1875.] ')XO [Delmar. 



Laws op Succession. 



Land laay now be willed as the owner chooses provided he has no 

 children. In case he has, these are his natural heirs, and the division is 

 in equal parts. He can, however, dispose of one-fifth thereof in favor of 

 his widow, or some particular child, or even of a stranger. Should the 

 pi'operty have increased in value since the marriage day of the owner, his 

 widow has a right to the half of the increase (L. T., 19). While this is 

 stated to be the law of Spain, the same authority speaks of the existence 

 (Dec. 7, 1870) of separate codes of law affecting real estate in different 

 provinces. (See pp. 40 and 43.) But this I doubt. The law of descent 

 seems now to be general throughout the land, and to have been based on 

 Novela cxviii of the Roman laws of .Justinian. 



Mortmain. 



The abolition of mortmain (law of desamortizacion) took place in 1855, 

 but many persons refused to buy church property on account of religious 

 scruples. In 1858 the Pope's sanction was obtained, when the sales were 

 actively continued, the Government giving great facilities to the pur- 

 chasers. The payments are made one-tenth in cash and the remainder in 

 promissory notes running from one to ten, and in some cases, nineteen 

 years, and secured by mortgage on the property. Owing to these facili- 

 ties of purchase the biddings have often more than twice exceeded the 

 true market value of the parcels put up. The churches, etc., receive com- 

 pensation for their lands thus sold, and the nation gains by the operation, 

 what benefit accrues from throwing open lands to peasant ownership and 

 industrious tillage, which had been either entirely sequestered or negli- 

 gently worked by metayer tenants subject to the church. About $100,090, - 

 000 have been paid (in Government stock) to these institutions for their 

 lands, and about $200,000,000 (in cash and mortgages) received from the 

 purchasers. The total payments (for the operation has not yet quite ceased) 

 are estimated at $125,000,000, and total revenues at $250,000,000 ; so that 

 the Government will have made $125,000,000 by the law of mortmain. The 

 interest on the payments to the religious establishments, which were 

 made in Government securities, was stopjjed during the Republic, but an 

 order for its resumption was among the first acts of Alfonso XII upon his 

 accession to the throne of Spain in January, 1875. 



Registry System. 

 ' ' The sale or transfer of property (land) of every sort is always (now) 

 done by deeds drawn up by a notary and inscribed in the Land Register. 

 Leases of smaller importance are made by contract before witnesses. A 

 tax of two per cent, is paid to the State in cases where property is held 

 (hired ?) or transferred ; but where a son inherits directly from his 

 father, or vice versa, no succession duty is paid. It exists, however, when 

 the inheritance is from any more distant relative and increases propor- 

 tionately." Report of Percy Ffrench, First Sec. H. B, 31. Legation in 

 Spain. L. T., 18. 



