or chisement if Agreement 57. And be it enacted, That if such agreement for enfranchise- For effecting ment shall not be entered into by all the tenants of the manor, such Enfrantheir number shall be less than twelve, or, whatever may be their number, if the parties shall think fit, an enfranchisement may be not entered effected, with the consent of the said commissioners, by such con- into by all veyance, deed, or assurance as would or might be adopted for the Tenants, effecting such enfranchisement if the lord were seised of the or their Nummanor for an absolute estate of inheritance in fee simple in than 12. possession. ber be less of the Investi 58. And be it enacted, That in every case in which any such Commissionagreement for enfranchisement shall be so entered into, and shall ers before be proposed to be carried into effect by a schedule of apportion- giving their ment, the said commissioners, before they shall signify their consent to satisfy themconsent thereto, shall, upon the written request of any three or selves of the more tenants, parties to the agreement, but not otherwise, satisfy Title to the themselves, in such way and by such evidence as they shall see fit, Manor; and of the title of the lord to the manor; and the expences of inves- the Expences tigating the title to the manor, and the other expences attending gation as well every such agreement, whether carried into effect by a schedule of as the general apportionment or otherwise, and the confirmation thereof and the Expences, to schedule of apportionment (if any), shall be borne by the lord and be borne by the parties as tenants, parties to such agreement, in such proportions as they may be agreed may agree, or in default of agreement as the said commissioners upon, and in may direct Provided always, that the expences payable by lords default as the of manors having particular interests or being trustees shall, with Commissionany other expences they may reasonably incur in or about any such agreement (the amount of such last-mentioned expences being subject to the approval of the said commissioners), be paid out of the first monies to be received out of the enfranchisements to be effected under this Act: Provided always, that if the lord shall refuse to afford such information as may enable the commissioners to be satisfied of his title, or if the commissioners shall for any other reason not be satisfied of such title, the said agreement so entered into shall be null and void. ers shall direct. 59. And be it enacted, That in all cases in which the lord for Payment, &c. the time being shall be only entitled to the manor for a limited of Purchase estate or interest therein, or shall be under any legal disability, the Lord's Money where the sum or sums of money to be paid for enfranchisement shall be Interest is a paid and applied in manner herein-after provided for. partial one, &c. 60. And be it enacted, That whenever any such agreement as Tenants may aforesaid which shall be proposed to be carried into effect by a defer, in certain Cases, the schedule of apportionment it shall have been stipulated that any payment of a tenant shall be at liberty to defer the payment of a portion of the portion of the sum charged in respect of his lands or any portion thereof, and Consideration such tenant shall give notice under his hand to the steward or for Enfranlord, as herein-before directed with respect to notices in cases of until the next commutation, of his desire to defer payment accordingly, at any Event at reasonable time after the execution of any such agreement for which a fine enfranchisement, and before the delivery of the schedule to the would be commissioners, it shall be lawful for the said commissioners in payable. chisement When such Sum becomes to be entitled due the Lord to the Rent and Profits of the Land, and may proceed to obtain Posses sion, &c. Power for other Tenants to defer Payment of Consideration for Enfranchisement. their schedule of apportionment in every such case, and also (with the consent of the lord) in the case of any such tenant giving notice as aforesaid, although no stipulation shall have been made by the agreement, to award that so much of the sum apportioned to any such tenant as shall have been charged for enfranchisement from fines or other manorial rights to which such tenant, if he possessed a life or other limited interest, would not have been liable thereafter during his tenancy, shall not be paid until the period of the next act or event on which a fine or other such manorial right would have become payable or due to the lord if the said lands had remained unenfranchised, and that within six months after such act or event the said sum shall become payable, with such addition thereto as the said commissioners shall direct. 61. And be it also enacted, That as soon as the said sum, with such addition thereto, shall become payable, the lord or other person for the time being entitled to the benefit thereof shall become entitled to the rents and profits of the land in respect of which the same shall be due, unless and until he shall have received notice that such sum is become payable so that he may proceed to recover the same; and it shall be lawful for such lord or other person to proceed to obtain possession of the said rents and profits, in like manner as if the said land had been lawfully seised into the hands of the lord for some default of the tenant; provided that notice in writing stating the nature of such act or event as aforesaid, delivered by or on behalf of the tenant to the lord or other person entitled, or the clerk of the peace or other persons having the custody of the schedule of apportionment, shall be deemed sufficient notice that the said sum is payable; and as soon as the said sum is become payable the land in respect of which the same shall be due, and the beneficial owner thereof for the time being, shall be subject to the like remedies for the recovery thereof, and such sum shall become applicable in like manner, subject to any such allowance thereout as herein-after provided, as if such land had not been previously enfranchised, and the payment for the same had not been deferred. 62. And be it enacted, That for the purpose of freeing other tenants from the inconvenience to which in certain cases they might be subjected by an immediate liability to the payment of the sums to be agreed to be paid to the lord of the manor for enfranchisement under this Act, it shall be lawful for such tenant, at any reasonable time after the execution of any such agreement for enfranchisement as aforesaid (to be fixed by the said commissionand in default of their fixing any other limit at any other time, or until within ten days next previous to the delivery by the steward to the commissioners of the schedule of such apportionment), to declare, by notice under his hand, to be delivered to the lord or steward as herein-before provided with respect to notices in cases of commutation, his desire that such compensation money should remain a charge on the lands affected thereby for any number of years not exceeding fourteen years, or, if a tenant for ers, life, for the whole period of his life and one year longer, and which notice the steward shall forthwith, or with the said schedule of apportionment, send to the said commissioners; and thereupon the said commissioners, with the consent of the lord, but not otherwise, shall insert in a column of such apportionment to be appropriated to such purpose the number of years or period for which such charge is to be continued, and thereupon (subject as after mentioned) no proceedings shall be instituted during such time or period to enforce payment of the principal money so apportioned: Provided nevertheless, that interest after the rate of four pounds per centum per annum thereon shall be payable and paid half yearly on the days to be mentioned in such apportionment, or, if not mentioned, then at the expiration of each half year computed from the date thereof; and nothing herein contained shall extend to protect any tenant or other person from such proceedings, in case interest for one year and a half shall remain due on the principal sum apportioned or awarded or on any part thereof to the amount of one half: Provided also, that during the term or period so fixed the lord shall not be compellable to receive payment of the principal money without receiving twelve calendar months notice of the intention to pay off the same; and in case the interest on such principal sum or any part thereof shall at any time be in arrear or unpaid for thirty days after any halfyearly payment shall be due as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the lord or party entitled for the time being to receive such interest money to levy the same by distress and sale of the goods on the lands and tenements enfranchised and affected by such enfranchisement, or any of them, as fully and in like manner as if the same had been rent in arrear, and subject to recovery by distress. Tenants, Pro for Life. 63. And be it enacted, That where the lord of the manor shall Where Paybe only entitled for a limited estate or interest therein, and the ments are said commissioners shall have deferred payment of any sum or deferred by sums for enfranchisement under the powers herein-before con- vision to be tained, so that instead of such lord receiving a certain sum, or the made for such interest thereon, forthwith, he, or the lord for the time being, shall Lords as are become entitled at a future period to the said deferred sum, with only Tenants an addition thereto on account of the fine which would have become payable on the act or event fixing such period, or with an addition thereto on any other account, it shall be lawful for the said commissioners to award and direct that out of the money payable or chargeable forthwith for enfranchisement of any lands in such manor a certain sum of principal money shall be paid to or charged in favour of such lord as if he were absolutely seised as tenant in fee simple in possession of such manor, and such principal sum shall be paid or charged accordingly; and in case it shall happen that there shall be no money payable forthwith for enfranchisement, or not sufficient for making such allowance to the lord as aforesaid, or with the consent of the lord in any case, it shall be lawful for the said commissioners to award and direct that so much of the sum payable at a future period as they shall Substituted General Action for think adequate to his interest shall become his absolute property, and shall be paid or charged accordingly. 64. And be it enacted, That all lands which shall be enfranchised under this Act shall be deemed to be held under the same title as that under which the same were held at the time of such enfranchisement, and shall not be subject to any estates, rights, titles, interests, incumbrances, claims or demands affecting the manor of which the same were holden. 65. And be it enacted, That the expences of valuations, including the expence of making copies of apportionments, schedules, and all other documents required under the provisions of this Act, and all other expences necessary in the making any commutation or enfranchisement as aforesaid, except when otherwise provided by this Act, shall be paid by the tenants, or by the tenants and lords, in such proportions as the said commissioners shall in the confirmed apportionment, or otherwise, under their hands and seal, direct; and that if any difference shall arise touching the amount of the said expences, or the share thereof to be paid by or to any person, it shall be lawful for the said commissioners or assistant commissioner to certify under their or his hands or hand the amount to be paid by or to such person; and in case any person shall refuse or neglect to pay the amount so certified or specified in such apportionment to be payable from him immediately after notice thereof, then, upon production of such certificate, or of either of the deposited copies, under seal, of the said apportionment, before two of Her Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the county, riding, division, or jurisdiction wherein the manor to which the same relates, or the greater part thereof in value as appearing in such apportionment, is situate; and on proof of such refusal or neglect such Justices are hereby authorized and empowered, by warrant under their hands and seals, to cause the same, and the costs of application and distress, to be levied by distress and sale of the goods of the person liable to pay the same, and to render the surplus (if any), after deducting the costs of distress and sale, to the person distrained upon. 66. And be it enacted, That if such expences shall not be levied under the said distress within two months after the said warrant shall be granted, it shall be lawful for the person entitled to the said expences (if the same shall, with the costs of application to such Justices, amount to forty shillings or upwards), and his executors or administrators, to recover the same expences and costs, with full costs of suit, in an action of debt in any of Her Majesty's courts of law at Westminster against the party named in such warrant and certificate of apportionment as aforesaid, his executors or administrators, in which action such certificate or deposited copy of apportionment shall be satisfactory evidence of the amount of such expences so awarded by the said commissioners or assistant commissioner, and of the same being due for and to the parties therein named; and the certificate of such Justices under their hands on such warrant shall in like manner be evidence of the amount of costs of such application; and the production of such warrant (which in all such cases shall be allowed, and such certificate given by such Justices,) shall be satisfactory evidence of the non-recovery of such expences and costs respectively under a distress. 67. And be it enacted, That every tenant, being a trustee, or Expences of not beneficially interested in the lands of which he stands admitted Trustees. tenant to be affected by any commutation or enfranchisement under this Act (save as against an unadmitted mortgagee), shall be entitled to recover in like manner, by distress or action respectively, all expences, costs, and charges which he may have to pay under or by reason of any such certificate, apportionment, distress, or action, from the person beneficially interested at the date of such apportionment in the said lands, his executors, administrators, or assigns, or by a like distress on the said lands, and the occupier thereof shall be entitled to deduct any such payments out of any rent then or subsequently due; and should any dispute arise as to any trusteeship or right to such recovery, the same shall be determined by the said commissioners or assistant commissioner in like manner as is herein-before provided with respect to other causes of dispute or difference arising under this Act, and their or his certificate shall be deemed satisfactory evidence of the facts therein stated; and the like evidence shall be produced before such Justices, or in such action as is hereinbefore provided in other cases of distress. 68. And be it enacted, That any tenant having a limited Copyholders interest, and who shall pay any such expences or costs, may, with having limitthe consent of the said commissioners under their hands, and by a ed Interests simple entry on the court rolls of the manor (and for which entry Costs on the may charge the steward shall only charge thirteen shillings and four-pence, Lands in cerand which shall not be subject to any stamp duty,) charge such tain cases. expences and costs, with interest thereon at the rate of four pounds per centum per annum, on the copyhold lands to which the same shall relate, but so nevertheless that the principal charge on such lands shall be lessened in every year following such charge by one-twentieth part at least of such original charge thereon, and shall be subject to previous mortgages. Manors may be charged 69. And be it enacted, That any lord of a manor having a par- Expences ticular interest, or being a trustee, and who shall (in the case of a payable by commutation) pay any such expences or costs, may with the like Lords of consent of the said commissioners, charge such expences and costs, together with the expences he may reasonably incur in employing on the Manors. agents to protect his interests or otherwise, with interest thereon at the rate of four pounds per centum per annum, on the manor to which the same may relate, but so nevertheless that the principal charge on such manor shall be lessened in every year following such charge by one-twentieth part at least of such original charge thereon, and shall be subject to previous mortgages: Provided always, that the amount of such last-mentioned expences shall |