1. The abolition of the injurious system of fines upon leases for lives, and also upon leases for terms.

2. The substitution of a fee-simple, for a leasehold tenure, throughout the property of the church.

3. An act to provide for the conversion of church leasehold into fee-simple, commonly called enfranchisement.

4. The customary confidence of renewal by the lessee to be considered according to local circumstances, by the authorities established under the proposed act, in the principles of enfranchisement laid down by them: and,

5. The interests of the church, present as well as future, to be provided for by a combined system of money payments and corn rent-charges.

As this report was made before the acts of 5 Vict. sess. 2. c. 27 (a), and 5 & 6 Vict. c. 108 (b), were passed, it is clear that the legislature were indisposed to go the length recommended by the committee.

The ecclesiastical commissioners for England, however, who are under no legislative or other restraint upon their powers of leasing property vested in them in their corporate capacity, passed, at a meeting held on the 15th of April, 1845, the following resolutions respecting such property:

1. That no lease for lives be renewed by the addition of a new life, nor any lease whatever upon consideration of a fine.

2. That no estate which is subject to a lease when it becomes vested in the commissioners shall at any time be sold to any other than the person beneficially interested under the existing lease, until he shall have had the option of becoming the purchaser.

3. That every estate already and hereafter vested in the commissioners shall at the first convenient opportunity be surveyed, and a full report made of its value, and of its circumstances, with reference to the relative advantage of retaining or parting with it.

4. That the commissioners, having taken such report into consideration, shall, unless they find special reasons for not (b) Ante, p. 269.

(a) Ante, p. 257.

parting with the property, hold themselves prepared to entertain an offer for the purchase of the reversion from the person beneficially interested in the lease.

5. That in all cases of the commissioners declining to sell, an entry shall be made upon their minutes of the special reasons for their so declining.

6. That the price of the reversion shall be, as a general rule, the amount of the difference between the value of the whole fee, calculated as if the estate were actually in possession, and the value of the leasehold interest.

7. That, whether the commissioners for any special reasons decline to sell, or the lessee decline to purchase, the reversion, the commissioners shall hold themselves prepared, in any case, to purchase the leasehold interest at its market price, if the lessee be willing to sell the same.

8. That in any case in which the lessee shall have declined either to purchase the reversion, or to sell his leasehold interest, the commissioners shall consider themselves free from any restraint respecting the sale or letting of the property.

9. That tithes, and lands or other hereditaments allotted or assigned in lieu of tithes, vested in the commissioners, shall not in any case be sold until due consideration shall have been had of the wants and circumstances of the places in which such tithes arise or have heretofore arisen.

v.-Municipal Corporations.

At common law, municipal corporations had the same unlimited right of alienation of their corporate estates as private individuals (c). But some restraints were imposed upon their powers by the late municipal corporations act (d).

(c) Jenk. Cent. 270, case 88. Smith v. Barrett, 1 Sid. 162. AttorneyGeneral v. Lord Gore, Barnard. Ch. 145. Gozna v. The Alderman and Burgesses of Grantham, 3 Russ. 261.

(d) 5 & 6 W. 4, c. 76, entitled, "An Act to provide for the regulation of Municipal Corporations in England and Wales." Royal Assent, 9 Sept. 1835.

We may first mention that it was thereby enacted (e), that after the first election of councillors thereunder in any borough (f), the body or reputed body corporate named in the schedules (A) and (B), in connection with such borough, should take and bear the name of the " mayor, aldermen, and burgesses" of such borough, and by that name should have perpetual succession, and should be capable in law, by the council thereinafter mentioned (g) of such borough, to do and suffer all acts which then lawfully they and their successors respectively might do and suffer by any name or title of incorporation; and that the mayor of each of the said boroughs should be capable in law to do and suffer all acts. which the chief officer of such borough might then lawfully do and suffer, so far as the same respectively were not altered or annulled by the provisions thereof.

It was then enacted (h), that it should not be lawful for the council of any body corporate (i) to be elected thereunder to demise or lease, except in pursuance of some covenant, contract, or agreement, bond fide made or entered into on or before the 5th day of June, 1835, by, or on the behalf of, such body corporate, or in pursuance of some resolutions duly entered in the corporation books of such body corporate on or before the said 5th day of June, or except in the cases thereinafter mentioned, any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, of such body corporate, or any part thereof, or to enter into any new covenant, contract, or agreement, (except in the cases thereinafter mentioned,) for demising or leasing any such lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or any part thereof, for any term exceeding thirty-one years from the time when such lease should be made, or if made in pursuance of a previous agreement, then from the time when such agreement should have been entered into; and that in every

(e) Sect. 6.

(f) "Borough" is to be construed to mean, city, borough, port, cinque port, or town corporate, named in one of the schedules (A) and (B). Sect. 142. (g) See ss. 25, & 69.

(h) Sect. 94.

(i) "Body corporate" is throughout the act to be construed to mean any body corporate named in the schedules (A) and (B). Sect. 142.

lease which the said council was not thereby restrained from making there should (except in the cases thereinafter mentioned) be reserved and made payable, during the whole of the term thereby granted, such clear yearly rent as to the council should appear reasonable, without taking any fine for the same: provided nevertheless, that in every case in which such council should deem it expedient to demise and lease, for a longer term than thirty-one years, or upon different terms and conditions than those thereinbefore mentioned, any of the said lands, tenements, or hereditaments, it should be lawful for such council to represent the circumstances of the case to the lords commissioners of his Majesty's treasury; and that it should be lawful for such council, with the approbation of the said lords commissioners, or any three of them, to demise any of the lands, tenements, and hereditaments, of the said body corporate, in such manner, and on such terms and conditions, as should have been approved by the said lords commissioners; provided always, that notice of the intention of the council to make such application should be fixed on the outer door of the town-hall, or in some public and conspicuous place within the borough, one calendar month at least before such application, and that a copy of the memorial intended to be sent to the said lords commissioners should be kept in the town clerk's office during such calendar month, and should be freely open to the inspection of every burgess at all reasonable hours during the same.

But it was provided (k), that, in all cases in which any body corporate should on the said 5th of June have been bound or engaged by any covenant or agreement, express or implied, or have been enjoined by any deed, will, or other document, or have been sanctioned or warranted by ancient usage, or by custom, or practice, to make any renewal of any lease for years, or for life or lives, or for years determinable with any life or lives, at any fixed or determinate or known or accustomed period, or after the lapse of any number of years, or

(k) Sect. 95.

on the dropping of any life or lives, and years determinable after the lapse of any number of years (1), at a fine certain, or under any special or specific terms or conditions, and also in all cases in which any body corporate should theretofore have ordinarily made renewal of any lease for years, or for life or lives, or for years determinable with any life or lives, at any fixed or determinate or known or accustomed period, or after the lapse of any number of years, or upon the dropping of any life or lives, upon the payment of an arbitrary fine, it should be lawful for the council of such borough to renew such lease for such term or number of years, either absolutely, or determinable with any life or lives, or for such life or lives, and at such rent, and upon the payment of such fine or premium, either certain or arbitrary, and with or without any covenant for the future renewal thereof, as such body corporate could or might have done in case the act had not been passed.

And it was further provided (m), that in any of the instances thereinafter mentioned it should be lawful for the council from time to time to demise and lease, or to enter into any contract or agreement for demising and leasing, any of the said lands, tenements, or hereditaments, to any person, body politic, corporate, or collegiate, for any term not exceeding seventy-five years from the time of making such lease or agreement; (that is to say,) of tenements or hereditaments the greater part of the yearly value of which should at the time of making the lease or agreement consist of any building or buildings, of land or ground proper for the erection of any houses or other buildings thereupon, with or without gardens, yards, curtilages, or other appurtenances, to be used therewith, and, where the lessee or intended lessee should covenant or agree to erect a building or buildings thereon of greater yearly value than such land or ground, of land or ground proper for gardens, yards, curtilages, or other appurtenances, to be used with any other house or other building erected or to