[To THZ EDITOR ON THU SPICTATOR. 2. ] you allow me to
mention two defects in the Settled Lands Acts unnoticed by Mr. Arthur Underhill, and the corre- spondent to whom he replies, in their recent letters to you ? First, these Acts do not give a life-tenant power to purchase the freehold of his settled lands. However desirable a sale may be, yet, because the settled lands have descended to him from his ancestors, he often shrinks from alienating them, and many, like myself, refuse to sell. Hence encumbrances are continued, im- provements prevented, and, so far, the Acts are inoperative. As, too, the life-tenant, with means to purchase, would in such cases give more for his settled lands than any one else, his inability to purchase is not only impolitic, but unjust. Second, if lands are given to a man for his life, with remainder to his children in tail male, he can, when his eldest son is of age, resettle the lands. But if his son is only given a life interest, the advantages of a resettlement are lost, and all must drag on as before. This seems a strange and injurious anomaly which Lord Cairns's Act
does not remove.—I am, Sir, &c., S. T. S.
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