the adverse party to plead his title specially in cases where there was a reasonable presumption that the party might stand upon his possession alone. It certainly would have been incongruous to preserve the old prerogative, that the king was in possession, whilst the act gives a title by adverse possession, and so by putting the party to plead specially his title, which might prove defective, to subject him to the risk of defeating the very plea or defence which the statute gave him (k). Jac. 1, Lapse of time would greatly diminish the beneficial Alteration of operation of the statute of 21 Jac. 1, c. 2. For the the act of Crown was deprived of its remedy for, and the subject was confirmed in the enjoyment of, the property, in those cases only where the right of the Crown had accrued within sixty years before the session of parliament in which the statute was passed (1); so that when the possession of the land belonging to the Crown was acquired after the passing of the act, it would not affect the right of the Crown to such land. This continued until the reign of George the Third. In his reign the statute of James was amended and rendered more effectual (m), but is now repealed (n). The preamble to the statute of George the Third states, in the reign that by the statute of James, c. 2, the right of the Crown of Geo. 3. to all manors, &c. was limited to sixty years next before the beginning of the session of parliament wherein the latter statute was passed, and that his Majesty's subjects were secured in the quiet enjoyment of all manors, &c. enjoyed by them, or whereof they had taken the rents, for that period; and that the said act was then, "by efflux of time, become ineffectual to answer the good end and purpose of securing the general quiet of the subject against all pretences of concealment whatsoever." The (k) Wightw. 236. See also Doe d. Watt v. Morris, 2 Bing. N. C. 189, 197. (2) Ib. 147, 158. (m) 9 Geo. 3, c. 16. Act as to corporate offices and franchises. Extension of act of 9 Geo. 3. principal enactment of the statute 9 Geo. 3 is, that the Crown shall not sue any person for or concerning any manors, lands, tenements, rents, tithes, or hereditaments, other than liberties or franchises or the profits thereof, or make any demand of the same, by reason of any right or title which has not first accrued, or shall thereafter accrue, within sixty years next before the suit, unless answered, by virtue of such right or title, the profits thereof, or the profits of any honour, manor, or other hereditament whereof the premises in question are parcel, or the profits have been duly in charge to the Crown, or stood insuper of record within that time; and that any person, according to his estate and interest therein, is to enjoy the same manors, &c., with such exception, against the Crown claiming by any title which does not first accrue within that period, unless the Crown has been so answered, or the rents have been so in charge, or stood insuper of record within that time, and also against but, as in the statute of James, without any such exception, against all patentees or grantees from the Crown (o). This statute, however, applies to England only. In the same reign was passed the act enabling persons, exercising corporate offices or franchises for six years after being actually admitted and sworn into them, to plead such exercise to an information on behalf of the Crown, in the nature of a quo warranto (p). In the present reign, the principle of the 9 Geo. 3 was still further extended. By the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 62, the Crown is not to recover the manors, lands, tenements, rents, tithes, or hereditaments, with such exception as expressed, by reason only that they, or the rents, revenues, issues or profits thereof, have or shall have been in charge, or stood insuper of record within the sixty years, but that their having been in charge or so (0) Sect. 1. (p) 32 Geo. 3, c. 58. Vide supra, p. 19. standing shall be, as respects the person claiming against the Crown, of no effect (q). And for the purposes of the 9 Geo. 3, the Crown is not to be deemed to have been answered the rents, &c. of any lands, &c. which have been enjoyed, or of which the rents, &c. have been taken by any other person for sixty years next before the commencement of any proceeding for recovering the same, or in respect thereof, as in the said act mentioned, by reason only of the said lands, &c. having been parcel of any honour or manor or other hereditaments of which the rents, &c. have been answered to the Crown, or some other person under whom it claims, or of any honour, manor or other hereditaments which have been duly in charge to the Crown, or stood insuper of record (r). And in the construction of the 9 Geo. 3, and of the act under notice, the right of the Crown to any manors, &c. subject to any lease for years, or for any life or lives, is not to be deemed to have first accrued until the determination of such lease, as against any person whose possession or enjoyment of such manors, &c., or whose receipt of the rents, &c. thereof, has commenced during such lease, or who claims under any person whose possession or enjoyment of such manors, &c., or whose receipt of the rents, &c., have so commenced (s). No legislative provision similar to that of 9 Geo. 3, Act for c. 16, in relation to the possessions of the Crown in Ire- Ireland. land, was passed until nearly forty years after that statute, and the Irish Statute of Limitations did not bind the Crown (t). In the forty-eighth year of that reign, such provision was made similar to that for England (u). The provisions in the statute for Ireland, and the terms of those provisions, differ from those in the English statute (x). The terms in the statute of (7) Sect. 1. (7) Sect. 3. (8) Sect. 4, Reg. v. Bayly, 1 Dru. & War. 213. (u) 48 Geo. 3, c. 47. (x) See Tuthill v. Rogers, 1 Jones & La Touche, 36. Prescriptive rights in England, James, and in 9 Geo. 3, in relation to patentees and grantees of the Crown, are omitted in the statute for Ireland. Again, in the reign of William the Fourth, the legislature extended the principle to the following prescriptive rights in England: (1) rights of common and other profits or benefits to be taken and enjoyed from or upon any land of the king, his heirs or successors, except tithes, rent, and services; (2) rights of way and other easements, watercourses and the use of any water to be enjoyed or derived upon, over or from any land or water of the king, his heirs or successors, or being parcel of such duchies respectively (y); and also (3) all prescriptions and claims of or for any modus decimandi, or of or to any exemption from or discharge of tithes by composition, real or otherwise, in cases whether the render of tithes in kind being demanded by the king, -and Ireland, his heirs or successors (z). And in the present reign, the 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 71, has been extended and applied to Ireland (21 & 22 Vict. c. 42). -except access and use of light. Advowsons. The statute 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 71, extends to cases of the access and use of light to and for any building (a). But in this section, the Crown is not, as in the former sections it is, expressly named, and therefore is not bound in such cases. This will be considered hereafter. The statutes affecting the Crown do not, in express terms, extend to advowsons. If not by construction, there is no time of limitation for claims to them by the Crown. This question will be also considered hereafter. The prescriptive rights embraced by the 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 71, when claimed to be taken or enjoyed from or upon any land being parcel of the Duchy of Lancaster, or of the Duchy of Cornwall, were also made subject to that law. The prescriptive rights embraced by the (a) Sect, 3. (y) 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 71. 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 100, when demanded by any Duke of Cornwall, were also made subject to that law, but not when demanded in respect of the Duchy of Lan caster. extended to amended. In the present reign the limitation fixed by the sta- Act of Geo. 3 tute 9 Geo. 3 was extended to the Duke of Corn- Duke of Cornwall (c), and that statute was also amended and ex- wall, and tended (d). The terms of 7 & 8 Vict. c. 105, are nearly the same as those of the 9 Geo. 3, and comprehend lands, manors, tenements, rents, tithes and hereditaments in the county of Cornwall only. But not only liberties and franchises, but mines, minerals, stone and substrata are excepted (e); and the act does not extend to any royalty, liberty, office or franchise which had at any time theretofore been let in convention or granted by assession, or any estate, right, title or interest therein (f); nor to any property, right, claim, or question of, to or concerning navigable rivers, estuaries, ports or branches of the sea, or the funders or soil thereof respectively, or the shores between high and low water mark respectively (g), nor to any hereditaments not within the county of Cornwall; and contains no terms corresponding to those in 21 Jac. 1, c. 2, and 9 Geo. 3, as to patentees or grantees, and is not to affect the 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 100 (h). The Cornwall Submarine Mines Act, 1858, enacts and declares that all mines and minerals lying under the seashore between high and low water marks within the said county, and under estuaries and tidal rivers and other places (below high water mark), even below low water mark, being in and part of the county of Cornwall, are, as between her Majesty in right of her Crown on the one hand and the Prince and Duke in right of |