Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-11-29
LAND TITLES.
1.-The English System.
By Frederic ]. Haskin.

Did IT ever occur to you to wonder
why some property, such as money.
Jewels, clothing and household furni-
tnre. has to be safeguarded by either
constant personal possession or by in
closing them in devices which require
force to penetrate, while other prop
erty, many times more valuable, such
as a vacant lot in the heart of great
city. is rendered absolutely safe by
trace of an Enclosure or by a mere no.
tice board?
The answer that the one class con-
sists of movables and may pass from
hand to hand, while the other is fix
iIre, is not satisfactory, since pos
session is the basis of a claim of
ownership, and one can possess land
by occupying it just as one can possess
an ornament by wearing it about the
person.
dress, subsistence, comfort and luxury
the great principle of the sanctity OF
private property has been modified by
Inc necessities of commercial inter
course. Trade would be impossible if
the seller had to assure the buyer of
the property rights in the merchandise
omereG; and governments have been
competed to substitute the police es-
tahIlshMent to prevent and punish
theft for such a guarantee of undIs-
turoed possession in the case of chat
tells as is afforded in the case of prom
erty in land and its improvements.
mere nave been times when property
rights in lands were no more secure
1mah the property rights in chattels.
Inc ancient berserk might challenge a
landholder to fight for mis- domain and
II VICTORIOUS, turn him out a landless
Wanderer individual dispossession by
the STRONG hand was u possibility down
VIII !, in,
tory, and the system of land holding
which now exists was erected on the
basis OF d wholesale disposscsslon as
the result OF the fortunes of war
Back of the recording of the deed of
today's purchase which gives an in
violable title to
English Custom the pur chaser
Base of System. V o luminous as
perhaps the most important part of the
law of the English-speaking people.
and the series of letters which is to
follow will describe the processes by
which the present system of land hold
ing and assurance of title has been
established in the United States by
the evolution of a comparatively sim
the complications which resulted from
the military system of Europe of the
middle ages.
If it could be imagined that a man
free from prior associations and con-
nections should find himself resident
on piece of land that no other man
had seen. and should continue to &C.
cupy and improve that land, his title
be what is called an allodial title.
1t has been assumed that the origi-
nal title to land was acquired, but
men began to speculate about the
origin OF rights of ownership GEN.
turtles after the fact and after the
question as to what became of the
lana if the first occupier left 1t tenn
porarily or died in possession had been
settled by series OF arbitrary rules.
Land in the United States is held
with all the characteristics of allodial
ship-that is, II is held free OF
all restraint except governmental
charges, but this condition has come.
not through original acquisition and
subsequent possession by individuals,
but through compliance with the modi-
fed forms of military tenure.
The theory of landholding under the
common law of England (Which exists
in a modified form in the United
States) was that the whole body of
the land of the nation originally be-
longed to the king the chief mill
tary leader AS the continuance of the
king in power depended on his ability
to raise sufficient military forces, it
was necessary for him to attach the
chief military men to himself by lib
eral grants. These chiefs We're COM
PEELED TO have a sufficient number of
subordinateS, and they made SubgrantS
TO Ae-to-...4-.s, no ui.iuSu tneI4 ,,4a.l.s
among fighting men OF lower rank, who
so administered the land that it would
a n
diery.
There had. of course. to be foun-
dation for this support, and this was
found in the people who actually Gull
tivated the land and provided means of
subsistence and equipment for the mill
tary class. Thus the persons who, I'M
der an allodial title, would have been
the owners of the land were under
the military or feudal system them
selves owned and treated as property.
This system was introduced into Eng
land by William the Conqueror, Duke
of Normandy,
William the Conqueror who subju-
Introduced System. saxon owners
of the island The land system of the
Saxons had the difference that there
was a large number of smaller propri-
etors who held their lands independ-
emily of a superior. Their titles had
probably been derived from original in
dividual conquest or settlement of waste
lands, but there was a system of sub
grants and of slavery not substantially
different from the Norman system. Such
of the Saxon proprietors were not
dispossessed of their lands were COM
PEELED to deliver their titles to the king