Chapter 8

Statutory Provisions.—Reference may be made, in conclusion, to a few modern statutes which have affected the law of landlord and tenant. The Agricultural Holdings Act 1908 (which repeals the Agricultural Holdings Acts of 1883, 1900 and 1906) gives to the agricultural tenant a right to compensation for (i.) certain specified improvements made by him with the landlord’s previous consent in writing; and (ii.) certain other classes of improvements although the landlord’s consent has not been obtained. As examples of class (i.) may be mentioned—erection or enlargement of buildings, laying down of permanent pasture, making of gardens or fences, planting of hops, embankments and sluices; as examples of (ii.)—chalking of land, clay burning, application to land of purchased artificial or purchased manure, except they have been made for the purpose of making provision to protect the holding from injury or deterioration. In the case of proposed drainage improvements, notice in writing must be given to the landlord, who may then execute the improvements himself and charge the tenant with interest not exceeding 5% per annum on the outlay, or such annual instalments, payable for a period of twenty-five years, and recoverable as rent, as will repay the outlay, with interest at the rate of 3% a year. Under s. 11 of the act a tenant is entitled to compensation for disturbance, when he is compelled to quit without good and sufficient cause, and for reasons inconsistent with good estate management. An agricultural tenant may not contract himself out of his statutory right to compensation, but “contracting out” is apparently not prohibited with regard to the right given him by the acts of 1883 and 1900 to remove fixtures which he has erected and for which he is not otherwise entitled to compensation, after reasonable notice to the landlord, unless the latter elects to purchase such fixtures at a valuation. The Agricultural Holdings Act 1906 conferred upon every tenant (with slight exceptions) entire freedom of cropping and of disposal of produce, notwithstanding any custom of the county or explicit agreement to the contrary. (See further the articlesEjectment,Fixtures,Rent.) The Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908, which repealed previous acts of 1887, 1890 and 1907, deals, on terms similar to those of the Agricultural Holdings Act 1908, with small holdings and allotments (the expression “small holding” meaning an agricultural holding which exceeds one acre, and either does not exceed fifty acres, or, if exceeding fifty acres, is at the date of sale or letting of an annual value for the purposes of income tax not exceeding fifty pounds; the expression “allotment” includes a field garden). Section 47 of the act gives the tenant the same rights to compensation as if his holding had been a holding under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1908 (vide supra). Compensation was given to market gardeners for unexhausted improvements by the Market Gardeners’ Compensation Act 1895 and by the Agricultural Holdings Act 1906 for improvements effected before the commencement of that act on a holding cultivated to the knowledge of the landlord as a market garden, if the landlord had not dissented in writing to the improvements. The important sections of these acts were incorporated in the Agricultural Holdings Act 1908, s. 42.

Scots Law.—The original lease in Scots law took the form of a grant by the proprietor or lessor. But, with advancing civilization and the consequent increase in the number of the conditions to be imposed on both parties, leases became mutual contracts, bilateral in form. The law of Scotland as to landlord and tenant may be considered under two main heads:—I.Ordinary Leases, Common Law and Statutory; II.Building or Long Leases.

I.Ordinary Leases, Common Law and Statutory.—A verbal lease for a year is good. Such a lease for more than a year is not effectual even for a year, except where the lessee has taken possession. At common law, while a lease was binding on the grantor and his heirs, it was not good against “singular successors,”i.e.persons acquiring by purchase or adjudication, and the lessee was liable to be ejected by such persons, unless (a precaution usually taken) sasine of the subjects demised was expressly conferred on him by the lease. To obviate this difficulty, the Scots Act 1449, c. 18, made possession of the subjects of the lease equivalent to sasine. This enactment applies to leases of agricultural subjects, houses, mills, fisheries and whatever isfundo annexum; provided that (a) the lease, when for more than one year, must be in writing, (b) it must be definite as to subject, rent (which may consist of money, grain or services, if thereddendumis not illusory) and term of duration, (c) possession must follow on the lease. Special powers of granting leases are conferred by statute on trustees. (Trusts [Scotland] Act 1867, s. 2),curatores bonis(Judicial Factors [Scotland] Act 1889) and heirs of entail (cf. Entail Act 1882, ss. 5, 6, 8, 9). The requisites of the statutory leases, last mentioned, are similar to those imposed in England upon tenants for life by the Settled Land Acts (v. sup.p. 3). The rent stipulated for must not be illusory, and must fairly represent the value of the subjects leased, and the term of the lease must not be excessive (as to rent generally, seeRent). A life-renter can only grant a lease that is effectual during the subsistence of the life-rent. There is practically no limitation, but the will of the parties, as to the persons to whom a lease may be granted. A lease granted to a tenant by name will pass, on his death during the subsistence of the term to his heir-at-law, even if the lease contains no destination to heirs. The rights and obligations of the lessor and the tenant (e.g.as to the use of the produce, the payment of rent, the quiet possession of the subjects demised, and as to the payment of rates and taxes) are similar to those existing under English law. An agricultural lease does not, apart from stipulation, confer any right to kill game, other than hares and rabbits (as to which, see the Ground Game Act 1880, andGame Laws) or any right of fishing. A tenant is not entitled, without the landlord’s consent, to change the character of the subjects demised, and, except under an agricultural lease, he is bound to quit the premises on the expiration of the lease. In the case of urban leases, however, ejectment (q.v.)—called in Scots Law “removing”—will not be authorized unless the tenant received 40 days’ warning before the term of removal. In the absence of such notice, the parties are held, if there be nothing in their conduct or in the lease inconsistent with this presumption, to renew their agreement in all its terms, and so on from year to year till due notice is given. This is called “tacit relocation.” A lease may be transmitted (i.) by “assignation,” intimated to the landlord, and followed by possession on the part of the assignee; (ii.) by sub-lease—the effect of which is equivalent to that of under-lease in English law; (iii.) by succession, as of the heir of a tenant; (iv.) in the case of agricultural holdings, by bequest (Agricultural Holdings [Scotland] Act 1883, s. 29). A lease terminates (i.) by the expiration of its term or by advantage being taken by the party in whose favour it is stipulated, of a “break” in the term; (ii.) by the occurrence of an “irritancy” of ground of forfeiture, either conventional, or statutory,e.g.where a tenant’s rent is in arrear, or he fails to remove on the expiry of his lease (Act of Sederunt, 14th of Dec. 1756: Agricultural Holdings Act 1883, s. 27); (iii.) by the bankruptcy or insolvency of the tenant, at the landlord’s option, if it is so stipulated in the lease; (iv.) by the destruction,e.g.by fire, of the subject leased, unless the landlord is bound to restore it. Complete destruction of the subject leased,e.g.where a house is burnt down, or a farm is reduced to “sterility” by flood or hurricane, discharges the tenant from the obligation to pay rent. The effect of partial destruction has given rise to some uncertainty. “The distinction seems to be that if thedestruction be permanent, though partial, the failure of the subject let will give relief by entitling the tenant to renounce the lease, unless a deduction shall be allowed, but that if it be merely temporary or occasional, it will not entitle the tenant to relief” (Bell’sPrin.s. 1208). Agricultural leases usually contain special provisions as to the order of cropping, the proper stocking of the farm, and the rights of the incoming and outgoing tenant with regard to the waygoing crop. Where the rent is in money, it is generally payable at Whitsunday and Martinmas—the two “legal terms.” Sometimes the term of payment isbeforethe crop is reaped, sometimesafter. “The terms thus stipulated are called ‘the conventional terms’; the rent payable by anticipation being called ‘forehand rent,’ that which is payable after the crop is reaped, ‘back rent.’ Where the rent is in grain, or otherwise payable in produce, it is to be satisfied from the produce of the farm, if there be any. If there be none the tenant is bound and entitled to deliver fair marketable grain of the same kind.” (Bell’sPrinciples, ss. 1204, 1205). The general rule with regard to “waygoing crops” on arable farms is that the tenant is entitled to reap the crop sown before the term of removal (whether or not that be the natural termination of the lease), the right of exclusive possession being his during seed time. But he is not entitled to the use of the barns in threshing, &c., the corn.The Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Acts 1883 and 1900, already referred to incidentally, contain provisions—similar to those of the English acts—as to a tenant’s right to compensation for unexhausted improvements, removal for non-payment of rent, notice to quit at the termination of a tenancy, and a tenant’s property in fixtures. The Crofters’ Holdings (Scotland) Acts 1886, 1887 and 1888, confer on “crofters” special rights. A crofter is defined as “a tenant of a holding”—being arable or pasture land, or partly arable and partly pasture land—“from year to year who resides on his holding, the annual rent of which does not exceed £30 in money, and which is situated in a ‘crofting parish.’” Nearly all the parishes in Argyll, Inverness, Ross, Cromarty, Sutherland, Caithness and Orkney and Shetland answer to this description. The crofter enjoys a perpetual tenure subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions as to payment of rent, non-assignment of tenancy, &c., and to defeasance at his own option on giving one year’s notice to the landlord. A Crofters’ Commission constituted under the acts has power to fix fair rents, and the crofter on renunciation of his tenancy or removal from his holding is entitled to compensation for permanent improvements. The Small Holdings Act 1892 applies to Scotland.Under the law of Scotland down to 1880, a landlord had as security for rent due on an agricultural lease a “hypothec”—i.e.a preferential right over ordinary creditors, and extending, subject to certain limitations, over the whole stock and crop of the tenant. This right was enforceable by sequestration and sale. It was abolished in 1880 as regards all leases entered into after the 11th of November 1881, where the land demised exceeded two acres in extent, and the landlord was left to remedies akin to ejectment (Hypothec Abolition, Scotland, Act 1880).II.Building or Long Leases.—Under these leases, the term of which is usually 99 and sometimes 999 years, the tenant is to a certain extent in the position of a fee simple proprietor, except that his right is terminable, and that he can only exercise such rights of ownership as are conferred on him either by statute or by the terms of his lease. Extensive powers of entering into such leases have been given by statute to trustees subject to the authority of the Court (Trusts [Scotland] Act 1867, s. 3) and to heirs of entail (Entail Acts 1840, 1849, 1882). Where long leases are “probative,”i.e.holograph or duly tested, do not exceed 31 years, or, except as regards leases of mines and minerals, and of lands held by burgage tenure, relate to an extent of land exceeding 50 acres, and contain provisions for renewal, they may be recorded for publication in theRegister of Sasines, and such publication has the effect of possession (Registration of Leases [Scotland] Act 1857).Ireland.—The law of landlord and tenant was originally substantially the same as that described for England is. But the modern Land Acts have readjusted the relation between landlords and tenants, while the Land Purchase Acts have aimed at abolishing those relations by enabling the tenant to become the owner of his holding. The way was paved for these changes by the existence in Ulster of a local custom having virtually the force of law, which had two main features—fixity of tenure, and free right of sale by the tenant of his interest. These principles, with the addition of that of fair rents settled by judicial means, were gradually established by the Land Acts of 1870 and subsequent years, and the whole system was remodelled by the Land Purchase Acts (seeIreland).

The Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Acts 1883 and 1900, already referred to incidentally, contain provisions—similar to those of the English acts—as to a tenant’s right to compensation for unexhausted improvements, removal for non-payment of rent, notice to quit at the termination of a tenancy, and a tenant’s property in fixtures. The Crofters’ Holdings (Scotland) Acts 1886, 1887 and 1888, confer on “crofters” special rights. A crofter is defined as “a tenant of a holding”—being arable or pasture land, or partly arable and partly pasture land—“from year to year who resides on his holding, the annual rent of which does not exceed £30 in money, and which is situated in a ‘crofting parish.’” Nearly all the parishes in Argyll, Inverness, Ross, Cromarty, Sutherland, Caithness and Orkney and Shetland answer to this description. The crofter enjoys a perpetual tenure subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions as to payment of rent, non-assignment of tenancy, &c., and to defeasance at his own option on giving one year’s notice to the landlord. A Crofters’ Commission constituted under the acts has power to fix fair rents, and the crofter on renunciation of his tenancy or removal from his holding is entitled to compensation for permanent improvements. The Small Holdings Act 1892 applies to Scotland.

Under the law of Scotland down to 1880, a landlord had as security for rent due on an agricultural lease a “hypothec”—i.e.a preferential right over ordinary creditors, and extending, subject to certain limitations, over the whole stock and crop of the tenant. This right was enforceable by sequestration and sale. It was abolished in 1880 as regards all leases entered into after the 11th of November 1881, where the land demised exceeded two acres in extent, and the landlord was left to remedies akin to ejectment (Hypothec Abolition, Scotland, Act 1880).

II.Building or Long Leases.—Under these leases, the term of which is usually 99 and sometimes 999 years, the tenant is to a certain extent in the position of a fee simple proprietor, except that his right is terminable, and that he can only exercise such rights of ownership as are conferred on him either by statute or by the terms of his lease. Extensive powers of entering into such leases have been given by statute to trustees subject to the authority of the Court (Trusts [Scotland] Act 1867, s. 3) and to heirs of entail (Entail Acts 1840, 1849, 1882). Where long leases are “probative,”i.e.holograph or duly tested, do not exceed 31 years, or, except as regards leases of mines and minerals, and of lands held by burgage tenure, relate to an extent of land exceeding 50 acres, and contain provisions for renewal, they may be recorded for publication in theRegister of Sasines, and such publication has the effect of possession (Registration of Leases [Scotland] Act 1857).

Ireland.—The law of landlord and tenant was originally substantially the same as that described for England is. But the modern Land Acts have readjusted the relation between landlords and tenants, while the Land Purchase Acts have aimed at abolishing those relations by enabling the tenant to become the owner of his holding. The way was paved for these changes by the existence in Ulster of a local custom having virtually the force of law, which had two main features—fixity of tenure, and free right of sale by the tenant of his interest. These principles, with the addition of that of fair rents settled by judicial means, were gradually established by the Land Acts of 1870 and subsequent years, and the whole system was remodelled by the Land Purchase Acts (seeIreland).

United States.—The law of landlord and tenant in the United States is in its principles similar to those of English law. It is only possible to indicate, by way of example, some of the points of similarity. The relationship of landlord and tenant is created, altered and dissolved in the same way, and the rights and duties of parties are substantially identical. A lease must contain, either in itself or by clear reference, all the terms of a complete contract—the names of the parties, description of the property let, the rent (seeRent) and the conditions. The date is not essential. That is a matter of identification as to time only. In Pennsylvania, parol evidence of the date is allowed. The general American doctrine is that where the contract is contained in separate writings they must connect themselves by reference, and that parol evidence is not admissible to connect them. The English doctrine that a verbal lease may be specifically enforced if there has been part performance by the person seeking the remedy has been fully adopted in nearly all the American states. The law as to the rights and obligations of assignees and sub-lessees and as to surrender is the same as in England. Forfeiture only renders a lease void as regards the lessee; it may be waived by the lessor, and acceptance by the landlord of rent due after forfeiture, with notice of such forfeiture, amounts to waiver. Where there is a lease for a certain period, no notice to quit is necessary. In uncertain tenancies there must be reasonable notice—i.e.at common law six months generally. The notice necessary to determine a monthly or weekly tenancy is generally a month or a week (see further underLodger;Lodgings). In the United States, as in England, the covenant for quiet enjoyment only extends, so far as relates to the acts of third parties, to lawful acts of disturbance in the enjoyment of the subject agreed to be let.

Laws of other Countries.—It is impossible here to deal with the systems of land tenure in force in other countries. Only the question of the legal relations between landlord and tenant can be touched upon. In France, the Code Civil recognizes two such relationships, the letting to hire of houses (bail à loyer) and the letting to farm of rural properties (bail à ferme). To a certain extent, both forms of tenancy are governed by the same rules. The letting may be either written or verbal. But a verbal lease presents this disadvantage that, if it is unperformed and one of the parties denies its existence, it cannot be proved by witnesses. The party who denies the letting can only be put to his oath (Arts. 1714-1715). It may further be noted that in the case of a verbal lease, notice to quit is regulated by the custom of the place (Art. 1736). The tenant or farmer has the right of underletting or assigning his lease, in the absence of prohibiting stipulation (Art. 1717). The lessor is bound by the nature of his contract and without the need of any particular stipulation (i.) to deliver to the lessee the thing hired in a good state of repair; (ii.) to maintain it in a state to serve the purpose for which it has been hired; (iii.) to secure to the lessee peaceable enjoyment during the continuance of the lease (Arts. 1719-1720). He is bound to warrant the lessee against, and to indemnify him for, any loss arising from any faults or defects in the thing hired which prevent its use, even though he was not aware of them at the time of the lease (Art. 1721). If during the continuance of the letting, the thing hired is entirely destroyed by accident, the lease is cancelled. In case of partial destruction, the lessee may, according to circumstances, demand either a diminution of the price, or the cancellation of the lease. In neither case is there ground for damages (Art. 1722). The lessor cannot, during the lease, change the form of the thing hired (Art. 1723). The lessee is bound, on his side (i.) to use the thing hired like a good head of a household (bon père de famille), in accordance with the express or presumed purpose of the hiring; (ii.) to pay the price of the hiring at the times agreed (Art. 1728). On breach of the former obligation, the lease may be judicially cancelled (Art. 1729). As to the consequences of breach of the latter, seeRent. If a statement of the condition of the property (état des lieux) has been prepared, the lessee must give it up such as he received it according to the statement, except what has perished or decayed by age or by means offorce majeure(Art. 1730). In the absence of anétat des lieux, the lessee is presumed to have received the thing hired in a good state of tenantable repair, and must so yield it up, saving proof to the contrary (Art. 1731). He is liable for injuries or losses happening during his enjoyment, unless he prove that they have taken place without his fault (Art. 1732); in particular, for loss by fire unless he show that the fire happened by accident,force majeure, or defect of construction, or through communication from a neighbouring house (Art. 1733). The lessee isliable for injuries and losses happening by the act of persons belonging to his house or of his sub-tenants (Art. 1735). A lease terminates (i.) at the expiration of the prescribed term (Art. 1737)—if at that period the lessee remains and is left in possession, there is, in the case of written leases, a tacit renewal (tacite reconduction) of the lease as a verbal lease (Arts. 1738-1739); (ii.) by the loss of the thing hired and by the default of the lessor or lessee in the fulfilment of their respective obligations (Art. 1741), but (iii.) not by the death either of the lessor or of the lessee (1742). The conditions ofEjectmentare stated under that heading. The special rules (Arts. 1752-1762) relative to the hire of houses are touched upon inLodger and Lodgings. It only remains here to refer to those applicable to leases to farm. The lessee is bound to stock the farm with the cattle and implements necessary for its husbandry (Art. 1766), and to stack in the places appointed for the purpose in the lease (Art. 1767). A lessee, who farms on condition of dividing the produce with the lessor, can only underlet or assign if he is expressly empowered to do so by the lease (Art. 1763). The lessee must give notice to the lessor of any acts of usurpation committed on the property (Art. 1768). If at least half of the harvest in any year is destroyed by accident, the lessee (a) in the case of a lease for several years, obtains, at the end of his lease, a refund of rent, by way of indemnity, unless he has been indemnified by preceding harvests; (b) in the case of a lease for a year only, may secure a proportional abatement of the current rent. No refund is payable if the produce was severed before the accident, unless the lessor was entitled to a portion of it, when he must bear his share of the loss, provided the lessee was notin morâas regards the delivery of the lessor’s portion. The lessee has no right to a refund when the cause of damage was existing and known at the date of the lease (Arts. 1769-1771). Liability for loss by “accidents” may be thrown on the lessee by express stipulation (Art. 1772). “Accidents” here mean ordinary accidents only, such as hail, lightning or frost, and the lessee will not be answerable for loss caused by extraordinary accidents such as war or floods, unless he has been made liable for all accidents, foreseen or unforeseen (Art. 1773). A verbal lease is deemed to be for the term necessary to enable the lessee to gather in all the produce, thus for a year in the case of a meadow or vineyard; in the case of lands leased in tillage, where they are divided into shifts or seasons, for as many years as there are shifts (Art. 1774). The outgoing must leave for the incoming tenant convenient housing and other facilities for the labours of the year following; the incoming must procure for the outgoing tenant conveniences for the consumption of his fodder and for the harvests remaining to be got in. In either case the custom of the place is to be followed (Art. 1777). The outgoing tenant must leave the straw and manure of the year, if he received them at the beginning of his lease, and even where he has not so received them, the owner may retain them according to valuation (Art. 1778). A word must be added as to letting by cheptel (bail à cheptel)—a contract by which one of the parties gives to the other a stock of cattle to keep under conditions agreed on between them (Art. 1800). There are several varieties of the contract, (i.) simple cheptel (cheptel simple) in which the whole stock is supplied by the lessor—the lessee taking half the profit and bearing half the loss (Art. 1804); (ii.) cheptel by moiety (cheptel à moietié)—here each of the contracting parties furnishes half of the stock, which remains common for profit or loss (Art. 1818); (iii.) cheptel given to a farmer (fermier) or participating cultivator (colon partiaire)—in the cheptel given to the farmer (also calledcheptel de fer) stock of a value equal to the estimated price of the stock given must be left at the expiry of the lease (Art. 1821); cheptel given to the participating cultivator resembles simple cheptel, except in points of detail (Arts. 1827-1830); (iv.) the term “cheptel” is also improperly applied to a contract by which cattle are given to be housed and fed—here the lessor retains the ownership, but has only the profit of the calves (Art. 1831).

The French system just described is in force in its entirety in Belgium (Code Civil, Arts. 1713 et seq.) and has been followed to some extent in Italy (Civil Code, Arts. 1568 et seq.), Spain (Civil Code, Arts 1542 et seq.), and Portugal (Civil Code, Arts. 1298 et seq., 1595 et seq.). In all these countries there are varieties of emphyteutic tenure; and in Italy the mezzadria or metayer system (see Civil Code, Arts. 1647 et seq.) exists. The German Civil Code adopts the distinction betweenbail à loyer(Miehl, Arts. 535 et seq.) andbail à ferme(Pacht, Arts. 581 et seq.). Dutch law also (Civil Code, Arts. 1583 et seq.) is similar to the French.

The Indian law of landlord and tenant is described in the articleIndian Law. The laws of the various British colonies on the subject are too numerous and too different to be dealt with here. In Mauritius, the provisions of the Code Civil are in force without modification. In Quebec (Civil Code, Arts. 1605 et seq.) and St Lucia (Civil Code, Arts. 1512 et seq.) they have been reproduced by the local law. In many of the colonies, parts of the English law of landlord and tenant, common law and statutory, have been introduced by local enactments (cf. British Guiana, Ord. 4 of 1846; Jamaica, 1 Vict. c. 26). In others (e.g.Victoria, Landlord and Tenant Act 1890, No. 1108; Ontario, Rev. Stats. 1897, c. 170) consolidating statutes have been passed.

Authorities.—English Law: Wolstenholme, Brinton and Cherry,Conveyancing and Settled Land Acts(London, 9th ed., 1905); Hood and Challis,Conveyancing and Settled Land Acts(London, 7th ed., 1909); Foà, onLandlord and Tenant(London, 4th ed., 1907); Woodfall, onLandlord and Tenant(London, 18th ed., 1907); Fawcett,Landlord and Tenant(London, 3rd ed., 1905). Scots Law: Hunter, onLandlord and Tenant(Edinburgh, 4th ed., 1876); Rankine, onLand Ownership(Edinburgh, 3rd ed., 1891); Rankine, onLeases(Edinburgh, 2nd ed., 1893); Hunter,Landlord and Tenant(4th ed. G. Guthrie, Edinburgh, 1876). Irish Law: Kelly’sStatute Law of Landlord and Tenant in Ireland(Dublin, 1898); Barton and Cherry’sLand Act 1896(Dublin, 1896); Quill, Hamilton and Longworth,Irish Land Acts of 1903 and 1904(Dublin, 1904). American Law: Bouvier,Law Dictionary(ed. Rawle) (London, 1897); McAdam,Rights, Remedies and Liabilities of Landlord and Tenant(New York, 1900); Wood,Law of Landlord and Tenant(New York, 1888). Foreign and Colonial Laws: Field,Landholding and the relation of Landlord and Tenant in various Countries; Ruling Cases(American Notes), (London and Boston, 1894-1901).

(A. W. R.)

LANDON, CHARLES PAUL(1760-1826), French painter and art-author, was born at Nonant in 1760. He entered the studio of Regnault, and won the first prize of the Academy in 1792. After his return from Italy, disturbed by the Revolution, he seems to have abandoned painting for letters, but he began to exhibit in 1795, and continued to do so at various intervals up to 1814. His “Leda” obtained an award of merit in 1801, and is now in the Louvre. His “Mother’s Lesson,” “Paul and Virginia Bathing,” and “Daedalus and Icarus” have been engraved; but his works on painting and painters, which reach nearly one hundred volumes, form his chief title to be remembered. In spite of a complete want of critical accuracy, an extreme carelessness in the biographical details, and the feebleness of the line engravings by which they are illustrated, Landon’sAnnales du Musée, in 33 vols., form a vast repertory of compositions by masters of every age and school of permanent value. Landon also publishedLives of Celebrated Painters, in 22 vols.;An Historical Description of Paris, 2 vols.; aDescription of London, with 42 plates; and descriptions of the Luxembourg, of the Giustiniani collection, and of the gallery of the duchesse de Berry. He died at Paris in 1826.

LANDON, LETITIA ELIZABETH(1802-1838), English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L. E. L. than as Miss Landon or Mrs Maclean, was descended from an old Herefordshire family, and was born at Chelsea on the 14th of August 1802. She went to a school in Chelsea where Miss Mitford also received her education. Her father, an army agent, amassed a large property, which he lost by speculation shortly before his death. About 1815 the Landons made the acquaintance of William Jerdan, and Letitia began her contributions to theLiterary Gazetteand to various Christmas annuals. She also published some volumes of verse, which soon won for her a wide literary fame. The gentle melancholy and romantic sentiment her writings embodied suited the taste of the period, and wouldin any case have secured her the sympathy and approval of a wide class of readers. She displays richness of fancy and aptness of language, but her work suffered from hasty production, and has not stood the test of time. The large sums she earned by her literary labours were expended on the support of her family. An engagement to John Forster, it is said, was broken off through the intervention of scandalmongers. In June 1838 she married George Maclean, governor of the Gold Coast, but she only survived her marriage, which proved to be very unhappy, by a few months. She died on the 15th of October 1838 at Cape Coast from an overdose of prussic acid, which, it is supposed, was taken accidentally.

For some time L. E. L. was joint editor of theLiterary Gazette. Her first volume of poetry appeared in 1820 under the title TheFate of Adelaide, and was followed by other collections of verses with similar titles. She also wrote several novels, of which the best isEthel Churchill(1837). Various editions of herPoetical Workshave been published since her death, one in 1880 with an introductory memoir by W. B. Scott.The Life and Literary Remains of Letilia Elizabeth Landon, by Laman Blanchard, appeared in 1841, and a second edition in 1855.

LANDOR, WALTER SAVAGE(1775-1864), English writer, eldest son of Walter Landor and his wife Elizabeth Savage, was born at Warwick on the 30th of January 1775. [He was sent to Rugby school, but was removed at the headmaster’s request and studied privately with Mr Langley, vicar of Ashbourne. In 1793 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge. He adopted republican principles and in 1794 fired a gun at the windows of a Tory for whom he had an aversion. He was rusticated for a year, and, although the authorities were willing to condone the offence, he refused to return. The affair led to a quarrel with his father in which Landor expressed his intention of leaving home for ever. He was, however, reconciled with his family through the efforts of his friend Dorothea Lyttelton. He entered no profession, but his father allowed him £150 a year, and he was free to live at home or not as he pleased.]

In 1795 appeared in a small volume, divided into three books,The Poems of Walter Savage Landor, and, in pamphlet form of nineteen pages, an anonymousMoral Epistle, respectfully dedicated to Earl Stanhope. No poet at the age of twenty ever had more vigour of style and fluency of verse; nor perhaps has any ever shown such masterly command of epigram and satire, made vivid and vital by the purest enthusiasm and most generous indignation. Three years later appeared the first edition of the first great work which was to inscribe his name for ever among the great names in English poetry. The second edition ofGebirappeared in 1803, with a text corrected of grave errors and improved by magnificent additions. About the same time the whole poem was also published in a Latin form, which for might and melody of line, for power and perfection of language, must always dispute the palm of precedence with the English version. [His father’s death in 1805 put him in possession of an independent fortune. Landor settled in Bath. Here in 1808 he met Southey, and the mutual appreciation of the two poets led to a warm friendship.] In 1808, under an impulse not less heroic than that which was afterwards to lead Byron to a glorious death in redemption of Greece and his own good fame, Landor, then aged thirty-three, left England for Spain as a volunteer to serve in the national army against Napoleon at the head of a regiment raised and supported at his sole expense. After some three months’ campaigning came the affair of Cintra and its disasters; “his troop,” in the words of his biographer, “dispersed or melted away, and he came back to England in as great a hurry as he had left it,” but bringing with him the honourable recollection of a brave design unselfishly attempted, and the material in his memory for the sublimest poem published in our language, between the last masterpiece of Milton and the first masterpiece of Shelley—one equally worthy to stand unchallenged beside either for poetic perfection as well as moral majesty—the lofty tragedy ofCount Julian, which appeared in 1812, without the name of its author. No comparable work is to be found in English poetry between the date ofSamson Agonistesand the date ofPrometheus Unbound; and with both these great works it has some points of greatness in common. The superhuman isolation of agony and endurance which encircles and exalts the hero is in each case expressed with equally appropriate magnificence of effect. The style ofCount Julian, if somewhat deficient in dramatic ease and the fluency of natural dialogue, has such might and purity and majesty of speech as elsewhere we find only in Milton so long and so steadily sustained.

In May 1811 Landor had suddenly married Miss Julia Thuillier, with whose looks he had fallen in love at first sight in a ball-room at Bath; and in June they settled for a while at Llanthony Abbey in Monmouthshire, from whence he was worried in three years’ time by the combined vexation of neighbours and tenants, lawyers and lords-lieutenant; not before much toil and money had been nobly wasted on attempts to improve the sterility of the land, to relieve the wretchedness and raise the condition of the peasantry. He left England for France at first, but after a brief residence at Tours took up his abode for three years at Como; “and three more wandering years he passed,” says his biographer, “between Pisa and Pistoja, before he pitched his tent in Florence in 1821.”

In 1835 he had an unfortunate difference with his wife which ended in a complete separation. In 1824 appeared the first series of hisImaginary Conversations, in 1826 “the second edition, corrected and enlarged”; a supplementary third volume was added in 1828; and in 1829 the second series was given to the world. Not until 1846 was a fresh instalment added, in the second volume of his collected and selected works. During the interval he had published his three other most famous and greatest books in prose:The Citation and Examination of William Shakespeare(1834),Pericles and Aspasia(1836),The Pentameron(1837). To the last of these was originally appendedThe Pentalogia, containing five of the very finest among his shorter studies in dramatic poetry. In 1847 he published his most important Latin work,Poemata et inscriptiones, comprising, with large additions, the main contents of two former volumes of idyllic, satiric, elegiac and lyric verse; and in the same golden year of his poetic life appeared the very crown and flower of its manifold labours, theHellenics of Waller Savage Landor, enlarged and completed. Twelve years later this book was re-issued, with additions of more or less value, with alterations generally to be regretted, and with omissions invariably to be deplored. In 1853 he put forthThe Last Fruit off an Old Tree, containing fresh conversations, critical and controversial essays, miscellaneous epigrams, lyrics and occasional poems of various kind and merit, closing withFive Sceneson the martyrdom of Beatrice Cenci, unsurpassed even by their author himself for noble and heroic pathos, for subtle and genial, tragic and profound, ardent and compassionate insight into character, with consummate mastery of dramatic and spiritual truth. In 1856 he publishedAntony and Octavius—Scenes for the Study, twelve consecutive poems in dialogue which alone would suffice to place him high among the few great masters of historic drama.

In 1858 appeared a metrical miscellany bearing the title ofDry Sticks Fagoted by W. S. Landor, and containing among other things graver and lighter certain epigrammatic and satirical attacks which reinvolved him in the troubles of an action for libel; and in July of the same year he returned for the last six years of his life to Italy, which he had left for England in 1835. [He was advised to make over his property to his family, on whom he was now dependent. They appear to have refused to make him an allowance unless he returned to England. By the exertions of Robert Browning an allowance was secured. Browning settled him first at Siena and then at Florence.] Embittered and distracted by domestic dissensions, if brightened and relieved by the affection and veneration of friends and strangers, this final period of his troubled and splendid career came at last to a quiet end on the 17th of September 1864. In the preceding year he had published a last volume ofHeroic Idyls, with Additional Poems, English and Latin,—the better part of them well worthy to be indeed the “last fruit” of a genius which after a life of eighty-eight years had lost nothingof its majestic and pathetic power, its exquisite and exalted loveliness.

A complete list of Landor’s writings, published or privately printed, in English, Latin and Italian, including pamphlets, fly-sheets and occasional newspaper correspondence on political or literary questions, it would be difficult to give anywhere and impossible to give here. From nineteen almost to ninety his intellectual and literary activity was indefatigably incessant; but, herein at least like Charles Lamb, whose cordial admiration he so cordially returned, he could not write a note of three lines which did not bear the mark of his “Roman hand” in its matchless and inimitable command of a style at once the most powerful and the purest of his age. The one charge which can ever seriously be brought and maintained against it is that of such occasional obscurity or difficulty as may arise from excessive strictness in condensation of phrase and expurgation of matter not always superfluous, and sometimes almost indispensable. His English prose and his Latin verse are perhaps more frequently and more gravely liable to this charge than either his English verse or his Latin prose. At times it is well-nigh impossible for an eye less keen and swift, a scholarship less exquisite and ready than his own, to catch the precise direction and follow the perfect course of his rapid thought and radiant utterance. This apparently studious pursuit and preference of the most terse and elliptic expression which could be found for anything he might have to say could not but occasionally make even so sovereign a master of two great languages appear “dark with excess of light”; but from no former master of either tongue in prose or verse was ever the quality of real obscurity, of loose and nebulous incertitude, more utterly alien or more naturally remote. There is nothing of cloud or fog about the path on which he leads us; but we feel now and then the want of a bridge or a handrail; we have to leap from point to point of narrative or argument without the usual help of a connecting plank. Even in his dramatic works, where least of all it should have been found, this lack of visible connexion or sequence in details of thought or action is too often a source of sensible perplexity. In his noble trilogy on the history of Giovanna queen of Naples it is sometimes actually difficult to realize on a first reading what has happened or is happening, or how, or why, or by what agency—a defect alone sufficient, but unhappily sufficient in itself, to explain the too general ignorance of a work so rich in subtle and noble treatment of character, so sure and strong in its grasp and rendering of “high actions and high passions,” so rich in humour and in pathos, so royally serene in its commanding power upon the tragic mainsprings of terror and of pity. As a poet, he may be said on the whole to stand midway between Byron and Shelley—about as far above the former as below the latter. If we except Catullus and Simonides, it might be hard to match and it would be impossible to overmatch the flawless and blameless yet living and breathing beauty of his most perfect elegies, epigrams or epitaphs. As truly as prettily was he likened by Leigh Hunt “to a stormy mountain pine which should produce lilies.” His passionate compassion, his bitter and burning pity for all wrongs endured in all the world, found only their natural and inevitable outlet in his lifelong defence or advocacy of tyrannicide as the last resource of baffled justice, the last discharge of heroic duty. His tender and ardent love of children, of animals and of flowers makes fragrant alike the pages of his writing and the records of his life. He was as surely the most gentle and generous as the most headstrong and hot-headed of heroes or of men. Nor ever was any man’s best work more thoroughly imbued and informed with evidence of his noblest qualities. His loyalty and liberality of heart were as inexhaustible as his bounty and beneficence of hand. Praise and encouragement, deserved or undeserved, came yet more readily to his lips than challenge or defiance. Reviled and ridiculed by Lord Byron, he retorted on the offender living less readily and less warmly than he lamented and extolled him dead. On the noble dramatic works of his brother Robert he lavished a magnificence of sympathetic praise which his utmost self-estimate would never have exacted for his own. Age and the lapse of time could neither heighten nor lessen the fulness of this rich and ready generosity. To the poets of his own and of the next generation he was not readier to do honour than to those of a later growth, and not seldom of deserts far lower and far lesser claims than theirs. That he was not unconscious of his own, and avowed it with the frank simplicity of nobler times, is not more evident or more certain than that in comparison with his friends and fellows he was liable rather to undervalue than to overrate himself. He was a classic, and no formalist; the wide range of his just and loyal admiration had room for a genius so far from classical as Blake’s. Nor in his own highest mood or method of creative as of critical work was he a classic only, in any narrow or exclusive sense of the term. On either side, immediately or hardly below his mighty masterpiece ofPericles and Aspasia, stand the two scarcely less beautiful and vivid studies of medieval Italy and Shakespearean England. The very finest flower of his immortal dialogues is probably to be found in the single volume comprising only “Imaginary Conversations of Greeks and Romans”; his utmost command of passion and pathos may be tested by its transcendent success in the distilled and concentrated tragedy ofTiberius and Vipsania, where for once he shows a quality more proper to romantic than classical imagination—the subtle and sublime and terrible power to enter the dark vestibule of distraction, to throw the whole force of his fancy, the whole fire of his spirit, into the “shadowing passion” (as Shakespeare calls it) of gradually imminent insanity. Yet, if this and all other studies from ancient history or legend could be subtracted from the volume of his work, enough would be left whereon to rest the foundation of a fame which time could not sensibly impair.

(A. C. S.)

Bibliography.—SeeThe Works and Life of Walter Savage Landor(8 vols., 1846), the life being the work of John Forster. Another edition of his works (1891-1893), edited by C. G. Crump, comprisesImaginary Conversations,Poems,Dialogues in Verse and EpigramsandThe Longer Prose Works. HisLetters and other Unpublished Writingswere edited by Mr Stephen Wheeler (1897). There are many volumes of selections from his works, notably one (1882) for the “Golden Treasury” series, edited by Sidney Colvin, who also contributed the monograph onLandor(1881) in the “English Men of Letters” series. A bibliography of his works, many of which are very rare, is included in Sir Leslie Stephen’s article on Landor in theDictionary of National Biography(vol. xxxii., 1892).

(M. Br.)

LANDOUR,a hill station and sanatorium in India, in Dehra Dun district of the United Provinces, adjoining Mussoorie. Pop. (1901) 1720, rising to 3700 in the hot season. Since 1827 it has been a convalescent station for European troops, with a school for their children.

LAND REGISTRATION,a legal process connected with the transfer of landed property, comprising two forms—registration of deeds and registration of title, which may be best described as a species of machinery for assisting a purchaser or mortgagee in his inquiries as to his vendor’s or mortgagor’s title previously to completing his dealing, and for securing his own position afterwards. The expediency of making inquiry into the vendor’s title before completing a purchase of land (and the case of a mortgage is precisely similar) is obvious. In the case of goods possession may ordinarily be relied on as proof of full ownership; in the case of land, the person in ostensible possession is very seldom the owner, being usually only a tenant, paying rent to someone else. Even the person to whom the rent is paid is in many cases—probably, in England, in most cases—not the full owner, but only a life owner, or a trustee, whose powers of disposing of the property are of a strictly limited nature. Again, goods are very seldom the subject of a mortgage, whereas land has from time immemorial been the frequent subject of this class of transaction. Evidently, therefore, some sort of inquiry is necessary to enable a purchaser to obtain certainty that the land for which he pays full price is not subject to an unknown mortgage or charge which, if left undiscovered, might afterwards deprive him of a large part or even the whole of its value. Again, the probability of serious consequences to the purchaser ensuing from a mistake as to title is infinitely greater in the case of land than in the case of goods. Before the rightful owner can recovermisappropriated goods, he has to find out where they are. This is usually a matter of considerable difficulty. By the time they have reached the hands of abonâ fidepurchaser all chance of their recovery by the true owner is practically at an end. But with land the case is far otherwise. A dispossessed rightful owner never has any difficulty in tracing his property, for it is immovable. All he has to do is to bring an action for ejectment against the person in possession. For these reasons, among others, any attempt to deal with land on the simple and unsuspecting principles which obtain in regard to goods would be fraught with grave risks.

Apart from very early and primitive social conditions, there appear to be only two ways in which the required certainty as to title to land can be obtained. Either the purchaser must satisfy himself, by an exhaustive scrutiny and review of all the deeds, wills, marriages, heirships and other documents and events by which the property has been conveyed, mortgaged, leased, devised or transmitted during a considerable period of time, that no loophole exists whereby an adverse claim can enter or be made good—this is called the system of private investigation of title—or the government must keep an authoritative list or register of the properties within its jurisdiction, together with the names of the owners and particulars of the encumbrances in each case, and must protect purchasers and others dealing with land, on the faith of this register, from all adverse claims. This second system is called Registration of Title. To these two alternatives may perhaps be added a third, of very recent growth—Insurance of Title. This is largely used in the United States. But it is in reality only a phase of the system of private investigation. The insurance company investigates the title, and charges the purchaser a premium to cover the expense and the risk of error. Registration of deeds is an adjunct of the system of private investigation, and, except in England, is a practically invariable feature of it. It consists in the establishment of public offices in which all documents affecting land are to be recorded—partly to preserve them in a readily accessible place, partly to prevent the possibility of any material deed or document being dishonestly concealed by a vendor. Where registration is effected by depositing a full copy of the deed, it also renders the subsequent falsification of the original document dangerous. Registration of deeds does not (except perhaps to a certain extent indirectly) cheapen or simplify the process of investigation—the formalities at the registry add something to the trouble and cost incurred—but it prevents the particular classes of fraud mentioned.

The history of land registration follows, as a general rule, a fairly uniform course of development. In very early times, and in small and simple communities, the difficulty afterwards found in establishing title to land does not arise, owing to the primitive habit of attaching ceremony and publicity to all dealings. The parties meet on the land, with witnesses; symbolical acts (such as handing over a piece of earth, or the bough of a tree) are performed; and a set form of words is spoken, expressive of the intention to convey. By this means the ownership of each estate in the community becomes to a certain extent a matter of common knowledge, rendering fraud and mistake difficult. But this method leaves a good deal to be desired in point of security. Witnesses die, and memory is uncertain; and one of the earliest improvements consists in the establishment of a sort of public record kept by the magistrate, lord or other local authority, containing a series of contemporary notes of the effect of the various transactions that take place. This book becomes the general title-deed of the whole community, and as long as transactions remain simple, and not too numerous, the results appear to be satisfactory. Of this character are the Manorial Court Rolls, which were in the middle ages the great authorities on title, both in England and on the continent. The entries in them in early times were made in a very few words. The date, the names of the parties, the name or short verbal description of the land, the nature of the transaction, are all that appear. In the land registry at Vienna there is a continuous series of registers of this kind going back to 1368, in Prague to 1377, in Munich to 1440. No doubt there are extant (though in a less easily accessible form) manorial records in England of equal or greater antiquity. This may be considered the first stage in the history of Land Registration. It can hardly be said to be in active operation at the present day in any civilized country—in the sense in which that term is usually understood. Where dealings become more numerous and complicated, written instruments are required to express the intentions of the parties, and afterwards to supply evidence of the landowner’s title. It appears, too, that as a general rule the public books already described continue to be used, notwithstanding this change; only (as would be expected) the entries in them, once plain and simple, either grow into full copies of the long and intricate deeds, or consist of mere notes stating that such and such deeds have been executed, leaving the persons interested to inquire for the originals, in whose custody soever they may be found. This system, which may be regarded as the second stage in the history of land registration, is called Registration of Deeds. It prevails in France, Belgium, parts of Switzerland, in Italy, Spain, India, in almost all the British colonies (except Australasia and Canada), in most of the states of the American Union, in the South American republics, in Scotland and Ireland, and in the English counties of Yorkshire and Middlesex. Where it exists, there is generally a law to the effect that in case of dispute a registered deed shall prevail over an unregistered one. The practical effect is that a purchaser can, by searching the register, find out exactly what deeds he ought to inquire for, and receives an assurance that if, after completion, he registers his own conveyance, no other deeds—even if they exist—will prevail against him.

The expenses and delays, not to mention the occasional actual losses of property through fraud or mistake, attendant on the system of making every purchaser responsible for the due examination of his vendor’s title—whether or not assisted by registration of deeds—have induced several governments to establish the more perfect system of Registration of Title, which consists in collecting the transactions affecting each separate estate under a separate head, keeping an accurate account of the parcels of which each such estate is composed, and summarizing authoritatively, as each fresh transaction occurs, the subsisting rights of all parties in relation to the land itself. This system prevails in Germany, Austria, Hungary, parts of Switzerland, the Australasian colonies, nearly the whole of Canada, some of the states of the American Union, to a certain extent in Ireland, and is in course of establishment in England and Wales. The Register consists of three portions:—(1) The description of the land, usually, but not necessarily, accompanied by a reference to a map; (2) the ownership, giving the name and address of the person who can sell and dispose of the land; and (3) the encumbrances, in their order of priority, and the names of the persons for the time being entitled to them. When any fresh transaction takes place the instrument effecting it is produced, and the proper alterations in, or additions to, the register are made: if it be a sale, the name of the vendor is cancelled from the register, and that of the purchaser is entered instead; if it be a mortgage, it is added to the list of encumbrances; if a discharge, the encumbrance discharged is cancelled; if it is a sale of part of the land, the original description is modified or the plan is marked to show the piece conveyed, while a new description or plan is made and a new register is opened for the detached parcel. In the English and Australian registries a “land certificate” is also issued to the landowner containing copies of the register and of the plan. This certificate takes the place more or less of the old documents of title. On a sale, the process is as follows: The vendor first of all produces to the purchaser his land certificate, or gives him the number of his title and an authority to inspect the register. In Austria and in some colonial registries this is not necessary, the register being open to public inspection, which in England is not the case. The purchaser, on inspecting this, can easily see for himself whether the land he wishes to buy is comprised in the registered description or plan, whether the vendor’s name appears on the register as the ownerof the land, and whether there are any encumbrances or other burdens registered as affecting it. If there are encumbrances, the register states their amount and who are entitled to them. The purchaser then usually1prepares a conveyance or transfer of the land (generally in a short printed form issued by the registry), and the vendor executes it in exchange for the purchase money. If there are mortgages, he pays them off to the persons named in the register as their owners, and they concur in a discharge. He then presents the executed instruments at the registry, and is entered as owner of the land instead of the vendor, the mortgages, if any, being cancelled. Where “land certificates” are used (as in England and Australia), a new land certificate is issued to the purchaser showing the existing state of the register and containing a copy of the registered plan of the land. The above is only a brief outline of the processes employed. For further information as to practical details reference may be made to the treatises mentioned at the end of this article.

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