500 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



impossible to trace. But, surely, a man of a liberal turn of mind, who has no Interest in legal contests, 

 and who prefers solid gold to a'trinket, would not hesitate to collect these scattered wrecks of property, 

 and to convert them to a more civilized, rational, and profitable purpose. On the other hand, any man of 

 an independent spirit would pay more than a fair price, would pay liberally, to be exonerated from so base 

 a burden. If, however, a vassal's chains sit easy upon him, let him wear them. What is here meant to 

 to be intimated is, that he ought to have, in liberality, if not in law, a fair opportunity of throwing 

 them ofE 



3208. The rights of feudality, or manorial rights, are, at present, if not in their origin, very different 

 from those last mentioned. In the day of their establishment, they appear to have been founded in wisdom 

 and adegree.of pohtical necessity ; and, by the correcting hand of time, they arrived at a high degree of 

 political perfection. The simple and easy mode of transferring property, which the feudal system estab- 

 lished, was well adapted to the illiterate age in which it had its rise. Even in these lettered days, and 

 among the ruins of feudal rights, the copy of a court-roll is considered as the clearest title a man can have 

 to his possession ! what a hint is this to modern legislators I The value of feudal rights is to be estimated 

 by the quit rents, fines, heriots, escheats, and amerciaments, which long custom and a train of circum- 

 stances have attached to the given court. And beside what relates to the appropriated lands of the manor, 

 the lord has a profit arising from the commonable lands (if any lie within it) as lord of the soil ; which can- 

 not be broken without his permission. Hence the fossils and minerals, which it covers, belong to him ; as 

 well as the timber which grows upon the waste, and the waters that are annexed to it. He is moreover, 

 in ordinary cases, lord of the game which inhabits or strays upon this manor. This, however, being a right 

 of pleasure, rather than of profit, has no fixed standard of estimation. 



3209. The right of tithe, when attached to an estate, is the most desirable of abstract 

 rights, arising out of landed property. For, as far as the right extends, (whether to a 

 lay rectory, or a vicarial impropriatorship) the lands which it covers become, in effect, 

 tithe free ; as every judicious proprietor incorporates the rents of the tithe with those of 

 the lands out of which it is payable : thus (if the right, as it generally is, be rectorial) 

 freeing them wholly from the encumbrance of tithes, as a tax on improvements, and 

 as an obstacle to the growth of corn. The value of tithes, as has been intimated, is so 

 various, that nothing but local information can enable a valuist to estimate them with 

 sufficient truth. 



3210. The right of advowson, or the privilege of appointing a pastor, to propagate 

 religion and morality upon an estate, properly enough belongs to its possessor ; as no 

 other individual is so intimately concerned in the moral conduct of its inhabitants. 



3211. The right of rqiresentation or election, or the appointment (in whole or in part) 

 of a legislator, to assist in promoting good order, in the nation at large, equally belongs 

 to the owner of territorial surface. 



Chap. III. 



Of the Purchase or Transfer of Landed Property. 



3212. In bargaining for an estate there are two methods in use ; the one by public bid- 

 dings, and the other by private treaty. In either a certain degree of caution is requisite ; 

 and in both an accurate valuation is the best safeguard. 



3213. Among the jrreliminaries of purchase, by private contract, the T^axtxcxAaxsyfYiich 

 may be required to be furnished by a seller, are first to be enumerated. These are ; the 

 quantities of the several pieces of the lands on sale, together with the maps, or rough 

 drafts, of the same : the tenure under which they are holden : some assurance as to the 

 title of the seller, and his right of alienation : the tenancy under which the several 

 farms are let ; and, if on lives, the ages of the nominees ; if for a term of years, the 

 number unexpired ; if at will, the notices (if any) which the tenants have had. 



3214. An abstract of the covenants under which they are let; particularly on those 

 which relate to taxes and repairs, to the expenditure of produce, to the ploughing of grass 

 lands, &c. 



3215. The existing rents and profits receivable; whether for tenanted lands, appurte- 

 nances, or abstract rights ; with the estimated value of the demesne, and the wood lands 

 in hand ; together with the estimated value of the timber growing upon the estate on sale, 

 as well as of the minerals and fossils which it may contain : the outgoings to which the 

 estate is liable : the proposed time of the delivery of possession : the price and the 

 mode of payment expected. 



3216. The particulars of instructions to be given to a surveyor, or other valuer, of an 

 estate to be purchased, may next be particularized ; it will be right, however, to premise, 

 that much, in this respect, depends on the probability of purchasing, and on the time al- 

 lowed for making the estimate. 



3217. In cases of sale by public auction, where there can be no certainty as to purchase, 

 and where the time for valuation is limited, a rough estimate of each farm, and a general 

 idea of the value of the timber and other appurtenances, may be all that can be prudently 

 ascertained. 



3218. But, in a sale by private contract, where the refusal of an estate is granted, and 

 time allowed for deliberate survey, a more minute investigation may be proper, especially 

 when there is every reason to believe that a bargain will take place. For the same report 

 will not only serve as a guide to the purchase, but will become a valuable foundation on 



