ENFRANCHISEMENT OF IRISH ESTATES.
TO. THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
LincolnIs Inn, 2d _Nrovember 1846.
Sur—That the insolvent or at least embarrassed condition of the bulk of the
proprietors of land in Ireland is one source of the miseries of the country, is a point on which there is no serious difference of opinion: in fact, the nominal owner of land—the only party who has any interest in its improvement, and who is alone looked to for the performance of those duties of imperfect obligation which are generally regarded as attached to the ownership of land—is frequently a person deriving-a precarious subsistence from the small surplus of rent which remains after satisfying the claims of mortgagees, judgment-creditors, and other encum- brancers, the annual charge of whose debts must be satisfied before anything pass to the landlord. This nominal owner cannot improve the land, for he ispenni- less: the encumbrancers, while they get their interest, (probably 6 per cent,) have no interest in -effecting any improvement; indeed, their interest is to keep things as they are; for if the land were improved so as to leave any considerable surplus beyond the annual. charge of the debts,.proposals for reducing the rate of interest would naturally follow. The question is, how this state of things can be -amended consistently with the rights of property. The mere legal rights i of property are of a kind which if perversely used would be intolerable. There is nothing in the law to prevent a landowner-from paving his-estate with slate-stones; but if landowners were generally to render the earth barren by such means, it is clear thht such an abuse would not be endured. If landowners were reduced to pa verty and disabled from maintaining sea-walls, so that the land ran the risk of being submerged, the community would have a right to interfere to prevent a general loss by such means. The case of a landed proprietary disabled by en- cumbrances from-performing the duties of proprietors bears- an analogy-not very remote from that-of the cases.abowynotioed. It is clear thatif the condition of Lieland is to be substantially improved, somethiugarnnst be done-with reference to this part of its social polity; audit is probable that some such measures as. Pam about to suggest will be adopted. I believe that the force of circumstances will compel the adoption of some measures; and I suggest-those which promise to be most effectual, and which on the whole will create least disturbance.
- The obvious course where an estate is encumbered beyond what it can conve-
niently bear, is to sell the whole or-a part, as- thescase may require. But it con- stantly happens that a sale is impracticable, by reason of the estate being settled so that there is no owner who has the. power of disposition; and even the absolute Omer is often practically unable to effect a sale, by the expense of making out a title, and the endless difficulties which a swarm of encumbrancers, multiplied sevenfold against Irish estates-by the practice as to securities by judgments, have the power of interposing..
My plan, then, is to vest in the Court of Chancery, or in a judicature appointed
ad hoc, the power of effecting sales on the application of tenants for life and other owners of limited or partial interests, to be of course specified. I would have the sides conducted by officers of the Comt, whose duty it would be to see that they were fairly conducted, and other precautions taken against asale at- a price ma- terially under -theyrdue. The purchase-money would be paid into the Court; and 4:otiose that the purchaser should obtain a-clear Parliamentary title, wholly-re. Bend from all antecedent claimants; and, accordingly, that the adjudication of the Court should after the sale be conclusive that the sale was made on an ap- plication of the proper party, and that the rights of all prior claimants should be-transferred to the purchase-money paid into Court. This is in truth the whole virtue of the scheme, namely, the transferfrom the land of all the embarrassments which affected it to the fund in Court. There is no question that land which pur- chasers could obtain with a clear title, wholly exempt from the reality or even the apprehension of claims, would bear a high valuem the market. To every man 0 really understood the subject, such- a title would be of unspeakable value.
Inhere be parties competent togi i
ve discharges the purchase-money, the pay- ment into Court would of course be omitted; and indeed, n such cases there would he no necessity for resorting to the Court: but I am strongly of opinion that pur- chasers ought to have the right to require the title to be investigated by the Court, and the right of the parties claiming to receive the money adjudicated upon; and if the money be paid to the parties by the order of the Court or its officers, that the title should be guaranteed to the purchaser, he purchasing such guarantee by_payment of a percentage on the purchase-money by way of insurance. • The scheme I novi propose could not in former times have been adopted without hardship and injustice; but the existence of perpetual annuities resting on public security pats the public in a situation to give a real equivalent for any infraction on _private rights in land. Land, it will be observed, is a commodityof which there is only a limited quan- tity. The commodity and the due use of it are necessary to the community. The interest of the community and of the individual proprietor so nearly a'oree, that in ordinary circumstances the proprietor consults the common interests best when lie is best consulting his own; and the community can disregard excep- tive cases when perverse or powerless individuals rain themselves and injure the public by a misuse of property. But circumstances may arise multiplying the exceptive cases so far that the community must interfere for its own sake; and it appears to me that Ireland is rapidly tending to this state, or is now in it; and unless it be conceded that the public must permit a great portion of the soil to be condemned to comparative unproductiveneas, some step must be taken in- volving. the general views which I advance. The misuse of every acre of land which is left unproductive is a prejudice to the public; but the folly or the poverty of the owner of 1001. Consols is wholly immaterial except. to himself, and even to himself his property is as valuable as ever. Is it not obvious, then, that the public funds are the proper depositary of the property of the faineants; and that land, the due management of which is of vital importance to the whole com- munity, should be in the hands of those whose means and enterprise would turn it to the best account. And does not the community throw away one of the ad- vantages which a public debt affords when it omits to require measures to bring about this state of things? Everything should be done, therefore, to facilitate sales by parties interested in land but who cannot sell; and in flagrant cases there ought to be compulsory sales, in every, case the real interests of the parties being cared for in the manner above indicated. As a subsidiary measure, tending, how- eVer, to the same object, every-owner of land subject to a money-charge, whether payable immediately -or at a future period, ought to be enabled to discharge the- land wholly or partially by an investment of. an equal amount of money in the- purchase of stock; retaining, of course, the right to the dividends (in the case of a.futnre charge) till the time of payment. At first it would appear, that the transfer of the title of the land to the money, though a gain to the community by placing the land in the hands of a solvent owner,, would be no gain to the former owners of the laud, who would be left ender the. Mime complexities with respect to the money. But it would be easy to show that. the evils of complex titles, as applicable to a money-fund, are slight and temporary compared with the same evils affecting lands; and that even the parties interested in the land prior to the sale in the manner proposed would fully participate in the. benefit of the measure.
I am sensible of the difficulties of carrying out these suggestions: I doubt, in- deed, whether any critic of my scheme, should there be any, will be more sensible than I am of the inadequacy of such a notice as this to develop a plan involving- such grave interests: but I entertain an opinion amounting' to conviction, that some such plan as I have propounded (involving the-transfer to the money-price of the land of the title to the land, and relieving the land from such prior title) is. that which alone can provide Ireland with a body of solvent landowners, capable of making the land as productive as Nature intended it should be, and performing the duties which- are expected from the owners of the soil in other parts of the United Kingdom.
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