40 RATES AND TAXES 



In the Stonehenge case, the judge said the 

 law was so clear that the case ought never to 

 have been brought. It is, at any rate, quite 

 clear that when the law of England says the 

 land belongs to the people, it means some- 

 thing totally different from the popular 

 conception of belongings and property. 



In the same way, so far as the law is 

 concerned, the people have not retained 

 a peppercorn rent in the acres of England. 

 The Crown may, in the eye of the law, be the 

 owner of all the land of England, but it is 

 not the owner of the rents, and there is 

 nothing in the nature of a rent charge 

 reserved to the Crown as representing the 

 people. 



The conclusion, then, is that, so far as 

 the actual interpretation of the law is con- 

 cerned at present, this supposed national 

 ownership is of no pecuniary value. 



The question next arises whether it would 



