the heir-at-law.

In case of bankruptcy of registered proprietors,

assignees to be registered.

Ss. 89-95, general provisions to facilitate registration, and to protect registered proprietors against the transfer or charging of land. Any person interested under an agreement, or otherwise, in land may lodge a caveat with the registrar, that no disposition of such land be made until notice has been served upon the cautioner. Caution to be supported by affidavit.

By s. 105, if any person to obtain a registration of land, or to obtain a land certificate, make a false statement, he is guilty of a misdemeanour, and on conviction liable to imprisonment for any term not exceeding three years, with or without hard labour, or to a fine, at the discretion of convicting court.

By s. 108, an Office of Land Registry to be established, conducted by a registrar, assistants, examiners of title, and messengers. The registrar to be appointed by the crown, assistant registrars, &c., by lord chancellor.

Any proceedings by a married woman under the act must be with the concurrence of the husband, s. 115. The act is limited to England, and has not hitherto been much used.

Collateral with the foregoing act is the 25 & 26 V. c. 67, for obtaining a declaration of title. It being expedient to enable persons having interest in land to obtain in certain cases a judicial declaration of their title, so as to enable them to make an indefeasible title to persons claiming under them as purchasers for a valuable consideration, it is enacted that parties entitled to land in fee-simple, either absolutely or subject to incumbrances or interest, vested or contingent, or entitled to apply for registration of an indefeasible title, may petition the court of Chancery in summary way for a declaration of title under this act. Petition to set forth particulars as to incumbrances or interests affecting title, s. 2. Two persons interested may jointly petition. No petition admissible as to copyhold land, or customary tenure. When investigation is satisfactory, court may order a declaration of title to be made in not less than three months from date of order. Petitioners to file affidavit that all documents have been produced. Any application by a married woman under the act must be with the husband's concurrence, s. 36. Appeal allowed and petition against declaration. Certificate to be given to party obtaining a final declaration. Declaration not to affect certain liabilities, as taxes, leases, or agreements, s. 29.

Both the preceding acts are limited to England.

By an act of 1864, the 27 & 28 V. c. 112, judgments are not to affect land until the land is delivered in execution.

V. PROPERTY OF MARRIED WOMEN.

Property securely settled upon a wife is protected against the

same.

creditors of the husband, because in the will or deed vesting it in her the income is directed to be paid to her for her own use, independent of the debts or control of her husband; and her receipt alone is declared to be the only sufficient acknowledgment of the She has also a power to dispose of the principal by will but a husband cannot settle property on a wife to the exclusion of the just claims of his creditors. If he wishes to secure a provision for his wife in case of his death or bankruptcy, he must at the time of making the settlement (unless it be made before and in consideration of marriage) be free from debt, no matter whether the property so settled be his own or came to his wife through deed or will. All absolute legacies falling due to a married woman become the property of her husband; hence the necessity for limitations, so as to prevent the husband's touching the income until it has fallen into his wife's possession.

In respect of the reversionary interests of married women, an act of 1857, the 20 & 21 V. c. 57, provides that a married woman may, by deed, dispose of every future or reversionary interest, whether vested or contingent, of such married woman, or her hus band in her right, in any personal estate whatsoever to which she shall be entitled under any instrument made after the said date (except such a settlement as after mentioned), and also release powers as fully and effectually as she could do if she were a feme sole, and also release her right to a settlement out of any personal estate to which she, or her husband in her right, may be entitled in possession under any such instrument, save that no such disposition or release is valid unless the husband concur in the deed by which the same shall be effected, nor unless the deed be acknowledged by her as directed by 3 & 4 W. 4, c. 74, or in Ireland by 4 & 5 W. 4, c 92; but not to extend to any reversionary interest to which she becomes entitled by virtue of any deed by which she is restrained from alienating or affecting the same. Powers of disposition given by this act not to interfere with any other power. Nor to extend to settlements of married women upon marriage, 88. 3, 4.

At the close of the session 1870, an act became law bearing very essentially on the rights and interests of women. Subsequently to this act, the 33 & 34 V. c. 93, the wages and earnings of any married woman acquired or gained by her in any employment or trade in which she is engaged, or which she carries on separately from her husband, and also any money or property so acquired by her through the exercise of any literary, artistic, or scientific skill, and all investments of such wages, earnings, money, or property, shall be deemed and taken to be property held and settled to her separate use, independent of any husband to whom she may be married, and her receipts alone shall be a good dis charge for such wages, earnings, money, and property.

By s. 2, deposits in a savings bank by a married woman are

deemed to be in like manner her separate property. Similar security, by s. 3, is given to a married woman's investments in the public funds, not being less than twenty pounds. Like security is given, by s. 4, to the investment in an incorporated or joint-stock company by a woman married, or about to be married; application having been made in writing to the managers or directors. Similar securities to a woman married, or about to be, for invest ments, on application in writing to the committee of management of any industrial and provident society, or benefit, building, or loan society, duly registered under the acts relating to such societies. But if investments have been made with the money of the husband, any right, transfer, or disposition of them can only be made with his consent. By s. 6, all deposits of money in fraud of creditors are invalid. By s. 7, personal property coming to any woman married after the 9th of August, 1870, as next of kin of an intestate, or under any will or deed if it does not exceed £200, is to belong to her for her separate use. By s. 13, a married woman with separate property liable to the parish for the maintenance of her husband, if destitute. Husband not liable for the debts of his wife, if contracted before their marriage. Married woman having separate property is liable to the parish for the maintenance of her children.

These preliminary and explanatory sections may suffice before entering on the subjects of the following chapters which relate to tithe, commons, and other incidents in the possession of property, and the mode in which property may be acquired by will and testa ment, by mortgage, bankruptcy, insolvency, contract deed, award, bill of exchange, &c.

CHAPTER I.
Tithes.

TITHES are defined, by Sir William Blackstone, to be a tent part of the increase yearly arising and renewing from the profit of lands, the stock upon lands, and the personal industry of th inhabitants the first species being usually called predial, as corn, grass, wood, and fruit; the second, mixed, as of wool milk, lambs, pigs, &c., and of these the tenth must be paid i gross; the third, personal, as of trade, occupations, fisheries and the like, of which only a tenth part of the clear gain an profit is due. The great tithes, as of corn and hay, are generall payable to the rector or parson; the small tithes to the vica The successful application of the Commutation Act, by whic

many causes of dispute and litigation have been removed, renders less necessary a detailed exposition of the law on the subject of tithes.

In general, tithes are payable on everything that yields an annual increase, but not for anything that is of the substance of the earth, or is not of annual increase, as of mines, minerals, and the like; nor for creatures of a wild nature, as deer and hawks, whose increase, so as to profit the owner, is not annual, but casual.

Tithe is payable for the pasturing of cattle. Gardens, orchards, and nursery-grounds yield a tithe of their produce, if sold in the way of trade; but hot-house fruit, it seems, is not titheable. Timber wood yields no tithe, except when cut down and sold as firewood, or made into charcoal. Fish taken in the sea, or open river, are not titheable; but taken in a pond or enclosed water, they are liable. Pigeons, honey, and bees'-wax are titheable. So may deer and rabbits, though wild by nature, be titheable by special custom. But chickens are not titheable, if tithe has been

paid for the eggs.

The tithe of milk is the tenth meal; that is, the milk yielded every tenth day.

Barren ground, which has never paid tithe, becomes liable if converted into pasture or meadow land, after the lapse of seven years from the first attempt to make it productive. Headlands being only large enough to turn the plough upon, do not pay tithes unless grain be grown upon them.

Mills for grinding corn are liable for the tenth of their profits, if built since the year 1315. Ancient mills not liable to tithes, will become liable if the power of the mill is increased, and then tithe is payable for such increased power.

The tithe of all extra-parochial lands belongs to the Queen, in right of her prerogative, Attorney-General v. Lord Eardley, 8 Price, 39.

II. PERSONS NOT LIABLE TO TITHES.

Day labourers and servants in husbandry are not liable to personal tithes. The Queen, by her prerogative, is discharged from all tithes. Nor is a vicar liable for tithes to his rector, nor a rector to his vicar. Persons holding the lands of any abbey, dissolved by the 31 H. 8, c. 13, are free and discharged of tithe in as ample a manner as the abbeys themselves formerly held them. It is from this provision that lands, which were formerly abbeylands, now claim to be tithe-free. But this exemption does not extend to land belonging to the lesser monasteries; that is, of monasteries whose landed income did not exceed £200 per annum, and which were dissolved by the 27 H. 8, c. 28,

Lands may be exempt from tithe, first, by composition; and, secondly, by custom, or prescription.

A composition is when an agreement is made between the owner of the land and the parson or vicar, with consent of the ordinary and his patron, that such land shall, for the future, be discharged from the payment of tithe, by reason of land, money, or other equivalent given to the parson in lieu thereof; but the 13 Eliz. c. 10, limits the exchange by restraining, all parsons and vicars from making any conveyance of the estate of their churches for a longer period than three lives, or twenty-one years; so that no composition for tithe is good for a longer period than twenty-one years, though made with the consent of the ordinary and patron; nor is it binding on the succeeding incumbent, though confirmed by a court in chancery.

A discharge by custom or prescription is when, time immemo rial, certain persons or lands have been either partially or totally discharged from the payment of tithe. In the first case, a modus or compensation is substituted in lieu of tithe, at two pence an acre for the tithe of land; or an equivalent in work and labour, so that the parson shall have the twelfth cock of bay in lieu of the tenth, in consideration of the owner making it for him; or, instead of crude and unripe tithe, the parson shall have a less quantity, in greater maturity, as a couple of fowls in lieu of tithe eggs.

When land is totally exonerated from tithe, it must arise either from being anciently abbey-land, the property of the crown, or some other cause already specified.

For a modus or equivalent to be good, it must be certain and invariable; it must be beneficial to the parson; it must be per manent and durable; it must be a fair and equitable composition; and until recently it must have existed time out of mind: that is, as before explained (p. 2), from the year 1189; so that a modus for anything introduced into this country subsequently to that year, as hops and turkeys, would be invalid; and clergymen have sometimes availed themselves of the difficulty of proving an uninterrupted usage for so long a period, to resume their tithes, though no reasonable doubt existed that a modus had been originally es tablished.

But the hardship of the law in respect to moduses is abated by 3 W. 4, c. 100, amended by 5 W. 4, c. 83, which renders valid any exemption from tithe due to any but a corporation sole, on proof thereof for thirty years, unless payment of tithe is shown to have taken place prior to such thirty years, or that such exemption was made by agreement; and if such proof extend to sixty years, it is deemed absolute and indefeasible, unless paid by agreement; in case of a corporation sole, the exemption mes have taken place during two incumbencies, and for not less tha three years during the commencement of a third; but such ex