Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-02-17 00:00:00

LANDED PROPERTY

- WITH land, as with any other property which
a man may own, whether by succession, by
bequest, or by purchase, every thing depends upon
his legal right to its possession And it is strange,
that in a country like England, where land is so
justly considered to be the highest investment, and
the position of a landed proprietor is so properly
regarded as one of honour and credit, that there
should yet be the greatest difficulty, so often, in
establishing its tenure. Of course the real
foundation, of the right to it is the law of the
land. Doubtless there is to be found a divine
sanction of such a right ; and them can be• shewn
to be good and sufficient reasons why, for the
common weal,. it should. exist. The designs of
Providence, in a state of settled society, could not
apparently be falfilled without the institutim of
property. And the law of property, therefore?. is
obviously in strict accordance with the divine
Yet is it a law—a law of the country int which it
is ; and whereas the right of property depends

upon the law, that right is possessed independently
altogether of the manner or justice of the original
acquisition, or of the• character of each subsequent
change of possessious—so that only it be now
possessed under the law. Neither does the
owner's right depend upon the expediency of the
law which secures it to him.

It has been well observed, that " it is the•boast
of au Englishman that his property is secure and
all the world will grant, that a denerate
administration of justice. is the best way to secure
his property. Why have we so• many lawyers,

but to secure our property ? why so many
formalities, but to secure our property ? Not less
than one hundred thousand families live in
opulence, elegance, and ease, merely by securing
our property." This was•: said nearly a century
ago; and if it were true then, that so many
families flourished on the profits of promoting and
maintaining such security,.many more, one would
think, must do so now. And certainly such a het
as this: attests very strongly the importance that

attaches to it.
This• security of property, then, mainly rests. in
the validity of the title• to it, which the law
demand. Yet this law, as: respects landed estates,
is full of complications andflegal fictions—it has to
do with a severity of feudal tenures, and with a
fictitious system of fines and recoveries, the diffi-
culties created by which may very reasonably
account for our having so many lawyers fattening
upon the one single thing of seeing to the security
of that which the law, without doubt, confers the
right to possess. Yes,, there is the law ;, but its
forms are complicate, and some times indefinite.
There must be, a good title to a landed estate, or
else there is no security for its possession.,, and no
The question, has been
sked, and answered—" Is a man impoverished by
purchase ? It is because he paid his; money for a
lie, and took a bad title for good."' These forms
of law were a greater grievance formerly, but were

facility for its transfer

made to bend to the advancing necessities of com-
merce, and the growing wants of the people. Yet
this was mainly done by devices, which were gene-
rally troublesome, and which still, indeed, to a
considerable extent, exist as such.
The Government, however, has now undertaken
to reform this most undesirable state of things.
The Solicitor-General has brought forward a bill
in the House of Commons, to simplify the law
relating to landed estates in England. It is sought
to make the transfer of such an estate as easy, as
expeditious, and as safe, as that of any other kind
of property ; and, at the same time, and above all,
to make the title to it as secure. "We know,"
said the learned member, " how the purchase of
all other kinds of property is completed. If it be
stock we do not require to be told how many hours
are needed to make the transfer complete ; if it be
railway or other shares you have the purchase
completed in a few hours. Instances of the rapid
transfer of some kinds of property in this country
may be found in the case of ships. Take the Great
Eastern or the Himalaya. You might make a con-
tract to purchase either the Great Eastern or the
Himalaya, and have the transfer effected in the
space of five minutes, and for an expense of less
than ss."—advantages, as he truly remarked,
which ought never to be forgotten by the owners
of shipping property in this country; and which
ought to be possessed, there can be but one opinion,
by the owners of landed property. •
Yet how different, at present, are the circum-
stances of the two cases. With regard to ship-
ping purchases and transfers, there are no stamp
duties, and no difficulties in making out a title.
There is a single document in a very simple form,
and by a simple entry upon the registry of ship-
ping it is known a transfer has taken place. Com-
pare this with what is done in the case of landed
property, as the Solicitor-General described it—
" You buy an estate at auction, or enter into a
contract for its purchase ; you ar-_, anxious to get
possession of the property you have bought ; the
vendor is very anxious to get his money. But do
you get possession, and does he get the money ?
Upon the contrary, there begins-Itnd which occu-
pies a considerable portion of a man's life- -the
preparation of abstracts, a comparison of deeds,
searches for incumbrances, objections made to title,
answers to those objections ; disputes arise upon
the inquiries ; endeavours are made to cure defects,
and in this way, as many of us know, years pass
over in a history of this kind." These are certainly
practical inconveniences, not to say positive griev-
ances ; and one's only wonder is that they have
gone so long unredressed.
It is the object of the Ministerial measure, to'
epsruovbilde ishead,remsoedy formewhat AasCorwests to bep,:etsthe
question of tenure and titles, to the Encumbered
Estates' Court in Ireland, whose duty will be the