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

lating uses, the only effect of the statute was that they were
thenceforward employed in a more formal and complicated
manner. Nor did the evil rest there, for the courts of
equity then intervened and enforced those trusts just as
they had been previ. usly in the habit of enforcing them,
the consequence being that we got an unfortunate di• tine-
tuna between the legal and the equitable estate, between
the jurisdiction of courts of law and the jurisdiction of
courts of equity. The result of the state of things which I
have thus imperfectly described was to create two burdens
upon the landowner, and to cast upon him two obligations,
because he was forced thenceforward to trace the descent
and transmission both of the legal and equitable estate ;
and that which was introduced to relieve the landed inte-
rest became the cause and origin of a double burden.
Moreover, the courts of equity, which undertook the duty
of enforcing interest in real estates, held—not as they migh t
have held, that the trust attached to the person of a trustee,
but—that the trust attached to the land itself; and
even where there was a trust, to divide the produce or to
raise money for the portions of younger children, or for the
benefit of other individuals, they held that the right to
receive so much money was an equitable interest attaching
to the land. Now,lebserve the consequences of that unfor-
tunate doctrine. The owner of land, in travelling back over
the GO years which he has to cover by his evidence and dis-
closures, is compelled to trace every single case of a portion
or a money charge directed to be paid and satisfied out of the
land—to trace the individual entitled to it, to produce the
release of it, and prove that the ,land is emancipated from
the charge. Your lordships will easily understand the ope-
ration of this doctrine that a trust attached to the land and
not to the per son. If you create a settlement or disposition
by a sum of money invested in Consols, which you invest
in the name of trustees, the trust affects only the perscn of
the trustee, and does not fasten upon the Consols. The
difference is great indeed. The title to the stock is mani-
fested by the possession and by the entries in the books of
the Bank of England, and although the stock may be held
upon 100 trusts, the concurrence of no one of these
beneficiaries is necessary for the transfer of the stock.
Now, in a trust of land the concurrence of all the benefi-
ciaries is necessary for its effective transfer. A great burden
is cast upon the owner of real property by this unfortunate
course of procedure. It would seem as though the Legisla-
ture were deterred from any further attempt to remedy the
evil, seeing their efforts had been baffled in the manner I
have described. From that time the landed interest has
crouched down and bent low under the burden which was
cast upon it, and that is the position in which things stand
at the present moment. The extent of the evil, however,
does not rest there, because a landed proprietor being obliged
to demonstrate his title for GO years, if the law had benevo •
lently provided any mode of doing this efficiently or of re-
cording the result of that investigation—if any machinery
had been contrived to stamp his title when once ascertained
with the sterling mark of being valid and good—the evil
might then have been easily borne. But unfortunately no-
thing of the kind is known to our law, and, therefore, if a
landed proprietor disposes of a farm, the title to which is
thoroughly investigated and is accepted by the purchaser,
and next day wishes to sell another farm which he holds
under exactly the same title, he gains not one particle of
benefit from the expense of the first investigation, but the
same inquiries must be made by the second purchaser, and
the same expense must be borne before the title to the second
farm can be perfected. And so on ad in finitum, nothing being
gained by the labour and expense to which you have been
subjected, save only that you may have in the second case
more ready means of repeating the process, and of com-
plying with the requisitions made than you had before.
There is another grievance of which we have now to com-
plain, but which I hope from this day we may see some
chance of removing. I can hardly denominate it by any
other name than the tyranny of parchment deeds, The
wonderful invention of printing rendered the extension of
information a matter of great facility in every branch of
knowledge but the law, and the lawyers repudiated it alto-
gether. If, when the art of printing was introduced, deeds
had been permitted to be printed, as they might well have
been, one effect would have been that we should have got
rid of much perverse obscurity and constant repetitions
with which parchment deeds are encumbered. Not only
so, but all deeds would have been brought into a simple and
readily accessible form. instead of requiring large and ex-
tensively constructed muniment rooms, all titles to estates
might have been bound up in a few volumes, the liability
to error that now exists would have been entirely avoided,
and I may venture to add that a great part of the litigation
which has been produced from the difficulties of discover-
ing the meaning and effect of deeds would have been pre-
vented. Not only so, but a great part of the expense
attending an alienation of land would have been got rid of.
For what is now the practice? When you sell an
.estate
eon
examine,ts relatingatno ritt col-
lected rte,go be
tl
hi gee rd, to
first Gavefor
yalolutrh
se o Pl
solicitormt
to prepare an abstract. That abstract is handed to the pin.-
chaser, who, however, also must see the original parch-
ments, to ascertain whether the abstract contains a faithful
and true account of all transactions. This is an expensive
and tedious process, and I put it to your lordships whether
much of these inconveniences would not have been avoided

if title deeds to estates had been printed upon simple pieces
of paper. There would have been no difficulty in perusing
them or in ascertaining the meaning—it would have been
the easiest, the simplest and the most economical proceeding
as I think must be obvious to everyone. Deeds might be
printed at one-half the expense at which they are engrossed.
Not only might deeds be printed, but as I have ventured
already to observe they would then be reduced one-half in
size. There is nothing in my professional life to which I look
back with so much pleasure as the efforts I made, and sue-
cessfully,to introduce into the Court of Chancery the practice
of printing bills and proceedings, but so great was the preju-
dice that when I ventured to propose it as a thing necessary
to be done there was not a single one of my colleagues upon
thecommission who could give me the slightest hope that the
thing could be done, or that it would produce any benefit.
It was accepted, not from conviction, but out of considera-
tion towards myself and my position at the bar, I think,
however, now I may venture to say that that change has
been productive of the greatest possible benefit in the Court
of Chancery, and I may refer to it as evidencing what I said
just now concerning deeds, that it has got rid of the cum -
brous, prolix, and tautological repetitions in bills, and has
reduced the size of those bills at least one-third, while the
statements contained in them are couched in plain and in-
telligible language. I refer to this because you will find
that one of the provisions by which I propose to work the
measure which I shall have the honour of submitting is,
that in future all deeds relating to estates shall be printed.
The question, and it is a most important one, is, in what
wa) shall we meet the evils which I have described. In the
first place they are to be met and removed, I think, without
making any material change in the law. Ido not want to
introduce any alteration in the system of legal rights of
ownership. I want only to introduce alterations in the mode of
perfecting and manifesting titles, to facilitate the disposition
of estates, and to bring them as near as possible into a condi-
tion of easy alienation, so that land may be dealt with with
almost the same facility as ships or railway property, or
shares in public companies, or the enormous amount of
wealth invested in Government securities. I approach the
subject with great confidence in the present day, because of
our experience of that very great and beneficent measure
that was passed some years ago for the sister country, and
which has been attended by so great success. Your lord-
ships know that when the Encumbered Estates Court was
instituted it was upon the principle that the Court should
examine the titles of those who had recourse to ii
sfohrthide
sale of estates, should put up the lands for sale,
ename of the
and cu
give to the purchaser a clear title, writing th
complete owner upon a piece of paper, which was to start him anew,
and give him a comp title—a statutory against all the
world without the necessity of retrospective investigation.
W ell, now, the success that has attended the operations of
that court is so far an assurance to us that the first step of
obtaining a statutory title is a feasible and a beneficial pro-
position. The great difficulty still remains of providing an
instrument that shall not only provide a statutory title, but
shall also contain within itself the means of recording and
preserving the evidence of the title, so that it may be repro-
duced at any time whenever it may be required. The pur-
chaser from the Landed Estates Court takes, it is true, a
statutory title, but when he proceeds to deal with the laud it
is in the same position as before, and in the course of a few
years the title he has obtained becomes obscure from a great
number of subsequent transactions, and thelaw has provided
nu mode of keeping up a record, preserving tho proof of the
title, and of the subsequent transactions, so that at any time
the exact state of the title to the estate could be ascertained
and reduced to a simple statement upon a piece of paper,
which might be given to the owner, and thus enable him to
dispose of the land. I want to construct a legal instrument
that shall not only enable a man to obtain a stauttory title
at the present time, but which should enable him to give
from time to time entries of the results of all future trans-
actions and dealings with the land, so that the owner of the
estate might at any time send to the registry, and if he
wanted to sell might obtain a special certificate of title. He
could then go into the market with that certificate, and a
purchaser may safely deal with the estate, the sd imple certi-
ficate obviating the necessity for the diflicult an
cumbrous
gne otiations that are now required. Your lordships will
tileec ; tss— second,
allow me to explain what is the form of the machinery of this
bill, and in what manner the instrument may be expected
ttoo wasocrekr,taininowrdheerthtoeracthcoemrepilsisahgtohoed stsesaetvuetroarlyot
to preserve the proof of all subsequent dealings with the
land, so that the nature of the real existing interests on the
estate may at any time be ascertained ; and thirdly, to Pro-
vide a mode by which all those dealings with land which
the convenience or the necessities of mankind require may
be most easily and readily transferred to the record of the
court, and kept there for future reference. I propose in the
bill to establish a registry, which is divided into two parts;
one is a registry of guaranteed titles—that is statutory, in-
defeasible titles; the other is a registry of titles not guaran-
teed, which are to be put upon the registry, with a view to
become Parliamentary and indefeasible when in a course of
long enjoyment they may become so entitled. Now, what
is to be done by a proprietor to entitle himself to place his
title?l n d upon
T h
et
rhee
mr eugsits,t eorf
cionu or
sr
ed,e
br
et o a ombot as
ti n a
rigidP aorx
al i ammi ennattai
or
ny
of the title, but it would be an examination once for all.
Instead of the process having to be gone through repeatedly
it will be gone through once for all. And it will be done
onfottilineainTetitinn;tontihata will divulge to all the world the results
but by officers of trusts sworn to tllol'