Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/276

 262 HISTORY OP of the purchase-money^ thus part paid. But accepting either, or holding under both, his choice becomes that of his landlord. He must be bound and governed by such conclusions and de- terminations as his tenant approves and adopts. If preferable to pay the rent, which seldom equals a seven per centum inte- rest upon the actual worth of the land, the lessor cannot take away the privilege : and if unpleasant, and as he may imagine, degrading reservations attach to him as a lessee, he has but to decide and to act, and his is the pleasure of being a fee-owner. Two ways being marked out before him in which to act, no one but himself can be in fault, if he prefer to tread the one most rugged and toilsome, as he alone can select the easier and more agreeable. In many cases, particularly where the lessee has no capital but his wits, and no labor-machines but his own strong hands, redemption leases are much more desir- able than a contract for sale. For such, it is much easier to pay the rent, even when the highest pay the annual interest, and a certain portion of the principal, than to make a down payment of the whole. In this kind of lease, also, the tenant finds the same desideratum we have noticed in the first class mentioned, that no changes or circumstances can increase his yearly rent, as long as he maintains his covenanted contract, while in addition, he has the power to change, at any moment, his estate from leasehold to freehold. Surely, no one can fail of observing, that such tenants have great and peculiar privi- leges, and that any one must be unreasonable who seeks to rid himself of both alternatives. The third kind is the three-life lease, which remains in force during the lives of any three persons, whose names are inserted in the lease, or until the death of the last survivor. From the necessity of the case, such leases being compulsory on the landlord, and available for the tenant, only during the lives of the persons selected, and the uncertainty of life being so great, there can be none of that stability which characterizes the