execution of the work, they may grant a rent-charge for twentytwo years indefeasible in title, and chargeable upon the land . prior to all other charges, except tithe rent-charge, chief rents and taxes. See also 13 & 14 Vict. c. 31.

The provisions of the Drainage of Lands Act of 1849 have been amended by a bill brought into the House for the improvement of land and farm buildings by loans, and advances of private money for the erection and repairs of farm buildings on lands in Great Britain and Ireland, and it provides that landlords may borrow money on the security of rentcharges upon the inheritance of the land sought to be improved, to the extent of eighteen months' value of the land, without any preference over existing heritable securities or rent-charges; the commissioners appointed to authorize such loans to be satisfied that the applications for the same will be of permanent benefit to the subject, and the real charges granted in respect of any loan may be made payable for any period exceeding twenty-two years; the provisions and directions of the Drainage of Lands Acts are to be followed out: but this bill was eventually thrown out in the House of Lords.

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66

The Episcopal and Capitular Estates Bill has just passed through both Houses of Parliament; the management of ecclesiastical estates under the late system being unsatisfactory to the church and its lessees to the one because the property is less productive than it ought to be, and to the other because the uncertainty of leases prevents the employment of capital, and encourages an imperfect method of cultivation. Suppose,' says Lord Carlisle, a farm worth 100l. per annum is to be let on lease for twenty-one years, renewable every seven. At the end of seven years, the farmer applies, on payment of a fine, to have another term of seven years added to the fourteen years, which are yet unexpired. It is said that a septennial fine of 150, which would be the amount of a fine on the supposition that a year and half's balance was the lineal fine, is equivalent to a permanent annual rent of 251., to commence in presenti, the rate of interest being assumed at 41. per cent. Now if the lessor is determined to have his lease out, he will receive no fine, and will become entitled to enter on this farm of 1001. per

annum.

It is found that a perpetual rent of 100l., to commence fourteen years hence, is equivalent to a perpetual rent of 631., 3 per cent. Now it is proposed by the commissioners to divide the advantage between the lessors and lessees. (Sir W. Oughton's evidence before the Committee of Agricultural Customs (1848). On Church Property, Q. 4360.)

The Lords' Report, upon which the present bill is founded, advises, as a mode of adjusting these respective rights and claims, that one more renewal of leasehold terms, having less than twenty-one years to run, shall be made upon the accustomed fines, and that the sale of the reversion (or the purchase of the leasehold term) shall be made at a rate of interest at which the value of the fee-simple shall have been calculated. All sales or purchases to be subject to the approval of the Church Estates Commissioners and of the Ecclesiastical Commission. The increased funds arising from such dealings are appropriated exclusively to the purposes of church extension, subject to the provision that regard is to be had to the state of the parishes wherein the funds arise.

The Farm Buildings Bill and Bill to improve the Law of Landlord and Tenant, in relation to emblements, to growing crops seized in execution, and to agricultural tenants' fixtures, require notice.

The object of the Farm Buildings Bill is to extend the provisions of the Drainage of Lands Act, 1849, to the advance of private money for the erection and repair of farm buildings on lands in Great Britain and Ireland.

The Leases Bill has reference to three objects: the rights to emblements, growing crops seized under execution, and agricultural tenants' fixtures. In respect to the first of these objects, the law in relation to emblements, says the editor of the Mark Lane Express," We consider the proposed alterations a judicious and practical amendment based upon common sense. The establishment of the ordinary relations of landlord and tenant until the expiration of the current year, instead of the present claim to emblements, is a decided improvement. In respect to the second object, the rendering growing crops seized and sold under execution liable for accruing rent, so long as the same shall remain on the land, we decidedly object to a general enactment so far as regards the rents which may accrue from the land upon which the crops are growing. We should consider it fair that the produce should be liable; but we are of opinion that the law of distress for rent, as it now stands, gives an unfair advantage to the landlord over other creditors, and operates prejudicially to the tenantry as a class."

The new act relating to landlord and tenant came into operation on the 1st of August last, 14 & 15 Vict. c. 25, for improving the law of landlord and tenant in relation to emblements, to growing crops seized in execution, and to agricultural tenants' fixtures; it enacts, that on the determination of leases, or tenancies under terms for life, instead of claims for emblements,

the tenant shall continue to hold and occupy such farms or lands until the expiration of the current year; growing crops of the tenant sold under an execution shall, in default of sufficient goods and chattels, be liable for the accruing rent, notwithstanding any bargain, sale or assignment which may have been made or executed of such growing crops by any such sheriff or other officer.

A tenant may also remove the buildings and fixtures erected by him on a farm, unless the landlord shall elect to take them.

Further, it is provided, that on a tenant quitting the place, leaving the tithe rent charge unpaid, the landlord may pay the same, and recover it from the first-named tenant as if it were a simple contract debt, but the act does not extend to Scotland.

What can be done at this crisis is a very natural question. A parliamentary committee has reported that many landowners have not the power, under the present state of the law, to grant such agreements as are necessary to justify tenants in expending their capital on the land, so it is quite clear that some alteration must be made in the law before such expenditure can reasonably be expected. What should the alteration be? Commissioner Fane proposes that the present state of the law should be reversed, "that the law should be just instead of unjust;" so that when there was not a written agreement to the contrary, the outgoing tenant should be entitled to a fair valuation for judicious expenditure made at his expense.

Firstly. The law of landlord and tenant should be amended, to enable British farmers generally to try for the first time how cheap they (with security for their capital expended on improvements) can produce food for their countrymen.

2ndly. A moderate fixed duty, say 1s. a bushel, on foreign corn, not so much on colonial corn, as an equivalent for the taxes, &c. that British grain is liable to.

3rdly. To compensate consumers for any small increase in the price of bread, caused by duty on corn, the present duty on tea might be decreased from 2s. 1d. to 1s.

4thly. The duty on malt should not in fairness be more than on foreign grain; these could be made equal, or 1s. a bushel under a new system.

5thly. The burdens of land should be fairly adjusted; for instance, the county should not be liable to more than a fair share of the expenses of prosecuting and keeping poachers; and each game preserver should pay one-half of the expenses where he is the prosecutor.

E. B. A.

ART. VIII.-JUDICIAL CHANGES AND JUDICIAL CONDUCT.

VERY

ERY creditable to the sound judgment and its disinterested exercise by the government are the new appointments to law offices.

First, we have the promotion of Lord Cranworth and Sir James Knight Bruce to the new office of Lords Justices.

We believe Lord Cranworth's reputation to be without question the highest of any lawyer of his times. In private life he is as much beloved for his virtues and urbanities as he is esteemed in public life for his rare abilities, his profound legal knowledge, and his perfection as a judge. With Mr. Justice Patteson on the bench, it would be wrong to say that none of his brethren had attained to similar judicial excellence in either branch of jurisprudence, but very surely have none ever equalled him in both. The government and the country are exceedingly fortunate in so auspicious a selection, and so valuable a model for their future judges.

Sir James Knight Bruce enjoys, even among his many friends, a more qualified esteem; and suffers among those who dislike him an hostility which has recently found an exaggerated utterance in the invective of the "Times" newspaper, for which the somewhat cynical criticisms, in which the Vice-Chancellor often indulged, have afforded some degree of justification. Nevertheless, the "Times" has, we think, dealt over-severely with excesses of satire on the part of Sir James Knight Bruce, which were themselves very greatly palliated by the follies and blunders which provoked them, and which have moreover met with frequent and well-deserved castigation at its own hands.

However due it may be to the dignity of the legislature to treat its acts with respect, it is not the less due in the legislature to treat the country with practicable laws and intelligible statutes. In this duty its failures are frequent and flagrant; and it appears to us that the censure thus richly merited can scarcely be applied with equal propriety or effect than by the judges themselves, who are educated and appointed to examine and administer them. Sir J. Knight Bruce is far from being without the sanction of high models for a similar course, and condemnation of the loose and confused language, as well as the conflicting and absurd provisions and omissions of statutes, have proceeded from nearly every judge on the bench; the sole distinction being that the late

Vice-Chancellor lent a degree of caustic contempt to his remarks, which sounded less judicially and perhaps less seemingly in the ears of the bystander. Beyond this, we believe, there was no substantial difference between the random shots of the ViceChancellor and the more technical artillery of the Queen's Bench.

It will be well if the comments already made should add weight to the conviction, which will naturally possess the new judge's mind, that the tone and manner of his sallies must undergo an entire change in the august sphere to which he is now promoted. Everything else combines to recommend this appointment. The politics of Sir J. Knight Bruce are a proof of the high estimate of his judicial merits, which could alone have induced the government to promote an opponent of their policy and party. The almost unanimous opinion of the profession at the Chancery Bar, moreover, pronounces Sir James as the most effectual of law reformers on that side of Westminster Hall, without going one step in aid of the legal bouleversement, so fashionable in certain quarters. No judge who ever sat there has striven more effectually to realize to suitors that broad measure of practical equity, which has never on his hands suffered restriction from the fetters of technicalities, or the impediments of that refined order of special pleading which becomes casuistry and results in injustice. No judge living has done harder work, or striven to administer more substantial justice with a more determined purpose, or in a more sincere and right intentioned spirit. We cordially concur with the "Spectator" newspaper that "he is famous for having done all the work of his own court, and that of two other courts into the bargain, at a time when reforms in practice and an extension of jurisdiction had brought into all the Chancery courts a greater quantity of business than they had ever entertained; and he is notorious for the generous industry with which he frequently volunteered to do the drudgery work of the Master's offices, which are subsidiary to his own court, simply because he cannot bear to see these poor people put to unnecessary expense.'

Mr. James Parker, who was called to the bar in 1829, and whose professional career well warrants his promotion, and Mr. Kyndersley, a Master in Chancery, not perhaps equally noted for his success in that office, are the new Vice-Chancellors, vice Lord Cranworth and Sir J. Knight Bruce. Mr. Parker is a conservative, and politics have thus been again laudably disregarded in his appointment. This, therefore, is a very fit and proper selection.

Mr. Bethel has succeeded Mr. Page Wood as Vice-Chancellor