Estates-General of 1789

“ In the constitutional struggles of the European continent, from the Revolution onward, the rival theories of representation by estates and of popular representation have played a great part. The crucial moment of the French Revolution was when the vote according to “order” was rejected and the estates of the clergy and nobles were merged with the tiers état, the states-general thus becoming the National Assembly. ”

“ It is, therefore, lords of manors and commoners who have mainly the control of such waste places. When, however, they come to Parliament to ask to have their respective rights settled, and to get leave to inclose, Parliament has, under the Inclosure Acts, distinctly a voice in deciding the appropriation of the land. What ought its decision to be, having in view the future life of the nation as well as the present one?
That aesthetic considerations govern individuals in the disposition of their own estates is clear. When a gentleman possesses an estate he apportions it to various uses. ”

“ Hence has arisen a common but not unnatural misconception, a misconception as old as the days of the Long Parliament, as to the meaning of the phrase of the Three Estates. Men constantly use those words as if they meant the three elements among which the legislative power is divided, King, Lords, and Commons. But an Estate means a rank or order or class of men, like the Lords, the Clergy, or the Commons. ”

“ The mode of proceeding against those who had been inhabitants, was directed to be by application to the County Court, who are empowered to give judgment and sentence, that all the estate of such persons should be forfeited for the use of State. The Court is then directed to grant administration of the estates, as in case of interstates estates.–The administrators were to sell such estates, institute suits, recover and pay debts, and deliver over the surplus, if any, into the Treasury of the State. ”

“ Where an estate has passed, under a legislative grant, into the hands of a purchaser for a valuable consideration, without notice, the state is restrained, either by general principles which are common to our free institutions, or by the particular provisions of the Constitution of the United States, from passing a law whereby the estate so purchased can be impaired and invalidated. ”

“ In legislation the three estates of the realm are alike concerned; but the concurrence of the peers and the Crown to a tax is only necessary to clothe it with the form of a law. The gift and grant is of the Commons alone. In ancient days, the Crown, the barons, and the clergy possessed the lands. In those days, the barons and the clergy gave and granted to the Crown. They gave and granted what was their own! At present, since the discovery of America, and other circumstances permitting, the Commons are become the proprietors of the land. ”

“ The Emperor then becoming, for a time, the repository of complete authority, resumed possession of all private estates, and exact rules for the distribution and control of land were embodied in the new codes. The basis of the system then adopted was the general principle that every unit of the nation had a natural title to the usufruct of the soil. It was therefore enacted that to all persons, from the age of five upwards, "sustenance land" should be granted in the proportion of two-thirds of an acre to each male and one-third to each female. ”

“ To speak candidly about these recoveries, as to their application to this purpose, they were notorious breaches of the statute De donis, under the colour of legal proceedings. Yet what could be done? the law could not be repealed; for all members of parliament had their estates entailed. It could only be eluded, and both for the king and all who had not estates tail, it was necessary it should [178] .
Another consequence of estates becoming hereditary, and, in respect of military tenures, a fruit of seignory, is wardship, or guardianship. ”

“ But during this delay, the Assembly having prevailed with Gov'r Denny to pass an act taxing the proprietary estate in common with the estates of the people, which was the grand point in dispute, they omitted answering the message.
When this act however came over, the proprietaries, counselled by Paris, determined to oppose its receiving the royal assent. Accordingly they petitioned the king in Council, and a hearing was appointed in which two lawyers were employ'd by them against the act, and two by me in support of it. ”

“ Thus the supreme legislative authority resides in the three estates of the realm,—the king, the senate, and equestrian order, assembled in a national diet; but each estate has no negative upon the other, and, therefore, there is no balance, and very little check. The great families and principal palatines will still govern without any effectual control. ”

“ The Swedish diet had also four—clergy, barons, burghers and peasants.
The system of estates, based on the medieval conception of society as divided into definite orders, formed the basis of whatever constitutional forms survived in Europe till the French Revolution. In England, of course, it had early become obscured, the House of Commons representing the whole nation outside the narrow order of the peers. The creation of an estate of lesser nobles or landowners had been prevented by the fusion of the knights of the shire with the burgesses ”

“ That no argument can be drawn from the House of Lords in the British constitution, since they are neither mediately nor immediately the representatives of the people, but are one of the three estates composing that kingdom, having hereditary rights and privileges distinct from, and independent of, the people. ”

“ And because, in the continued distractions of so many years and so many and great revolutions, many grants and purchases of estates have been made, to and by many officers, soldiers and others, who are now possessed of the same, and who may be liable to actions at law upon several titles, we are likewise willing that all such differences, and all thillgs relating to such grants, sales and purchases, shall be determined in parliament, which can best provide for the just satisfaction of all men who are concerned. ”

“ It was ordained by the charter that, if the heir be a minor, he shall, immediately upon his majority, enter upon his estate, without paying any relief; the king shall not sell his wardship; he shall levy only reasonable profits upon the estate, without committing waste or hurting the property; he shall uphold the castles, houses, mills, parks, and ponds, and if he commit the guardianship of the estate to the sheriff or any other, he shall previously oblige them to find surety to the same purpose. ”

“ An ounce of fact is worth a ton of theory, and the clear result of the evidence taken before the Royal Commission was, that on the large estates, the expenditure of capital was the most generous, and the land was best developed by the application of all the improvements of modern science and mechanics. ”

“ No Bill or amendment making provision for the transference to public ownership of any land or for the extinguishment or modification of rights therein, including rights or privileges in respect of land revenue, shall be introduced or moved in either Chamber of the Federal Legislature without the previous sanction of the Governor-General in his discretion, or in a Chamber of a Provincial Legislature without the previous sanction of the Governor in his discretion. ”

“ The effect, unforeseen by the enacters, was to increase the number of independent gentry holding immediately from the crown or from the great lords. The second statute is known by the name of the Second Statute of Westminster, or “De donis conditionalibus.” When an estate had been given to a man and to his children, it had hitherto been held sufficient that the child should be born. The estate had then become the absolute property of the man to whom it had been granted, and he could alienate it at his will. ”

“ Provision in the charter, and in the instructions of the royal council, for the creation of individual estates according to the laws and customs of England, not to mention the guarantee of full legal rights for the inhabitants of the colony and for their children, leave no more room for speculation as to the intended permanence of the settlement than there is doubt as to the expected diversity of its economic activity. ”

“ This case requires us to determine whether and what interests that came into enjoyment upon the death of the donee of a general power of appointment should be included for federal estate tax purposes in the donee's gross estate. ”

“ According to the rigour of English legal doctrine there can be no owner of land except the Crown itself. The fee simple of land—the greatest right in it which a subject can possess—is not in truth ownership, but a mere encumbrance upon the ownership of the Crown. It is a tenancy or lease granted to a man and his heirs. ”

“ A Gallic tribe established anciently in the modern French department of the Orne. Napoleon III., History of Cæsar, book 3, chapter 2, note. ESTATES, Assembly of. "An assembly of estates is an organised collection, made by representation or otherwise, of the several orders, states or conditions of men, who are recognised as possessing political power. A national council of clergy and barons is not an assembly of estates, because it does not include the body of the people, the plebs, the simple freemen or commons." W. Stubbs, Constitutional History of England, chapter 15, section 185. ”

“ In support of this contention, common-law authorities are cited to the proposition that an estate created by the execution of a power takes effect in the same manner as if it had been created by the deed which raised the power; that the beneficiary takes, not under the execution of the power by the donee, but by authority and under grant from the grantor, in like manner as if the power and the instrument which created it had been incorporated into one instrument. ”

“ One-half of the public and crown lands of the monarchy, excepting town commons, were reserved, in article 6, for lucrative alienation; while provision was made in clause 9 et seq. for disposition of the remaining public and crown lands, or of the farming lands of the municipal domain, in small tracts, the grants to be made by the common councils of such towns, subject to the approval of the provincial deputation. ”

“ The proposition is believed to be perfectly correct, that the act of 1783, which opened the land office, must be construed as offering for sale those lands only which were then liable to appropriation, not those which had before been individually appropriated. Whatever the legislative power may be, its acts ought never to be so construed as to subvert the rights of property, unless its intention so to do shall be expressed in such terms as to admit of no doubt, and to show a clear design to effect the object. ”

“ The proprietors were always to be eight in number; to possess the whole judicial power, and have the supreme direction of all tribunals. None but large property holders were eligible for a seat in the Legislature, where the commons were to have four members for every three of the nobility. ”

“ This income from royal estates was also received by the Exchequer and then commingled with the other funds. Each payment was indicated by notches on a stick, which was then split so that the payer and the receiver each had a half showing the notches. The Chancellor managed the domestic matters of the Crown's castles and lands. Henry brought sheriffs under his strict control, free from influence by the barons.
A woman could inherit a fief if she married. The primary way for a man to acquire land was to marry an heiress. ”

“ If the society is one that expects to own real estate, it should be incorporated according to the laws of the state in which it is situated, and for this purpose some member of the committee on the constitution should consult a lawyer before this second meeting, so that the constitution may conform to the laws of the state. ”

“ At this date the proprietors of large estates who wished to enclose by Act of Parliament, generally settled all the particulars among themselves before calling any meeting of the rest of the proprietors. The small proprietor had very little say either in regulating the clauses of the Act, or in the choice of commissioners. Any owner of one-fifth of the land, however, could negative the measure and often used his right to impose unreasonable clauses. It is well known that the legal expenses and fencing were very costly. ”

“ In 1867 he was nominated a member of the royal commission to consider the law on the transfer of real property, and he had a large share in framing the report on which was based the lord chancellor's bill passed in 1874. ”

“ On the 24th of January, 1803, the Parliament being again assembled for the despatch of business, an Act was passed, allowing time for the sale of lands and tenements by the Sheriff; a fund was established for the erection and repair of light-houses; the rights of certain grantees of the waste lands of the Crown were declared; married women were enabled to convey and alienate their real estate ”