16 INFLUENCE OF LAND LAWS I 



from a natural desire for employment and fees, to advise 

 the periodical resettlement of family estates. Thus, while 

 they have evaded the law of primogeniture by their wills, 

 they have rarely created an entail, or resorted to the 

 family settlement. Moreover, by the nature of the case, 

 the small landowner is more likely to fall into such 

 financial straits as must necessitate his disposing of his 

 land willingly, by cutting off the entail and selling, or 

 involuntarily, by the law of bankruptcy. 



In one respect, however, the indirect influence of the 

 law, it must be admitted, has been considerable. Owing 

 to the technicalities of our legal system, and the absence 

 of any simple method as to registration of title, the 

 expenses involved by inquiries into title and the like have 

 been a serious obstacle in the way of bringing land into 

 the market, and inasmuch as the percentage of expense is 

 far greater in the case of small properties than in that of 

 larger, 1 the intending purchaser, if he be poor, is de- 

 barred from competing with his richer rival. 



I am not, you will observe, either defending or attacking 

 our system of land tenure. Like all systems which have 

 grown with the growth of the nation, there is a good deal 

 to be said in favour of it, more perhaps against it, for 

 certainly it is accompanied with serious evils, more 

 especially in respect to family settlements. This, how- 

 ever, I leave to other hands. My aim has been to inquire 

 how far our land laws are really responsible for the 

 accumulation of estates in a few hands, and in this 

 respect I cannot but think their influence is commonly 

 exaggerated. 



1 See Cobden Club, Systems of Land Tenure, England, p. 121, 

 ed. 1876. On purchase of land worth 100 the expenses, irrespective of 

 duty, are 23 per cent., of land worth 1,000 about 4| per cent., of land 

 worth 2,000 about 3| per cent. 



