The Express.
London, England, 1862-02-18 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, FEB. 18.

L ,iti, WEXTBEKV has expliiined his plan for faci-
litating the Transfer of Land. The subject has
been so long before the public—the inconveniences
of the present system art so thoroughly appre-
ciated by everybody who has anything to do
with the sale or purchase of land—and who
has not I—that the only questions which re-
main concern the hest plan of remedying these
inconveniences, and the chance of carrying the
plan which may be selected. It is not to be denied
that of late years there has been a considerable
change of opinion on this subject. From tho days
of Lord Bat oN and Sir MATTHEW HALE until the
year l 851; it seemed to be admitted that what
waa called • Registry of Deeds wee the only mode
in which the expense and difficulty of transferring
land could be diminished. But in that year some
very eminent men, and amongst others Lord WEST.
scar himself, reported in favour of what was
called • Registration of Title, according to which
each separate state was to be registered in the
name of certain persons, so as to be tranderred,
like Stock in the Funds or in • Railway Company,
by substituting the names of the new
transferees in the place of those who were
displaced. It laight have been expected that the
Loan CuseituAnt would have contented himself
with bringing in a Bill carrying into effect the re-

corunumilitijus to which he himself was a
party, and the fact that the Opposition, under
the guidance of Sir lltlar (*mass, in the year
1859, were prepared to carry into effect the plan
proposed by the Commissioners in their Report
naturally strengthened the expectation. But
it has been disappointed. The CHASCILLOR has
now laid • Bill upon the table of the House
of Lords materially &tiering from that Report.
It would be premature to hazard a final
opinion as to the merits or demerits of this
measure. But it is already clear that it will
have to encounter considerable difficulty, and
indeed it appears that last night both Lord CILL/f•
WORTH and Lord CHUAISTIPRII each laid on the
table a pair of Bills for precisely the same object
as that contemplated by the LORD CHANCELUM
On a matter which has so long occupied the minds
of both lawyers and of laymen, it would, no doubt,
have been more prudent to adopt that scheme of
reform which was most likely to conciliate sup-
port. Nor is it to be doubted that
in solving so complicated a question, both
the public and the lay members of both Houses
would gladly rely upon the united judgment of
those who were really acquainted with so technical
a subject. The Report of the year 1856, to
which allusion has been made, and the official con-
duct of Sir Actin CAIRNS, furnished powerful
reasons in favour of the plans already before the
public. It may be that the CIIANVIELLOS has seen
reason to change his opinion, and to adopt
another system. But it is to be hoped that these
reasons are of the most cogent nature, and that
the new plan which he now produces possesses
obvious advantages ; for it is not to be denied that,
unless this be the case, the measure introduced last
night runs great dangers of being shipwrecked,
even before it reaches the Lower House of
Parliament.

In every species of property, except land, the
fact of possession is the ordinary proof of title to
it. A table or a chair, a horse or a cow, is
assumed to belong to the individual who has it in
his possession, and this individual is entitled
to transfer it to any other individual whom he
pleases. So it is with stock in a railway
company or with a ship. There is a register kept
of Cie various persons to whom the stock or the
ship belong, and if any individual can prevail
upon the registered owner to transfer the stock or
the ship into that individual's name, ho becomes

the owner. It is no doubt true that these regis-
tered owners may not be the real owners. They
may be mere trustees—they may hold for the
benefit of a hundred other persons. But if the
registered owners choosy to bo dishonest, and to
transfer the property which stands in their name
against the wishes or without the knowledge of
the persons ready interested, the only result is
that the real owner; Lave a remedy against those who
have thus violated their duty, but nevertheless the
stock itself, or the sh'.r, remains the property of tbo
person to whom it has been transferred. It may
of course be said that this system puts enormous
power into the hands of the registered owner,
and that few would be willing to so entrusttheir pro-
perty to the hands of another. But experience
proves that such fears arc chimerical. There is
probably a single family in the kingdom, from
the Qcr.ls hers-1f and her children to the most
ordinary professional man, in which the fortunes
of the wife and the children do not depend upon
the honesty- of trustees. In some came, no doubt,
the confidences placed in trustees is proved to have
been misplaced : the stock is sold out, the trustees
aro insolvent, and the family is ruined. But upon
the whole the system works admirably ; DOT is it
any exaggeration to say that any material change
in this system would not be listened to for • mo-
ment.

Now, the question is, why should not land,
or real property, m it is called, be assimilated to
money in the funds or stock in • railway company?
When would be the difficulty of having • re-,
sister of the names of those entitled to deal
with definite piecei of land T These persona, like
the registered owners of stock, might be board
by every species of obligation. They might be
bound to allow • father to occupy the Mud during

his life, to allow curtain sums of money to be
raised for the widow or for the children, and then
to allow the series of sons and daughters, grandsons
and granddaughters to occupy the laud thus
settled. With thew obligations and restrictions,
however, a purchaser need have nothing whatever
to do. His business would be with the persons on
the register, so that as aeon as they transferred the
estate to him he would be secure in its possession,
whilst the trustees Might remain liable to those
whom they had practically deprived of their property.
The present system, however, rests upon very diffe-
rent principles. According to that system no pur-
chaser can be certain that he has obtained the
estate which fo has bought until be has examined
the whole series of transactions which have taken

place with respect to that estate for the last
sixty years. As has boon said, if you buy stock
or railway shares, the purchase is completed and
the money paid within a few hours ; or, to take
another instance from the case of ships—in five
minute', and at an expense of less than tire shilling',
you may make a contract for and actually transfer
such a ship as the Himalaya or the Great Eastern.
Bait if you buy land at an auction, or enter
into a contract for the purchase of an estate, it by
no means follows that you can get into possession.
The deeds connected with such property for
the last sixty years must be abstracted;
this abstract must be compared with the original

documents. There must be searches for incum-
'seances ; objc:tiotui must be made ; these
objections must be answered ; disputes
must arise, defects must be cured—in
short, the difficulties of clearing up the
complicated history of more than half a century
must be overcome, or the contract must be aban-
doned. Nor is this all. The same tedious and
expensive process must be repeated upon every
omission on which the estate is to be dealt with,
either by selling it or borrowing money upon it.
The very same questions may have been examined
twenty times. Every new dealing involves a re-
petition of the same investigation ; nor is it un-
usual to find that the same title is submitted to
the same counsel by the same solicitor a dozen
times.

Now, the great question is, whether this tedious
and vain repetition cannot be avoided t Is there
no means by which a single investigation can be
made conclusive t If this can be done, enormous
trouble and a vast amount of money will be saved ;
6o that in point of fact the price of every acre of
land in the kingdom will be considerably increased.
The remedy for this evil is not difficult, and it is'
important to observe that it is a remedy as to which
Lord Chancellor Wrocrsuity agrees with all those
who have considered the subject. Henceforth the ne-
comity for this elaborate investigation is to be got
rid of once for all by an official inquiry before the
Registrar, assisted if necessary by the Judges of
the Court of Chancery. Following the analogy
of the Encumbered Estates Court in Ireland, the
owners of land are to be provided, as the CHAN-
cru.os says, with " a clean title"—the owner's
name is to be written upon a piece of paper, the

effect of which will be to start him anew with a
statutory title good against all the world, and this
will relieve him from the necessity of any retro-
spective investigation. If this were the
only provision of the CILLNCELLORN Bill,
it would confer a very great benefit, without
doing the slightest injury to any individual.
The experience of the Encumbered Estates Court
has placed this matter beyond doubt. Properties
to the value of twenty millions—one-seventh of
the whole area of Ireland—have passed through
that court, and yet, ma the CHANCIILLOR declared,
repeating the statement of Sir lition CAIkNs, not
• single cars has been proved of injury to any
individual by the granting of indefeasible titles.
There is no reason, therefore, to suppose that this
part of the scheme will meet with any serious
opposition, more especially as proprietors aro not
to be compelled to obtain a Parliamentary title,
and as the Court of Chancery is in the first
instance to be charged with the same duties which
are now discharged in Ireland by the Landed
Estates Court.

But, besides this, the Bill of the Czar-
cILLOS contains provisions the object of which is to
supply the means of recording and preserving
all the transactions which may take place with
reference to the same land. It is obvious that
the purchaser who has got a statutory title will, in
all probability, deal with the land thus secured to
him. After a few years, therefore, the title must
become obscured by a number of subsequent
transactions, and therefore some means is required
to keep up the record, and preserve the proof of
' those subsequent transactions, so that at any time
the exact state of the title to the estate may be
ascertained, reduced into proper form, and given
to the individual to enable him to dispose of his
property. This object is to be accomplished by a
system of registration. The details of such a
system are necessarily complicated ; and it is im-
possible to express any definite opinion as to
whether they will effect the proposed object. They
demand careful consideration. But even should
they prove ineffectual, the value to landed pro-
prietors of being able from time to time, by means
of the CH mgcsuka's Bill, to get rid of the neosenity
of a constantly recurring investigation by obtaining
a statutory title, cannot be exaggerated.