126 CAUSES OF THE DECLINE 







as a copyholder or as leaseholder would be only paying 

 a nominal rent, 1 was tempted to barter away his right and 

 thus escape the fine. He might beggar his descendants, 

 but he would benefit himself. 



Moreover, as it was usually the custom to insure the 

 lives, the sitting tenant would directly benefit by non- 

 renewal. If he allowed the copyhold or lease for lives to 

 run out he would only have to pay a small rent, and, as 

 the lives died out, he would obtain a substantial sum 

 from the insurance office. No doubt he might sometimes 

 be hoist with his own petard. Of this I have been given 

 an amusing illustration. A copyholder for lives, being 

 allowed to renew, put in a young life, a most respectable 

 person, and insured his life to the value of the property, to 

 protect himself in case the young man should die. Shortly 

 after the young man took to drink and disappeared. The 

 copyholder was now in sad straits. The office would not 

 pay the insurance till his death was proved, yet premiums 

 had to be paid lest he should reappear. No new life could 

 be put in, and the lord could at any time demand produc- 

 tion of the fresh life, and forfeiture would ensue, forfeiture 

 which in any case would follow on the death of the sitting 

 tenant. 



This story, which is a true one, will show that the 

 advantages to the copyholder of renewal were sometimes 

 doubtful. Nevertheless, in most cases the refusal has come 

 from the side of the lord. I am told that, although now 

 and then these copyholders and leaseholders for lives have 

 grumbled, there has not been one case in which they have 

 thought it worth while to appeal to law. In this way 

 such tenures, as well as beneficiary leases, are fast 

 disappearing. 



1 If he were a holder of a beneficiary lease the rent would generally 

 be a very low one. 



