anywhere. Now, if this were stated es being the law
prevailing in Ilaclegaecar, would they believe that such
a thing °maid possioar exist where law prevailed at all?
—(Hear, hear.) He did not mean that this was praCti-
cally a vary great grievance, because human nature was
such that the right was usually waved. Bat instances
had occurred in quite modern times when that law had
been enforced to as to become a very grievous practical
hardship. He remembered that the famous racehorse
Smoleneko, worth some 2,0001. or 3,0001 had been eeized
upon the death of the then owper, ,Sir C. Banbury. A
somewhat similar circumstance, he believed, had occurred
on the death oi dm G. Heathcote. About 30 years ago,
when the late Lord Abinger was cu the circuit, it was
falsely rumoured that he had died, and the first intima-
tion which Airs. Scarlett received of the melancholy event
was from the agent of the lord of tho manor, who
wbo went to seize three of Lord Abinger's horses. The
Pitt diamond wes at one time pledged to a pawnbroker
who had a small copy bold tenement in Westmoreland
liable to heriot, and upon his death the owner of the
cupybold manor either did seize, or intimated to the par-
ties that ho had a right to SSiZ), and he (Lord Oran-
worth) believed that he had, that diamond. Another
curious illustration of the absurdity of this law was ex-
hibited by what happened to the late Sir R. Peel. The
Right Hen. Gentleman was the capyhold, tenant of a
manor to which heriot attached, and he was in the great-
est apprehension that the celebrated " Chapeau de raille"
might be seized in satisfaction. To avoid this Sir R.
Peel became the purchaser of the manor. WAS nor this
stacient to make one startle at the absurdity of the law'r
Ile confessed, however, that the greatest practical
grievances did not flew from this source, but from some-
thing of a mach more ordinary and commonplace cha-
racter. Tee ordinary copyhold tenure required that
upon every death and every alienadon tile tenant should
pay to the iord a floe. In somecissea it was what was
sake) "arbitrary," which practically meant either a
year-and.-half or two years' improved value. In other
eases it was merely a nominal fine, tie., or 103., or
something of no reel importance. About two.thirus of
the manors in Ecglanci were under a flea arbitrary,
What was the conseq/cree of that? Let their Lord-
ships reason upon it a priori. If he laid out money in
improving his land, should he derive the benefit of all he
so laid oat? Certainly not; fur at his death his heir
would have to pay to the lord two yeare' improved va-
lue. Mr. Blamixe, a gentleman eminent in all agricul-
tural matters, who had peen many years at the' head of
the -Tithe Oammission, and who wad also a, Drainage
Commissioner, and- was therefore well competent to
speak upon this subject, had been examined before the
Real Property Commission, and he then stared that the
Drainage Commissioners never had an application to
drain copyhold Lands; parsons would DC?, do it. The'
very name of it was repulsive to them. Every one who
wished to drain wished to drain something of which ho
would have the entire and complete control.—e(Hear,
bear.) Air. Blamire's expoesience was that the profit
derived from laying out money upon drainage was
from 12 to 20 per cent.; the tenant, then—the country
at large,—was thus deprived of en immense annual ed-
vantage by the operation of this tenure. And the
"11 was not limited to the non-drainage of copy=
hold lands merely, for these lands being so disperised
"cf tikes, were, forming as they did in so vast a number
wereea parcels of estates of which 'the other portions
amen",r'''hold, the practical result was that the tenant
"128 Such estates, rather than drain the copyhold
portion, obit&
used from draining at alle-e-(Fear, hear.)
Another gee
peded by te.,:at improvement of lands was largely im-
peded of this tenure—building. By the
general law
hold, the copyhold tenant was not
even at liberty t°ol)s
still less, if possible, to pull
down buildings on build,
hind, and the effect of this pm-W-
-hitton was as enaeip
mischievous as the regulation with
I;eieXtr.hold land was thus very much
coricebuilehupon,
irnegethredhtaoitraoifnnaogse'
to the infinite de-
triment of all parties
Aa in illustration, he
near the Crystal Palace,
bmeiignhgt
cmoenppthioonldt,hhaatdsormemearannd•
thea after year produc-
tive of only
30/. per annum, while
land all about it,
being freehold, was covered with houses at exceedingly
remunerative rents. At length, 1,,,
twcen the landlord and the tenant, an arrangement bet
franchised; it was immediately sold for 13150 land wasen-
chase, and was now, like the contiguous .auy.ears' ur-
with houses at corresponding roe Those
covered
. enese were
among the leading evils of ewe
_agstem . end
there were innumerable others; but,
if 7 th—
w were none besides the mystery and tin ere
tainty attending the transfer of lands, ea,:siene
tcesre
these complicated varieties of tenure, there Woull 10_3"
quite sufficient reason for correcting the- evileeeme vre
hear.) die was not one of those who were so atilt
as to imagine that the transfer of land might be made
nine
al SiMPIO a matter as the transfer of stock, but • tee e
e,
was no question that lie transfer might bo infinitely
simplified, and be was very anxious that Parliament
should net delay to take every practicable step in that
direction.--(ltteea hear.) The special customs which
(milted in so great a number of copyhold estates were
in themselves a most serious impediment W this very
desirable object..(Hear hear.) Nobody knew but that
at the very moment, after infinite trouble and expanse,
he was on the point of completing the purchase of an
eallatte supposed to be ordinary copyhold, some special
custom might start up, wholly altering the case so far
as he was concerned. For example, he knew of one case
in which a gentleman, having all but completed the
purchase of an estate, which ha had been assured, and
which all the previous evidence went to show, was under
ordinary copyhold tenure, was informed at the last
moment that the tenure was borough English—that was
to say, went to the younger and not to the elder son—
and, in consequence, all tho trouble and all the expense
that had been so far incurred 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,
but which still lett an opening for considerable vexation.
One evil which had formerly existed with reference to
sopyhold lands,to the difference required be observed
in tee' • -
.amentary dispositions as between them tr
and '
ee-
holds, wed be en obviated by the Wills Act. In 1838 the
subjeet of .
Committee optitliold tenures was referred to a Select
Sir Robert Peel, House of Commons, presided over by
Committee, the 'Aatletdoita pursuenoe of the report of that
faciles for
the
vainut:B4l was passed, which provided
and for the voluntary ry enfranchisement of copyholds,
servibes. There had,
ielosmweravutation of heriot and other
which the latter deseriptionerje been only two cases in
400 in which the former, had takceausraufation, and only
all rather desirous of waiting tc, place, tenants being
would do in the way of
cemplaser what Parliament
And, in "to fact, there had been no all enfranchisement.
(pent session in
which some portion of the time of Parliament bed not
been occupied with the discems!on of me urea fntroduced
for that purpose, all of them by individual Members of
radial:tient; with the ;exception of that brought;-for-