Punch (7.1844)

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 23

THE COMIC BLACKSTONE.

PART II.

CHAPTER THE SECOND.—OF INCORPOREAL HEREDITAMENTS.

t seems that Coke, in his pleasant squib on
Littleton—for surely he who throws a
light on another may do so by aiming a
squib at him—has described an incorporeal
hereditament as a right issuing out of a
thing corporate, whether real or personal ;
such as a rent issuing from land, which is
not the same as money got by raising the
wind, though rent is sometimes paid by
resorting to the latter process.

There are ten sorts of Incorporeal Here-
ditaments ; so that they must be out of
sorts indeed who have not the enjoyment
of any one of them.

The 1st is an advowson, or the right of
presentation to a church ; which would
indeed be an unsatisfactory kind of introduction if it applied only to
the church, instead of the good things connected with it. Advowsons
are of three kinds : 1st. Presentative, where the patron presents his
clerk to the bishop, who is expected to institute the said clerk, or rather
to " let him regularly in." 2ndly. Collative, where the patron and bishop
are one, in which case Coke insists, in a lengthy chapter of eighty-six
pages, that " the bishop cannot present to himself unless he were one
beside himself, in which case he would be stark-staring mad ; and, there-
fore, non compos, and, reang de bishoppe de too.'' 3dly. Donative, when
the King, or any subject, by his licence, has founded a church, which the
patron is allowed to give without presentation. " And this," says Spel-
man, "is an illustration of the patron's willy beiDg superior to the bishop's
uilly ; the latter going for nil in opposition to the will of the former."

Tithes form the second species of Incorporeal Hereditaments, though
a recent jurist says that tithes ought rather to be the tenth, because they
are the tenth part of the profit yearly arisingfrom lands.

Tithes are not payable on animals, ferce natures, or, in other words, wild
beasts ; so that the proprietors of the Zoological Gardens are not bound to
settle on the rector one in ten of all the tigers, bears, lions, or cassowaries,
that may be added within the year to the live stock alluded to.

Tithes are due to the parson, who is entitled to the tenth of almost
everything ; and there is a case in the books, where a parson claimed the
Kth of a hogshead of XX, which he held must be equivalent to half,
because X is the half of XX.

There are three ways of being exempted from the payment of tithes :
namely, composition, custom, or commutation, to which some unprincipled
persons have occasionally added a fourth, by bolting and leaving the
tithes unpaid, to the extreme disgust and decided damnum of the parson.

A composition is where a parson makes hay while the sun shines, by
getting a good round sum in his own lifetime in discharge of the tithes
which would have been payable not only to himself but his successors—a
practice which savoured so much of covin towards future incumbents, that
a law was passed in the 13th of Elizabeth to prevent parsons and vicars
from making away with the property of their churches for more than
three lives or twenty-one years,—a statute which consequently fixes seven
years as the average duration of human existence. Secondly, is a dis-
charge by custom, which is sometimes only a partial discharge, as where
the parson is accustomed to take the twelfth cock of hay instead of the
tenth, in consideration of the hay being made for him,—unless, indeed, the
parson be such a jolly old cock that he can make his own hay, >n which
case the modus decimandi would not operate. Sometimes also the parson
accepts two fowls instead of a tenth of all the eggs,—which is, in fact,
counting his chickens after they are hatched,—and the reduction is made
in consideration of the labour employed in sitting on the eggs ; from the
risk and anxiety of which the parson thus saves himself.

3dly, (Commutation, which provides that the parson shall take his
tithes in money, instead of rushing into poultry yards, and carrying off
one goose out of ten, or going personally into the hay-field and cocking a
cock or two into a cart for his own use ; " a plan by which, it is true,"
says Fortescue, " he made cock-sure of his tithes, though at a sacrifice
of his dignity."

The 3rd incorporeal hereditament is the Right of Common, which is
of four sorts, namely, pasture, piscary, turbary, and estovers. Common
of pasture is the privilege of turning out ducks and jackasses, or other ani-
mals, to indulge in the luxury of a meal of buttercups among a lot of boys
flying kites, pitching stones, or playing cricket in all directions. Common
of piscary is the right of fishing, which presents a curious contradiction to
the science of mathematics ; for in fishing it requires only one line to make
an angle, while in mathematics two lines are required before an angle
can be formed. Common of turbary is a right of digging turf, but unless
it is for a lark, this right must be regarded as rather infra dig. Common
jf estovers is the privilege of cutting wood from another's estate, though

Williams, J. has declared that any one cutting another person's wood-
deserves to be made to cut his own stick witii remarkable rspidity.

The 4th kind is that of Ways, or the right of going over another person's
ground, which is, in fact, the right of getting into the way of other people.

Offices form the 5th kind, such as the office of beadle ; though the
worthy beadle of the British Museum is himself anything but incorporeal.

Dignities constitute the 6th, and franchises the 7th sort of incorporeal
hereditaments. The former speak for themselves ; but a franchise is a
branch of the royal prerogative existing in a subject ; such as the right
of killing bucks, does, and roes, in a royal forest. Whether the does and
roes alluded to are the celebrated John and Richard, of legal celebrity,
we are not aware, and none of the jurists have helped to solve the
problem.

The 8th, 9th and 10th descriptions of incorporeal hereditaments are
corodies or the right of sustenance, which may be had at any respectable
workhouse ; annuities, which must be well understood by those who enjoy
them, but are not worth the trouble of describing to those who don't:
and rents, including rent-service, rent-charge, and a few others. Rent-
service has fealty attached to it, as where a policeman is put into an empty
house to let it—which, by-the-bye, he never thinks of attempting. A rent-
charge is a rent-payment charged upon land, with the power of distress—a
power which the law loveth to exercise, for distress is the very essence of
law in general. Rack-rent is rent of the full value of the tenement ac-
cording to some, but in the opinion of others it is thought that rack-rent
means a rent so high that the tenant is on the rack how to succeed in-
getting it together.

RUNNING REIN MORALITY.

" Mihi quidem cogitanti," as Lord Brougham says.

The only moral that Baron Alderson elicits out of the Running Rein
case is one worthy of the plush rather than the ermine, and which would
come well from the lips of Baron Jenkins.

" The trial has produced great regret and disgust in my mind. It has disclosed a
wretched fraud, and has shown noblemen and gentlemen of rank associating and betting
with men of low rank, and infinitely below them in society, in so doing, they have been
cheated and made the dupes of the greatest frauds. They may depend on it, it will
always be so, when gentlemen associate and bet with blackguards."

This, as the poet affectingly remarks, is coming it a little too slfong.
Does the Baron mean that gentlemen never cheat ? Is all that work done
by us vulgar ? Did he ever hear of a lord cheating ; of gentlemen
backing the lord because he was cheating ? Did he ever hear of young
men being rooked at play, and in good society too % or are blacklegs
only to be found among the lower classes \

It's too bad that all the regret is to be for the gentlefolks, and all the
abuse for the vulgar. Why not lament that the commoners fall into bad
company with lords, and are ruined by their wicked associates ?

Besides, what is a gentleman ? Does a gentleman who associates with
blackguards continue to be a gentleman, or degrade himself to be a black-
guard ? or does a blackguard become a gentleman by consorting with such,
or how ?—and what may a man do and still be a gentleman—let Mr.
Justice Jenkins decide.

If gentlemen consort with rogues and swindlers, knowing them per-
fectly to be such, have money transactions with them, win or lose by their
successful or unsuccessful roguery, it is too bad of a judge to assume that
the gentlemen are the spotless in honour, and the clodpoies the only
rascals. It is paying the gentlefolks a bad compliment too. What fools
they must be to go into such society ; where, according to Judge Alder-
son, the poor artless creatures are sure of being plundered.

No ! A gentleman who has an affection for the society of thieves,
depend upon it, frequents them for some other motive than that of hav-
ing his pockets picked. There's no pleasure in that. Our respected
superiors are not so "jolly green" as the judge describes them. Does
not Lord George show in the transaction that he can pretty well take
care of himself ?

They go among those knaves and swindlers, those low-bred ruffians
reeking of gin and the stable, to make money of them. They associate with
boors and grooms, Jew gambling-house keepers, boxers and bullies, for
money's sake to be sure. What other could bring such dandies into com-
munication with such brutes ? You cant suppose that a gentleman would
associate with such scoundrels, any more than he would willingly incur an
infection, unless he had some end in view.

And the aoble patrons of the Turf have a great end in view—that of '
money. So the Turf becomes our pride, and we respect it as a great
English Institution, of which we have just as good reason to be proud as
I have of the hump on my back.

But let young men coming out in life follow Punch's counsel as well as
Baron Alderson's. " Avoid the Turf blackguards," says the Barox.
" My son," I say to you, " avoid the Turf gentlemen too."

THE UNKINDEST CUT OF ALL.

Mr. Roebuck has been abusing in Parliament the daily press. What,
in the name of pity, have we done that we were not included in the hon.
member's abuse ?