New Statutes effecting Alterations in the Law.-New Order in Lunacy. power to hear and determine such appeal, and to award relief in the premises as in the case of an appeal against any county rate: and all sums of money levied in pursuance of such borough rate shall be paid over to the treasurer of the borough for the time being, and be applied by him for the purposes for which the same are applicable as hereinbefore-mentioned. ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF DEEDS BY MAR RIED WOMEN. 17 & 18 VICT. c. 75. 299 good faith under such circumstances should be invalidated: Be it therefore enacted, as follows: 1. No deed which has been acknowledged or which shall hereafter be acknowledged by a married woman before a Judge of one of the Superior Courts of Westminster, or a Master in Chancery, or before two of the Perpetual Commissioners or two Special Commissioners appointed as by the said Act is required, shall be impeached or impeachable at any time after the certificate of such acknowledgment has been filed of record in the Court of Common THE preamble recites 3 & 4 Wm. 4, c. Pleas at Westminster, by reason only that such 74. Judge or Master in Chancery, or such ComAcknowledgment of deeds not impeach-missioners, or either of them, was or were inable by reason only of party before whom same was taken being interested; s. 1. Staying proceedings for quashing certificate of acknowledgment; s. 2. terested or concerned, either as a party or parties, or as attorney or solicitor, or clerk to the attorney or solicitor of one of the parties, or otherwise, in the transaction giving occasion for such acknowledgment. 2. Provided, that if any proceeding institut Court of Common Pleas may make rules for preventing Commissioners who are in-ed before the 13th day of July, 1854, in the terested from taking acknowledgments; s. 3. The following are the Title and Sections of the Act: said Court of Common Pleas, for the purpose of quashing or taking off the file of records of the said Court any certificate of an acknowledgment of a deed by a married woman, on the ground that such Judge or Master in Chancery, or either of such Commissioners, An Act to remove Doubts concerning the due was interested or concerned as aforesaid, shall Acknowledgment of Deeds by Married Wo-be pending at the passing of this Act, it shall men in certain Cases. [7th August, 1854.] be lawful for the said Court to proceed with and dispose of the same as if this Act had not Whereas by the Act passed in the Session passed, except that if the said Court shall be of Parliament holden in the 3 & 4 Wm. 4, c. satisfied that any person or persons acting 74, "for the Abolition of Fines and Recoveries, bona fide has or have been induced by the and for the Substitution of more simple Modes terms of the order made by the said Court in of Assurance," it is provided that every deed Hilary Term, 1834, to acknowledge, or to acto be executed by a married woman for any of cept a title depending on the acknowledgment the purposes thereof, except such as may be of, any deed or deeds before Commissioners, executed by her in the character of protector one of whom may have been interested or confor the sole purpose of giving her consent to the cerned as aforesaid, the said Court may refuse disposition of a tenant in tail, shall, upon her to permit the certificate to be quashed or taken executing the same or afterwards, be produced off the file on such terms as to the payment of and acknowledged by her as her act and deed costs and expenses as the said Court shall before a Judge of one of the Superior Courts think fit to make. at Westminster, or a Master in Chancery, or before two of the Perpetual Commissioners or two Special Commissioners to be respectively appointed as therein provided, and a certificate of the taking of such acknowledgment is thereby directed to be lodged with some officer of the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, who is directed, after satisfying himself that the requisitions of the said Act have been complied with in manner therein mentioned, to cause the said certificate to be filed of record in the said Court of Common Pleas : and whereas it is apprehended that deeds executed by married women under the provisions of the said Act may be liable to be invalidated by the circumstance that the Judge, or Master in July 3rd, 1854. Chancery, or one or both of the CommisI, ROBERT MONSEY, Baron Cranworth, sioners, taking the acknowledgment, may be Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, inor may have been interested or concerned, trusted, by virtue of her Majesty the Queen's either as a party or otherwise, in the transac- Sign Manual, with the care and commitment tion giving occasion for such acknowledgment, of the custody of the persons and estates of and it is not expedient that deeds executed in persons found idiot, lunatic, or of unsound 3. The Court of Common Pleas may from time to time make any rules which to them may seem fit for preventing any Commissioners interested or concerned as aforesaid from taking any acknowledgment under the said recited Act, anything herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding, so nevertheless that no such rule shall make invalid any acknowledgment after the certificate shall have been filed of record as aforesaid. NEW ORDER IN LUNACY. CHANCERY FOLIOS. 300 New Order in Lunacy.-Review: Bourdin's Exposition of the Land Tax. mind, do with the advice and assistance of the Right Hon. Sir James Lewis Knight Bruce, and the Right Hon. Sir George James Turner, the Lords Justices of the Court of Appeal in Chancery; also being intrusted as aforesaid, and by virtue and in exercise of the powers or authorities in this behalf vested in me by the Lunacy Regulation Act, 1853, and of every other power or authority, in anywise enabling me in this behalf, order and direct as follows, that is to say From and after the 5th of July, 1854, all office copies and other copies of proceedings, and documents in matters in lunacy, shall be counted and charged for after the rate of 72 words per folio, and where such copies or any portion thereof shall comprise columns containing figures, each figure shall be counted and charged for as one word. (Signed) CRANWORTH, C. J. L. KNIGHT BRUCE, L. J. NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. An Exposition of the Land Tax, its Assessment and Collection; and the Rights and Advantages conferred by the Redemption Acts. By MARK B. BOURDIN, of the Inland Revenue Office, Somerset House. London: T. F. A. Day. 1854. THE unequal pressure of the land tax on different localities has lately been the subject of loud and just complaint; but it appears that the enactments bearing upon it, were not sufficiently considered when the applications were made to the Court of Queen's Bench, to compel the Commis. sioners of certain districts to make new assessments. The present concise work by Mr. Bourdin has been very opportunely published, and furnishes very valuable information on the subject. If the Superior Courts can afford no redress, an appeal must be made to Parliament, and the Author's labours will usefully aid in the amendment of the law. It seems to have been overlooked that the Land Tax Redemption Act of 1798 rendered the quota payable by the several towns and places in Great Britain a fixed and perpetual charge; and Mr. Bourdin justly observes "That many towns and parishes which in that year might have been paying a quota of tax proportionate to the then annual value of the land, &c., within their limits, would at the present day, by reason of their increased wealth and extent, be contributing a sum far inadequate to the ratio of their modern value. On the other hand, parishes which, half a century ago, were populous and flourishing, and, by their accidents of situation or other wise, are unable to present similar increase in value, maintain nearly the original rate of repartition of their quota. It is thus that such places as Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, Bath, Brighton, &c., now contribute a rate from one farthing to one penny in the pound only, when others pay a shilling pound rate; and that in the metropolitan districts of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, St. Mary-le-Strand, and St. Ann's, and others, the assessment varies from one to two shillings in the pound, and upwards; whilst the quotas of St. Pancras, Marylebone, and Paddington, may be levied at a less rate than one penny. The quotas of land tax being no longer subject to revision, as when the tax was voted annually, the revenue is excluded from deriving any benefit from the improving condition of the property liable to the duty in question." And he subsequently adds that Although the quotas upon parishes cannot be varied, they are to be yearly raised in such parishes by an equal pound rate upon all the lands, &c., therein; and, were this statutory provision duly carried out, the rate now paid by many parishes would be materially lessened. It should be remembered, however, that the superintendence of the Government in raising the land tax is restricted to the obtaining of the full amount of the sum in charge upon the parishes, &c., the assessment of the tax upon individuals, being intrusted to the district Commissioners, and the officers they may appoint; as the law assumes, that from their local knowledge, they possess the readiest means both of fairly portioning the rate, and of equitably adjusting any dispute between the contributors. At the time when the land tax was voted yearly, this duty was rendered sufficiently easy, by the annual Acts; but, since the passing of the full and explicit directions contained in the Land Tax Redemption Act, and the several Statutes which followed, for altering and facilitating the operation of that measure, and for amending the mode of levying the tax: the due execution of the provisions now in force, imposes considerable trouble and research on all upon whom it devolves." From the passing of the first Land Tax Acts till the year 1798, the tax was voted annually, and the amount to be raised and the rate was fixed for the year. The Author observes that— "In the year 1798, the usual Act was passed for granting the Land Tax for the service of that year. This Act, the 58 Geo. 3, c. 5, directed the sum of 1,989,673. to be raised in England and Wales, and fixed the contingent for Scotland at 47,9517. which sum was the amount paid by that country since the Union. In accordance with the established practice, the Act mentioned the quotas to be set upon counties and certain divisions, towards raising the amount to be paid in England and Wales, and required that such quotes should be still Review: Bourdin's Land Tax.-Deposits on Sales of Estates by Auction. 301 The levied within the several divisions and subdi- by redemption was thus balanced by a proporvisions, in proportion to the sums respectively tionate cancellation of capital stock. assessed thereon by the Act 4th William and Mary. The quota for Scotland was also to be raised according to the proportions specially named in the Act. "Before this time, however, the principle of assessment observed under the first Land Tax Acts had been widely departed from. Personal estate, which it was evidently intended should contribute the larger share of the annual quota granted, had been gradually relieved from assessment and to such an extent, that in 1793, the proportion of the quota borne by pensions, officers, and personal estate together, amounted only to 150,000l., whilst lands, tenements, and other property contributed the remainder. "In the month of June of this year, Mr. Pitt produced his scheme for the redemption of the Land Tax, which was brought into operation by the Act 38 Geo. 3, c. 60. The object of this measure was to diminish the pressure of the public debt in the market by causing the absorption of a large amount of stock. In order to carry out the plan, the Land Tax, which by the assessment of the current year was charged upon the several counties, ridings, stewartries, cities, boroughs, cinque ports, towns, and places in Great Britain, in respect of lands, tenements, and hereditaments, was made perpetual upon such counties, ridings, &c., subject to redemption; and the quotas thus rendered a fixed charge have been therein levied (minus the redeemed portion thereof), from the passing of such Act to the present time." small excess of one-tenth was imposed for the purpose of defraying the expense of conducting the measure, but since 1798 this extra tenth has far exceeded, in the aggregate, the total amount of expense incurred. As the above mode of providing the consideration for the redemption of the Land Tax was found inconvenient in cases where the tax redeemed was of small amount, a provision was inserted in an Act passed a few months later, empowering persons whose Land Tax did not exceed 257. per annum, to redeem the same by payment of so much money as would purchase the like amount of Stock they must have transferred, had they elected to effect their redemption by such transfer of Stock. "The option to redeem by a money payment, which was restricted by this Act to persons who did not redeem a higher amount of Land Tax than 257., was finally extended by the 53 Geo. 3, c. 123, to redemptioners of any sum of Land Tax, however large in amount. By the 16 & 17 Vict. c. 74, the above mentioned terms were reduced by 177. 108. per cent. in the amount of the Stock or money consideration." The Author's publication may assist in obviating some of the irregularities of local assessment; but we apprehend any general relief against this great grievance must be sought for at the hands of the Legislature. Our present ingenious and expert Finance Minister might, if he were so minded, remodel the tax, and whilst he did justice to all parties, in no small degree bene Mr. Bourdin explains in one of his notes fit the public revenue. that "The consideration to be given for the redemption of any Land Tax was so much Stock in either of the Three per cent. Consolidated or Reduced Bank Annuities as would yield a dividend exceeding the amount of such Land Tax by one-tenth part thereof. Supposing the amount of the Land Tax sought to be redeemed was 107.; stock sufficient to produce 11. per annum was required-viz., 336l. 13s. 4d., and such stock was to be transferred to the account of the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt. As the Land Tax, when levied and paid into the Exchequer, was applied in part liquidation of the interest of the debt, the annual amount lost to the revenue "Lord Loughborough in delivering judg. ment in the case of Astle v. Grant (2 Dougl. 722), remarked of the Land Tax, this tax, although commonly called a Land Tax, is not in its nature a charge upon the land. It is a charge upon the faculties of men estimated first according to their personal estate, secondly by the offices they hold, and lastly by the land in their occupation. The land is but the mea sure by which the faculties of the persons taxed are estimated."" We are aware that the task is not free from serious difficulties, and that various classes of interests will have to be considered; but ultimately we doubt not that what is substantially right may be accomplished, if not immediately, within a reasonable period. It cannot be for ever endured that one part of the Metropolitan District should be compelled to pay 28. or more in the pound, and other parts in the same county less than a penny! DEPOSITS ON SALES OF ESTATES SUGGESTION OF THE INCORPORATED THE attention of the Council of the Society has been directed to the present practice in London, of making deposits on the sale of property by auction payable into the hands of the auctioneer, to be held by him until the sale be completed or abandoned. The Council having considered this important matter, have arrived at the convic 302 Deposits an Sales of Estates by Auction.—Enfranchisement of Copyholds. In 1823. tion that a change is necessary; that the party to granting the leases under the licences present caston of requiring the deposit to demisë ? be retained by the auctioneer should no longer be followed; and that it would be advisable, on the sale of property by auction, that a condition to the following effect be adopted, namely: "That all deposits on account of purchase money on sales of estates by auction in London, be paid to the auctioneer, who shall immediately after the sale pay the same into a bank, to be named by the vendor in the conditions of sale, in the joint names and subject to the joint order of the vendor and purchaser, or their nominees, and at the vendor's risk." The adoption of this course will enable the parties to place the money in a bank where interest is allowed, or to invest it in Exchequer bills or stock, or to effect any other arrangement respecting it, that may be mutually desired for making the deposit safe and productive. In such cases the interest would belong to the party ultimately entitled to the deposit. Extracted from the Minutes of Proceedings. By order of the Council. [We are informed that the practice of leaving the deposits on sales in the hands of auctioneers does not exist in the country. The deposits are either paid to the vendor's solicitor or a banker, or invested in the joint names of the vendor and purchaser. ED.] ENFRANCHISEMENT OF COPY. HOLDS. MANOR OF KENNINGTON. I will put a case, which recently occurred, Mr. W. Bradshaw purchased of Mr. Tyers in actual practice, in this manor. several plots of land for 2,2687., which were then let at 257. a year. In December he was admitted, and on the 25th of March, 1924, a gencral licence to demise was granted to lease to any person for any term not exceeding 80 years from thence, and it was then arranged that the fines should during the term be assessed at 807, rent, and a fine of 41. was paid to the duchy for such license. That property has since been covered with buildings, and leases have been granted on the faith of the license; the aggregate rents being no less than 1,2667. a year; the annual rent exceeding 3,300. Will it be avowed by "Fair Play" that a fine of 6,600/. would, against all conscience, be demanded on a change of tenancy, being two years rack-rent? It is by no means foreign to the present subject to state that in the adjacent manor of Lambeth, Felonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in right of his see. his Grace, or rather the Ecclesiastical Commissioners take, with the entire sanction of the Copyhold Commissioners three and a half year's annual ground rent for enfranchisement, and never give a refusal; and in order that his Grace I might be enabled to bind his successor in the see, to the validity of building leases for long terms of years, under licences to demise granted by the steward, an Act of the Legislature was passed (6 Geo. 4, c. 47), binding the see to accept fines on future admissions, ing leases, an affidavit being previously made according to the rents reserved on such buildby his Grace's surveyor (the bailiff of the manor), that such rents were fair and reasonable. Whether it might not be decorous for the council of the duchy, as representing the heir to the throne, to follow an example so excellent, and to act upon it, I shall not dis cuss. I may, however, observe, that by the 7 & 8 Vict. c. 65, s. 25, full power is given to his royal highness to grant licences to demise for ninety-nine years, in which was to be exTo the Editor of the Legal Observer. pressed the sum which during the term, might SIR,I confess I am not one of those who be considered as the annual value, for assesshave arrived at the hasty conclusion of "Fair ing the fines during the term, upon the adPlay," that the petition of the copyholders (Legal mission of any new tenant to the property imObserver, June 17), manifests either "passion, proved or built upon. Surely after such a prejudice, unfairness, or injustice." "R. L.'s" legislative enactment, and such a licence to reply in your Number of 29th July, most con- demise, it is difficult to see how the lord would clusively disproves the gratuitous and unfair be deprived of a material portion of his rights, assertion. A professional gentleman writes as alleged. It is very well to say, Let the on its perusal," I unhesitatingly say that the tenant refuse to pay the fines, but it is well 399 OUT OF COURT.' Neither can I known that the steward, contrary to every discover anything approaching ill humour. principle of law, peremptorily and illegally reThat he has justice and equity on his side can- fuses to admit until such fines are paid, and not be gainsaid. for payment of which it is incumbent, on the steward to name a distant day. And even assuming such admittance took place on payment of fees and stamp duty, which are all that can be demanded previously thereto, what loyal subject would venture to go to law with writer is ' To allege, as " Fair Play" reiterates in your Number of 5th August, that the lord is entitled to fines on the improved value of land, let on building leases, is begging the whole question. Is, or is not, the lord at least a consenting Enfranchisement of Copyholds. 303 would, in his opinion, be oppressive and injurious to the copyholder, but the other clauses, with certain amendments, would tend VERY MUCH to the GENERAL ENFRANCHISEMENT OF COPYHOLDS. See Times, 27th May, 1852. the Duchy of Cornwall, much less to move demands, let a Committee of the Commons be the Court of Queen's Bench for a mandamus authorised to make due inquiry, and let that (it may be against his Royal Highness the inquiry extend to the fees received and their Prince of Wales), and his steward to compel appropriation, and let such Committee report admittance. The ruincus costs, and the ob- on the legality and propriety of the instructions loquy would be intolerable. Possibly the promulgated by the council in February, 1848, council may be ignorant that in 1836 a me- as regards the fines on building leases, ultra the morial was presented by the copyholders of ground-rent, according to the unexpired terms Kennington Manor, to his Majesty William of those leases; and whether the solicitor of IV., praying for enfranchisement, and thereby the Duchy and the steward have not, in reply stating that "They were willing and desirous, to applications to them, insisted on fines acand as a consideration for such enfranchise- cording to the rack-rent, and not on the ment of their several copyholds, to relinquish ground-rent. and give up to your Majesty, as lord of the I refer to the Morning Chronicle of the 27th said manor, all their common rights and other March, 1852, on the discussion on the late interest whatever, in and upon the said com- Copyhold inefficient Enfranchisement Bill, to mon and waste lands." However gracious the show the opinion of the then Ministry on a intentions of his Majesty were at the time, no- general enfranchisement. Mr. Walpole said, thing was ultimately effected (legal difficulties he believed the Bill, by the arrangement come existing), although the relinquishment of the to with the lamented Mr. Aglionby, would be entire common would have been of immense rendered much better than it then stood. The advantage to the duchy. (It is believed little compulsory clauses to which he objected, short, if not exceeding 20,000l. to 30,0007.) In 1852 an Act was passed to empower the Commissioners of her Majesty's Works and Public Buildings to enclose and lay out Kennington Common as pleasure grounds for the recreation of the public. By sect. 4, it is benevolently enacted that the common shall be vested in the Commissioners, "freed and discharged" FROM ALL RIGHTS OF COMMON, and all other rights whatsoever. By the custumal of the manor, dated 28th Nov., 1728, under the signature of Matthew Lant, Esq., Lord Chief Baron of Scotland, the then steward, it appears, "That a copyholder may let and set his land from three years to three years, but no longer, without leave from the lord; which licence BEING DESIRED, the lord, upon a small fine arbitrable, MUST GRANT the same for 21 years, and no longer. N. B. There are licences granted by the present steward for 99 years." (There was one granted, in 1703, to R. Palmer, for 99 years). If" Fair Play " imagines any builder would take a building lease subject to the payment of a portion of the fines from time to time payable by the copyholder, he is at liberty to try. Doubtless the editor of the "Builder" will aid him in his hopeless attempt. I am pleased to hear that petitions have been presented to her Majesty as well as to Prince Albert (as Chief Steward of the Duchy), and to the Lords, as well as the Commons, and that favourable replies have been received from the Home Office and the Treasury, from which I venture to argue that the day is not far distant when the abominable feudal tenure will be utterly abolished on fair and equitable terms. I am informed, on authority on which I can rely, that two noble lords, members of the Council, at the close of the last Session (in consequence of a petition then presented by Mr. Aglionby from the copyholders of Kennington, praying for enfranchisement), were deputed to wait upon the Copyhold Commissioners for their advice as to placing the enfranchisement of the Kennington copyholds under their management, but of the result I am ignorant. Whatever knowledge "R. L." may possess of mathematical calculations, it is clear that he Referring to the outrageous cases stated has stated the facts as to the value of the copypage 124 of your Number of June 17, I think holds too much in the lord's favour; and I the Courts would relieve against such injustice may add, that according to the opinion of Mr. and oppression. In the case of Arden, he was Morgan, the eminent Actuary of the Equitable charged a fine of 6441. on a ground-rent of Assurance Office, the interest of the lord, in 601. a year, issuing out of premises let for 90 respect of fines of one and a half years on years from 1790, and actually paid 2354., or alienation, and two years on descent (usually nearly four years' ground-rent, to avoid liti-denominated fines arbitrary), is equal to about gation. In Sawyer's case, he was charged 1477. on a ground-rent of 81. 10s. on a lease granted pursuant to licence from June, 1796, and paid, to avoid litigation, 1197. 15s.,--a sum equal to 12 years' income; the steward (contrary to law) refusing to admit him until the fine was paid. If "Fair Play" wishes an investigation into the legality and justice of such unprecedented one eleventh of the rents, or with an average life on the rolls, worth about two and a half years' purchase; and in books of acknowledged authority, particularly those of Mr. Rolla Rouse, Barrister-at-Law, who is lord as well as steward, three years' purchase is alleged to be the general price of enfranchisement, and it is stated that his Grace the Duke of Sutherland and Mr. Giffard, as lords of the extensive manor of Slowheath, have |