Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/504

 490 IV. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY to the gentry and the freeholders) were then and long after- wards called,^ for these had been led to think that the suc- cess of the Parliament would relieve them of their " Nor- man " lords. ^ Accordingly, it was proposed to ascertain arbitrary fines upon the descent and alienation of copyholds, and to place the conditions of the tenure beyond the dis- cretion of the homage.^ Many copyholds were actually enfranchised; but many, even of those confiscated, were still demised by copy of court roll and not otherwise. Com- monable rights were not so far recognized that commoners were allowed to break up common land.* The allotment system instituted under Henry VII, carried out under his grandchildren, recommended by Bacon, but already decay- ing, was partly restored, and there were fewer " silly " cot- tages. ^ But, after the Restoration, Parliament continuing to the greater tenures the relief afforded to them under the Re- public, but substituting an excise for a land-tax, left the lesser tenures exposed to the old abuses. That, as North says, " was somewhat unequal." ^ What would have been the economical effect of these changes? Would Coke's copyholder,'^ if his land, enfran- chised during the Commonwealth, had not been reinstated at the Restoration, have escaped being bought up by cap- italists.? Would a land registry have preserved or aided to extinguish a peasant proprietary.? Would the annihila- tion of equities of redemption have favoured any but the rich? 2, 1. Sheridan, " A trip to Scarborough," 5, 2. Absurd as it was to call the Royalists " Norman," still in that party were probably most of the lords of manors. Lambert was Lord of the Manor of Wimbledon during the Commonwealth. » 6 Somers's Tracts, 183: "Exam. legg. Angl." c. 14, §36. ♦Winstanly, etc., u. s.: St. 1646-7, c. 72: Cock, "Christian Govt." p. 174. 'Bacon essay "of the true greatness of kingdoms and estates;" "Henry VII.;" speech of naturalization (1607): "An experimental essay," etc., u. s.: "The Pall Mall Gazette," No. 1286. Govt." p. 170.
 * Winstanly, Barker and Star, u. s.i Foote, "The Mayor of Garratt,"
 * Winstanly, etc., u. s. Cp. Cock, "Engl. Law," p. 48; Thierry, «. *.
 * North, " Guilford," pp. 23, 24, 140, 241. Contrast Code, " Christian
 * Co. Cop. in Williams, " Real Property," pt. 3.