TRANSACTIONS OF SKCTION F. 771 



branclie3 has sat tlirough three consecutive sessions, taking evidence from all parts 

 of the kingdom, and that its labours are still unended. 



The author has traced the origin and growth of the system of granting leasehold 

 interests in land through successive stages of legal history ; the cause and effect of the 

 Restraining Statutes of Elizabeth ; and he has shown that practically the whole of 

 the land on which the metropolis has been developed was formerly held by the 

 Crow^l, by bodies ecclesiastic and corporate, or by a few of the great historical 

 families, and that it was all but impossible for any private person to acquire a free- 

 hold interest in land either in London or its immediate vicinity, prior to the nine- 

 teenth century. He argues that as the land was in the hands of these monopolists 

 who could and did dictate such terms as they thought fit, the population, as it in- 

 creased, was bound to submit to them, and that thei'efore there could not have been 

 any freedom of contract between contracting parties. Ergo, as there has not been 

 any freedom of contract in the development of the leasehold system, there cannot 

 be any commuiiistic violation of freedom of contract in abolishing it. 



The author also deals with the pernicious efl'ect of Private Bill Legislation on 

 property in London, and regards it as one of the main factors in the growth of the 

 present short leasehold system in and around the metropolis. 



Pie points out that between 1700 and 1750 twenty-one separate private Acts of 

 Parliament were passed conferring leasing powers on owners of land in and ai'ound 

 the metropolis ; and that between 1750 and 1800 no less than fifty-eight further 

 private estate Acts were passed for the same purpose. These Acts were obtained 

 without any discussion as to their public policy. Areas of land, sometimes larger 

 than the old City of London, were dealt with by a single private Act of Parlia- 

 ment ; and by this means Parliament enabled tenants for life to deal with settled 

 property in a way unauthorised by the original settlements. Formerly tenants for 

 life could not lease for longer terms than twenty-one years ; and it was even con- 

 sidered waste to pull down a house, however ruinous its condition might be, for 

 the purposes of improving or rebuilding it, and no tenant for life had power to do 

 80. In like manner, the bishops and prebends went to Parliament and obtained 

 powers to lease their property, and thus helped to build up the London leasehold 

 system. 



The author contrasts the disadvantages of this system of leasing land with the 

 advantages of the freehold fee-farm and chief-rent systems customary in Bath and 

 Bristol and the great majority of towns throughout England, and he says that 

 what is good for all England must be good for the metropolis. 



He states the machinery proposed to be put in motion for the enfranchisement 

 of leaseholds, and explains that full compensation is to be paid to the ground land- 

 lord for the reversion dependent on the expiration of the lease. The 12 and 13 

 Vict. c. 105 (Ireland) conferred upon lessees the right of acquiring the fee-simple 

 of the property leased by them, provided the lease is perpetually renewable. The 

 Conveyancing Act of 1881 gives power to a tenant to purchase the reversion where 

 no money rent is reserved ; and in the same way it is proposed by the Leaseholds 

 Enfranchisement Bill to give power to a tenant to purchase the reversion where a 

 money rent is reserved, provided the tenant has an unexpired term of a certain 

 number of years. 



The author strongly denounces the evils and hardships of the London leasehold 

 system, and advocates the freehold system as being the most perfect of all known 

 systems of land tenure; or, in the alternative, the fee-farm or rent-charge system, 

 such as is now, and has been for centuries past, customary in the city of Bath and 

 the adjoining city of Bristol. 



2. Eeport of the Committee for continuing the Ivquiries relating to the 

 Teaching of Science in Elementary Schools. — See Reports, p. 164. 



3. The Industrial Education of Women abroad and at home. 

 By E. J. Watherston, 



3 D 2 



