84 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. payment; and the seventh is a remedy against the land, as a means of obtaining payment of the rent. The last remedy, how- ever, is one which is seldom provided for, and with which few per- sons are familiar. It is a remedy too which can be enforced only by an action of ejectment, and which will eventually involve an accounting in equity by the person who avails himself of it, unless the parties can agree ; and it cannot therefore be deemed a very satisfactory remedy. That none of the foregoing remedies have been regarded as fully adequate is evident from the legislation which has been enacted, both in England and in this country, upon the subject of remedies for the recovery of rents. The aim of such legislation has been materially different, however, in the two countries. In England, legislation has been directed mainly to the improvement of two of the old remedies, namely, that by way of distress, and that by way of forfeiture. The former of these remedies seems always to have been the favorite one in England, as well with the Legislature as with landlords, and the constant aim has been to render it more efficient and available.^ The remedy by way of forfeiture has also been materially improved in England, in the interest of landlords, by rendering its prosecution less difficult, by requiring tenants, as a condition of obtaining an injunction, to pay all arrears of rent into court, thus removing from them the tempta- tion to resort to equity for the mere purpose of delay, and by disabling tenants from resorting to equity, except within six months after they are dispossessed.^ In this country, on the other hand, the remedy by way of dis- tress has not generally been regarded with favor; tenants have claimed that it savored of feudal bondage and oppression ; the public have claimed that it favored one class of creditors at the expense of all others; in some of our States it has never existed; in others it has been abolished ; and it is believed that the ten- 1 See 17 Car. II. c. 7 (reciting that "the ordinary remedy for arrearages of rents is by distress upon the lands chargeable therewith; and yet nevertheless by reason of the intricate and dilatory proceedings upon replevins that remedy is become ineffectual ") ; 2 Wm. & M. c. 5 (reciting that " the most ordinary and ready way for recovery of arrears of rent is by distress") ; 8 Anne, c. 14; 4 Geo. II. c. 28, s. 5 (re- citing that "the remedy for recovering rents seek, rents of assize, and chief rents, are tedious and difficult," and enacting that owners of rents seek, rents of assize, and chief rents shall have the like remedy by distress as owners of rents reserved upon leases) ; II Geo. II. c. 19, ss. i-ro, 19-23. 2 4 Geo. II. c. 28, ss. 2, 3, 4.
