346 = 50 
English Land Law. 
in the sixteenth century (32 Hen. 8, c. 28), and the same pri- 
vileges were at the same time given to a man possessed in right 
of his wife, who had hitherto laboured under a similar dis- 
ability. The Act remained in force until 1856, when the statute 
19 & 20 Vict., c. 120, was passed for the amendment of the law 
Leases by life on the subject, and enabled all life tenants to lease by deed for 
tenants. 21 years, under certain terms and at the best reasonable rent. 
The whole subject of leases will be considered in its proper 
place. 
The statute just referred to further authorised the Court of 
Chancery to sanction, under certain circumstances, the sale oi 
settled estates, or of the timber growing upon them, and to direct 
the investment of the proceeds upon similar trusts. From time 
to time it has been felt that these enactments hardly touch the 
real evil of a limited ownership by which the tenant-farmei 
is chiefly affected. The possessor of a life-interest only, wh( 
probably requires the greater part of the revenues of the lam 
lor his personal wants, and has besides the duty of saving some 
thing for those of his children who take no provision under tin 
settlement, is seldom inclined, or even able, to employ capita 
in effecting improvements of a permanent character on the pro 
perty of which he is the transient possessor. He may die befor 
the benefit from the increase in the yearly produce, which is du 
to the improvement, has even begun to make itself felt ; it i 
almost always improbable that he will live to be compensate 
in full for the money which he has irretrievably sunk ; and whil 
the person entitled in remainder will reap much of the advantag 
of his outlay, his own means of providing for those for who; 
welfare he is most anxious are proportionately diminished. I 
theory, no state of society more disadvantageous to agricultu) 
can be conceived than one in which most of the soil of tl 
country is under the control of life tenants, with limited powc 
and interests, and let by them to yearly tenants, whose chi 
interest it is to get as much as possible out of it before 
passes from their possession. Yet under this theoretical di 
advantage, as regards both yearly tenancies and life estate 
English agriculture has attained whatever eminence it nt 
enjoys. 
The tenant for life occupies the same position with regard 
the owner who is invested with the absolute ownership, that t 
tenant from year to year bears with regard to the tenant for lil 
and inasmuch as it is unavoidable, in the present artificial st; 
of society, that the great bulk of the soil of the country shoi 
be in the hands of those whose ownership is limited in the o 
way or the other, it has been found imperatively necessary tl 
the Legislature should make some effort to counteract the ev 
