The Express.
London, England, 1848-07-12 00:00:00

SUGAR DUTIES.

Mr. BERNAL brought up the report of the committee on
the sugar dolts resolutions. The resolutions were read a
second time and agreed to, the date of their operation being
altered from the sth to the loth of July in each year. The
resolutions having been agreed to, the Chancellor of the Er-
chequer, Mr. Bernal, and Mr Parker were ordered to bring
in a bill to carry them into effect.
INCUMBERED ESTATES (IRELAND) BILL.
_ . • -• • • .•

The oroer of the <ley tor resuming the debate en the
amendment of the hon. baronet the member for Cure,
for extending the operation of the bill to England and Scot-
land, was then read.
Mr. SADLIER entered into a preliminary defence of the
hon. baronet the member fur Clare, who had been un-
justly aspersed during the former debate by the hon. mem-
ber for Middlesex. the bill contained provisions which
might with great advantage be applied to ineumbered
landed properties in Scotland and d. He objected to
the system of legislating distinctively for Ireland as regarded
the other parts of the empire. He war as anxious as
any member of that house to render the transfer of landed
property easy, cheap, and expeditious in Ireland. But he
would only consent to do this con,istently with the rights of
individuals and the laws of property. Whilst giving credit
1 to the hon. and learned Solicitor-General for his desire to
put an end to the present system of receivers of estates and
lof chancery suits, he must say that he had misled the
house as to the effect which his bill would have
in this respect. Ho wished to know in what clause
of the bill the power of obtaining a clear and inde-
feasib!e title to an estate wild under the powers of the bill
would be bestowed. He could discover no such power of
obtaining a parliamentary title as it was called. The bill
would confer upon mortgagees and judgment creditors
powers of sale over land which they never yet possessed. The
valuable feature of the bill consisted in its conferring the
power on tenants for life of disposing of their estates in fee
and inheritance in satisfaction of the encumbrances on them.
The practical effe ct of the bill would be to cut down the
per,od of the Statute of Limitations to five years. Ile com-
plained of those parts of the bill which cast upon the master
in chancery the duty of searching into the titles to the land
and to the various incumbrances on it. He objected
to the mode prescribed for giving notice et in-
tended sales of encumbered estates in Ireland, for they
were limited to advertisements in papers and gazettes
little read, or to bills put upon the doors of churches,
whereas in no instance had the judges of the land ever
deemed such notices valid, unless they had been served upon
the parties, or other equally efficacious steps bad been taken
to insure a knowledge of the contemplated sale of land on
the part of the persons interested. The hon. and learned
Solicitor-General bad well described the extreme intricacies
which characterised landed properties and the claims on
them but so much the greater reason was there for the
legislature to throw every species of protection over the
rights of future claimants, and to guard against fraud in dis-
posing of their property. H.: would be glad to find that the
powers of the bill were to be extended to the Barons of
the Exchequer, as he had the greatest confidence
in the equity chamber of that court. He objected
to the provision impounding in court the negative
searches. He could understand the value of such
searches, but to impound documents which might cost four
or five hundred pounds, for ever in court,without giving the
parties who had paid for them any claim on them, was in his
opinion preposterous. Another blemish in the bill was the
use of the terra •' foreclosure." The hon. and learned gen-
tleman should have known that there was no inch thing
known in Ireland as foreclosure of a mortgage. There was
this wide difference between the law in England and Ire-
land, that whereas in England the mortgagee could proceed
by private sale, in Ireland his only remedy was by a bill in
Chancery. He was disappointed altogether in the bill,
which he expected to have found a measure of a compreben-
eve character. They need not expect that it would diminish
the legal expenses incident to the transfer of property—they
had had no remonstrance from the Irish bar or tbe Irish so-
licitors on that subject. (Hear.) The house might depend
upon it that the interests of the legal prolusion would
suffer nothing from the alteration in the law. What they
wanted was a measure tending to amend the registration of
deeds, to diminish the necessity of voluminous documents,
and to abridge the delay and lessen the expense of searching
for wills, which last-named were the most important items
in ascertaining title in Ireland. He urged upon the_govern-
ment the necessity of remodelling the measure. He had
been satisfied with the bill as it came from the other hours)
of parliament; but subsequent alterations had been made,
which had greatly altered his opinion. He bad every confi-
dence in the bona fides and anxiety to improve the law of her
Majesty's government, and he trusted they would make such
alterations in the bill as would protect the intervate of minors
and second incumbraneen.

Sir J. GRAHAM aplogised as an English member fog
taking part in the discussion of a measure of at. exclusively
Irl.h character. He must confess that he had long looked
despairingly for a bill of this description, one which he
deemed to be of the most vital importance to the improve-
ment of Ireland. (Hear, hear.) The present was not the
occasion to go minutely into technicalities, but he felt it at
the same time right to offer shortly his opinion on the
general mope and outline of the bill, lie was compelled i