The Express.
London, England, 1847-02-24 00:00:00

THE Gazette of the l'ith inst. contains a notifica-
tion that a commission has been appointed for " in-
quiring whether the burdens on land can be diminished
by the establishment of an effective system for the
registration of deeds and the simplification of the
forms of conveyance;" and the cotumissioners con-
sist of Lord LANGDALE, Master of the Rolls ; Lord
BILiUMONT; three conveyancing barristers, Mr. Jo.
SEMI 11UMPHRT, Mr. HENRY ELLEN DEN KEI:, and
Mr. WALTER COULSON : and two solicitors, Mr.
GEORGE FitERE and Mr. FRANCIS BROHLRIr. Let
It not be supposed that this is a mere lawyers' and
Jandholders' question, for it is one which deeply con-
cerns the subsistence of the people. What conclu-
sion the commissioners may come to with respect to
the registration of deeds and the other matters re-
ferred to them we will not anticipate, but it will be
well to show the public that all the ablest convey-
ancers of the age have been in favour of a general
registry of titles. Here professional and popular
opinions coincide.
When the House of Lords, in the session of 1846,
appointed a committee to inquire into the " burdens
affecting real property," the full and real extent of
that inquiry was but little understood, either by the
Lords or the public. By the protectionist peers, who
proposed the committee, it was simply intended to
make out a case for exempting landowners from some
of the taxation, local or general, they now pay—a
sort of counter-move to the repeal of the corn-lasso.
While the public instinctively regarded the committee
as an excuse on the part of the landoerney for shift-
ing some portion of the just burdens of laud upon
the shoulders of the rest of the community, the
chief, if not the only, practical result of the inquiry,
was, to demonstrate that the system of conveyancing
in this country forms a grievous burden upon land-
owners, and a great impediment to the free disposal
of landed property. Mr. SENIOR, the 'Master in
Chancery, who had before his appointment to that
office, been in extensive practice as a conveyancer,
" that this is the only civilised country without
a general register, and the only civilised country re-
quiring a sixty, or even a forty years' title" :
that land in almost every country save this is trans-
ferred in the same manner in which stock is trans-
ferred here. You look to the last purchaser only."
And what is the consequence? Why, that the
value of land is higher in the civilised countries
of Europe than in England; that the number of years'
purchase in almost all the better port of Europe is
much higher than in England. It is thirty-five on
the borders of the Rhine. And Mr. Sesion was of
opinion, " that one of the principal reasons for the
difference of value must to the different law of con-
veyancing." Our system excludes small purchasers
---ay, and greatly hinders purchases of moderate
amount, say of two or three thousand pounds. Nor
do the conveyancers in this country object to a general
register. On the contrary, BUTLER, DevAL, BRODIE,
DUCKWORTH, Mr. SENIOR, and most of our eminent
conveyancing counsel, have strongly recommended it.
So did, the late real property commissioners. In fact,
as Mr. SENIOR said, " everybody, except the attor-
neys, approved of it." And it is the fear of the
attorney's bill which prevents much transfer of real

property.
And, after all, this cumbrous and expensive ma-
chinery serves no earthly purpose, except to swell
legal charges. Mr. SENIOR told the Lords' Com-
mittee " that there is little of really defective title.
Title; alt»nst all seem to be safe for holding: but the
difficulty is to transfer them." Can there be a
seveicr censure upon the state of the law than that
statement? Indeed, at this moment every motions
vendor of real property, before he offers it fur sale,
has his title looked over by a conveyancer " at great
expense, and every loophole stopped," by conditions
of sale, which preclude the purchaser from requiring
formal proofs, to which, in the absence of such con-
ditions, he would have been entitled. Yet this has no
effect on the value of the property, though the pur-
chaser knows, when buying under such conditions,
that he is not to get "a marketable title." lie may,
however, comfort himself by the assurar.ce of Master
SENIOR "that there is scarcely any title that is
nun ketable."

That a general register of titles to real property
cannot be much longer delayed is clear. But
that alone is not sufficient to simplify the title
to land, and make it pass freely from hand to hand. To
effect this, we must abolish entails. It is the power
of entailing land, which is the real bar to its free ex-
change as well as to its proper cultivation. Lend is
continued in a family generation after generation,
each successive owner being only tenant for life,
having the least possible motive for improving or al-
lowing tenants to improve, a property which must go
to one child, and having the greatest possible motive
to extract as much immediate income from it for the
sake of his younger children, usually very slenderly
provided for. That this system is in every way inju-
rious to the public, nobody can doubt; and the great
industrious community of Lancashire has, it seems,
got a clear perception of this truth. Of this a striking
instance occurred during a recent visit made by
Mr. MILNER GIBSON to his constituents at Men-
cheater. After speaking of the condition of Ire-
land, that gentleman is reported to have
said,—" I run extremely anxious to give sup-
port to any measure that will enable the capitalist
to purchase land, and that will set us free from all
this affectation which prevails, not only in Ireland
but in this country, of the difficulties of dealing in
land. I would hare land pass as freely from hand to
hand as any other article of commerce." This senti-
ment was received with "loud and prolonged cheers,
the company rising and waving their hats." And
well might the men of Lancashire cheer such a senti-
ment; for what is implied in it? Why, a double or
treble production of human food from our own soil.
And who is not interested in that question ?
The necessity of a sixty years' title to land arises
solely from entails. That period is fixed with refer-
ence to the ordinary duration of a single life, because,
a person may be tenant for life during that
time with remainder to his or her children, and
having no children, but always being assumed by
law as likely to have children, no transfer can take
place. Mr. SENIOR referred to each a case when he
raid, " There is scarcely any title which is not subject
to some legal doubt. The person entitled, perhaps, is
a woman seventy years old ; the property is to go
over if she dies without issue ; she has never had any
issue ; this is an objection to the title, because the law
always supposes the possibility of having a child."
Now, the short remedy for this state of things would
be a simple act, enacting that when property is given
to a person for life, and afterwards to his or her chil-
dren, such children not being then born, that the'.
tenant for life should be the absolute owner, to Bell, to'
mortgage, or to give by will, and to be amenable to
creditors. This would prevent entails being created
on marriages, but would enable a provision to
be made for the wife, while the children of
landowners would —as the children of other
classes do—succeed to property or not, according
as their father was provident or improvi-
dent. And this would be far better for the
children themselves, for the father could apportion
his property more fairly than under a system of
entail, upon the eldest son. Half the recklessness
and indebtedness of our aristocrats arises from the
dealing with expectancies under entails. The eldest
son, if he survive his father, must take the property
under a settlement made before his birth, and upon
this future interest he draws for present indulgence;
"his cash comes from, his wealth goes to" the usurers.
And the entailed estate of an embarrassed family—and
most of oar landowners are to a great extent ember-
rassed—is a serious public injury. Moreover such a
change in the law as would prevent any settlements
on unborn children is far more consonant with the
principle and genius of our law, than the system of
entails, as we shall show on a future occasion.

MERE is certainly more civilisation in cookery
than we English are inclined to admit. Our maxim
seems to be, the plainer the viand, the more simple its
preparation, the more conducive is it to health, to
economy, and to good taste. In one of these points,
at least, our system completely fails ; and that is, in
economy. For an English palate, meat must be roast
Or boiled ; the consequence is, that none but the best
meat is tolerable or edible. Other nations, whose
meat is lost and metamorphosed in the stew or the
nonp-cauldron, can consume with relish and self-
nourishment, very inferior, and therefore cheaper,
qualities and parts of meat.
The same may be said of our culinary preparations
oC vegetables. These are so very simple, so very
natural, that they are utterly insipid. And the con-
sequence is, that whilst most strenuously landing and
aothering to their methods of dressing vegetables,
nine-tenths of English eaters make no use of vegetables
at ea Cabbage with as is, like virtue in the proverb