NATIONAL TAXES 45 



resumption of the alienated demesne lands, 

 but the matter may be said to have been 

 finally settled in 1702.* By that time the 

 actual revenue from demesne was very small, 

 but there were chances of certain reversions 

 and remainders falling in. An Act was passed 

 which prohibited the alienation of any such 

 land in the future, and also at the same time 

 gave a Parliamentary title to the lands 

 formerly alienated, and in which there was 

 always some doubt as to the title. Up to 

 this time the insecurity of the position of the 

 grantee of the Crown lands had been such as 

 to render them on sale or settlement worth 

 less by several years' purchase than lands 

 held under another title. From that date 

 this difference disappeared. 



It surely ought to need no showing that it 

 would be utterly impossible, with any regard 

 to equity, to attempt to go back centuries 



1 Dowell iii., p. 65, etc. 



