powerful inducement to purchase, and the present position of a portion of the country does justify strong measures to unsettle property, and by the aid of a new tribunal, to free land from its load of incumbrances. We do not object to the principle, but we conceive the legislature imposes upon the proposed Commissioners a task of greater difficulty than is generally imagined, if they seek to do this effectually and justly. As we understand the statement of the Solicitor-general, he proposes not merely to sell the lands, but at once to distribute the purchase-money. For this object the Commissioners will have the power to make and vary rules. On those rules hinge the fate of the measure; on them it stands or falls. The legislature shifts the whole difficulty on a tribunal the offspring of today, to die to-morrow, with no further appeal than to the judicial committee of the privy council. The rules will just be tested, when the period of their dissolution has arrived; either the Commission will merge into the Court of Chancery, or the Court of Chancery into the Commission. part or to retain and the innumerable extrinsic causes which legislation cannot provide for, and yet which sway the land market. Legislation of this extraordinary character presupposes the bankruptcy of the property to be sold; and, if such be the fact as it unquestionably is in many instances-it is well worthy of consi deration, whether all creditors should not, in this land bankruptcy, be levelled, as they are in cases of traders; or, as a nearer approximation to jus tice, that the prior incumbrancer should suffer an ad valorem abatement calculated by the value of the land when the investment was made, and its value when sold. When the inheritor dealt with the incumbrancer, he had, in many instances, a sufficient, if not a superabundant security; the combined effects of famine and legislation have reduced one-half the value of his lands. Is it equitable that all this loss should fall on the puisne, and none on the prior creditor? Nay, further, is it just that it should all fall on the inheritor? Most certainly, debt has drawn on him a heavy punishment; severely does he suffer for his own sins, or, what is much more likely, for the sins of his forefathers. By recent legislation, a blow is struck at the fixity of property. "Ancient nobility is an honourable thing, which hath stood the waves and the weathers of time." The feudal principle had grown up as a sentiment which had long obtained, and was long cherished. The tendency of legislation since Peter Thelluson's time, has been to offer facilities to unsettle, and the design is now The fact is this; after the statement of Sir Robert Peel, ministers found they could rest no longer on the laissez-faire system, and they bring in a bill with a disingenuous disavowal of its real originator, and a flimsy story of its having been suggested by the idea of a West India Commission. It has not the merit of originality, nor has it the boldness of Sir Robert Peel's plan. It leaves its use to choice, and we question much whether it will not be disused. If Sir Robert's idea had been carried out, there was a power of doing a great national benefit. The Government took pos-"to give currency to land." session of a province bought with Government money, and distributed it as they thought best. The present Bill falls short; it leaves to the choice of owner and incumbrancer the resort to the new measure, and establishes a new, untried tribunal, necessarily more arbitrary than the Court of Chancery, for the adjudication of questions of property, priority, and legal rights. And this court is vested with the most unconstitutional power-that of determining the right of appeal to the judicial committee. In other words a tribunal is appointed not only to try, but to determine whether the trial is to be absolutely conclusive and irreversible. Except the force of public opinion can be brought to bear on the Commissioners, the veto thus given them is the most arbitrary conceivable. A most wholesome check given by our happy constitution was a right of appeal ex debito justitiæ; that right kept judges in awe, gave security to the suitor, and we regret exceedingly to observe any precedent for its abridgement. We do not deprecate the attempt; we think it necessary that incumbered properties should be emancipated; but we wish to guard against an emancipation which is regardless of all vested rights, and all settled principles. We cannot close this article without adverting to the fact, that all legislative activity for Ireland is entrusted in the House of Commons, to English lawyers. Time was, when Irish lawyers introduced measures affecting the laws of Ireland. Time was, when the British senate was adorned by the elo quence and the learning of members of the Irish Bar-time was, when every Irish government insisted on, at least, one law officer of the Crown being a member of the House of Commons; but now, nous avons changés tout cela, though never since the Union was there a greater necessity for Irish legislators. The Solicitor General for England introduces, and ably introduces, we admit, a measure deeply affecting the real property of Ireland; the English Attorney General defends the Irish Attorney General, for his system of retrenchment in crown prosecutions, a system by which briefs were put into the hands of counsel when the prisoner was arraigned, and when, without time for preparation, they were expected to prosecute. Such extensive prospects were held out by the first act for the sale of Incumbered Estates, that, taught by the experience of its failure, our readers will think it but wise, if we caution them against forming exaggerated ideas of the present. Its success will depend on so many causes-the cha- We care not of what party he may be, but we racter and capacity of the Commissioners-their are satisfied there is no Irish lawyer, with a spark orders the confidence that their proceedings will of professional feeling, who does not feel it a disinspire the enactment of an improved poor law-credit and a disgrace that we have no legal reprethe cessation of the potato disease-the induce sentative on the ministerial side of the House, in ments held out to capitalists the forbearance or times and crises such as these. harshness of creditors-the desire of the owner to A PLAN for the more effectual relief of the destitute cers. will find 7s. 6d. in the £1, in many instances a tax beyond their ability to pay) as to the interests of incoming proprietors or farmers. These men will make their purchases, or adjust their rents with a full knowledge of the amount of taxation to which they will be liable; and in these instances, as far as they are concerned, it will be as if there were no poor rate whatever they will either allow for the poor rate in the purchase-money, or in the rent; so that in either case the whole weight will fall on the present proprietor. However, this limitation may (and does seems calculated to) have the effect of inducing capitalists to speculate in land-and this, even on such terins, it is of great importance to encourage. We do not know on what principle to account for the next proposition of the Premier, namely, that the Poor Law Commissioners shall have the power to settle the past liabilities of certain elecThat a nominal landlord, who is unable to per- toral divisions. If the poor rate be a primary charge form the duties which properly attach to the owners on property, and if a judgment can be obtained to of land, should be compellable to give place to others enforce the payment of it, we do not see why, in who can perform those duties, is a principle which every instance, the proprietor should not be made we have always advocated; but, that a landlord to pay; nor do we see why, with justice, arrears should be compelled to part with his estate, at the should be remitted to one proprietor, when another depreciated value to which the mismanagement of proprietor has been held liable. The latter prothe Government of the country for the last three prietor might, with as much justice, demand that years has reduced it, we consider in the utmost his money should be refunded to him, as the former degree inequitable. Many proprietors, who have expect that his arrears should be remitted; besides, done the utmost that could be done, to alleviate the this provision rewards the non-paying proprietor, condition of their tenantry, and to raise the value of and would no doubt encourage a similar course of their estates, will, by this enactment, be literally conduct. With regard to persons who are not beggared; and incumbrancers, who lent their money owners, the same reasoning applies; their interests but a few years since on unquestionable security, are worth something, and if the poor rate can be will, in many cases, find that the proceeds of the collected in no other way, these interests should be sale will not reach their claims, and because the sold. A tenant will scarcely be allowed to hold a Government would persist in applying to a pauper-farm without paying rent, and if he can pay rent, ized country a principle which might profitably be applied to a rich and prosperous one. We can understand that a rich proprietary might be induced or compelled to provide profitable employment for able-bodied paupers, by being taxed for their support; but we cannot understand, how the taxation of pauper proprietors could lead to any such beneficial result. That the Government should not undertake the employment of a pauper population, but, should use means to induce or compel owners of land to employ them, as a general principle, we admit ; but we assert, that general rules should not be applied in cases where there is no possibility of their success-supporting a population in idleness, at the expense of a ruined proprietary, to compel them to employ that population-is one of these cases. That this principle is at length deserted, is apparent from the introduction of a maximum with regard to the rate, on separate divisions and unions one of the most important alterations proposed in the present bill. When a Government deserts a principle, it should not be forgotten that some consideration is due to those interests which have been injured-nay, in some instances, destroyed-by the adoption of and perseverance in it. Late, as the proposition of a maximum has come, we hail it as an alteration of great importance and value, not so much, however, to the interests of the present proprietors, in the distressed unions (who his non-payment of the poor rate should be no reason for striking off the arrear. Waste, untenanted lands are not in a very different position; they too are worth something at least worth the amount of poor rate due on them; and when it is remembered that each "settlement of past liabilities" increases the rate to which the property of the industrious farmer or owner will be liable, it is clearly only justice to this useful class, that property, whether in the occupation of owners, of farmers, or waste, should be held liable for rates which other property in the division or union, has been compelled to pay. The avowed object of the confiscatory part of this bill, is, that by the introduction of men with capital and enterprise in the room of the present proprietors, employment may be afforded to the able-bodied poor, who may thus be enabled to earn their own subsistence. The same object, avowedly, is aimed at by the reduction in size of electoral divisions and unions, thus rendering it possible that the exertions of a few improving proprietors should sensibly affect the amount of poor-rate. We find some difficulty in reconciling these avowals with the statement of the Premier, "that it would not be useful to make a further division of unions, unless, at the same time, some provision were made for new work-houses." If the Premier has any confidence in his own plan, he should contemplate such a reduction in the present extent of pauperism as with respect to the rent thereby reserved, and with and subject to such other covenants, conditions, exceptions and reservations (save covenants to grant or to accept and take a renewal of such lease and such covenants, conditions, exceptions, and reserva tions as may be commuted as herein-after mentioned) as are contained in such lease, and then would render the present work-house accommodation amply sufficient. From what we have seen, heard, and read on the subject of work-houses, we consider them most objectionable institutions-destructive to the morality and self-dependence of their inmates confining large masses of poor, only to expose them to the ravages of fever or cholera. Far from wishing for the multiplication of work-subsisting; and where lands in Ireland are held houses we would very sincerely rejoice in the diminution of their number. Lord John, however, seems to contemplate the permanent establishment of pauperism, and recommends the diminution of the size of unions rather, as affording facilities for a more convenient distribution of the paupers, by increasing the number of poor-houses, than as supplying anything in the way of stimulus to the exertions of proprietors. We accept that part of the bill which proposes to render jointures and rent-charges by way of life annuities, liable for poor-rate, as a promise of a change in the principle of taxation. We cannot assent to the proposition, that any person, in consequence of possessing a peculiar species of property, should be allowed to plead an exemption from contribution for the support of the poor. LEASEHOLD TENURE OF LANDS A BILL INTITULED AN ACT FOr conveRTING THE Whereas many lands in Ireland are held under leases and under-leases respectively, with covenants for perpetual renewal, and great expense is constantly incurred in procuring renewals under such covenants, and much litigation and inconvenience arise from such tenures; and it is expedient that such tenures should be converted, in manner herein-after provided, into tenures and fee, and that, except as herein excepted, all leases and underleases of lands in Ireland, with covenants for perpetual renewal, granted or made after the passing of this act, should operate and take effect in man. ner herein-after mentioned: be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that where lands in Ireland are held under any lease in perpetuity, the owner of such lease in perpetuity, at any time after the passing of this act, and whether the time for renewal has or has not arrived, may require the owner of the reversion to execute a grant, according to the provisions of this act, of the lands comprised in such lease; and the owner of the reversion, upon being so required as aforesaid, shall execute a grant to the owner of such lease of an estate of inheritance in fee simple in such lands, subject to a perpetual yearly fee-farm rent, of such amount as herein-after mentioned, to be charged upon such lands, and to be payable on the same days and times as the yearly rent made payable by such lease, and subject to the like covenants and conditions for securing the payment of such fee-farm rent as are contained in such lease, under any under-lease in perpetuity of any degree of tenure, the owner of such under-lease, at any time after the passing of this act, and whether the time for renewal has or has not arrived, may require the owner of the lease or under-lease in per petuity out of which such first-mentioned underlease is derived, or the owner of the estate of inheritance which may have been granted in respect of the lease or under-lease, out of which such first-mentioned underlease is derived, to execute a grant according to the provisions of this act, of the lands comprised in such first-mentioned under-lease; and the owner so required, shall thereupon execute a grant to the owner of such under-lease of an estate of inheritance in fee simple in such lands, subject to a perpetual yearly fee-farm rent, of such amount as herein-after mentioned, to be charged upon such lands, and to be payable on the same days and times as the yearly rent made payable by such under-lease, and subject to the like covenants and conditions for securing such fee-farm rent, as are contained in such under-lease with respect to the rent thereby reserved, and subject to such other covenants, conditions, exceptions, and reserv ations (save covenants to grant, or to accept and take a renewal of such lease, and such covenants, conditions, exceptions and reservations, as may be commuted as herein-after mentioned) as are contained in such under-lease, and then subsisting; and upon the delivery of every such grant as afore said, to the owner requiring the same, he shall execute and deliver to the owner executing such grant, a counterpart thereof; and every such grant and counterpart shall be prepared by the owner by whom the grant is made, and the expense of the preparation and execution of such grant and counterpart shall be paid by the owner to whom the grant is made: provided always, that the owner required to make any such grant as aforesaid, shall not be obliged to execute such grant until, where the time for renewal of the lease or under-lease by the owner of which the grant is required has not arrived, all such arrears or sums, if any, of or in respect of rent as, if the time had arrived for renewal of such lease or under-lease, and a bill had been filed for the renewal thereof, would have been required by a Court of Equity to be paid on such renewal, and where the time for renewal of such lease or under-lease has arrived, or where there has not been a renewal of such lease or under-lease at or after the time at which the same might have been last renewed according to the covenant for renewal, all such arrears or sums, if any, of or in respect of rent, and, also, all such fines and fees, if any, and interest as would have been required by a Court of Equity to be paid on renewal of such lease or under-lease, are paid; provided also, that no owner required to execute any such grant as aforesaid shall be obliged to excute such grant where the right of renewal is lost both at law and in equity and where any owner required to execute any such grant as aforesaid, disputes the right of the party requiring such grant, to require the execution of such grant, such owner shall, within one calendar month after he is so required as aforesaid, serve on the person by whom such grant has been required, a notice in writing, stating that the right to require such grant is disputed, and the grounds on which such right is so disputed. II. And be it enacted, that the fee-farm rent to be made payable by every such grant as aforesaid, shall, when the lease or under-lease (as the case may be) to the owner of which the grant is made renewable without fine, or upon payment of a peppercorn or other merely nominal fine of like nature, be of the like amount as the yearly rent made payable by such lease or under-lease, and shall, where such lease or under-lease is renewable upon pay ment of a fine or fines not merely nominal, be of and amount equal to the aggregate amount of the yearly rent made payable by such lease or underlease, and the value of the renewal fine or fines and fees (if any), such value to be estimated or computed with regard to the probable duration of the subsisting term, the average duration of life, and the respective periods for renewal, but without regard to, and exclusively of any penal rents or sums made payable upon neglect, delay, or refusal to apply for or take renewal, and to be ascertained as herein-after mentioned, if the parties differ about the same. III. And be it enacted, that where any subsisting exception or reservation contained in the lease or under-lease in perpetuity, by the owner of which a grant is required as aforesaid, or any right under covenant, or otherwise annexed or belonging to the reversion or estate, from the owner of which a grant is required, interferes with the proper cultivation of the lands comprised in such lease or underlease, the owner of such lease or under-lease requiring such grant as aforesaid may (if he think fit) require that such exception, reservation, or right should cease, wholly or partially, and in such case the grant shall be modified accordingly, and the fee-farm rent to be made payable by such grant shall be increased by such an amount as is equivalent to the value of such exception, reservation, or right, in so far as it is made to cease as aforesaid, such amount to be ascertained in manner hereinafter mentioned, in case the parties differ about the same. IV. Provided always, and be it enacted, that where any right to timber, timber trees, woods, underwood, or underground woods, turbaries, mines, minerals, quarries, or royalties, whether under express exception or reservation contained in the lease or underlease in perpetuity or otherwise, is annexed to or belongs to the reversion or estate from the owner of which a grant is required, it shall not be lawful for the owner of the lease or under-lease in perpetuity requiring the grant to require that such right should cease, either wholly or partially, but in every such case the owner of the reversion or estate from the owner of which the grant is required and the owner of the lease or under-lease requiring the grant may agree that such right should cease or pass under the grant, either wholly or partially, and in such case the grant shall be modified accordingly, and the yearly fee-farm rent to be made payable by such grant shall be increased by such an amount as is equivalent to the value of such right, so far as it is made to cease or pass as aforesaid. V. And be it enacted, that, where the owner required to execute such grant as aforesaid, and the owner requiring the same shall so agree, a part of the lands comprised in the lease or under-lease by the owner of which such grant is required, and not comprised in any inferior under-lease in perpetuity, may be allocated in fee simple in lieu of the feefarm rent which would have been made payable by such grant or of any portion thereof, or such feefarm rent, or any portion thereof, in lieu of which land is not allocated as aforesaid, may be made payable out of any sufficient part only, to be specified in the grant, of the lands comprised in such lease or under-lease, and the residue of the lands shall be discharged therefrom; and where land is allocated as aforesaid, the same shall, by the same grant, be conveyed or surrendered by the owner of the lease or under-lease to the owner to whom the fee-farmin rent in lieu of which or of a portion of which the same is allocated would have been payable. VI. And be it enacted, that from and after the execution of such grant to the owner of a lease in perpetuity, or to the owner of an under-lease in perpetuity, as aforesaid, such grant shall, where such grant is made to the owner of a lease in perpetuity, bind all persons interested in the reversion and in such lease, and all persons bound by such lease, and such reversion shall be converted into an estate of inheritance in fee simple in the fee-farm rent made payable by such grant, and the conditions, exceptions, and reservations therein contained, and all rights annexed or belonging to such reversion, saved by and not commuted under this act; and such grant shall, where such grant is made to the owner of an under-lease in perpetuity, bind all persons interested in the lease or superior under-lease, or the estate of inheritance granted in respect thereof by the owner of which the grant is made, and in the under-lease to the owner of which the grant is made, all persons bound by such under-lease; and the estate held under such lease or superior under-lease, or such estate of inheritance as aforesaid, shall be converted into an estate of inheritance in fee simple in the feefarm rent made payable by such grant, and the conditions, exceptions, and reservations therein contained, and all rights annexed or belonging to the estate by the owner of which such grant is made, saved by and not commuted under this act; and each such estate of inheritance in fee simple as aforesaid shall be transmissible and descendible in like manner as if the same were an estate of inheritance in fee simple in reversion in the lands, on which the fee-farm rent is charged by the grant creating the same, having incident thereto the conditions, exceptions and reservations contained in the same grant, and such rights respectively as aforesaid; and the estate of inheritance created under every such grant as aforesaid in the lands comprised therein, save any part thereof allocated in lieu of a fee-farm rent or any portion thereof under the provision herein contained, and the estate of inheritance so created as aforesaid in the fee-farm rent made payable by such grant, and in any land so allocated as aforesaid, shall from and after the execution of such grant be respectively vested in the same persons, for the same estates and interests, and be respectively subject to the same uses, trusts, provisoes, agreements, and declarations, and be respectively charged with and subject to the same charges, liens, judgments, incumbrances, and equities, as the estate held under the lease or under-lease in perpetuity to the owner of which the grant is made, and the reversion or estate by the owner of which the grant is made, were respectively vested in, subject to, and charged with immediately before their conversion into such respective estates of inheritance as aforesaid was effected, or as near thereto as the different nature of the estates and the circumstances of each case will admit; but all land allocated as aforesaid shall remain subject to all demises and tenancies inferior in tenure to the lease or under-lease by the owner of which such land may have been so allocated. VII. And be it enacted, that the conversion of any estate under this act shall not prevent or prejudice the operation of any devise, bequest, or testamentary appointment, made before such conversion of such estate, or any interest therein, but such devise, bequest, or testamentary appointment shall operate upon the estate or interest created or acquired under this act, as fully and effectually, to all intents and purposes whatever, as the same would have operated upon the respective estate or interest previously subsisting if no such conversion had taken place. VIII. And be it enacted, that no conversion under this act of any estate shall operate to give dower or curtesy to the widow or husband of any person becoming entitled under this act to an estate of inheritance, in any case where the estate converted would not have been liable to dower or curtesy, and such widow or husband was married to such person before such conversion, or to defeat or affect any rights of lords of manors, or of owners of reversions in fee simple, to escheats, fairs, markets, franchises, rights, liberties, privileges of chase or free warren, hunting, hawking, fowling, piscaries, fisheries and rights of fishing, or any rights in any mines or minerals, quarries, or royalties within or under the lands included in any estate converted under this act, save in so far as the same may be commuted under this act. IX. And be it enacted, that all covenants by law implied on the part of the landlord or tenant upon any lease or underlease in perpetuity to the owner of which a grant is made under this act shall be implied upon such grant, and every covenant for payment of rent, and every other covenant contained in pursuance of this act in any such grant aforesaid, in substitution for a like covenant in the lease or under-lease to the owner of which such grant is made, where such last mentioned covenant is of such a nature as that the burden thereof doth by law run with the land, and bind the assignee of such lease or under lease, and every covenant implied under this act upon any such grant where the burden of the implied covenant for which the same is in substitution was upon the owner of such lease or under-lease, shall run with the estate in fee sim ple into which the estate held under such lease or under-lease is converted under this act, and the owner or assignee for the time being of such estate in fee simple shall be chargeable upon such covenants in the same manner and to the same extent as if he were owner or assignee of the term or interest created by such lease or under-lease, and such term or interest, and the estate out of which such lease or under-lease was derived, were still subsisting, and the benefit of such covenants shall run with the estate into which such estate is converted under this act, and the owner or assignee for the time being of the estate created by such conversion shall have the full benefit of such covenants, and be entitled to maintain actions thereon; and every covenant contained in pursuance of this act in any such grant as aforesaid, in substitution for a like covenant in such lease or under-lease as aforesaid, where such last mentioned covenant is of such a nature as that the burden thereof doth by law run with the estate out of which such lease or under-lease was derived, or bind the assignee of such estate, and every covenant implied under this act upon any such grant where the burden of the implied covenant, for which the same is in substitution was upon the owner of the estate out of which such lease or under-lease was derived, shall run with the estate into which such estate is converted under this act; and the owner or assignee for the time being of the estate created by such conversion shall be chargeable upon such covenants in the same manner and to the same extent as if he were owner or assignee of such estate so converted, and such estate and lease or under-lease were still subsisting, and the benefit of such covenants shall run with the estate in fee simple into which the estate held under such lease or under-lease is converted under this act, and the owner or assignee for the time being of such estate in fee-simple shall have the full benefit of such covenants, and be entitled to maintain actions thereon. X. And be it enacted, that where the estate held under any lease or under-lease in perpetuity is converted under this act into an estate of inheritance in fee simple, and such estate was immediately be fore such conversion subject to any subsisting under-lease or demise at will, or for any greater interest, the fee simple into which such estate is so converted shall be the reversion immediately expec tant upon such under-lease or demise, and the rents and services reserved and made payable upon such under-lease or demise shall be incident and annexed to such reversion, and the covenants and agreements, whether express or implied, on the part both of the landlord and the tenant, shall run with the land and with the reversion respectively in the same manner in all respects and to the same extent as if such under-lease or demise had been made by a person seized in fee simple in possession, and the estate in fee simple created by such conver sion as aforesaid had been the reversion expectant upon such under-lease or demise; and such conversion shall not prejudice or affect any right of distress, entry, or action which has accrued in respect of such under-lease or demise before such conversion. XI. Provided always, and be it enacted, that no |