CHAP. IX.

Of the Regulation for straightening of Marches.

1. T

IT

§ I.

IN GEN

I. TT often happens, that the marches of conterminous proprietors are fo crooked, and unevenly intersected ERAL. with each other, as not to admit of making a mutual fence without an exchange of ground, which the act 1661, c. 41, did not give the proprietor, "vertuously inclined to inclose his ground," any power of compelling. In order to provide for fuch cafes, the ftatute 1669, c. 17, was paffed.

§ 2. 1669, c. 17.

II. By this ftatute it is enacted, that "it fhall be leifome to him to require the next sheriffs, or bailiffs of regalities, Jurifdiction ftewarts of ftewartries, juftices of peace, or other judges or- created. dinar; to visit the marches along which the faid dike or ditch is to be drawn, who are hereby authorized, when the Marches faid marches are uneven, or otherways uncapable of ditch vifited. or dike, to adjudge fuch parts of the one or the other heritor's ground, as occafion the inconveniency, betwixt them,

a Chas. II, parl. 2.

1669, c. 17.

Compenfa

be

from the one heritor in favour of the other, fo as may c. 11, P. 1. leaft to the prejudice of either party; and the dike or ditch Adjudging to be made, to be in all time thereafter the common march the ground. betwixt them, and the parts fo adjudged refpective from the one to the other, being estimate to the just avail, and comtion, if the penfed pro tanto, to decern what remains uncompensed of the price, to the party to whom the fame is wanting. And it is hereby declared, that the parts thus adjudged hinc inde, fhall remain and abide with the lands or tenandries to which they are respective adjudged, as parts and pendicles thereof in all time coming."

land ad

judged is not of equal ex

tent.

ED OR UN

§ 2. III. It may happen that the grounds of the parties are IP ENTAIL entailed. But that does not prevent the operation of this EQUAL. ftatute, the land got in exchange being confidered as part of the entailed eftate, and liable to the fame restrictions with the land given up. If part of the exchange be a pecuniary confideration, fuch fum must be considered as a capital to be laid out in purchasing land, or otherwife, in terms of the entail.

§ 4.

EFFECT OF
EXCAM-

BION.

IV. TRANSACTIONS of this fort are not understood to make any alteration on the comparative value of either eftate. Each proprietor is prefumed to get as much as he gives. And it is not ufual for any formal conveyances, from the one proprietor to the other, to take place. An exchange therefore, of fmall parcels of land, for the purpose of ftraightening marches, is not confidered fuch an alteration of circumstances, as to afford ground for striking any one off the roll of freeholders, even although his valuation be

b 10th Jan. 1702, fir John Ramfay against fir James River Fount. c Wight's fyftem of election law, B. iii, c. 4, p. 286. "In a cafe from the county of Forfar, no less than 40

aeres had been given off by one proprietor to his neighbour, but as he received another piece of land in exchange, it was understood the tran faction made no variation upon the

STRAIGHTENING of MARCHES.

no greater than the law requires; not even although the freehold depend on the old extent.

$4

EFFECT OR
EXCHANGE.

CHAP. X.

$2.

I. "

Of the Division of Lands lying Run-ridge.

"L

ANDS are faid to lie run-ridge, where the alternate ridges of a field belong to different proprietors"." For remedying fo inconvenient an arrangement, the act 1695, c. 23, was paffed.

II. THIS ftatute proceeds on the narrative, of the "great WILL. P. I, disadvantage arifing to the whole fubjects from lands lying 1695, c. 23. run rig, and that the fame is highly prejudicial to the policy and improvement of the nation, by planting and inclosing."

Preamble.

Jurifdiction given.

IT was therefore ordained, "that wherever lands of dif ferent heritors lie runrig, it fhall be leifum to either party to apply to the sheriffs, ftewarts and lords of regality, or justices of peace of the feveral fhires where the lands lie, to the effect that these lands may be divided according to their refpective interefts, who are hereby appointed and authorized for that effect, and that after due and lawful citation of b William, parl. 1.

a Erfk, B. iii, tit. 3, § 59.

parties concerned at an certain day, to be prefixed by the faid judge or judges.

§ 2.

WILL. P. I, 1695, c. 23.

"It is always hereby declared, that the faid judges, in making the forefaid divifion, shall be and are hereby restricted, fo as fpecial regard may be had to the manfion-houses of the refpective heritors, and that there may be allowed and Mode of adjudged to them the refpective parts of the divifion, as proceeding. fhall be most commodious to their respective mansion-houses

and policy, and which fhall not be applicable to the other adjacent heritors."

It is alfo provided and declared, "that thir prefents Incorporate fhall not be extended to the burrow and incorporat acres, acres. but that, notwithstanding hereof, the fame fhall remain with the heritors to whom they do belong, as if no fuch act had been made."

$3.

HOW IN

TERPRET

III. THE divifion competent to landholders, by this ftatute, "is not in practice confined to runrig lands, in a strict fenfe of the words, but is, by a liberal interpretation, ex- ED IN tended to cafes where the properties of the several heritors are broke off, not by fingle ridges, but perhaps by roods or

acres c."

A DIVISION under this ftatute has been ordered to proceed in the cafe of fix acres; and even of no less than nine contiguous acres. But more lately it has been held, that this was rather carrying the remedy beyond the ftatutory intendment; and it is now understood, that the largest quantity of ground to which the act applies is four contiguous acres f.

d

Erk. B. iii, tit. 3, § 59. 13th Nov. 1755, heritors of Inverefk against James Milne.

Coll.

Fac.

e Marquis of Annandale, 1774.
f Jan. 17, 1782, Lady Gray. Fac
Coll.

PRACTICE.