_The Letting._--To constitute the relati_Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Lamennais, Robert de" to "Latini, Brunetto" Volume 16, Slice 2

the mode under consideration, it is necessary not only that there should

be parties capable of entering into the contract, but that there should

be a letting, as distinct from a mere agreement to let, and that the

right conveyed should be a right to the exclusive possession of the

subject of the letting and not a simple licence to use it. Whether a

particular instrument is a lease, or an agreement for a lease, or a bare

licence, is a question the answer to which depends to a large extent on

the circumstances of individual cases; and the only general rule is

that in a lease there must be an expression of intention on the part of

the lessor to convey, and of the lessee to accept, the exclusive

possession of the thing let for the prescribed term and on the

prescribed conditions. The landlord must not part with the whole of his

interest, since, if he does so, the instrument is not a lease but an

assignment. Where a tenant enters under an agreement for a lease and

pays rent, the agreement will be regarded as a lease from year to year;

and if the agreement is one of which specific performance would be

decreed (i.e. if it contains a complete contract between the parties

and satisfies the provisions--to be noted immediately--of the Statute of

Frauds, and if, in all the circumstances, its enforcement is just and

equitable), the lessee is treated as having a lease for the term fixed

in the agreement from the time that he took possession under it, just as

if a valid lease had been executed. At common law a lease for a term of

years (other than a lease by a corporation) might be made by parol. But

under the Statute of Frauds (1677, ss., 1, 2) leases, except those the

term of which does not exceed three years, and in which the reserved

rent is equal to two-thirds at least of the improved value of the

premises, were required to be in writing signed by the parties or their

lawfully authorized agents; and, under the Real Property Act 1845, a

lease required by law to be in writing is void unless made by deed. The

Statute of Frauds also prohibits an action from being brought upon any

agreement for a lease, for any term, unless such agreement is in writing

and signed by the party to be charged therewith or by some agent

lawfully authorized by him.

_Forms of Tenancy._--The following are the principal forms of tenancy:

(i.) _Tenancy for Life._--A lease for life must be made by deed, and

the term may be the life of the lessee and the life or lives of some

other person or persons, and in the latter case either for their joint

lives or for the life of the survivor; also for the lives of the

lessee himself and of some other person or persons, and this

constitutes a single estate. A tenant for life under a settlement has

extensive powers of leasing under the Settled Land Act 1882. He may

lease the settled land, or any part of it, for any time not exceeding

(a) in the case of a building lease, 99 years; (b) in the case of a

mining lease, 60 years, (c) in the case of any other lease, 21 years.

He may also grant either a lease of the surface of settled land,

reserving the mines and minerals, or a lease of the minerals without

the surface. A lease under the Settled Land Act 1882 must be by deed

and must be made to take effect in possession not later than 12 months

after its date; the best rent that can reasonably be obtained must be

reserved and the lease must contain a covenant by the lessee for

payment of the rent, and a condition of re-entry on non-payment within

a specified time not exceeding 30 days, (ii.) _Tenancy for Years_,

i.e. for a term of years.--This tenancy is created by an express

contract between the parties and never by implication, as in the case

of tenancy from year to year and tenancy at will. Here the tenancy

ends on the expiry of the prescribed term, without notice to quit or

any other formality. (iii.) _Tenancy from Year to Year._--This tenancy

may be created by express agreement between the parties, or by

implication as, e.g. where a person enters and pays rent under a

lease for years, void either by law or by statute, or without any

actual lease or agreement, or holds over after the determination of a

lease whether for years or otherwise. In the absence of express

agreement or custom or statutory provision (such as is made by the

Agricultural Holdings Act 1883), a tenancy from year to year is

determinable on half a year's notice expiring at the end of some

current year of the tenancy. Where there is no express stipulation

creating a yearly tenancy, if the parties have contracted that the

tenant may be dispossessed by a notice given at any time, effect will

be given to this provision. The common law doctrine of a six months'

notice being required to terminate a tenancy from year to year of a

corporeal hereditament, does not apply to an incorporeal hereditament

such as a right to shoot. (iv.) _Tenancies for Shorter

Periods._--Closely associated with tenancies from year to year are

various other tenancies for shorter periods than a year--weekly,

monthly or quarterly. Questions of considerable importance frequently

arise as to the notice necessary to terminate tenancies of this

character. The issue is one of fact; the date at which the rent is

payable is a material circumstance, but it may be said generally that

a week's notice should be given to determine a weekly tenancy, a

month's to determine a monthly tenancy, and a quarter's to determine a

quarterly tenancy. It is chiefly in connexion with the letting of

lodgings, flats, &c., that tenancies of this class arise (see FLATS,

LODGER AND LODGINGS). (v.) _Tenancy at Will._--A tenancy at will is

one which endures at the will of the parties only, i.e. at the will

of both, for if a demise be made to hold at the will of the lessor,

the law implies that it is at the will of the lessee also and vice

versa. Any signification of a desire to terminate the tenancy, whether

expressed as "notice" or not, will bring it to an end. This form of

tenancy, like tenancy from year to year, may be treated either by

express contract or by implication, as where premises are occupied

with the consent of the owner, but without any express or implied

agreement as to the duration of the tenancy, or where a house is lent

rent free by one person to another. A tenancy at will is determined by

either party alienating his interest as soon as such alienation comes

to the knowledge of the other. (vi.) _Tenancy at Sufferance._--A

tenant who comes into possession by a lawful demise, but "holds over"

or continues in possession after his estate is ended, is said to be a

"tenant at sufferance." Properly speaking, tenancy at sufferance is

not a tenancy at all, inasmuch as if the landlord acquiesces in it, it

becomes a tenancy at will; and it is to be regarded merely as a legal

fiction which prevented the rightful owner from treating the tenant as

a trespasser until he had himself made an actual entry on or had

brought an action to recover the land. The Distress for Rent Act 1737,

however, enables a landlord to recover double rent from a tenant who

holds over after having himself given notice to quit; while another

statute in the reign of George II.--the Landlord and Tenant Act

1730--makes a tenant who holds over after receiving a notice from his

landlord liable to the extent of double the value of the premises.

There is no tenancy by sufferance against the crown.

_Form of a Lease._--The component parts of a lease are the parties, the

recitals (when necessary) setting out such matters as the title of the

lessor; the demise or actual letting (the word "demise" is ordinarily

used, but any term indicating an express intention to make a present

letting is sufficient); the parcels in which the extent of the premises

demised is stated; the _habendum_ (which defines the commencement and

the term of the lease), the _reddendum_ or reservation of rent, and the

covenants and conditions. The Conveyancing Act 1881 provides that, as

regards conveyances subsequent to 1881, unless a contrary intention is

expressed, a lease of "land" is to be deemed to include all buildings,

fixtures, easements, &c., appertaining to it; and, if there are houses

or other buildings on the land demised, all out-houses, erections, &c.,

are to pass with the lease of the land. Rights which the landlord

desires to retain over the lands let are excepted or reserved. Sporting

rights will pass to the lessee unless reserved (see GAME LAWS). A grant

or reservation of mines in general terms confers, or reserves, a right

to work the mines, subject to the obligation of leaving a reasonable

support to the surface as it exists at the time of the grant or

reservation. It is not necessary that a lease should be dated. In the

absence of a date, it will take effect from the day of delivery.

_Covenants in Leases._--These may be roughly divided into four groups:

(i.) _Implied Covenants._--A covenant is said to be implied when it is

raised by implication of law without any express provision being made

for it in the lease. Thus a lessee is under an implied obligation to

treat the premises demised in a tenant-like or "husband-like" manner,

and again, where in a lease by deed the word "demise" is used, the

lessor probably covenants impliedly for his own title and for the

quiet enjoyment of the premises by the lessee. (ii.) _"Usual"

Covenants._--Where an agreement for a lease specifies only such

essential conditions as the payment of rent, and either mentions no

other terms, or provides that the lease shall contain the "usual"

covenants, the parties are entitled to have inserted in the lease made

in pursuance of the agreement such other provisions as are "usual" in

leases of property of the same character, and in the same district,

not being provisions tending to abridge or qualify the legal incidents

of the estate intended to be granted to the lessee. The question what

covenants are "usual" is a question of fact. A covenant by the lessor,

limited to his own acts and those of persons claiming under or through

him, for the "quiet enjoyment" by the lessee of the demised premises,

and covenants by the lessee to pay rent, to pay taxes, except such as

fall upon the landlord, to keep the premises in repair, and to allow

the landlord to enter and view the condition of the premises may be

taken as typical instances of "usual" covenants. Covenants by the

lessee to build and repair, not to assign or underlet without license,

or to insure, or not to carry on a particular trade on the premises

leased, have been held not to be "usual." Where the agreement provides

for the insertion in the lease of "proper" covenants, such covenants

only are pointed at as are calculated to secure the full effect of the

contract, and a covenant against assignment or under-letting would not

ordinarily be included. (iii.) _The Covenants running with the

Land._--A covenant is said to "run with the land" when the rights and

duties which it creates are not merely personal to the immediate

parties (in which case a covenant is said to be "collateral"), but

pass also to their assignees. At common law, it was said that

covenants "ran with the land" but not with the reversion, the assignee

of the reversion not having the rights of the original lessor. But the

assignees of both parties were placed on the same footing by a statute

of Henry VIII. (1540). A covenant "runs with the land" if it relates

either to a thing _in esse_, which is part and parcel of the demise,

e.g. the payment of rent, the repair of houses or fixtures or

machinery already built or set up, or to a thing not _in esse_ at the

time of the demise, but touching the land, provided that the word

"assigns" is used in the covenant. All implied covenants run with the

land. As instances of "collateral" covenants, we may take a covenant

by a lessor to give the lessee a right of pre-emption over a piece of

land adjoining the subject of the demise, or in the case of a lease of

a beer-shop, not to keep any similar shop within a prescribed distance

from the premises demised, or a covenant by a lessee to pay rates on

premises not demised. A covenant not to assign without the lessor's

assent runs with the land and applies to a re-assignment to the

original lessee. (iv.) _Restrictive Covenants._--These may be

subdivided into two classes--covenants not to assign or underlet

without the lessor's consent (it may be noted that such consent must

be applied for even if, under the covenant, it cannot be withheld);

and covenants in restraint of trade, e.g. not to use the demised

premises for certain trading purposes, and in the case of "tied

houses" a covenant by the lessees to purchase all beer required from

the lessors.

In addition a lease frequently contains covenants for renewal of the

lease at the option of the lessee, and for repairs or insurance

against damage by fire by the lessee. Leases frequently contain a

covenant by the lessee to bear and pay rates, taxes, assessments and

other "impositions" or "charges," or "duties" or "outgoings," or

"burdens" (except property tax) imposed upon the demised premises

during the term. Considerable difficulty has arisen as to the scope of

the terms "impositions," "charges," "duties," "outgoings," "burdens."

The words, "rates, taxes, assessments" point to payments of a

periodical or recurring character. Are the latter words in such

covenants limited to payments of this kind, or do they include single

and definite payments demanded, for example, by a local authority,

acting under statutory powers, for improvements of a permanent kind

affecting the premises demised? The decisions on the point are

numerous and difficult to reconcile, but the main test is whether, on

the true construction of the particular covenant, the lessee has

undertaken to indemnify the landlord against payments of all kinds.

The stronger current of modern authority is in favour of the landlords

and not in favour of restricting the meaning of covenants of this

class. It may be added that, if a lessee covenants to pay rates and

taxes, no demand by the collector apparently is necessary to

constitute a breach of the covenant; where a rate is duly made and

published it is the duty of the parties assessed to seek out the

collector and pay it.

Repairs.

_Mutual Rights and Liabilities of Landlord and Tenant._--These are to a

large extent regulated by the covenants of the lease. (i.) The landlord

generally covenants--and, in the absence of such a proviso, a covenant

will be implied from the fact of letting--that the tenant shall have

quiet enjoyment of the premises for the time agreed upon. This

obligation makes the landlord responsible for any lawful eviction of the

tenant during the term, but not for wrongful eviction unless he is

himself the wrong-doer or has expressly made himself responsible for

evictions of all kinds. It may be noted here that at common law no lease

for years is complete till actual entry has been made by the lessee.

Till then, he has only a right of entry or _interesse termini_. (ii.)

The tenant, on his part, is presumed to undertake to use the property in

a reasonable manner, according to the purposes for which it was let, and

to do reasonable repairs. A landlord is not presumed to have undertaken

to put the premises in repair, nor to execute repairs. But the

respective obligations of parties where repairs are, as they always are

in leases for years, the subject of express covenant, may vary

indefinitely. The obligation is generally imposed upon the tenant to

keep the premises in "good condition" or "tenantable repair." The amount

and quality of the repairs necessary to fulfil the covenant are always

relative to the age, class and condition of the premises at the time of

the lease. A tenant is not responsible, under such a covenant, for

deterioration due to diminution in value caused by lapse of time or by

the elements. Where there is an unqualified covenant to repair, and the

premises during the tenancy are burnt down, or destroyed by some other

inevitable calamity, the tenant is bound to rebuild and restore them at

his own expense, even although the landlord has taken out a policy on

his own account and been paid by the insurance company in respect of it.

A covenant to keep in repair requires the tenant to put the premises in

repair if they are out of it, and to maintain them in that condition up

to and at the end of the tenancy. A breach of the covenant to repair

gives the landlord an action for damages which will be measured by the

estimated injury to the reversion if the action be brought during the

tenancy, and by the sum necessary to execute the repairs, if the action

be brought later. (iii.) The improper user of the premises to the injury

of the reversioner is _waste_ (q.v.). (iv.) Covenants by the tenants to

insure the premises and keep them insured are also common; and if the

premises are left uninsured for the smallest portion of the term, though

there is no damage by fire, the covenant is broken. (v.) Covenants to

bear and pay rates and taxes have been discussed above. (vi.) As to the

tenant's obligation to pay rent, see RENT.

_Assignment, Attornment, Estoppel._--The relationship of landlord and

tenant may be altered either voluntarily, by the act of the parties, or

involuntarily, by the operation of law, and may also be dissolved. The

principal mode of voluntary alteration is an assignment either by the

tenant of his term or by the landlord of his reversion. An assignment

which creates the relationship of landlord and tenant between the lessor

or lessee and the assignee, must be by deed, but the acceptance by a

landlord of rent from a tenant under an invalid assignment may create an

implied tenancy from year to year; and similarly payment of rent by a

tenant may amount to an acknowledgment of his landlord's title. This is

one form of tenancy by estoppel. The principle of all tenancies of this

kind is that something has been done by the party estopped, amounting to

an admission which he cannot be allowed to contradict. "Attornment," or

the agreement by a tenant to become tenant to a new landlord, is a term

now often used to indicate an acknowledgment of the existence of the

relationship of landlord and tenant. It may be noted that it is still

common to insert in mortgage deeds what is called an "attornment

clause," by which the mortgagor "attorns" tenant to the mortgagee, and

the latter thereupon acquires a power of distress as an additional

security. If the lands assigned are situated in Middlesex or Yorkshire,

the assignment should be registered under the Middlesex Registry or

Yorkshire Registries Acts, as the case may be; and similar provision is

now made for the registration by an assignee of his title under the Land

Transfer Acts 1875 and 1897.

_Underlease._--Another form of alteration in a contract of tenancy is an

under-lease, which differs from assignment in this--that the lessor

parts with a portion of his estate instead of, as in assignment, with

the whole of it. There is no privity of contract between an underlessee

and the superior landlord, but the latter can enforce against the former

restrictive covenants of which he had notice; it is the duty of the

underlessee to inform himself as to the covenants of the original lease,

and, if he enters and takes possession, he will be considered to have

had full notice of, and will be bound by, these covenants.

_Bankruptcy, Death._--The contract of tenancy may also be altered by

operation of law. If a tenant become bankrupt, his interest passes to

his trustee in bankruptcy--unless, as is frequently the case, the lease

makes the occurrence of that contingency determine the lease. So, on the

death of a tenant, his interest passes to his legal representatives.

_Dissolution of Tenancy._--Tenancy is dissolved by the expiry of the

term for which it was created, or by forfeiture of the tenant's interest

on the ground of the breach of some condition by the tenant and re-entry

by the landlord. A breach of condition may, however, be waived by the

landlord, and the legislature has made provision for the relief of the

tenant from the consequences of such breaches in certain cases. Relief

from forfeiture and rights of re-entry are now regulated chiefly by the

Conveyancing Acts 1881 and 1882. Under these acts a right of re-entry or

forfeiture is not to be enforceable unless and until the lessor has

served on the lessee a written notice specifying the breach of covenant

or condition complained of, and requiring him to remedy it or make

compensation, and this demand has not within a reasonable time been

complied with; and when a lessor is proceeding to enforce such a right

the court may, if it think fit, grant relief to the lessee. A forfeiture

is also waived if the landlord elects not to take advantage of it--and

shows his election either expressly or impliedly by some act, which

acknowledges the continuance of the tenancy, e.g. by the acceptance of,

or even by an absolute and unqualified demand for, rent, which has

accrued due since the forfeiture, by bringing an action for such rent,

or by distraining for rent whether due before or after the forfeiture.

A tenancy may also be determined by merger, i.e. where a greater and a

less estate coincide and meet in one and the same person, without any

intermediate estate, as, for instance, when a tenant for years obtains

the fee simple. There may also be a surrender, either voluntary or by

operation of law, which will determine a tenancy, as, for example, when

a tenant is party to some act, the validity of which he is legally

estopped from denying and which would not have been valid had the

tenancy continued to exist.

The land, on the expiration of the tenancy, becomes at common law the

absolute property of the landlord, no matter how it may have been

altered or improved during the occupation. In certain cases, however,

the law has discriminated between the contending claims of landlord and

tenant. (1) In respect of _fixtures_ (which may be shortly defined as

movables so affixed to the soil as to become part thereof), the tenant

may sometimes remove them, e.g. when they have been brought on the

premises for the purpose of being used in business (see FIXTURES). (2)

In respect of _emblements_, i.e. the profits of sown land, a tenant may

be entitled to these whose term comes to an end by the happening of an

uncertain contingency (see EMBLEMENTS). (3) A similar right is very

generally recognized by custom in tenants whose term expires in the

ordinary way. The custom of the district, in the absence of stipulations

between the parties, would be imported into their contract--the tenant

going out on the same conditions as he came in. Such customary tenant

right only arises at the expiration of the lease, and on the substantial

performance of the covenants; and is forfeited if the tenant abandons

his tenancy during the term. Tenant right is assignable, and will pass

under an assignment of "all the estate and interest" of the outgoing

tenant in the farm. But, with the exceptions noted, the land in its

improved condition passes over at common law to the landlord. The tenant

may have added to its value by buildings, by labour applied to the land,

or by the use of fertilizing manures, but, whatever be the amount of the

additional value, he is not entitled to any compensation whatever. This

again is a matter which the parties may, if they please, regulate for

themselves.

The law as to _Ejectment_ is dealt with under that heading.

_Statutory Provisions._--Reference may be made, in conclusion, to a

few modern statutes which have affected the law of landlord and

tenant. The Agricultural Holdings Act 1908 (which repeals the

Agricultural Holdings Acts of 1883, 1900 and 1906) gives to the

agricultural tenant a right to compensation for (i.) certain specified

improvements made by him with the landlord's previous consent in

writing; and (ii.) certain other classes of improvements although the

landlord's consent has not been obtained. As examples of class (i.)

may be mentioned--erection or enlargement of buildings, laying down of

permanent pasture, making of gardens or fences, planting of hops,

embankments and sluices; as examples of (ii.)--chalking of land, clay

burning, application to land of purchased artificial or purchased

manure, except they have been made for the purpose of making provision

to protect the holding from injury or deterioration. In the case of

proposed drainage improvements, notice in writing must be given to the

landlord, who may then execute the improvements himself and charge the

tenant with interest not exceeding 5% per annum on the outlay, or such

annual instalments, payable for a period of twenty-five years, and

recoverable as rent, as will repay the outlay, with interest at the

rate of 3% a year. Under s. 11 of the act a tenant is entitled to

compensation for disturbance, when he is compelled to quit without

good and sufficient cause, and for reasons inconsistent with good

estate management. An agricultural tenant may not contract himself out

of his statutory right to compensation, but "contracting out" is

apparently not prohibited with regard to the right given him by the

acts of 1883 and 1900 to remove fixtures which he has erected and for

which he is not otherwise entitled to compensation, after reasonable

notice to the landlord, unless the latter elects to purchase such

fixtures at a valuation. The Agricultural Holdings Act 1906 conferred

upon every tenant (with slight exceptions) entire freedom of cropping

and of disposal of produce, notwithstanding any custom of the county

or explicit agreement to the contrary. (See further the articles

EJECTMENT, FIXTURES, RENT.) The Small Holdings and Allotments Act

1908, which repealed previous acts of 1887, 1890 and 1907, deals, on

terms similar to those of the Agricultural Holdings Act 1908, with

small holdings and allotments (the expression "small holding" meaning

an agricultural holding which exceeds one acre, and either does not

exceed fifty acres, or, if exceeding fifty acres, is at the date of

sale or letting of an annual value for the purposes of income tax not

exceeding fifty pounds; the expression "allotment" includes a field

garden). Section 47 of the act gives the tenant the same rights to

compensation as if his holding had been a holding under the

Agricultural Holdings Act 1908 (_vide supra_). Compensation was given

to market gardeners for unexhausted improvements by the Market

Gardeners' Compensation Act 1895 and by the Agricultural Holdings Act

1906 for improvements effected before the commencement of that act on

a holding cultivated to the knowledge of the landlord as a market

garden, if the landlord had not dissented in writing to the

improvements. The important sections of these acts were incorporated

in the Agricultural Holdings Act 1908, s. 42.

_Scots Law._--The original lease in Scots law took the form of a grant

by the proprietor or lessor. But, with advancing civilization and the

consequent increase in the number of the conditions to be imposed on

both parties, leases became mutual contracts, bilateral in form. The law

of Scotland as to landlord and tenant may be considered under two main

heads:--I. _Ordinary Leases, Common Law and Statutory_; II. _Building or

Long Leases_.

I. _Ordinary Leases, Common Law and Statutory._--A verbal lease for a

year is good. Such a lease for more than a year is not effectual even

for a year, except where the lessee has taken possession. At common

law, while a lease was binding on the grantor and his heirs, it was

not good against "singular successors," i.e. persons acquiring by

purchase or adjudication, and the lessee was liable to be ejected by

such persons, unless (a precaution usually taken) sasine of the

subjects demised was expressly conferred on him by the lease. To

obviate this difficulty, the Scots Act 1449, c. 18, made possession of

the subjects of the lease equivalent to sasine. This enactment applies

to leases of agricultural subjects, houses, mills, fisheries and

whatever is _fundo annexum_; provided that (a) the lease, when for

more than one year, must be in writing, (b) it must be definite as to

subject, rent (which may consist of money, grain or services, if the

_reddendum_ is not illusory) and term of duration, (c) possession must

follow on the lease. Special powers of granting leases are conferred

by statute on trustees. (Trusts [Scotland] Act 1867, s. 2), _curatores

bonis_ (Judicial Factors [Scotland] Act 1889) and heirs of entail (cf.

Entail Act 1882, ss. 5, 6, 8, 9). The requisites of the statutory

leases, last mentioned, are similar to those imposed in England upon

tenants for life by the Settled Land Acts (_v. sup._ p. 3). The rent

stipulated for must not be illusory, and must fairly represent the

value of the subjects leased, and the term of the lease must not be

excessive (as to rent generally, see RENT). A life-renter can only

grant a lease that is effectual during the subsistence of the

life-rent. There is practically no limitation, but the will of the

parties, as to the persons to whom a lease may be granted. A lease

granted to a tenant by name will pass, on his death during the

subsistence of the term to his heir-at-law, even if the lease contains

no destination to heirs. The rights and obligations of the lessor and

the tenant (e.g. as to the use of the produce, the payment of rent,

the quiet possession of the subjects demised, and as to the payment of

rates and taxes) are similar to those existing under English law. An

agricultural lease does not, apart from stipulation, confer any right

to kill game, other than hares and rabbits (as to which, see the

Ground Game Act 1880, and GAME LAWS) or any right of fishing. A tenant

is not entitled, without the landlord's consent, to change the

character of the subjects demised, and, except under an agricultural

lease, he is bound to quit the premises on the expiration of the

lease. In the case of urban leases, however, ejectment

(q.v.)--called in Scots Law "removing"--will not be authorized

unless the tenant received 40 days' warning before the term of

removal. In the absence of such notice, the parties are held, if there

be nothing in their conduct or in the lease inconsistent with this

presumption, to renew their agreement in all its terms, and so on from

year to year till due notice is given. This is called "tacit

relocation." A lease may be transmitted (i.) by "assignation,"

intimated to the landlord, and followed by possession on the part of

the assignee; (ii.) by sub-lease--the effect of which is equivalent to

that of under-lease in English law; (iii.) by succession, as of the

heir of a tenant; (iv.) in the case of agricultural holdings, by

bequest (Agricultural Holdings [Scotland] Act 1883, s. 29). A lease

terminates (i.) by the expiration of its term or by advantage being

taken by the party in whose favour it is stipulated, of a "break" in

the term; (ii.) by the occurrence of an "irritancy" of ground of

forfeiture, either conventional, or statutory, e.g. where a tenant's

rent is in arrear, or he fails to remove on the expiry of his lease

(Act of Sederunt, 14th of Dec. 1756: Agricultural Holdings Act 1883,

s. 27); (iii.) by the bankruptcy or insolvency of the tenant, at the

landlord's option, if it is so stipulated in the lease; (iv.) by the

destruction, e.g. by fire, of the subject leased, unless the

landlord is bound to restore it. Complete destruction of the subject

leased, e.g. where a house is burnt down, or a farm is reduced to

"sterility" by flood or hurricane, discharges the tenant from the

obligation to pay rent. The effect of partial destruction has given

rise to some uncertainty. "The distinction seems to be that if the

destruction be permanent, though partial, the failure of the subject

let will give relief by entitling the tenant to renounce the lease,

unless a deduction shall be allowed, but that if it be merely

temporary or occasional, it will not entitle the tenant to relief"

(Bell's _Prin._ s. 1208). Agricultural leases usually contain special

provisions as to the order of cropping, the proper stocking of the

farm, and the rights of the incoming and outgoing tenant with regard

to the waygoing crop. Where the rent is in money, it is generally

payable at Whitsunday and Martinmas--the two "legal terms." Sometimes

the term of payment is _before_ the crop is reaped, sometimes _after_.

"The terms thus stipulated are called 'the conventional terms'; the

rent payable by anticipation being called 'forehand rent,' that which

is payable after the crop is reaped, 'back rent.' Where the rent is in

grain, or otherwise payable in produce, it is to be satisfied from the

produce of the farm, if there be any. If there be none the tenant is

bound and entitled to deliver fair marketable grain of the same kind."

(Bell's _Principles_, ss. 1204, 1205). The general rule with regard to

"waygoing crops" on arable farms is that the tenant is entitled to

reap the crop sown before the term of removal (whether or not that be

the natural termination of the lease), the right of exclusive

possession being his during seed time. But he is not entitled to the

use of the barns in threshing, &c., the corn.

The Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Acts 1883 and 1900, already

referred to incidentally, contain provisions--similar to those of the

English acts--as to a tenant's right to compensation for unexhausted

improvements, removal for non-payment of rent, notice to quit at the

termination of a tenancy, and a tenant's property in fixtures. The

Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Acts 1886, 1887 and 1888, confer on

"crofters" special rights. A crofter is defined as "a tenant of a

holding"--being arable or pasture land, or partly arable and partly

pasture land--"from year to year who resides on his holding, the

annual rent of which does not exceed £30 in money, and which is

situated in a 'crofting parish.'" Nearly all the parishes in Argyll,

Inverness, Ross, Cromarty, Sutherland, Caithness and Orkney and

Shetland answer to this description. The crofter enjoys a perpetual

tenure subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions as to payment

of rent, non-assignment of tenancy, &c., and to defeasance at his own

option on giving one year's notice to the landlord. A Crofters'

Commission constituted under the acts has power to fix fair rents, and

the crofter on renunciation of his tenancy or removal from his holding

is entitled to compensation for permanent improvements. The Small

Holdings Act 1892 applies to Scotland.

Under the law of Scotland down to 1880, a landlord had as security for

rent due on an agricultural lease a "hypothec"--i.e. a preferential

right over ordinary creditors, and extending, subject to certain

limitations, over the whole stock and crop of the tenant. This right

was enforceable by sequestration and sale. It was abolished in 1880 as

regards all leases entered into after the 11th of November 1881, where

the land demised exceeded two acres in extent, and the landlord was

left to remedies akin to ejectment (Hypothec Abolition, Scotland, Act

1880).

II. _Building or Long Leases._--Under these leases, the term of which

is usually 99 and sometimes 999 years, the tenant is to a certain

extent in the position of a fee simple proprietor, except that his

right is terminable, and that he can only exercise such rights of

ownership as are conferred on him either by statute or by the terms of

his lease. Extensive powers of entering into such leases have been

given by statute to trustees subject to the authority of the Court

(Trusts [Scotland] Act 1867, s. 3) and to heirs of entail (Entail Acts

1840, 1849, 1882). Where long leases are "probative," i.e. holograph

or duly tested, do not exceed 31 years, or, except as regards leases

of mines and minerals, and of lands held by burgage tenure, relate to

an extent of land exceeding 50 acres, and contain provisions for

renewal, they may be recorded for publication in the _Register of

Sasines_, and such publication has the effect of possession

(Registration of Leases [Scotland] Act 1857).

_Ireland._--The law of landlord and tenant was originally

substantially the same as that described for England is. But the

modern Land Acts have readjusted the relation between landlords and

tenants, while the Land Purchase Acts have aimed at abolishing those

relations by enabling the tenant to become the owner of his holding.

The way was paved for these changes by the existence in Ulster of a

local custom having virtually the force of law, which had two main

features--fixity of tenure, and free right of sale by the tenant of

his interest. These principles, with the addition of that of fair

rents settled by judicial means, were gradually established by the

Land Acts of 1870 and subsequent years, and the whole system was

remodelled by the Land Purchase Acts (see IRELAND).

_United States._--The law of landlord and tenant in the United States is

in its principles similar to those of English law. It is only possible

to indicate, by way of example, some of the points of similarity. The

relationship of landlord and tenant is created, altered and dissolved in

the same way, and the rights and duties of parties are substantially

identical. A lease must contain, either in itself or by clear reference,

all the terms of a complete contract--the names of the parties,

description of the property let, the rent (see RENT) and the conditions.

The date is not essential. That is a matter of identification as to

time only. In Pennsylvania, parol evidence of the date is allowed. The

general American doctrine is that where the contract is contained in

separate writings they must connect themselves by reference, and that

parol evidence is not admissible to connect them. The English doctrine

that a verbal lease may be specifically enforced if there has been part

performance by the person seeking the remedy has been fully adopted in

nearly all the American states. The law as to the rights and obligations

of assignees and sub-lessees and as to surrender is the same as in

England. Forfeiture only renders a lease void as regards the lessee; it

may be waived by the lessor, and acceptance by the landlord of rent due

after forfeiture, with notice of such forfeiture, amounts to waiver.

Where there is a lease for a certain period, no notice to quit is

necessary. In uncertain tenancies there must be reasonable

notice--i.e. at common law six months generally. The notice necessary

to determine a monthly or weekly tenancy is generally a month or a week

(see further under LODGER; LODGINGS). In the United States, as in

England, the covenant for quiet enjoyment only extends, so far as

relates to the acts of third parties, to lawful acts of disturbance in

the enjoyment of the subject agreed to be let.

_Laws of other Countries._--It is impossible here to deal with the

systems of land tenure in force in other countries. Only the question of

the legal relations between landlord and tenant can be touched upon. In

France, the Code Civil recognizes two such relationships, the letting to

hire of houses (_bail à loyer_) and the letting to farm of rural

properties (_bail à ferme_). To a certain extent, both forms of tenancy

are governed by the same rules. The letting may be either written or

verbal. But a verbal lease presents this disadvantage that, if it is

unperformed and one of the parties denies its existence, it cannot be

proved by witnesses. The party who denies the letting can only be put to

his oath (Arts. 1714-1715). It may further be noted that in the case of

a verbal lease, notice to quit is regulated by the custom of the place

(Art. 1736). The tenant or farmer has the right of underletting or

assigning his lease, in the absence of prohibiting stipulation (Art.

1717). The lessor is bound by the nature of his contract and without the

need of any particular stipulation (i.) to deliver to the lessee the

thing hired in a good state of repair; (ii.) to maintain it in a state

to serve the purpose for which it has been hired; (iii.) to secure to

the lessee peaceable enjoyment during the continuance of the lease

(Arts. 1719-1720). He is bound to warrant the lessee against, and to

indemnify him for, any loss arising from any faults or defects in the

thing hired which prevent its use, even though he was not aware of them

at the time of the lease (Art. 1721). If during the continuance of the

letting, the thing hired is entirely destroyed by accident, the lease is

cancelled. In case of partial destruction, the lessee may, according to

circumstances, demand either a diminution of the price, or the

cancellation of the lease. In neither case is there ground for damages

(Art. 1722). The lessor cannot, during the lease, change the form of the

thing hired (Art. 1723). The lessee is bound, on his side (i.) to use

the thing hired like a good head of a household (_bon père de famille_),

in accordance with the express or presumed purpose of the hiring; (ii.)

to pay the price of the hiring at the times agreed (Art. 1728). On

breach of the former obligation, the lease may be judicially cancelled

(Art. 1729). As to the consequences of breach of the latter, see RENT.

If a statement of the condition of the property (_état des lieux_) has

been prepared, the lessee must give it up such as he received it

according to the statement, except what has perished or decayed by age

or by means of _force majeure_ (Art. 1730). In the absence of an _état

des lieux_, the lessee is presumed to have received the thing hired in a

good state of tenantable repair, and must so yield it up, saving proof

to the contrary (Art. 1731). He is liable for injuries or losses

happening during his enjoyment, unless he prove that they have taken

place without his fault (Art. 1732); in particular, for loss by fire

unless he show that the fire happened by accident, _force majeure_, or

defect of construction, or through communication from a neighbouring

house (Art. 1733). The lessee is liable for injuries and losses

happening by the act of persons belonging to his house or of his

sub-tenants (Art. 1735). A lease terminates (i.) at the expiration of

the prescribed term (Art. 1737)--if at that period the lessee remains

and is left in possession, there is, in the case of written leases, a

tacit renewal (_tacite reconduction_) of the lease as a verbal lease

(Arts. 1738-1739); (ii.) by the loss of the thing hired and by the

default of the lessor or lessee in the fulfilment of their respective

obligations (Art. 1741), but (iii.) not by the death either of the

lessor or of the lessee (1742). The conditions of EJECTMENT are stated

under that heading. The special rules (Arts. 1752-1762) relative to the

hire of houses are touched upon in LODGER AND LODGINGS. It only remains

here to refer to those applicable to leases to farm. The lessee is bound

to stock the farm with the cattle and implements necessary for its

husbandry (Art. 1766), and to stack in the places appointed for the

purpose in the lease (Art. 1767). A lessee, who farms on condition of

dividing the produce with the lessor, can only underlet or assign if he

is expressly empowered to do so by the lease (Art. 1763). The lessee

must give notice to the lessor of any acts of usurpation committed on

the property (Art. 1768). If at least half of the harvest in any year is

destroyed by accident, the lessee (a) in the case of a lease for several

years, obtains, at the end of his lease, a refund of rent, by way of

indemnity, unless he has been indemnified by preceding harvests; (b) in

the case of a lease for a year only, may secure a proportional abatement

of the current rent. No refund is payable if the produce was severed

before the accident, unless the lessor was entitled to a portion of it,

when he must bear his share of the loss, provided the lessee was not _in

morâ_ as regards the delivery of the lessor's portion. The lessee has no

right to a refund when the cause of damage was existing and known at the

date of the lease (Arts. 1769-1771). Liability for loss by "accidents"

may be thrown on the lessee by express stipulation (Art. 1772).

"Accidents" here mean ordinary accidents only, such as hail, lightning

or frost, and the lessee will not be answerable for loss caused by

extraordinary accidents such as war or floods, unless he has been made

liable for all accidents, foreseen or unforeseen (Art. 1773). A verbal

lease is deemed to be for the term necessary to enable the lessee to

gather in all the produce, thus for a year in the case of a meadow or

vineyard; in the case of lands leased in tillage, where they are divided

into shifts or seasons, for as many years as there are shifts (Art.

1774). The outgoing must leave for the incoming tenant convenient

housing and other facilities for the labours of the year following; the

incoming must procure for the outgoing tenant conveniences for the

consumption of his fodder and for the harvests remaining to be got in.

In either case the custom of the place is to be followed (Art. 1777).

The outgoing tenant must leave the straw and manure of the year, if he

received them at the beginning of his lease, and even where he has not

so received them, the owner may retain them according to valuation (Art.

1778). A word must be added as to letting by cheptel (_bail à

cheptel_)--a contract by which one of the parties gives to the other a

stock of cattle to keep under conditions agreed on between them (Art.

1800). There are several varieties of the contract, (i.) simple cheptel

(_cheptel simple_) in which the whole stock is supplied by the

lessor--the lessee taking half the profit and bearing half the loss

(Art. 1804); (ii.) cheptel by moiety (_cheptel à moietié_)--here each of

the contracting parties furnishes half of the stock, which remains

common for profit or loss (Art. 1818); (iii.) cheptel given to a farmer

(_fermier_) or participating cultivator (_colon partiaire_)--in the

cheptel given to the farmer (also called _cheptel de fer_) stock of a

value equal to the estimated price of the stock given must be left at

the expiry of the lease (Art. 1821); cheptel given to the participating

cultivator resembles simple cheptel, except in points of detail (Arts.

1827-1830); (iv.) the term "cheptel" is also improperly applied to a

contract by which cattle are given to be housed and fed--here the lessor

retains the ownership, but has only the profit of the calves (Art.

1831).

The French system just described is in force in its entirety in Belgium

(Code Civil, Arts. 1713 et seq.) and has been followed to some extent

in Italy (Civil Code, Arts. 1568 et seq.), Spain (Civil Code, Arts 1542

et seq.), and Portugal (Civil Code, Arts. 1298 et seq., 1595 et seq.).

In all these countries there are varieties of emphyteutic tenure; and in

Italy the mezzadria or metayer system (see Civil Code, Arts. 1647 et

seq.) exists. The German Civil Code adopts the distinction between _bail

à loyer_ (Miehl, Arts. 535 et seq.) and _bail à ferme_ (Pacht, Arts. 581

et seq.). Dutch law also (Civil Code, Arts. 1583 et seq.) is similar to

the French.

The Indian law of landlord and tenant is described in the article INDIAN

LAW. The laws of the various British colonies on the subject are too

numerous and too different to be dealt with here. In Mauritius, the

provisions of the Code Civil are in force without modification. In

Quebec (Civil Code, Arts. 1605 et seq.) and St Lucia (Civil Code, Arts.

1512 et seq.) they have been reproduced by the local law. In many of the

colonies, parts of the English law of landlord and tenant, common law

and statutory, have been introduced by local enactments (cf. British

Guiana, Ord. 4 of 1846; Jamaica, 1 Vict. c. 26). In others (e.g.

Victoria, Landlord and Tenant Act 1890, No. 1108; Ontario, Rev. Stats.

1897, c. 170) consolidating statutes have been passed.

AUTHORITIES.--English Law: Wolstenholme, Brinton and Cherry,

_Conveyancing and Settled Land Acts_ (London, 9th ed., 1905); Hood and

Challis, _Conveyancing and Settled Land Acts_ (London, 7th ed., 1909);

Foà, on _Landlord and Tenant_ (London, 4th ed., 1907); Woodfall, on

_Landlord and Tenant_ (London, 18th ed., 1907); Fawcett, _Landlord and

Tenant_ (London, 3rd ed., 1905). Scots Law: Hunter, on _Landlord and

Tenant_ (Edinburgh, 4th ed., 1876); Rankine, on _Land Ownership_

(Edinburgh, 3rd ed., 1891); Rankine, on _Leases_ (Edinburgh, 2nd ed.,

1893); Hunter, _Landlord and Tenant_ (4th ed. G. Guthrie, Edinburgh,

1876). Irish Law: Kelly's _Statute Law of Landlord and Tenant in

Ireland_ (Dublin, 1898); Barton and Cherry's _Land Act 1896_ (Dublin,

1896); Quill, Hamilton and Longworth, _Irish Land Acts of 1903 and

1904_ (Dublin, 1904). American Law: Bouvier, _Law Dictionary_ (ed.

Rawle) (London, 1897); McAdam, _Rights, Remedies and Liabilities of

Landlord and Tenant_ (New York, 1900); Wood, _Law of Landlord and

Tenant_ (New York, 1888). Foreign and Colonial Laws: Field,

_Landholding and the relation of Landlord and Tenant in various

Countries; Ruling Cases_ (American Notes), (London and Boston,

1894-1901). (A. W. R.)

LANDON, CHARLES PAUL (1760-1826), French painter and art-author, was

born at Nonant in 1760. He entered the studio of Regnault, and won the

first prize of the Academy in 1792. After his return from Italy,

disturbed by the Revolution, he seems to have abandoned painting for

letters, but he began to exhibit in 1795, and continued to do so at

various intervals up to 1814. His "Leda" obtained an award of merit in

1801, and is now in the Louvre. His "Mother's Lesson," "Paul and

Virginia Bathing," and "Daedalus and Icarus" have been engraved; but his

works on painting and painters, which reach nearly one hundred volumes,

form his chief title to be remembered. In spite of a complete want of

critical accuracy, an extreme carelessness in the biographical details,

and the feebleness of the line engravings by which they are illustrated,

Landon's _Annales du Musée_, in 33 vols., form a vast repertory of

compositions by masters of every age and school of permanent value.

Landon also published _Lives of Celebrated Painters_, in 22 vols.; _An

Historical Description of Paris_, 2 vols.; a _Description of London_,

with 42 plates; and descriptions of the Luxembourg, of the Giustiniani

collection, and of the gallery of the duchesse de Berry. He died at

Paris in 1826.

LANDON, LETITIA ELIZABETH (1802-1838), English poet and novelist, better

known by her initials L. E. L. than as Miss Landon or Mrs Maclean, was

descended from an old Herefordshire family, and was born at Chelsea on

the 14th of August 1802. She went to a school in Chelsea where Miss

Mitford also received her education. Her father, an army agent, amassed

a large property, which he lost by speculation shortly before his death.

About 1815 the Landons made the acquaintance of William Jerdan, and

Letitia began her contributions to the _Literary Gazette_ and to various

Christmas annuals. She also published some volumes of verse, which soon

won for her a wide literary fame. The gentle melancholy and romantic

sentiment her writings embodied suited the taste of the period, and

would in any case have secured her the sympathy and approval of a wide

class of readers. She displays richness of fancy and aptness of

language, but her work suffered from hasty production, and has not stood

the test of time. The large sums she earned by her literary labours were

expended on the support of her family. An engagement to John Forster, it

is said, was broken off through the intervention of scandalmongers. In

June 1838 she married George Maclean, governor of the Gold Coast, but

she only survived her marriage, which proved to be very unhappy, by a

few months. She died on the 15th of October 1838 at Cape Coast from an

overdose of prussic acid, which, it is supposed, was taken accidentally.

For some time L. E. L. was joint editor of the _Literary Gazette_. Her

first volume of poetry appeared in 1820 under the title The _Fate of

Adelaide_, and was followed by other collections of verses with

similar titles. She also wrote several novels, of which the best is

_Ethel Churchill_ (1837). Various editions of her _Poetical Works_

have been published since her death, one in 1880 with an introductory

memoir by W. B. Scott. _The Life and Literary Remains of Letilia

Elizabeth Landon_, by Laman Blanchard, appeared in 1841, and a second

edition in 1855.

LANDOR, WALTER SAVAGE (1775-1864), English writer, eldest son of Walter

Landor and his wife Elizabeth Savage, was born at Warwick on the 30th of

January 1775. [He was sent to Rugby school, but was removed at the

headmaster's request and studied privately with Mr Langley, vicar of

Ashbourne. In 1793 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge. He adopted

republican principles and in 1794 fired a gun at the windows of a Tory

for whom he had an aversion. He was rusticated for a year, and, although

the authorities were willing to condone the offence, he refused to

return. The affair led to a quarrel with his father in which Landor

expressed his intention of leaving home for ever. He was, however,

reconciled with his family through the efforts of his friend Dorothea

Lyttelton. He entered no profession, but his father allowed him £150 a

year, and he was free to live at home or not as he pleased.]

In 1795 appeared in a small volume, divided into three books, _The Poems

of Walter Savage Landor_, and, in pamphlet form of nineteen pages, an

anonymous _Moral Epistle, respectfully dedicated to Earl Stanhope_. No

poet at the age of twenty ever had more vigour of style and fluency of

verse; nor perhaps has any ever shown such masterly command of epigram

and satire, made vivid and vital by the purest enthusiasm and most

generous indignation. Three years later appeared the first edition of

the first great work which was to inscribe his name for ever among the

great names in English poetry. The second edition of _Gebir_ appeared in

1803, with a text corrected of grave errors and improved by magnificent

additions. About the same time the whole poem was also published in a

Latin form, which for might and melody of line, for power and perfection

of language, must always dispute the palm of precedence with the English

version. [His father's death in 1805 put him in possession of an

independent fortune. Landor settled in Bath. Here in 1808 he met

Southey, and the mutual appreciation of the two poets led to a warm

friendship.] In 1808, under an impulse not less heroic than that which

was afterwards to lead Byron to a glorious death in redemption of Greece

and his own good fame, Landor, then aged thirty-three, left England for

Spain as a volunteer to serve in the national army against Napoleon at

the head of a regiment raised and supported at his sole expense. After

some three months' campaigning came the affair of Cintra and its

disasters; "his troop," in the words of his biographer, "dispersed or

melted away, and he came back to England in as great a hurry as he had

left it," but bringing with him the honourable recollection of a brave

design unselfishly attempted, and the material in his memory for the

sublimest poem published in our language, between the last masterpiece

of Milton and the first masterpiece of Shelley--one equally worthy to

stand unchallenged beside either for poetic perfection as well as moral

majesty--the lofty tragedy of _Count Julian_, which appeared in 1812,

without the name of its author. No comparable work is to be found in

English poetry between the date of _Samson Agonistes_ and the date of

_Prometheus Unbound_; and with both these great works it has some

points of greatness in common. The superhuman isolation of agony and

endurance which encircles and exalts the hero is in each case expressed

with equally appropriate magnificence of effect. The style of _Count

Julian_, if somewhat deficient in dramatic ease and the fluency of

natural dialogue, has such might and purity and majesty of speech as

elsewhere we find only in Milton so long and so steadily sustained.

In May 1811 Landor had suddenly married Miss Julia Thuillier, with whose

looks he had fallen in love at first sight in a ball-room at Bath; and

in June they settled for a while at Llanthony Abbey in Monmouthshire,

from whence he was worried in three years' time by the combined vexation

of neighbours and tenants, lawyers and lords-lieutenant; not before much

toil and money had been nobly wasted on attempts to improve the

sterility of the land, to relieve the wretchedness and raise the

condition of the peasantry. He left England for France at first, but

after a brief residence at Tours took up his abode for three years at

Como; "and three more wandering years he passed," says his biographer,

"between Pisa and Pistoja, before he pitched his tent in Florence in

1821."

In 1835 he had an unfortunate difference with his wife which ended in a

complete separation. In 1824 appeared the first series of his _Imaginary

Conversations_, in 1826 "the second edition, corrected and enlarged"; a

supplementary third volume was added in 1828; and in 1829 the second

series was given to the world. Not until 1846 was a fresh instalment

added, in the second volume of his collected and selected works. During

the interval he had published his three other most famous and greatest

books in prose: _The Citation and Examination of William Shakespeare_

(1834), _Pericles and Aspasia_ (1836), _The Pentameron_ (1837). To the

last of these was originally appended _The Pentalogia_, containing five

of the very finest among his shorter studies in dramatic poetry. In 1847

he published his most important Latin work, _Poemata et inscriptiones_,

comprising, with large additions, the main contents of two former

volumes of idyllic, satiric, elegiac and lyric verse; and in the same

golden year of his poetic life appeared the very crown and flower of its

manifold labours, the _Hellenics of Waller Savage Landor_, enlarged and

completed. Twelve years later this book was re-issued, with additions of

more or less value, with alterations generally to be regretted, and with

omissions invariably to be deplored. In 1853 he put forth _The Last

Fruit off an Old Tree_, containing fresh conversations, critical and

controversial essays, miscellaneous epigrams, lyrics and occasional

poems of various kind and merit, closing with _Five Scenes_ on the

martyrdom of Beatrice Cenci, unsurpassed even by their author himself

for noble and heroic pathos, for subtle and genial, tragic and profound,

ardent and compassionate insight into character, with consummate mastery

of dramatic and spiritual truth. In 1856 he published _Antony and

Octavius--Scenes for the Study_, twelve consecutive poems in dialogue

which alone would suffice to place him high among the few great masters

of historic drama.

In 1858 appeared a metrical miscellany bearing the title of _Dry Sticks

Fagoted by W. S. Landor_, and containing among other things graver and

lighter certain epigrammatic and satirical attacks which reinvolved him

in the troubles of an action for libel; and in July of the same year he

returned for the last six years of his life to Italy, which he had left

for England in 1835. [He was advised to make over his property to his

family, on whom he was now dependent. They appear to have refused to

make him an allowance unless he returned to England. By the exertions of

Robert Browning an allowance was secured. Browning settled him first at

Siena and then at Florence.] Embittered and distracted by domestic

dissensions, if brightened and relieved by the affection and veneration

of friends and strangers, this final period of his troubled and splendid

career came at last to a quiet end on the 17th of September 1864. In the

preceding year he had published a last volume of _Heroic Idyls, with

Additional Poems_, English and Latin,--the better part of them well

worthy to be indeed the "last fruit" of a genius which after a life of

eighty-eight years had lost nothing of its majestic and pathetic power,

its exquisite and exalted loveliness.

A complete list of Landor's writings, published or privately printed, in

English, Latin and Italian, including pamphlets, fly-sheets and

occasional newspaper correspondence on political or literary questions,

it would be difficult to give anywhere and impossible to give here. From

nineteen almost to ninety his intellectual and literary activity was

indefatigably incessant; but, herein at least like Charles Lamb, whose

cordial admiration he so cordially returned, he could not write a note

of three lines which did not bear the mark of his "Roman hand" in its

matchless and inimitable command of a style at once the most powerful

and the purest of his age. The one charge which can ever seriously be

brought and maintained against it is that of such occasional obscurity

or difficulty as may arise from excessive strictness in condensation of

phrase and expurgation of matter not always superfluous, and sometimes

almost indispensable. His English prose and his Latin verse are perhaps

more frequently and more gravely liable to this charge than either his

English verse or his Latin prose. At times it is well-nigh impossible

for an eye less keen and swift, a scholarship less exquisite and ready

than his own, to catch the precise direction and follow the perfect

course of his rapid thought and radiant utterance. This apparently

studious pursuit and preference of the most terse and elliptic

expression which could be found for anything he might have to say could

not but occasionally make even so sovereign a master of two great

languages appear "dark with excess of light"; but from no former master

of either tongue in prose or verse was ever the quality of real

obscurity, of loose and nebulous incertitude, more utterly alien or more

naturally remote. There is nothing of cloud or fog about the path on

which he leads us; but we feel now and then the want of a bridge or a

handrail; we have to leap from point to point of narrative or argument

without the usual help of a connecting plank. Even in his dramatic

works, where least of all it should have been found, this lack of

visible connexion or sequence in details of thought or action is too

often a source of sensible perplexity. In his noble trilogy on the

history of Giovanna queen of Naples it is sometimes actually difficult

to realize on a first reading what has happened or is happening, or how,

or why, or by what agency--a defect alone sufficient, but unhappily

sufficient in itself, to explain the too general ignorance of a work so

rich in subtle and noble treatment of character, so sure and strong in

its grasp and rendering of "high actions and high passions," so rich in

humour and in pathos, so royally serene in its commanding power upon the

tragic mainsprings of terror and of pity. As a poet, he may be said on

the whole to stand midway between Byron and Shelley--about as far above

the former as below the latter. If we except Catullus and Simonides, it

might be hard to match and it would be impossible to overmatch the

flawless and blameless yet living and breathing beauty of his most

perfect elegies, epigrams or epitaphs. As truly as prettily was he

likened by Leigh Hunt "to a stormy mountain pine which should produce

lilies." His passionate compassion, his bitter and burning pity for all

wrongs endured in all the world, found only their natural and inevitable

outlet in his lifelong defence or advocacy of tyrannicide as the last

resource of baffled justice, the last discharge of heroic duty. His

tender and ardent love of children, of animals and of flowers makes

fragrant alike the pages of his writing and the records of his life. He

was as surely the most gentle and generous as the most headstrong and

hot-headed of heroes or of men. Nor ever was any man's best work more

thoroughly imbued and informed with evidence of his noblest qualities.

His loyalty and liberality of heart were as inexhaustible as his bounty

and beneficence of hand. Praise and encouragement, deserved or

undeserved, came yet more readily to his lips than challenge or

defiance. Reviled and ridiculed by Lord Byron, he retorted on the

offender living less readily and less warmly than he lamented and

extolled him dead. On the noble dramatic works of his brother Robert he

lavished a magnificence of sympathetic praise which his utmost

self-estimate would never have exacted for his own. Age and the lapse

of time could neither heighten nor lessen the fulness of this rich and

ready generosity. To the poets of his own and of the next generation he

was not readier to do honour than to those of a later growth, and not

seldom of deserts far lower and far lesser claims than theirs. That he

was not unconscious of his own, and avowed it with the frank simplicity

of nobler times, is not more evident or more certain than that in

comparison with his friends and fellows he was liable rather to

undervalue than to overrate himself. He was a classic, and no formalist;

the wide range of his just and loyal admiration had room for a genius so

far from classical as Blake's. Nor in his own highest mood or method of

creative as of critical work was he a classic only, in any narrow or

exclusive sense of the term. On either side, immediately or hardly below

his mighty masterpiece of _Pericles and Aspasia_, stand the two scarcely

less beautiful and vivid studies of medieval Italy and Shakespearean

England. The very finest flower of his immortal dialogues is probably to

be found in the single volume comprising only "Imaginary Conversations

of Greeks and Romans"; his utmost command of passion and pathos may be

tested by its transcendent success in the distilled and concentrated

tragedy of _Tiberius and Vipsania_, where for once he shows a quality

more proper to romantic than classical imagination--the subtle and

sublime and terrible power to enter the dark vestibule of distraction,

to throw the whole force of his fancy, the whole fire of his spirit,

into the "shadowing passion" (as Shakespeare calls it) of gradually

imminent insanity. Yet, if this and all other studies from ancient

history or legend could be subtracted from the volume of his work,

enough would be left whereon to rest the foundation of a fame which time

could not sensibly impair. (A. C. S.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--See _The Works and Life of Walter Savage Landor_ (8

vols., 1846), the life being the work of John Forster. Another edition

of his works (1891-1893), edited by C. G. Crump, comprises _Imaginary

Conversations_, _Poems_, _Dialogues in Verse and Epigrams_ and _The

Longer Prose Works_. His _Letters and other Unpublished Writings_ were

edited by Mr Stephen Wheeler (1897). There are many volumes of

selections from his works, notably one (1882) for the "Golden

Treasury" series, edited by Sidney Colvin, who also contributed the

monograph on _Landor_ (1881) in the "English Men of Letters" series. A

bibliography of his works, many of which are very rare, is included in

Sir Leslie Stephen's article on Landor in the _Dictionary of National

Biography_ (vol. xxxii., 1892). (M. Br.)

LANDOUR, a hill station and sanatorium in India, in Dehra Dun district

of the United Provinces, adjoining Mussoorie. Pop. (1901) 1720, rising

to 3700 in the hot season. Since 1827 it has been a convalescent station

for European troops, with a school for their children.

LAND REGISTRATION, a legal process connected with the transfer of landed

property, comprising two forms--registration of deeds and registration

of title, which may be best described as a species of machinery for

assisting a purchaser or mortgagee in his inquiries as to his vendor's

or mortgagor's title previously to completing his dealing, and for

securing his own position afterwards. The expediency of making inquiry

into the vendor's title before completing a purchase of land (and the

case of a mortgage is precisely similar) is obvious. In the case of

goods possession may ordinarily be relied on as proof of full ownership;

in the case of land, the person in ostensible possession is very seldom

the owner, being usually only a tenant, paying rent to someone else.

Even the person to whom the rent is paid is in many cases--probably, in

England, in most cases--not the full owner, but only a life owner, or a

trustee, whose powers of disposing of the property are of a strictly

limited nature. Again, goods are very seldom the subject of a mortgage,

whereas land has from time immemorial been the frequent subject of this

class of transaction. Evidently, therefore, some sort of inquiry is

necessary to enable a purchaser to obtain certainty that the land for

which he pays full price is not subject to an unknown mortgage or charge

which, if left undiscovered, might afterwards deprive him of a large

part or even the whole of its value. Again, the probability of serious

consequences to the purchaser ensuing from a mistake as to title is

infinitely greater in the case of land than in the case of goods. Before

the rightful owner can recover misappropriated goods, he has to find

out where they are. This is usually a matter of considerable difficulty.

By the time they have reached the hands of a _bonâ fide_ purchaser all

chance of their recovery by the true owner is practically at an end. But

with land the case is far otherwise. A dispossessed rightful owner never

has any difficulty in tracing his property, for it is immovable. All he

has to do is to bring an action for ejectment against the person in

possession. For these reasons, among others, any attempt to deal with

land on the simple and unsuspecting principles which obtain in regard to

goods would be fraught with grave risks.

Apart from very early and primitive social conditions, there appear to

be only two ways in which the required certainty as to title to land can

be obtained. Either the purchaser must satisfy himself, by an exhaustive

scrutiny and review of all the deeds, wills, marriages, heirships and

other documents and events by which the property has been conveyed,

mortgaged, leased, devised or transmitted during a considerable period

of time, that no loophole exists whereby an adverse claim can enter or

be made good--this is called the system of private investigation of

title--or the government must keep an authoritative list or register of

the properties within its jurisdiction, together with the names of the

owners and particulars of the encumbrances in each case, and must

protect purchasers and others dealing with land, on the faith of this

Registration of Title. To these two alternatives may perhaps be added a

third, of very recent growth--Insurance of Title. This is largely used

in the United States. But it is in reality only a phase of the system of

private investigation. The insurance company investigates the title, and

charges the purchaser a premium to cover the expense and the risk of

error. Registration of deeds is an adjunct of the system of private

investigation, and, except in England, is a practically invariable

feature of it. It consists in the establishment of public offices in

which all documents affecting land are to be recorded--partly to

preserve them in a readily accessible place, partly to prevent the

possibility of any material deed or document being dishonestly concealed

by a vendor. Where registration is effected by depositing a full copy of

the deed, it also renders the subsequent falsification of the original

document dangerous. Registration of deeds does not (except perhaps to a

certain extent indirectly) cheapen or simplify the process of

investigation--the formalities at the registry add something to the

trouble and cost incurred--but it prevents the particular classes of

fraud mentioned.

The history of land registration follows, as a general rule, a fairly

uniform course of development. In very early times, and in small and

simple communities, the difficulty afterwards found in establishing

title to land does not arise, owing to the primitive habit of attaching

ceremony and publicity to all dealings. The parties meet on the land,

with witnesses; symbolical acts (such as handing over a piece of earth,

or the bough of a tree) are performed; and a set form of words is

spoken, expressive of the intention to convey. By this means the

ownership of each estate in the community becomes to a certain extent a

matter of common knowledge, rendering fraud and mistake difficult. But

this method leaves a good deal to be desired in point of security.

Witnesses die, and memory is uncertain; and one of the earliest

improvements consists in the establishment of a sort of public record

kept by the magistrate, lord or other local authority, containing a

series of contemporary notes of the effect of the various transactions

that take place. This book becomes the general title-deed of the whole

community, and as long as transactions remain simple, and not too

numerous, the results appear to be satisfactory. Of this character are

the Manorial Court Rolls, which were in the middle ages the great

authorities on title, both in England and on the continent. The entries

in them in early times were made in a very few words. The date, the

names of the parties, the name or short verbal description of the land,

the nature of the transaction, are all that appear. In the land registry

at Vienna there is a continuous series of registers of this kind going

back to 1368, in Prague to 1377, in Munich to 1440. No doubt there are

extant (though in a less easily accessible form) manorial records in

England of equal or greater antiquity. This may be considered the first

stage in the history of Land Registration. It can hardly be said to be

in active operation at the present day in any civilized country--in the

sense in which that term is usually understood. Where dealings become

more numerous and complicated, written instruments are required to

express the intentions of the parties, and afterwards to supply evidence

of the landowner's title. It appears, too, that as a general rule the

public books already described continue to be used, notwithstanding this

change; only (as would be expected) the entries in them, once plain and

simple, either grow into full copies of the long and intricate deeds, or

consist of mere notes stating that such and such deeds have been

executed, leaving the persons interested to inquire for the originals,

in whose custody soever they may be found. This system, which may be

regarded as the second stage in the history of land registration, is

called Registration of Deeds. It prevails in France, Belgium, parts of

Switzerland, in Italy, Spain, India, in almost all the British colonies

(except Australasia and Canada), in most of the states of the American

Union, in the South American republics, in Scotland and Ireland, and in

the English counties of Yorkshire and Middlesex. Where it exists, there

is generally a law to the effect that in case of dispute a registered

deed shall prevail over an unregistered one. The practical effect is

that a purchaser can, by searching the register, find out exactly what

deeds he ought to inquire for, and receives an assurance that if, after

completion, he registers his own conveyance, no other deeds--even if

they exist--will prevail against him.

The expenses and delays, not to mention the occasional actual losses of

property through fraud or mistake, attendant on the system of making

every purchaser responsible for the due examination of his vendor's

title--whether or not assisted by registration of deeds--have induced

several governments to establish the more perfect system of Registration

of Title, which consists in collecting the transactions affecting each

separate estate under a separate head, keeping an accurate account of

the parcels of which each such estate is composed, and summarizing

authoritatively, as each fresh transaction occurs, the subsisting rights

of all parties in relation to the land itself. This system prevails in

Germany, Austria, Hungary, parts of Switzerland, the Australasian

colonies, nearly the whole of Canada, some of the states of the American

Union, to a certain extent in Ireland, and is in course of establishment

in England and Wales. The Register consists of three portions:--(1) The

description of the land, usually, but not necessarily, accompanied by a

reference to a map; (2) the ownership, giving the name and address of

the person who can sell and dispose of the land; and (3) the

encumbrances, in their order of priority, and the names of the persons

for the time being entitled to them. When any fresh transaction takes

place the instrument effecting it is produced, and the proper

alterations in, or additions to, the register are made: if it be a sale,

the name of the vendor is cancelled from the register, and that of the

purchaser is entered instead; if it be a mortgage, it is added to the

list of encumbrances; if a discharge, the encumbrance discharged is

cancelled; if it is a sale of part of the land, the original description

is modified or the plan is marked to show the piece conveyed, while a

new description or plan is made and a new register is opened for the

detached parcel. In the English and Australian registries a "land

certificate" is also issued to the landowner containing copies of the

of the old documents of title. On a sale, the process is as follows: The

vendor first of all produces to the purchaser his land certificate, or

gives him the number of his title and an authority to inspect the

necessary, the register being open to public inspection, which in

England is not the case. The purchaser, on inspecting this, can easily

see for himself whether the land he wishes to buy is comprised in the

registered description or plan, whether the vendor's name appears on the

encumbrances or other burdens registered as affecting it. If there are

encumbrances, the register states their amount and who are entitled to

them. The purchaser then usually[1] prepares a conveyance or transfer of

the land (generally in a short printed form issued by the registry), and

the vendor executes it in exchange for the purchase money. If there are

mortgages, he pays them off to the persons named in the register as

their owners, and they concur in a discharge. He then presents the

executed instruments at the registry, and is entered as owner of the

land instead of the vendor, the mortgages, if any, being cancelled.

Where "land certificates" are used (as in England and Australia), a new

land certificate is issued to the purchaser showing the existing state

of the register and containing a copy of the registered plan of the

land. The above is only a brief outline of the processes employed. For

further information as to practical details reference may be made to the

treatises mentioned at the end of this article.

_England and Wales._--The first attempt to introduce general

registration of conveyances appears to have been made by the Statute

of Enrolments, passed in the 27th year of Henry VIII. But this was

soon found to be capable of evasion, and it became a dead letter. A

Registration Act applying to the counties of Lancaster, Chester and

Durham was passed in Queen Elizabeth's reign, but failed for want of

providing the necessary machinery for its observance. The subject

reappeared in several bills during the Commonwealth, but these failed

to pass, owing, it would seem, to the objection of landowners to

publicity. In 1669 a committee of the House of Lords reported that one

cause of the depreciation of landed property was the uncertainty of

titles, and proposed registration of deeds as a remedy, but nothing

was done.

During the next thirty years numerous pamphlets for and against a

general registry were published. In 1704 the first Deed Registry Act

was passed, applying to the West Riding of Yorkshire. In 1707 the

system was extended to the East Riding, and in 1708 to Middlesex.

These Middlesex and Yorkshire registries (modified considerably in

practice, but not seriously in principle, by the Yorkshire Registries

Acts 1884, 1885, and Land Registry [Middlesex Deeds] Act 1891) remain

in operation, and are greatly valued by the smaller proprietors and

mortgagees, owing to the security against fraud which they provide at

a trifling cost. The selection of these counties seems capricious: its

probable explanation is that in them trade was flourishing, and the

fortunes made were frequently invested in land, and a protection

against secret encumbrances was most in demand. In 1728 and 1732

Surrey and Derby petitioned, unsuccessfully, for local registries. In

1735 the North Riding Deed Registry Act was passed. In 1739 a General

Registry bill passed the Commons, but did not reach the Lords. Next

year the Lords passed a similar bill, but it did not reach the

Commons. In 1759 a General Registry bill was thrown out by a majority

of one. In 1784 Northumberland unsuccessfully petitioned for a local

registry. After this the subject went almost out of sight till the

Real Property Commission of 1828. They reported in 1830 in favour of a

general register of deeds, but though several bills were introduced,

none were passed. In 1846 a committee of the House of Lords reported

that the marketable value of real property was seriously diminished by

the tedious and expensive process of the transfer of land, and that a

registry of title to all real property was essential to the success of

any attempt to simplify the system of conveyancing. In 1850 a Royal

Commission reported in favour of a general register of deeds, and in

1851 Lord Campbell introduced a bill accordingly, but it was opposed,

and was dropped. In 1853 Lord Cranworth introduced a bill, which

passed the Lords but not the Commons.

Hitherto only registration of deeds had been considered, but in 1854 a

new Royal Commission was appointed, which reported in 1857 in favour

of a register of title. The scheme they recommended was substantially

embodied in a bill introduced in 1859 by Lord Cairns--then

Solicitor-General--but a dissolution stopped its progress. In 1862

Lord Westbury had the satisfaction of carrying the first act for

registration of title. This act enabled any landowner to register an

indefeasible title on production of strict proof. The proof required

was to be such as the court of chancery would force an unwilling

purchaser to accept. Only a few hundred titles were registered under

this act, and in 1868 a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into

the causes of its failure. They reported in 1870, making various

suggestions of detail, and especially adverting to the great expense

caused by the strictness of the official investigation of title before

a property could be admitted to the register. In the same year Lord

Hatherley introduced a Transfer of Land Bill, but it was not proceeded

with. In 1873 Lord Selborne introduced a Land Titles and Transfer

Bill, following more or less the recommendations of the report of

1870, proposing for the first time compulsory registration of title

upon every next sale after a prescribed date. Lord Cairns again

introduced this bill (with some modifications) in 1874, but it had to

be dropped. In 1875 Lord Cairns's Land Transfer Act of that year was

passed, which was much the same as the former bill, but without

compulsion. This act had no better success in the way of voluntary

general adoption than the act of 1862, but as its adoption has since

been made compulsory, its provisions are important. Its most

noticeable feature, from a practical point of view, is the additional

prominence given to an expedient called "Possessory" registration

(which also existed under another name in Lord Westbury's Act),

whereby is removed the great initial difficulty of placing titles on

the register in the first instance. Two sorts of registration were

established, "Absolute" and "Possessory." The effect of an absolute

registration was immediately to destroy all claims adverse to the

registered title. But this was only to be granted on a regular

investigation of title, which, though not so strict as under the

former act, yet necessarily involved time and cost. Possessory

registration, however, was to be granted to any one who could show a

prima facie title--a quick and cheap process. But the effect of such

registration would not be immediately felt. It would not destroy

existing adverse claims. It would only prevent new difficulties from

arising. In course of time such a title would be practically as good

as an absolute one. In 1885 the duke of Marlborough introduced a bill

for a registry of titles, and in the following vacation Lord Davey

wrote three letters to _The Times_ advocating the same thing on the

general lines afterwards adopted.[2] In 1887 Lord Halsbury, by

introducing his Land Transfer Bill, commenced a struggle with the

opponents of reform, which, after ten years of almost continuous

effort, resulted in the passing of his act of 1897, establishing

compulsory registration of title. Lord Halsbury introduced bills in

1887, 1888 and 1889. Lord Herschell, who succeeded him after the

change of government, introduced bills in 1893, 1894 and 1895, these

last three being unanimously passed by the House of Lords on every

occasion. The bill of 1895 reached committee in the Commons, but was

stopped by the dissolution of parliament. In 1897 Lord Halsbury (who

had returned to the woolsack) again introduced the same bill with

certain modifications which caused the Incorporated Law Society to

withdraw its opposition in the House of Commons, and the act was

finally passed on the last day of the session. Under it the Privy

Council has power to issue orders declaring that on a certain date

registration of title is to be compulsory on sale in a given district.

The effect of such an order is to oblige every purchaser of land in

the district after that date to register a "possessory title,"

immediately after his purchase. The compulsory provisions of the act

extend to freeholds and (by a rule afterwards made) to leaseholds

having forty years to run. No order except the first can be made, save

on the request of a county council. The first order was made in July

1898. It embraced the whole administrative county of London (including

the City of London), proceeding gradually by groups of parishes. Under

this order upwards of 122,000 titles had been registered by 1908,

representing a value exceeding one hundred millions sterling.

Under the operation of this act, at the expense of a slightly

increased cost on all transactions during a few years, persons dealing

with land in the county will ultimately experience great relief in the

matter both of cost and of delay. The costs of a sale (including

professional assistance, if required) will ultimately be for the

vendor about one-fifth, and for the purchaser (at the most usual

values) less than half, of the present expenses. The delay will be no

more than in dealings with stock. Mortgagees will also be protected

from risks of fraud, which at present are very appreciable, and of

which the Redgrave and Richards cases are recent examples. Further

particulars of the practical operation of the acts will be found in

the Registrar's Reports of 1902 and 1906, embracing the period from

1899 to 1905 inclusive, with comments on the general position,

suggestions for future legislation, &c. In the autumn of 1908 a Royal

Commission under the chairmanship of Lord St Aldwyn, was appointed to

inquire into the working of the Land Transfer Acts. The evidence given

before them in October, November and December 1908 comprised a general

exposition by the registrar of the origin and history of the acts, and

the principles of their working, and suggestions for amendments in

certain details. It also comprised the experience of several

landowners and others, who had found the acts highly beneficial, and

who had carried through a large number of dealings under absolute

titles, without professional help, very quickly, and at a greatly

reduced cost.

_Scotland._--In Scotland registration of _deeds_ was established by an

act of 1617, which remained unaltered till 1845. There are also acts

of 1868 and 1874. The registry is in Edinburgh. Deeds are registered

almost invariably by full copy. The deeds are indexed according to

properties--each property having a separate number and folio called a

"search sheet," on which all deeds affecting it are referred to. About

40,000 deeds are registered annually. The consequence of the existence

of this register is to render fraud in title absolutely unknown. Forty

years is the usual period investigated. The investigation can, if

desired, be made from the records in the registry alone. The fees are

trifling, but suffice to pay the expenses of the office, which employs

between 70 and 80 permanent officers in addition to temporary

assistants. The total costs of conveyancing amount, roughly speaking,

to between 1 and 2% on the purchase money, and are equally shared

between vendor and purchaser. In 1906 a royal commission was

appointed, with Lord Dunedin as chairman, to inquire into the

expediency of instituting in Scotland a system of registration of

title.

_Australia and New Zealand._--These states now furnish the most

conspicuous examples in the British empire of the success of

registration of _title_. But prior to the year 1857 they had only

registration of _deeds_, and the expense, delay and confusion

resulting from the frequent dealings appear to have been a crying

evil. Sir Robert Torrens, then registrar of deeds in South Australia,

drew up and carried an act establishing a register of title similar to

the shipping register. The act rapidly became popular, and was adopted

(with variations) in all the other Australasian states in the years

1861, 1862, 1870 and 1874. Consolidating and amending acts have since

been passed in most of these states. Only absolute title is

registered. All land granted by government, after the passing of the

several acts, is placed on the register compulsorily. But voluntary

applications are also made in very large numbers. It is said ordinary

purchasers will not buy land unless the vendor first registers the

title. The fees are very low--£1 to £3 is a usual maximum--though in

some states, e.g. Victoria, the fees rise indefinitely, _ad

valorem_, at a rate of about 10s. per £1000. Insurance funds are

established to provide compensation for errors. At a recent date they

amounted to over £400,000, while only £14,600 odd had been paid in

claims. All the registries pay their own expenses. Bankers and men of

business generally are warm in their appreciation of the acts, which

are popularly called Torrens Acts, after their originator, who, though

not a lawyer, originated and carried through this important and

difficult legal work.

_Canada._--Registration of _title_ was introduced in Vancouver Island

in 1861, was extended to the rest of British Columbia in 1870, and was

in 1885 adopted by Ontario, Manitoba and the North-West Territories.

Only Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island

retain the old English system, plus registration of deeds. The three

provinces which have adopted registration of title have adopted it in

somewhat different forms. In British Columbia it is similar to Lord

Westbury's Act of 1862. The North-West Territories follow closely the

Torrens Acts. The Ontario Act is almost a transcript of Lord Cairns's

Act of 1875. The fees are very low, seldom exceeding a few shillings,

but all expenses of the office are paid from this source. The Ontario

registry has five district offices, as well as the central one at

Toronto. This is apparently the only colonial registry not open to

public inspection.

_Other British Colonies._--In the other British colonies private

investigation of title, plus registration of deeds, is the prevailing

system, but registration of title has been introduced in one or two

instances.

_Germany and Austria-Hungary._--By far the most important examples of

registration of _title_ at present existing--because they show how the

system works when applied to large European communities, with all the

intricacies and complications of modern civilized life--are to be

found in Germany and Austria-Hungary. In some parts of these countries

registration of title has been established for several

centuries--notably in Bohemia; in most parts it has existed for the

greater part of the 19th century; in some districts, again, notably

Tirol and the Rhine Provinces, it is still in course of introduction.

In all cases it appears to have been preceded by a system of deed

registration, which materially facilitated its introduction. In some

cases, Prussia, for instance, the former registers were kept in such a

way as to amount in themselves to little short of a registry of title.

Very low scales of fees suffice to pay all official expenses. In

Prussia the fees for registering sales begin at 5d. for a value of £1;

at £20 the fee is 2s 7d.; at £100 it is 7s. 3d.; at £1000 it is £1,

10s.; at £5000, £4, 5s., and so on. In case of error, the officials

are personally liable; failing these, the state. Other states are very

similar. In 1894, 1,159,995 transactions were registered in Prussia.

In 1893, 938,708 were registered in Austria. Some idea of the extent

to which small holdings prevail in these countries may be gathered

from the fact that 36% of the sales and mortgages in Austria were for

under £8, 6s. 8d. value--74% were for under £50. Owing to the ease and

simplicity of the registers, it is not always necessary to employ

professional help. When such help is required, the fees are low. In

Vienna £1 is a very usual fee for the purchaser's lawyer. £10 is

seldom reached. In Germany the register is private. In Austria it is

open to public inspection. In these registers may be found examples of

large estates in the country with numerous charges and encumbrances

and dealings therewith; peasants' properties, in numerous scattered

parcels, acquired and disposed of at different times, and variously

mortgaged; town and suburban properties, flats, small farms, rights to

light and air, rights of way, family settlements, and dealings of all

sorts--inheritances and wills, partitions, bankruptcies, mortgages,

and a great variety of dealings therewith. The Continental systems are

usually administered locally in districts, about 20 to 30 m. across,

attached to the local law courts. In Baden and Württemberg every

parish (commune) has its own registry. All ordinary dealings are

transacted with the greatest expedition. Security is absolute.[3]

_The United States._--Up to a late date the ordinary English system,

with registration of _deeds_, was universal in the United States. The

registries appear to go back practically to the original settlement of

the country. Registration is by full copy. It is said that in the

large towns the name indexes were often much overgrown owing to the

want of subdivision into smaller areas corresponding to the parishes

into which the Middlesex and Yorkshire indexes are divided. In the New

York registry not many years ago 25,000 deeds were registered

annually. At the same time 35,000 were registered in Middlesex.

Complaints are made by American lawyers of want of accuracy in the

indexes also. In 1890 an act was passed in New York for splitting the

indexes into "blocks," which is believed to have given much relief.

The average time and cost of an examination of title, as estimated by

a committee of the Bar Association of New York in 1887, was about

thirty days and 150 dollars (about £30). A later State Commission in

Illinois estimates the law costs of a sale there at about 25 dollars

(£5); the time may run into many months. Allusion has already been

made to the insurance of title companies. The rates of insurance are

substantial, e.g. 65 dollars (£13) on the first 3000 dollars (£600),

and 5 dollars (£1) on each additional 1000 dollars (£200). This would

amount to £20 on £2000 value, £110 on £20,000, £510 on £100,000. The

guarantee given is very ample, and may be renewed to subsequent owners

at one-third of the fee. Registration of title has lately been

introduced, on a voluntary basis, into the states of California,

Oregon, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Colorado, and also into

Hawaii and the Philippines.

_France._--In France registration of _deeds_ is universal. Sales,

mortgages, gifts and successions; easements, leases of over eighteen

years, and transactions affecting the land to the extent of three

years' rent may lose priority if not registered. Wills need not be

registered. Mortgages must be re-registered every ten years. Purchase

deeds are registered by filing full copies. Registries are established

in all the considerable towns. The duty on sales amounts to the high

figure of about 6½% on the value. Part of this is allocated to

registration, in addition to which a fixed fee of one franc, and

stationers' charges averaging 6 francs are also chargeable. The title

can usually be fully investigated from the documents in the registry.

Official searches for mortgages are commonly resorted to, at a cost of

about 5 francs. Under the monarchy the land system was practically

copyhold tenure, but greater validity was attached to the Court Rolls

than was the case in England. The present system was established by a

law of 1790 after the abolition of seigniorial institutions in 1789.

This was modified by the Code Napoleon, and further perfected by a law

of 1855. The average value of transactions in France is very small.

Probably at the present time four-fifths of the properties are of

under £25 value. The costs of a sale for 200 francs (£8) would be

about as follows: Duty, 13 fr.; Notary (1%), 2 fr.; expenses, 12

fr.--total 27 fr. A sale for 1000 fr. (£40) would cost about 110 fr.

Taking all values, the cost of conveyance and duty reaches the high

figure of 10% in the general run of transactions. The vendor as a rule

has no costs. _Indefeasible_ title is not obtainable, but frauds are

almost unknown. A day or two usually suffices for all formalities. On

large sales a further process known as the "purge" is undergone, which

requires a few weeks and more expense, in order to guard against

possible claims against which the deed registries afford no

protection, such as dowries of wives, claims under guardianships, &c.

A commission (Commission Extraparlementaire du Cadastre), appointed in

1891 to consider the revision of the government cadastral maps (which

are in very serious arrear) and the establishment of registration of

title, collected, in nine volumes of Comptes Rendus, a great mass of

most interesting particulars relating to land questions in France, and

in 1905 reported in favour of the general establishment of a register

of title, with a draft of the necessary enactment.

AUTHORITIES.--A very complete list of some 114 English publications

from 1653 to 1895 will be found in R. Burnet Morris, _Land

Registration_ (1895); Parliamentary Publications: _Second Report of

the Real Property Commissioners_ (1831); _Report of the Registration

and Conveyancing Commission_ (1850); _Report of the Registration of

Title Commission_ (1857); _Report of the Land Transfer Commission_

(1870); _Reports on Registration of Title in Australasian Colonies_

(1871 and 1881); _Report on Registration of Title in Germany and

Austria-Hungary_ (1896); _The Registrar's Reports of 1902 and 1906 on

the Formation of a Register in London; Royal Commission on the Land

Transfer Acts, Minutes of Evidence_ (1909). General reviews of land

registration in the British Isles, the Colonies, and in foreign

countries: R. Burnet Morris, as above, and C. F. Brickdale, _Land

Transfer in Various Countries_ (1894). Books on practice:

England--Brickdale and Sheldon, _The Land Transfer Acts_ (2nd ed.,

1905); Cherry and Marigold, _The Land Transfer Acts_ (1898); Hay,

_Land Registration under the Land Transfer Acts_ (1904); _Land

Transfer, &c._ (1901); C. F. Brickdale, _Registration in Middlesex_

(1892). _Australia--The Australian Torrens System_; Hogg, _The

Transfer of Land Act 1890_ (Melbourne). Prussia--Oberneck, _Die

Preussischen Grundbuchgesetze_ (Berlin). Austria--_Das allgemeine

Grundbuchsgesetz_, &c. (Vienna); Bartsch, _Das Oesterreichische

allgemeine Grundbuchsgesetz in seiner practischen Anwendung_ (Vienna).

Saxony--Siegmann, _Sächsische Hypothekenrecht_ (Leipzig).

Statistics--_Oesterreichische Statistik_ (_Grundbuchs-ämter_) (Vienna,

annually). (C. F.-Br.)

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Lamennais, Robert de" to "Latini, Brunetto" Volume 16, Slice 2 · 第 9 / 30 题

_The Letting._--To constitute the relationship of landlord and tenant in