the right to re-enter for non-payment, he may bring an action for the recovery of his land without a formal demand of the rent. On proof that there were not sufficient goods to satisfy a distress, he shall have judgment and execution. But if the tenant pays all rent and costs before trial, the proceedings are to cease.

The question of a landlord's right to distrain upon certain fixtures of the tenant will be considered in the section that treats of fixtures.

STAMPS AND REGISTRATION OF LEASES.

By the 33 & 34 Vict. c. xcvii., leases of any lands or hereditaments which are granted in consideration of a fine or premium, are liable to the same stamp duties as for the conveyance on the sale of lands for a similar amount. Where the consideration or any part

of the consideration is any rent, the ordinary duties are as follows:

By sect. 98, sub-section 3, it is provided that no lease for a life or lives, not exceeding three, or for a term of years determinable with a life or lives not exceeding three, and no lease for a term absolute, not exceeding twenty-one years, granted by an ecclesiastical corporation, aggregate or sole, is to be charged with any higher duty than £1 158.

Leases of mines or minerals, with or without any other lands or hereditaments, where any part of the produce is reserved in money or kind, are thus liable to duty. If the value of the reserved produce is stipulated to amount at least to a given sum per annum, or be limited not to exceed a given sum per annum, the duty is charged in respect of the highest of such sums given or limited for any year of the term. If a yearly sum is reserved in addition to such produce, without such stipulation or limitation, the duty is charged in respect of the yearly sum: and where both a certain yearly sum and also such produce, with such stipulation or limitation, the duty is charged upon the aggregate of the yearly sum, and also of the highest yearly amount or value of such produce.

A lease not otherwise charged, is subject to a duty of 10s.

Counterparts and duplicates of leases charged with a duty not exceeding 5s. are liable to the same duty as the originals, and counterparts of all other leases are liable to the duty of 5s.

All agreements for leases for not more than thirtyfive years are to be charged as leases.

An instrument under seal, though it only amount

to an agreement for a lease, requires a stamp of £1 15s.

A licence in fee to work mines would appear to be chargeable in the same manner as an absolute conveyance, for it amounts to the absolute sale of an incorporeal hereditament. In other respects there seems to be no distinction between leases and licences.

In cases of doubt as to the proper stamp, any instrument may be submitted to the opinion of the Commissioners. The penalty in stamping an instrument is £10, and where the unpaid duty exceeds £10, interest thereon. But this may be remitted within twelve months by satisfying the Commissioners that the instrument was not duly stamped by accident, &c., without design to evade the duty. And a stamp may be affixed, on payment of the duty and penalty, even in the course of a trial.

Distinct mines may be leased by the same deed at different rents, and one stamp for the gross amount of the rent will suffice.

Registry of Deeds.-All deeds concerning estates in Yorkshire and Middlesex must be registered, except leases at rack-rents, and leases not exceeding twentyone years, where the actual profession and occupation go along with the lease. But the exception of leases at rack-rents does not apply to mines.

CHAPTER IV.

TITLE BY PRESCRIPTION.

THE legal term "prescription" has been so frequently referred to, and it is a title so often relied upon for the acquisition and enforcement of rights connected with the occupation of collieries, that it is proposed to insert an outline of this description of title. Prescription is said to be a title by long usage. In other words, where any person, and those under whom he claims, have, to the knowledge of those against whom he asserts the right, been in the habit from time immemorial of using and exercising some incorporeal right, such as rights of way, of common, use of water, pews, &c. &c., and can show no other title to such right, he is said to claim and enjoy it by prescription. The notion which lies at the root of this title is, that if the owners of property permit, for a long. course of years, adverse rights which tend to lessen their exclusive enjoyment of their own, it is reasonable to suppose that there must once have been a legal origin for such claim, and that the grant which conveyed it had been lost. Custom is a local usage; prescription is a personal usage, attaching to a man.

and his ancestors, or those whose estate he holds. Down to a very recent period, it was a necessary ingredient in this title that the usage should have been immemorial, that is must have existed beyond the memory of man, or so long that, as Lyttleton says, "no living witness has heard any proof, or had any knowledge to the contrary;" and, as another writer of authority says, "that there is no proof by record or writing, or otherwise, to the contrary." It was a maxim of the law that the time of legal memory meant the beginning of the reign of Richard the First. But though it was not necessary to prove the existence of the alleged usage from that time, and the exercise of it for a long period was said to raise the presumption that the usage had continued during the whole period of legal memory, yet it was sufficient to invalidate the title to show that it had commenced since the time of Richard the First.

The statute 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. lxxi., called an "Act for shortening the time of Prescription in certain cases," has greatly altered this theory. Its principal enactments, so far as they touch any right with which this treatise can be concerned, are the following.

Sect. 1 enacts that no claim which may be lawfully made at the common law by custom, prescription, or grant, to any right of common, or other profit or benefit to be taken and enjoyed from or upon any land of any person (except such matters as are specially provided for, and except tithes, rent, and services), shall, where such right, profit, or benefit shall have been actually enjoyed by any person