42 LAND REFORM 



of a rightful heir to the EngHsh Crown, which he 

 claimed to be ; the extent to which the King retained 

 the supreme power in his own hands and exacted a 

 direct oath of fealty to himself from every tenant of 

 land in the kingdom, whoever was his lord ; the 

 manner in which the whole country was parcelled out 

 into manors ; the powers of the lords of the manors 

 and the extent to which they were controlled by 

 custom ; the methods by which the manors were 

 divided into the lord's demesne, common land, and 

 holdings of free and unfree tenants and the terms of 

 the tenure of these holdings ; the manner in which the 

 lord carved up portions of his demesne lands and let 

 them to a new body of tenants, who, so long as they paid 

 their rents, had practically perpetual tenure and were 

 free men ; the creation of a class of customary tenants, 

 or copyholders, who, notwithstanding the payment of 

 rents, retained the servile status ; how far these copy- 

 holders were the historical successors of the old English 

 folcland holders, who had heritable titles, according 

 to local customs, and who paid services originally to 

 the State, but subsequently to the lord ; the intricate 

 manner in which sub-letting — sub-infeudation — was 

 affected by the statute "Quia Emptores," 1290; the 

 different forms and powers of alienation : — all these 

 subjects are fully treated by eminent authorities, and 

 are most interesting even to students without legal 

 training, but would take too much space to deal with 

 here. 



The laws relating to land are so complicated 

 that only lawyers can understand them. The only 

 method for a layman to pursue is to carefully study 

 the opinions and decisions of the best authorities on 

 each of the several branches of the question, and to 



