The daily gazette., 1878-11-11
A Survival of Feudalism,
Tha English Land Laws-HOw
Great Estates are Kept To-
gether aud Increased.

ing so curious and wonderful a system as
the English land laws. 1t would seem
that they must have been designed ex-
pressly to hinder free exchange in land,
and to keep vast estates unbroken through
long generations. At all events,
that is precisely what the result is,
and the transferring of piece
Of land is so expensive and serious a
business that owners and buyers are
always reluctant to enter upon it. The
law is full of technicalities the greater
part OF it is made up of legal decisions
and precedents, instead of express stat
utes; the part that is statutory is very
oflen in the vague language of the law
yers of other centuries, of which no one
knows the meaning, and upon which
thousands of long opinions have been
given, and even the titles themselves are
rarely free from some doubt or question.
A well-known writer on this subject says
he has "known the deed OF settlement of
one estate to require many months for
its preparation, to cover nearly barrow
load OF paper, when written out prepara-
tory to be engrossed on parchment,
and to cost over ESQ for the conveyan-
GERS charges alone, without reckoning
either the solicitors charges or the cost
of the necessary stamps"
About two-thirds of all the land of the
United Kingdoms is under the law of
entail and settlement that is the descent
is fixed and inalienable for some genera
tions, at least. When there is no will,
by the law of primogeniture the property
goes to the eldest male heir; but a will
may dispose of it otherwise, and primo
geniture is, after all, more the result Of
custom than of law, for the descent is
generally regulated by will. The law is
substantially this The owner of free
hold or copyhold land may devise or con-
vey it upon trust for any number of lives
then in being, and for twenty-one years
after. For example, man having chill
dren and grandchildren living may settle
his estate upon himself for life, with the
estate in remainder to his eldest son for
life upon his (the father's) death, with
remainder to his eldest grandson for his
| life upon the death of the son and
finally, the estate, upon the death of the
grandson, in default of issue, to go to
younger sons for twenty-one years more.
II the property came to man unfettered
this is what he might do in the way OF
fixing the descent but, as matter OF
fact, he rarely has SO wide field to work
upon, for he nearly always enters upon
it as property in trust for some one else,
and the most he can do is to fix the de-
scent one step further into the future
than his predecessor was able to do. In
| fact he is not much more than manager
of the property, with full power to use the
revenue of it.
| Cnder the working of this law, the re-
lation Of father and eldest son is a very
curious one. The latter is the real owner
| of the estate and the former is the Imam
in possession"
The father can make no further settle.
ment without the consent of the son; and
the son on the other hand, has no legal
hold upon the revenues, but is dependent
upon the fathers will for that. Yet the
i son, If of age, may borrow money with
out limit, and the claim is good against
the estate, and the father can do nothing
to prevent 1t, though the claims are not
available until the death of the father.
Hence, it often happens that son comes
into an estate burdened with debts
equal to its whole revenue. The land
cannot be sold 10 satisfy these claims, but
the whole revenue may be regularly eat
en- up to pay them. Money lenders are
generally very ready to advance money
| In this way to heirs who have not yet
come into their estates, and many estates
pass from heir to heir burdened with
such loads of debt as almost make the
possessors poor men, though nomlnally
/ owners of great wealth. The father Is
usually desirous that the estate shall be
enjoyed by the youngest sons after the
death OF the eldest, in case of no issue ON
| the part of that son. He cannot so settle
| it of himself, but must have the consent
/ of the son after he has come OF age, and
hence it commonly happens that father
and son together fix the further success
sion, and the son may insist upon share
In the present revenue, if he so wishes,
as condition of giving such CONSENT
Generally, the further succession is fixed
as soon az the heirs come of age, and the
/ result is that most estates are bound up
beyond all power of alienation for per
liods between 40 and 100 years.
The tendency of the system is steadily
to increase the size of farms, ana drive
out the small freehold proprietors, who
were once much more numerous than
now. The small yeomen farmers are
fast disappearing, and peasant proprie
tors of the soil so numerous in the Uni
ted States and nearly all the Continental
countries are almost unknown. Gum
berland and Westu oreland were once
famous for their yeomen farmers, but
these, too, are rapidly disappearing, and
their little farms go to make large
estates, which are already entirely toe
Large. The highlands of Scotland have
been specially affected in this way Of re,
cent years. These regions have lately
become favorite resorts for fishing and
hunting, and Immense tracts have been
almost entirely depopulated to make
way for deer forests. A rude but hardy
and honest race of people once inhabited
those highland glens, and earned scanty
but independent living on their little
plots of ground. In most cases they held
it upon very low rent, and in some cases
paid no rent at all, though they did moi
own the ground. Whom the land became
SO valuable for purposes of raising game,
these primitive people were told to find
homes elsewhere. The Hon. Lyulph
Stanley estimates that more than 1000 ,OOC
acres in Scotland have been thus depopu-
lated and turned into deer forests The
whole of Scotland has little less than
England stands entirely alone in this
unfaiP division of the land of the country.
Here alone the old feudal tenure still
holds. In France, Belgium, Holland,
Germany, Switzerland-in all Europe
besidesVthe feudal tenure has been done
away with. Before the French revolu-
tion of 1889 most of the land on the Con-
tinent was governed by feudal tenure