high price, her abstinence from the Northern Coast; but the other thinks even this too much; and between them, unfortunate Africa must be finally destroyed, in defiance and contempt of the patronage of Great Britain, by means of the very victories we have won, and the thrones we have restored.

If all this is to be suffered, away with the proud boast, down with the grand thought, that we have been the liberators, the benefactors of a world. In raising again the prostrate thrones of Lisbon and Madrid, we have done more to extend slavery, and oppression, and guilt, and misery, in two quarters of the globe, than to retrench and correct them in a third. Let our present triumphant position at least be forgot. Let the military glories of the Regency of George Prince of Wales be effaced if possible from our records; that posterity may not arraign us of deserting our high duties as a nation towards the unfortunate Africans, without necessity, and without excuse.

REMARKS

ON THE

COMPARATIVE VALUE

OF

FREEHOLD AND COPYHOLD LAND;

SHOWING

The Worth of Lives

ON

ADMITTANCE

AND

Enfranchisement,

AND ON

THE PURCHASE OF ADVOWSONS.

BY WILLIAM ROUSE, ESQ.

Author of "The Doctrine of Chances."

LONDON.

The following Letter is published with no other view than that of being useful to those whom the nature of it may interest. With the best recommendation, its own

merit, I submit it to public consideration.

Woodbridge, August 31, 1815.

JAMES PULHAM.

DEAR SIR,

Hasketon, August 4, 1815.

ACCORDING to my promise, I now submit to your judgment some remarks on the comparative value of freehold and copyhold land.

It is always presumed that an acre of freehold and an acre of copyhold land are of equal value to a tenant from year to year. If there are any buildings, or quit-rents, or indeed any outgoing or income not common to both species of property, they should be separately considered and distinctly valued, so as to leave the copyhold land, and the freehold land, subject only to an equal and clear yearly income for each acre. We are then to consider how many years' rental of an acre will be an equivalent to the lord to enfranchise it; but this will be influenced by his mercy as to the fine; however, leaving this attribute out of the calculation, he shall be allowed the utmost that equity will suffer him to take, being two years' rent on every alienation.

If no fine were to be paid, except at death, it must be evident that the older the lives are, when admitted, the more valuable the copyhold will be to the lord, who, like a good christian, makes no distinction of persons,-exacting the same from the man of 80, as from the man of 20 years of age, although one life is worth upwards of 16 years' purchase, and the other not three years and a half.

Let us suppose, that the lives, one with another, when admitted, are each equal in value to a life of 44 years of age, (which supposition, I think, is in favor of the lord), and computing interest of money at 4 per cent. (chancery interest) such a life is worth nearly 12 years and a half's purchase (by the Northampton tables of lives). If the rent is 501. a-year, he will be entitled to 1001. in present money on admitting a life of 44 years of age; and to another 1001. when this life falls, on admitting a 2nd life, then 44; and to another 1001. when the second life falls, on admitting a 3rd life, then 44; and so on ad infinitum.

The present value of all those sums (which will be an equivalent to the lord for enfranchisement) is very easily ascertained, for, the present value of any sum to be received on the death of a person, is found, by merely subtracting the value of the life from the perpetuity.

Now each sum to be received is 100l. which, computing interest at 4 per cent, is equal to, or worth, a perpetuity of 41. per annum, and if the value of a life aged 44 is deducted, (being nearly 12 years' purchase, or 501.), the difference, or 501. in present money, is an equivalent to the lord for 1001. not to be paid until the 1st life drops, or the 2nd life is admitted. Now this value is exactly one half of the 1st fine, (or the 1001. paid down), and as the same sum, or 50l., if it were to be paid when the 2nd life is admitted, would be an equivalent to the lord for the 1001. due when the next, or 3rd life, is admitted,-if half of

that 501. or 251. is paid now, it will be an equivalent for the 1001. fine due on the 3rd life; and reasoning in the same manner, 121. 10s. Od. is the present value of the 1001. fine due on the 4th life, 61. 5s. Od. for the fine due on the 5th life, and so on, taking the half of each value for the succeeding life. But it must appear manifest, that in this manner you will soon arrive at a sum so small as to be considered equal to nothing. By an easy rule in arithmetic, the sum of all the terms in a regular series may be soon found, and all the terms of this series, decreasing in the ratio, 1..

1

... &c. &c. until the terms become too small to be noticed, will amount to 2: therefore, as 1 fine (or 1001.) was the first term, and of it the second term, and so on in the same ratio, a full equivalent for all the fines that, in human probability, will ever be received, (computing at 4 per cent. interest) is two fines, or 2001. and the fine, being 2 years' rent, 4 years' purchase is an equivalent to the lord for enfranchising copyhold land: that is, if each fine depended on death; and as the 4 years' purchase includes the fine on admission, if a life is already upon it, the value of such life ought to be deducted from the 4 years' purchase; but the quit rents should be computed at 25 years' purchase, and added to the above value of enfranchisement.

This is on the supposition that no fine takes place, except on death, and that each succeeding life is one of 44 years of age, when admitted.

Now 50l. in present money, has been shown to be an equivalent for 1001. not to be received until a person now 44 years of age dies; and it also may be seen in the tables of compound interest, that 501. now paid down, is an equivalent for 1001., to be paid certain at the end of 17 years and a half, (in all cases computing at 4 per cent. interest): therefore, a lord would be entitled to the same present sum, or 501., whether as an equivalent for 100l., to be paid