o the lords
of the manors who had lost the tithes and the 'forced labour' of the
former serfs. To meet this compensation 'State urbarial bonds' were
created and apportioned; they bear five per cent. interest, and are
redeemable within eighty years, with two drawings annually. The fund for
this compensation is raised by a special tax on every Hungarian subject;
not only the freed peasant pays towards the fund, but the lord himself,
and those who never had any feudal tenants.

"The peasants had also to receive their compensation for the loss of
pasturage and the right of cutting wood on the lord's demesne. In lieu
of these privileges they received allotments of forest and pasturage as
absolute property. The land thus acquired by the peasants is in fact
_parish property_, or in other words, communal property. This is the
only instance in which the parish appears as landowner, for all other
peasant property, with the exception of the parish buildings, such as
the school, is the property of the respective peasants. The parish
authorities regulate the usage of the common pasturage and common
forest. The sale or cutting down of the latter is subject to the
permission of the county authorities."

I now proceeded to question my friend about the laws respecting the
transfer of land, and especially about the registration of titles of
estate. To these inquiries he replied as follows:--

"Land in Hungary is the absolute property of that person, or corporate
body, who appears as owner in the registry. A limitation of claim to
ownership does not exist with us; indeed it is contrary to the law. The
_Avitische Patent_ of 1854 prescribed further that every one should be
regarded as the rightful owner who actually held the property in
1848--_i.e._, the _status quo_ of 1848 to be accepted as the basis. The
_Urbarium_ of Maria Theresa was, in short, the stand-point in all these
arrangements, whether it was the sessional lands of tenants formerly
held in hereditary use, now freehold, or the _allodium_ of the noble.
Immediately succeeding the _Avitische Patent_, the _registration of
land_ was made law, in conformity with which all estates had been
surveyed and entered on the registry as belonging to those owners who
possessed the same in consequence of the above-named patent."

"But how about disputed inheritance-lands held by mortgagees, and other
contingencies always arising in regard to estates?" I asked.

"I am sorry to say that drea