The efforts of James II. to rule contrary to the wish of the nation, led to his expulsion from the throne, and showed that, in case of future disputes as to the succession, the army, like the Praetorian Guards of Rome, had the election of the monarch. The Red and White Roses of the Plantagenets reappeared under the altered names of Whig and Tory; but it was proved that the decision of a leading soldier like the Duke of Marlborough would decide the army, and that it would govern the nation; fortunately the decision was a wise one, and was ratified by Parliament: thus FORCE governed LAW, and the decision of the ARMY influenced the SENATE. William III. succeeded, AS AN ELECTED MONARCH, under the Bill of Rights. This remarkable document contains no provision, securing the tenants-in-fee in their estates; and I have not met with any treatise dealing with the legal effects of the eviction of James II. All patents were covenants between the king and his heirs, and the patentees and their heirs. The expulsion of the sovereign virtually destroyed the title; and an elected king, who did not succeed as heir, was not bound by the patents of his predecessors, nor was William asked, by the Bill of Rights, to recognize any of the existing titles. This anomalous state of things was met in degree by the statute of prescriptions, but even this did not entirely cure the defect in the titles to the principal estates in the Kingdom. The English tenants in decapitating one landlord and expelling another, appear to have destroyed their titles, and then endeavored to renew them by prescriptive right; but I shall not pursue this topic further, though it may have a very definite bearing upon the question of landholding.
It may not be uninteresting to allude rather briefly to the state of England at the close of the seventeenth century. Geoffrey King, who wrote in 1696, gives the first reliable statistics about the state of the country. He estimated the number of houses at 1,300,000, and the average at four to each house, making the population 5,318,000. He says there was but seven acres of land for each person, but that England was six times better peopled than the known world, and twice better than Europe. He calculated the total income at L43,500,000, of which the yearly rent of land was L10,000,000. The income was equal to L7, 18s. 0d. per head, and the expense L7, 11s. 4d.; the yearly increase, 6s. 8d. per head, or L1,800,000 per annum. He estimated the annual income of 160 temporal peers at L2800 per annum, 26 spiritual peers at L1300, of 800 baronets at L800, and of 600 knights at L650.
He estimated the area at 39,000,000 acres (recent surveys make it 37,319,221). He estimated the arable land at 11,000,000 acres, and pasture and meadow at 10,000,000, a total of 21,000,000. The area under all kinds of crops and permanent pasture was, in 1874, 26,686,098 acres; therefore about five and a half million acres have been reclaimed and added to the arable land. As the particulars of his estimate may prove interesting, I append them in a note.
[Footnote—Geoffrey King thus classifies the land of England and
Wales:
Acres. Value/Acre Rent
Arable Land, 11,000,000 L0 5 10 L3,200,000
Pasture and Meadow, 10,000,000 0 9 0 4,500,000
Woods and Coppices, 3,000,000 0 5 0 750,000
Forests, Parks, and Covers, 3,000,000 0 3 6 550,000
Moors, Mountains, and Barren Lands, 10,000,000 0 1 0 500,000
Houses, Homesteads, Gardens, Orchards,) 1,000,000 (The Land, 450,000
Churches, and Churchyards, ) (The Buildings, 2,000,000
Rivers, Lakes, Meres, and Ponds, 500,000 0 2 0 50,000
Roadways and Waste Lands, 500,000
————— ———- —————
39,000,000 L0 6 0 L12,000,000
He estimates the live stock thus:
Value without
the Skin
Beeves, Stirks, and Calves, 4,500,000 L2 0 0 L9,000,000
Sheep and Lambs, 11,000,000 0 8 0 4,400,000
Swine and Pigs, 2,000,000 0 16 0 1,600,000
Deer, Fawns, Goats and Kids, 247,900
15,247,900
Horses, 1,200,000 2 0 0 3,000,000
Value of Skins, 2,400,000
—————-
L20,647,900
The annual produce he estimated as follows:
Acres Rent Produce
Grain, 10,000,000 L3,000,000 L8,275,000
Hemp, Flax, etc., 1,000,000 200,000 2,000,000
Butter, Cheese, and Milk, ) ( 2,500,000
Wool, ) ( 2,000,000
Horses bred, ) ( 250,000
Flesh Meat, )- 29,000,000 6,800,000 -( 3,500,000
Tallow and Hides, ) ( 600,000
Hay Consumed, ) ( 2,300,000
Timber, ) ( 1,000,000
————— —————- —————-
Total 39,000,000 L10,000,000 L22,275,000]
He places the rent of the corn land at about one third of the produce, and that of pasture land at rather more. The price of meat per lb. was: beef 1 and 1/8d.; mutton, 2 and 1/4d.; pork, 3d.; venison, 6d.; hares, 7d.; rabbits, 6d. The weight of flesh-meat consumed was 398,000,000 lbs., it being 72 lbs. 6 oz. for each person, or 3 and 1/6 oz. daily. I shall have occasion to contrast these figures with those lately published when I come to deal with the present; but a great difference has arisen from the alteration in price, which is owing to the increase in the quantity of the precious metals.
The reign of the last sovereign of this unfortunate race was distinguished by the first measures to inclose the commons and convert them into private property, with which I shall deal hereafter.
The changes effected in the land laws of England during the reigns of the Stuarts, a period of 111 years, were very important. The act of Charles II. which abolished the Court of Ward and Liveries, appeared to be an abandonment of the rights of the people, as asserted in the person of the Crown; and this alteration also seemed to give color of right to the claim which is set up of property in land, but the following law of Edward III. never was repealed:
"That the king is the universal lord and original proprietor of all land in his kingdom, and that no man doth or can possess any part of it but what has mediately or immediately been derived as a gift from him to be held on feodal service."
No lawyer will assert for any English subject a higher title than tenancy-in-fee, which bears the impress of holding and denies the assertion of ownership.