The Sun.
London, England, 1846-03-13 00:00:00

THE LAW OF ENTAIL IN
SCOTLAND.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE " EDINBURGH ADVERTIER."
The question of the justice and propriety of the
present law of entail in this country, is one which is at
the present time occupying a very considerable share of
attention among those more immediately interested in
the satisfactory adjustment of the question at issue. A
meeting of landed proprietors, and others, is to be held
on Thursday in:theglopetoun Rooms, "for the purpose of
considering the great national evils connected with the
law as it now stands, and the propriety of an immediate
application to the Legislature thereupon." For the pur-
poses of bringing the subject more fully before our
readers, we give the followings extracts from a docu-
ment with which we have been favoured, entitled, " Me-
moir on Entails," and which ably discusses the subject in
all its bearings.
" All lands, entailed and unentailed, require a capital
for management, contingencies, and improvement. En-
tails hurtfully withdraw this capital, and prevent even a
credit on the lands for the most important benefits to
the heir in possession, as well as to the public. The
attempts to remedy this by Acts of Parliament have
only been sufficient to show the admitted evil, not to
cure it. Entails are a constant tutory, never advanc-
ing the possessor of the estate above the character of
an heir, and keeping him in perpetual restraint ; where-
by it is necessary, for his interest, to strain every
means in his power to the utmost, and to do the least
possible good to others. No person can deal with pre-
fect safety with an entailed proprietor ; because he can-
not ...know how he is restrained, what security he can
give for sums advanced, or engagements made. As
little encouragement as possible is given for improve-
ments, and aids admitted or given, are often lost in the
constant recurring conflict of necessities of heirs and
executors en the death of each heir of entail.
" As to the heir of entail himself, he is called to the
succession burdened with every debt and obligation that
can be charged against him, and with many debts which
he has contracted, or been forced to contract, before his
succession—not knowing, certainly, what right he has
to the estates—and loaded with provisions to wives and
children of his predecessor, which often exclude all
power to benefit his own family, lle is likewise made
to feel his nearest blood as a spy and complainer ; sod
his son, freed from the salutary restraint of trey ribk
from displeasing his parent by recklessness and folly,
often becomes disregardful.ot his own interestand the ip-
. . sea
Wrests of his family, wed looks to the other members or
it as little more than ineumbrances on him, w hid) much
diminishes the natural affectien due to them, and makes
them far more dependent than they ought to be. The
parent may feel all this, anti see his younger children
destitute of the position which they should be maintained
in, but with no power to prevent it ; and further, see that
an increase of the same evils wilt be transmitted by
each succeeding heir, destroying every feeling of cow-
fort and independence, and rendering his title of en-
tail as if it had been made only to delude himself, and
his heirs, and all around him ; reducing the considera-
tion and the usefuluess of the family in every way, and
in many instances forcing the fiunily to leave the coun-
try, and take all their income Irate it to support them
in the retirement of the Continent, completely vett anged
from their own estate and neiOltrourhood, and from all
a!tachment to their country. The whole, of Scotland is
thus deeply poisoned, tmlearrassed, anti injured by en-
tails. The evil is rapidly increasing, and threatening to
stagnate the fairest parts of the land, and to alienate the
respect due to the proprietors of the country.
" These miserable effects are said to be necessary to
preserve the aristocre.cy of the land. Men who love their
country, and wish to live on their estates, and to im-
prove and benefit all around them ; men naturally dis-
tinguished for vigour and soundness of mind ; men who
naturally despise the idea of being kept from harm by
leading. strings, and who would feel the honourable re-
sponsibility of preserving their station by the generous
regard to what was due to their own high sense of duty
to their ancestors, to their families, and their country,
far beyond all the chains and shelter that could be ap-
plied by the capricious restraints and evil securities of a
decjtful entail, made under a bad law, devised for the
selfish vanity of a Dh:cs, to perpetuate slavery in his fa-
mily, by c.ttuteracting the laws of Providence, which
attach the wise penalty of loss of consideration to reek-
Itssness and disorder, and do not protict the bad by
continually paralysing the good, a course which, in time,
would reduce the landed proprietors of Scotland to the
state of the most expatriated paupers, instead of being
a blessing to their country, and encouragers of vigour
and improvement, and comfort to all around them.
These are no vain and theoretical ferebodings. The
country is already labouring under the influence of them
to an excessive degree ; and it is not too much to as-
sert that more than one-half of the entailed proprietors
in Scotland have not half their income to live upon, and
their families are more burdened and kept down titan
any other class in the country.
" One 'great source of the revenue of the country is
the stamp-duty on the conveyance of property; but the
entailed estates are freed from this; and they do not
pay a single farthing of legacy duty, which alone, if
charged to each heir on his succession to an entailed
estate, in the same way as it is drawn from the children
of his poor tenant, and from the children of the poorest
merchant of the country, at the very time when they
have lost the income obtained by the labour of their pa-
. rent, would aff.,rd above 1,000,000/. sterling every year
to Government. Should it still be thought that an in-
come must be preserved through a succession of profuse
heirs, for the chance that they might become the
honoured parents of good 11,-irs, the best entail
would be an Act of Parliament that all lands should
be exAutled from difgeece. This would do es, t•
justice to all parties, and only the soon( r s t -
exce=sive evil of the stagnation of any Lind of pro•
perry. Or if it be necesary to seeure a large income
from capital, free from all change, in favour of any
class, it might be safely dyne by requirieg the parties
to purchase the (overnnient fund', to tire ex'ent re-
quired, and never to alew more to be so tied up than
what the State required. This would. make the funds
valuable, and give these parties the greatest interest. in
the prosperity of the country.
It would require no management, and never pre-
vent the improyemeut of the csuntry ; and all taxes
would as easily be taken from that capital as from any
other, anti without any serious damage to those who
held such special entails. The aristocracy holding this
fixed income, and left free to purchase, anti to keep
.and leave to their heirs as large estates as they could
.acquire and improve, would hold them as free men
—a far- more commanding and respectable character
than a halt-ruined heir of entail. The tenantry, and
the country would deal safely with then), and respect
them as men freely maintaining the high station which
-the good condnet of their noble ancestors raised them
to, and preserved them and the country would feel
that integrity was fixed as the basis of right, dignity,
and title to every property in the kingdom.

- -to

FIRST SIGHT OF A Hotta; —The sensation produced
by the presence of the strangers had not in the least subsided
at the period of our arrival at the islands. The natives still
flocked in numbers about the encampment, flood watched
with the livclie*t curiosity every thing that was going for-
ward. A blacksmith's forge, which had been set up in the
shelter of a grove .near the beach, attracted so great a crowd
that it required the utmost elforts of the sentries posted
around, to keep the inquisitive multitude at a sufficient dis-
tance to allow the workmen to ply their vocation. But
nothing gained so large a share of admiration as a horse,
which had been brought from Valparaiso by the Achille, one
of the vessels of the squadron. The animal, a remarkably
tine one, had been taken ashore, and stabled in a hut of
cocoa-nut boughs within the fortified enclosure. Occasion-
ally it was brought ont, and,
being gaily caparisoned, was
ridden by one of the officers at tall speed over the hard
sand beach. T sure to be hailed
his performance was ~
with loud plaudits, and the "parakee nt.tee (big hog)
was unanimously proneohluerin of
zb,),:olotlgiye
that isla..chleards
etNo,er comp
etmhe
most extraordinary spee
under their observation.—Four Months' Residence in the Mar-
quesas Islands. -
NEW CLUB, No. 12, GEORGE-STREET, HANOVER-
SQUARE.—A new club is in course of formation at the man-
sionoccupied as the British and Foreign Hotel, to be
now
conducted on the same principles and
.management as the
large clubs of London.- The number of members to he
limited, and the admission to be by ballot. The list of mem•
bers already enrolled may be seen, and further particnlars
known, by personal application at the address given above,
between the hours of twave and four.

MANURE COMPANY.—It is intended to form a com-
pany in Newcastle, for the purpose of turning the contents of
itnhte
rec oempmt
aonnasewers
yt
tohpe rmofiutan
db erwaocuc onudn,
wt.
thlotuits
tphreosploi
slightest
nuisanceNvii,‘vhetroe
reservoirsthepith public,
willo bea formed,
Nsfrieolrimecchtteandle
town,
l.
and there subject them to a chemical process, by
v
objections on the score of offensiveness will be destroyed, and
the substance, as a manure, improved in its fertilising. proper-
ties. It is proposed then to dry it by artificial means, and
thus render it fit and convenient for carriage. Upon a
mo-
derate calculation, not fewer than 10,000 tons of valuable
manure arc wasted, which, at 3/. per ton, amount to an
annual lose of 30,0001.—Neweestle Journal.
• SUICIDE OF AN Ex COURIER OF THE DUKE OF CAM
BRIDOE.—On Tuesday, Mr. Wakley, M.P., held an inquest at the
.marquis of Granby Tavern, Great .Marylebone•street, on view of
the body of Thomas Webb, aged 50 years, who committed suicide.
The deceased lived at No. 3, Little Marylebone-street, and was formerly
a courier ht the family of the Duke of Cambridge, from whom he re-
ceived a pension for his services. Subsequently he became butler to
Colonel Thoyts, but had left about a twelvemonth since. Mr.
Reading, the parish beadle, deposed that, from information he
received on Sunday evening, between MX and seven o'clock, he pro-
ceeded to deceased's room (an attic), and found him suspended to the
bed-post by a cord tied tightly round his neek. Witness, with the as-
sistance of the landlord, immediately cut him down, but the body was
quite cold, and life must have been extinct for seveial hours. John
Cuerton (deceased's landlord) deposed to having last seen
hint alive on the previous day ; lie was a married man, and
his whe lived at service ; he had lodged in witness's house ever
since he left Colonel Thoyts. Deceased was never heard to utter
any expressions that might lead one to conjecture that be mit-em-
ployed suicide, and be enjoyed tolerable health up to the period of his
destruction. The Coroner buttoned np at considerable length, re-
marking on the ft equrney of suicides amongst butlers ; and as the
testimony was: not alte;,.wther satisfactory as to state ordeceased's
to return an open verdict. After a
unanimously recorded the following ver-
snitiiniirdt,cloiensricileotititriirnrl,ilte,:i
juitTan
diet, "That deceased
state of mind tinknoWn fn the jury."
1111,3 found dead, having hanged imitnself in a
PRICE ol POTATOES AT PORTSMOUTH Qu
ykteatprts augitetl,itiltabtzzkotartrooeusi
Alderney', 4!. per ton ; Is. 6d. per met. We perceive the price of
food is still kept up; but we would caution
this necessary article of
thosewho have stocks in hand not to keep them too long, or they may
lose them altogether.
" :aid r.; personsson;c
rnommsm%teo.t,a it:tegeTo°pue' lo'ii!l;(',:•tting me still higher price- a mild winter
succeeded, which CAUSed them to germinate very early, and the
consequence was, they became so soft, and were so matted together,
55 to require prongs to remove them into carts in order to throw
them on the ihuntheap. The mildness of the present ser.,;on might
produce similar effects. We are satisfied there is no scarcity in this
part of the country, as potatoes arc freely selling in the upper part ot
the county at ss. per sack l—Poi is/nom/tie Telegraph.
DEPLORABLE AND DISTRESSING CASE.—The follow-
ing very distressing case has caused considerable excitement and
alarm in the nei;;hbutirlimod of Milbank, Westminster. It appears
that a shoemaker, named James Silk, together with his wilt and four
young children, _ latve been residing for some thne.past in an old,
gild dilapidated house in Vine-street, Westminster, in the
geetttvst misery and distress. A few days ago one of the children
teas seized ‘,itle typhus fever, the father and mother also caught it;
the poor woman, from went of nourishment and attention, got so
bad that some person having heard of it had her conveyed on. Mon •
day to the Westminster Hospital, but she died a few hours after her
admission Into the institution. About three hours after her death
her husband was conveyed in a sedau chair to the hospital, wrapped
up in blankets, but the poor fellow can only survive for a few hours.
, Such a painful case of misery and distress would be hardly sapposed
to exist in a country like this.