Book IV. RECEIVER'S ACCOUNTS. 769 



distinct days, or distinct parts of the day, for each receipt, so that the different tenants 

 and suitors may know their hours of attendance. 



4703. IVie business of holding manor courts depends on whether they are. held of right, 

 or merely by custom. If the copyhold tenure is so far worn out in any manor, that there 

 are not two ancient or feudal tenants remaining within it, the court has lost its legal 

 power ; it cannot by right take cognizance of crimes, nor enforce amerciaments. Never-, 

 theless, manorial courts have their uses, in regulating farm roads, driftways, and water- 

 courses, and in preventing nuisances of different kinds within a manor ; and it is generally 

 right to preserve the custom of holding them for these purposes. 



4704. Where copyhold courts remain in force, and where legal forms are to be observed, 

 a law " steward of the manor" is proper to hold them. It is not necessary, however, 

 that courts of this kind should interfere with the receipt of farm rents ; or that a business 

 of this nature should in any way clash with the general receivership of the estate. Em- 

 ploy an attorney to hold courts, as a surveyor to arbitrate disputes, or an engineer to plan 

 works of improvement. 



4705. The propriety of having fixed days for receioing the rents of farms is evident; 

 and some consideration is required to determine on the season of the year for holding 

 them, so as not to oblige the farmer to forced sales of his produce. In England and 

 Ireland, farm rents are generally due at Lady-day and Michaelmas, and in Scotland at 

 Candlemas and Lammas. But the proper times of paying them depend on the market- 

 able produce of an estate, and on the season of the year at which it goes in common 

 course, and with the best advantage, to market. A tenant should never be forced to sell 

 his produce with disadvantage ; nor, when he has received his money for it, ought he 

 to be at a loss for an opportunity of discharging his debt to his landlord. On corn-farm 

 estates, or those whose lands are kept in a state of mixed cultivation, which comprise 

 the great mass of farm lands in this kingdom, Michaelmas may be considered as one of 

 the worst times of the year, at which to call upon tenants for their rents. It is at the 

 close (or, in the northern provinces, perhaps at the height) of harvest, when the farmers' 

 pockets are drained by extra labour, and when they have not yet had time to thresh out 

 their crops to replenish them ; nor is the summer's grass at that season yet consumed, 

 nor off-going stock, perhaps, yet ready for market. In Norfolk, Marshal found the 

 end of February, or beginning of March, a very fit time to pay the half year's rent due 

 at Michaelmas ; and June for paying those due at Ladyday. In some districts of the 

 north it used to be the custom not to demand the first half year's rent, till the tenant was 

 a year in his farm, by which means he had the use during his lease of nearly a year's 

 rent in addition to his actual capital. But farmers there being now considered as 

 possessed of more wealth than formerly, the first half year's rent of the lease is paid 

 nine months after possession, and the last half year's rent of the term on or immediately 

 before its expiration. 



4706. The proj)er days for receiving rents are to be determined by the local circum- 

 stances of an estate and the district in which it lies ; more especially by the fairs of the 

 neighbourhood at that season, and by other stated times at which the tenants are accus- 

 tomed, in conformity with the practice of the country, to receive for their dairy produce 

 or other articles delivered in to dealers ; and should be fixed immediately after these 

 days of embursement. 



4707. On the subject of arrears, a good deal has been said by Marshal ; but it is one 

 of those which may very safely be left to the good sense and discretion of the proprietor 

 or his manager. 



Sect. III. Keeping and Auditing Accounts. 



4708. Clearness and brevity constitute the excellence of accounts, and these excel- 

 lencies are only to be obtained by simplicity of method. Where lands lie in detached 

 estates so as to require different receivers, a separate account is necessarily required for 

 each receivership ; but to preserve this simplicity and clearness, it is necessary that the 

 several sets should be in precisely the same form. 



4709. The groundwork of the acccutits peculiar to a landed estate is the rent-roll : 

 from this receiving rentals are to be taken, and with these and the miscellaneous 

 receipts and disbursements incident to the estate, an account current is to be annually 

 made out. 



4710. In the receiving rental the particulars which a receiver wants to see at one view, 

 when receiving the rents of an estate under judicious management, where rents are 

 regularly received, and where occupiers pay taxes and do ordinary repairs, are few ; the 

 name of the farm, the name of the tenant, and the amount of his half year's rent, only 

 are required : but upon an estate, on which arrears are suffered to remain, and on which 

 matters of account are liable to take place, a greater number of particulars are necessary ; 

 as the name of the farm, of the tenant, his arrears, his half year's rent, any other charge 



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