title to the glebe, rights or easements, or to the receipt Chap. V. of any rent-charge other than that (if any) awarded by them in addition to the land or money, or both.

Sect. 20 of 2 & 3 Vict. c. 62 provides that any land taken by any ecclesiastical tithe owner under any agreement for giving land instead of tithes or rent-charge, upon confirmation of the agreement, shall vest absolutely in the tithe owner and his successors.

In every such case the commissioners must cause to be inserted in, or endorsed upon, the agreement the amount of the rent-charge instead of which the land is given and the land upon which it was chargeable.

Any person who would have been entitled to recover the land given by the agreement, or any rents and profits issuing out of it, has a right of action for damages against the party giving such land, or his executors or administrators.

Any damages recovered, and all costs and expenses incurred in recovering them, become payable out of the lands freed by the agreement.

All agreements and assurances made for the purpose of giving land to any ecclesiastical tithe owner and his successors are valid if made by any corporation, sole or aggregate, or any trustees or feoffees for charitable purposes (sect. 21), or by churchwardens and overseers, or trustees or feoffees of parish property or of property held by or vested in such trustees or feoffees for parochial or other uses or purposes in the nature of a parochial or public trust (sect. 17 of 3 Vict. c. 15).

S.

E

CHAPTER VI.

DISCHARGE OF LAND FROM LIABILITY TO TITHES OR

TITHE RENT-CHARGE BY MERGER.

OWING to the nature of tithes no merger of them could take place, even though the same person was the owner of an estate in fee simple in the tithes and in the land out of which they issued; but now, by statutory provision, tithes or the rent-charge for which they have been commuted may be merged or extinguished by the following persons:

1. Any person or persons seised, either alone or together, of an estate in fee simple or tail in possession, or who has the power of acquiring or disposing of the fee simple in possession of any tithes or rent-charge (sect. 71 of the principal Act, and sect. 1 of 1 & 2 Vict. c. 64). 2. Any person possessed of an estate for life in tithes, or rent-charge in lieu thereof, and in the land chargeable therewith, where both tithes or rentcharge and land are settled to the same uses (1 & 2 Vict. c. 64, s. 3).

3. Any person to whom glebe or other land, and the tithes or rent-charge thereof, belong in virtue of his benefice, or of any dignity, office or appointment (2 & 3 Vict. c. 62, s. 6).

4. Any person entitled in equity who, if he were Chap. VI. legally entitled, would be empowered to merge (9 & 10 Vict. c. 73, s. 19).

By 1 & 2 Vict. c. 64, s. 4 it is enacted that all provisions as to merger shall extend to copyholds;1 and by 2 & 3 Vict. c. 62, s. 7 it is provided that in all cases of merger of tithes or rent-charge issuing out of any copyhold land, which is subject to an arbitrary fine, the commissioners may, on the application of the owner of the land, ascertain the annual value of the tithes or rent-charge, and cause to be endorsed on the deed, declaration, or other instrument effecting the merger, a certificate under their hands and seal setting forth such annual value. In every such case the parties entitled to the arbitrary fine must, in any future assessment of it, assess it as if the lands were still subject to the tithes or rent-charge of which the annual value is indorsed. Proof thereof may be given by production of the original deed, declaration or instrument of merger, with the certificate indorsed thereon, or by a duplicate or office copy thereof.

Merger is effected by a deed or declaration under the hand and seal of the person or persons entitled to merge, made in a form approved by the commissioners, and confirmed under their seal, conveying, appointing, or otherwise disposing of the tithes or rent-charge, so that they may be absolutely merged and extinguished in the freehold and inheritance of the lands charged therewith.

1 By 5 & 6 Vict. c. 54, s. 20 copyhold includes land held under any customary tenure or any other tenure liable to any arbitrary fine.

Chap. VI.

This deed or declaration is not subject to stamp duty (1 & 2 Vict. c. 64, s. 2).

Sect. 1 of 1 & 2 Vict. c. 64 provides that all such deeds and declarations shall be valid, though not made in the manner or with the formalities and requisites which would otherwise have been essential; and sect. 19 of 9 & 10 Vict. c. 73 confirms all instruments, purporting to merge tithes or rent-charge, previously made with the consent of the commissioners, subject, however, to any charge, incumbrance or liability.1

Upon merger of any tithes or rent-charge the lands in which they are merged become subject to any charge, incumbrance or liability which previously to the merger existed on such tithes or rent-charge, but only to the extent of the value of such tithes or rent-charge.

All such charges, incumbrances, and liabilities have priority over any charge or incumbrance affecting the land at the time of the merger. The lands and the owner thereof become liable to the same remedies for the recovery of any payment and the performance of any duty in respect of such charge, incumbrance or liability, or in respect of any penalty or damages for non-payment or non-performance thereof respectively, as the merged tithes or rent-charge or the owner thereof would have been but for the merger.

By sect. 2 of 2 & 3 Vict. c. 62 any person entitled to merge tithes or rent-charge may, with the consent of

1 The section covers the case of a merger purported to be effected by a person having no interest whatever in the tithes purported to be merged (Walker v. Bentley, 9 Hare 629).

the commissioners under their hands and seal, and of the Chap. VI. person to whom the land belongs, either by the deed, instrument, or declaration effecting the merger, or by some separate deed, instrument, or declaration, made in a form approved by the commissioners, specially apportion the whole or any part of any charge, incumbrance, or liability affecting the merged tithes or rent-charge upon the lands in which they are merged or any part thereof, or on any other lands belonging to the same person and held under the same title and for the same estate in the same parish, or upon the several closes or portions of such lands, or according to an acreable rate or rates upon lands of different quality. No land, however, may be exclusively charged unless its value is, in the opinion of the commissioners, at least three times the value of the amount of the charge, incumbrance, or liability intended to be charged on it, over and above any other charges and incumbrances which may affect it.

Lastly, sect. 18 of 9 & 10 Vict. c. 73 enables tithes to be merged after the agreement or award of a rentcharge, but before its apportionment; and, in the case of a merger extending only to a portion of the lands which would have been chargeable with the rent-charge, provides for the apportionment of the rent-charge among the other lands to the extent to which they would have been chargeable had there been no merger, and for the payment by the owner of the lands to which the merger extends of such portion of the expenses as the commissioners may under the special circumstances order, instead of his rateable proportion only.