When charges

and casualties are purchased up.

The lands are not disfeudalized, and consequences of this doctrine.

When, in such case, the conveyance contains the double manner of holding, with the usual clauses for rendering it effectual, it is provided that the title may be completed by resignation or confirmation, or by the equivalent procedure introduced by the Titles to Lands Act. But it must be observed that the existence of such clauses does not prevent it being completed by direct registration of the conveyance (sec. 80). In the case of the a me holding, the consideration to the seller may either be a price, or may take the form of a ground-annual (sec. 10). In such cases, the casualties must be provided for by a single payment in name of an ascertained compensation, or by such other arrangements as are commonly made when corporations are admitted as vassals (secs. 108, 117).

But it is provided, that the company may in all cases, with the consent or on the requisition of the superior, redeem the feu-duties and casualties of superiority, by making payment of a compensation to be agreed on or ascertained by the Sheriff; and when this is done, the superior must discharge the lands taken of such incumbrances, or otherwise the company may attain the same end by a notarial instrument. When the lands taken form only a part of those held by the same titles under one superior, the redemption of the feu-duties and casualties appears to be compulsatory, with the view apparently of preventing the complications of title which would otherwise arise (a). In both these cases, if an entry has not been already taken, it is declared to be unnecessary, and the company's title is completed by recording the conveyance.

It must not, however, be supposed that the lands so acquired are entirely relieved from the fetters of the feudal system, or that the rights of the superior whose charges and casualties have been redeemed, are thereby in theory brought to an end. Though the Act declares a formal entry to be unnecessary, the superior's right to have a vassal appears to remain unaffected, and the company would seem to become such by the mere fact of registering their conveyance. The importance of this doctrine will become apparent when we come to consider the case where lands acquired for the purposes of their undertaking are afterwards disposed of by the company. It must also be observed, that the superior has himself an overlord or a series of overlords, for he must hold either mediately

(a) Compare secs. 109 and 126.

or immediately of the Crown. So long as the superior's fee is full, the company, having satisfied his claims by redemption or otherwise, have no concern with his overlords; but if by tinsel of his right he should fall out of the feudal chain, the company will have to enter with the next superior, or at least to compensate and redeem his dues and casualties, whatever these may be, as they had done in the case of his vassal.

and lands.

It is obvious that, by the removal of the intermediate superior or Crown rights superiors, the company may ultimately come to stand immediately under the Crown; and the question would then arise, How are the Crown's claims of superiority to be satisfied? The Act is silent on this subject, and regard must therefore be had to the provisions of the common law. Now, by 1455, c. 41 (a), the Crown is declared incapable of alienating its real property, except when authorized so to do by Act of Parliament; and the Lands Clauses Act cannot, it is thought, be read as conferring this power. In such a case, therefore, it would seem that the Crown duties and casualties, whatever they may be, cannot be redeemed; but the company must take out an entry like any other vassal, making annual payment of the blanch or feu duties, and arranging for the casualties by payments at fixed terms or otherwise, as in the case of ordinary corporations. It may be objected to this view, that if correct it would be impossible to carry out the purposes of the undertaking, where any part of the lands required to be taken were Crown lands; but the answer to this appears to be, that in such a case the necessary powers would have to be obtained in the special act, or in some auxiliary piece of legislation (b).

introduced by

c. 121.

The only exception to this appears to be that introduced by Exception the Railway Construction Facilities Act, which by sec. 4 enables 27 and 28 Vict. Crown lands to be sold for the purposes of railways formed under its provisions by agreement with the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, with consent of the Commissioners of the Treasury. The holding would seem in such a case to be blanch or feu, as may be arranged, and the title would have to be completed in the ordinary

way.

(a) See 1457, c. 71; 25 Geo. II. c. 41; 3 Will. IV. c. 13; 1 Will. iv. c. 25; 2 and 3 Will. Iv. c. 112.

(b) See Standing Orders, No. 26.

When lands are disposed of by the company.

General observations.

The company are, as we have seen, entitled to dispose of lands acquired for extraordinary purposes (sec. 13), and are bound to do so in the case of superfluous lands (sec. 120). They are also under the same obligation with respect to the whole lands acquired, when they have abandoned the undertaking, in terms of the Railway Abandonment Act. The question, therefore, presents itself, How are such lands, when disposed of, to be held in future by the purchasers? The only statutory provisions on this subject are the following: secs. 13, 125, 126, and sec. 27 of the Railway Abandonment Act; and it must be admitted that they do not throw much light on the subject. If, however, the views already submitted are accurate, any questions arising in relation to this matter admit of an easy solution. When the company have taken out a regular entry, the purchaser may either become their vassal by subinfeudation, or may obtain a disposition with procuratory and warrant of registration, and so complete his entry with their superior: and the same would hold good even where, the duties and casualties having been redeemed, the company had completed their right by mere registration, without taking out a formal entry; for in such cases, as we have already seen, though the duties and casualties are extinguished, the superiority still remains unaffected. If the immediate superior, being thus deprived of everything but the naked theoretical right of superiority, declines to give an entry, this will be obtained from the next overlord, and so on, to the Crown, which never refuses an entry. Of course, when the lands are sold, in consequence of the dissolution of the company under the Railway Abandonment Act, permanent subinfeudation becomes impossible, and the conveyance ought to provide for the purchaser holding directly under the company's superior.

Such appears to be the meaning of the statutory provisions when interpreted according to the common principles of the law of Scotland; but it must be admitted that the whole subject, in consequence of the extreme scantiness and ambiguity of the statutory provisions, is involved in very considerable obscurity; and it is by no means clear that the Legislature did not intend to enable companies, where the feudal duties and casualties were bought up, to obtain an estate in land of the nature of the English freehold of inheritance, in which all the feudal incidents should be for ever extinguished.

LAND TAX, POOR-RATES, AND PRISON ASSESSMENT.

vided for.

If the company acquire any lands charged with such taxes How proor assessments, they remain, until the works are completed and regularly assessed, liable to make good the deficiency in such assessments caused by the operations. This deficiency is computed according to the value of the rental at which the lands and buildings were rated at the time of passing the special act. The land tax may be redeemed (sec. 127). A water company is liable to be assessed for the poor-rates as owner of the land occupied by the water pipes (a); and in the case of railway companies, stations are considered as part of the railway, and are not rated specially in the parish where they may happen to be (b).

(a) Edinr. Water Co. v. Hay, 1853, 1 Macq. 682, affirming 12 D. 1240. (b) Adamson v. Edinr, and Glas. Ra.

Co., 1855, 2 Macq. 331, affirming 15
D. 537.

Purposes and application of the Act.

Power to rectify errors in schedule.

With whom certificate must be lodged.

Deviations.

CHAPTER XIII.

RAILWAY CLAUSES CONSOLIDATION ACT.

THE provisions of this Act, in so far as they relate to aggressive powers to take land, etc., must be regarded as auxiliary to those of the Lands Clauses Act, which we have just been considering. Hence it is declared that railway companies shall be deemed to be under the provisions of the latter Act, and that, except where otherwise provided by the Railway Clauses Act or the special act, the amount of compensation for the lands taken shall be ascertained in accordance with the provision of that Act.

The Railway Clauses Act contains an important provision for the rectification of any errors which may have been innocently made in the description of the lands, and of their owners or occupiers, as specified in the plans, books of reference, or schedule referred to in the special act, and allows this to be done by the Sheriff, who is empowered to issue a certificate containing the rectification. Before making the application, ten days' notice must be given to all concerned; and the certificate must be duly lodged with and kept by the officials to be immediately mentioned (sec. 7).

Before commencing operations, the company must also lodge with the principal sheriff-clerk of any county through which the line is to pass, a plan and section of such alterations on the same scale as the original plan and sections, and with the schoolmaster of the several parishes, and with the town-clerk in all royal burghs within which the alterations have been authorized to be made, copies or extracts of such plans and sections for the inspection of all concerned (secs. 8, 9). Certified copies may be obtained at any time, and they are declared to be legal evidence (sec. 10).

In making the railway, the company cannot deviate from the