The Express.
London, England, 1853-02-16 00:00:00

THE SPANISH DECREE.

Lord J. RUSSELL brought up the correspondence with
the minister at Madrid on the nteject of the decree against
professing any but the Roman catholic religion in Spats.
Sir R. INOLlB—Perhaps the noble lord will more that
those parers be printed.
The motion was made and agreed to.
SALE AND PURCHASE OF LAND.

Mr. H. DRUMMOND, in moving for leave to introduce
a bill to facilitate the sale and purchase of land, said that
everyone agreed uto the importance of this subject; the
only question was as to the means by which the desired
object could be effected. Until the owners of land agreed
upon this, it would be impossible to place them upon the
same footing as the holden of other property.
Oman= must remember what was the origin of
tonne. It was derived from times when the
of land involved with it military service.
k°Zlllillls siequesca of military tenure was, that there were
meg trees in which estates were left in the hands of
wanon, who were not allowed to marry without the consent
of the Brown; and in the case of landed proprietors they
tMild not, it they wanted money, obtain it, because they
mild not give ts land as security for the money bor.
sawed. But the lawyers stepped in to their relief, and
aid them that though they could not give the land as se.
waitht they could give every blade of grass or ear of corn
it grew, or, as it was called, the usufruct of the
Lad. This state of things continued after the circumstances
eat of which it arose ceased to exist, and it must be obvious
that a system of landed tenure such as he had described
alrast be wholly_ luspylisahle to the present state of society ;
sal eaimattlis talee=stess osassated to make some
shame they fan{ seam the evil oossequences
of so vicious a spasm Al present, It the owner of a cer-
tain quantity of laud allied to dispose of it, he had to
peeve hie title sue, Agee that a purchaser came forward,
whisk was a angst d great trouble and expense. By the
ti which lie 111141 prspeeed it was provided that when the
litle of an estate was once examined bye competent tribu•
ask, that title should be good for ever. (Hear, hear.) He
Phll ass act in this matter from any fancy or imagination
dlia own, for it was declared by a resolution of the House
elks& that they were convinced that the market valve
end property was diminished by the tedious and expert.
aleajeinese attending the transfer of land, and they im-
panel ea the keen Ike aeseesity of reconsidering the whole
saline a the ammayeess of land, and were of opinion
that a registrades if Mee was seismal to the success of
any attempt at simplifying the system of conveyances."
The real property semmissionen made the earns recom-
mendation. All that be asked the bow* to do now sou
allow him to bring in a bill, in compliance with the resoln•
lion of the House of Lords, backed by the real property
commission, for the registration of titles. He had already
described how the Brat tenure of land arose. That system
began to give way about the time of Henry V 111.. when
there was an enrolment of deeds. This was repeated in the
time of Elisabeth and James. In 1703 the enactment for
Yorkshire was made ; is 1708 that for Middlesex ; in 1728
the bill for Surrey was broujiht in. In 1739 the House of
Lords dirtcted the Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench to
bring in a Registration Bill. That bill passed both Houses
of Parliament, and it was lost simply in consequence of a
prorogation. It was that bill of 1739 that he was now
seine upon. That same bill was brought in u soon as the
next parliament aseambled, and it was lost in the House of
Commons merely by a majority of one. Nothing was done
slam that period till 1813, when Sir S. Romilly took up
the subject. In 1830 it was again t iken up by Lord
Campbell, and repeated is 1831, 1833, 1834, aid 1845,
when Lord Campbell again introduced a bill into
the House of Lords on the subject. It might
be considered presumptuous in him to criticise a
bill on such a subject prepared by Lord Campbell.
Yet he doubted whether the hone did not act wisely in
rejecting his bill; because although it made an alteration
in the present practice, it was only a substitution of one
cumbrous machinery for another, and would saddle thou
with a still greater expense. He believed that the mrest
fault of the bill was, that it endeavoured beforehaa to
provide all the machinery which would he necessary to work
it ; whereas, in matters of this kind, the simpler the bill
the better, and then the machinery could be gradually
aitapted to it, as experience pointed out its necessity. It
did not follow that because a man was a great lawyer, that
he mast best know the means of arriving at • certain result,
even in matters of this kind. In illustration of this, he
could mention an anecdote of the late Lord Eldon. Ho
(Mr. Drummond) pointed out to the late Sir R. Peel a
clause in a certain bill which was nonsense. Sir IL Peel
desired him to ',nation it to Lord Yarborough (as we un-
derstood) who had charge of the measure. This he did ;
and he was then told, that " Old Eldon had taken the matter
into his own hands, had prepared the bill, and made non.
sense of it." (Hear, hear, and laughter.) The bill of 1739
enacted that the Master of the Rolls should be the registrar.
But as the Master of the Roils of the pre.ent day had too
much to do, he was of opinion that they must conetituto a
new officer for that purpose. He was to have the decision
of all points connected with the sutject, and would
provide the necessary machinery for carrying it out.
Even if this bill passed, it would he necessary to
come to, parliament again. He saw no reason why they