VIII. THE HOUSE OF HANOVER. A most important change in the
system of landholding was effected by the spread of RAILWAYS. It
was brought about by the influence of the trading as opposed to
the landlord class. In their inception they did not appear
likely to effect any great alteration in the land laws. The
shareholders had no compulsory power of purchase, hence enormous
sums were paid for the land required; but as the system
extended, Parliament asserted the ownership of the nation, over
land in the possession of the individual. Acting on the idea
that no man was more than a tenant, the state took the land from
the occupier, as well as the tenant-in-fee, and gave it, not at
their own price, but an assessed value, to the partners in a
railway who traded for their mutual benefit, yet as they offered
to convey travellers and goods at a quicker rate than on the
ordinary roads, the state enabled them to acquire land by
compulsion. A general act, the Land Clauses Act, was passed in
1846, which gives privileges with