The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-25 00:00:00

Tifuß,S9Vir PWRINTIN'(-4, SaPTEIVIRER 215, 1862.

glared by purchase, gift inter vivos, devise, or
descent, cannot obtain for himself an indefeasible
title to them under the act. _

Upon application the registrar will deliver to the
owner of any lands upon the registry a certificate,
called a Lands Certificate, which is to contain
copies of the entries in the registry book. An imam-
brancer, also, will be entitled to have a certificate
of his incumbrances. If a certificate should be lost,
the registrar may grant a new one in its place; but
the new one will not be of any avail against any
person who may have derived title under the former
certificate.

Thus far, then, as to obtaining an indefeasible
title.

But how will the second objeet of the act, facili-
tating the proof of the title to the real estates on
the register, be attained ?

The act provides that, after the registration of
any land as indefeasible, every estate or interest, of
what kind soever, created or arising therein, shall
be entered in the Record of Title or Register of In-
cumbrances, as the case may be. We may here add
that the act further expressly enacts that no unre-
gistered estate or interest shall prevail against the
title of any subsequent purchaser for valuable con-
sideration registered under the act; hereby sweep-
ing away—and most properly sweeping away—all
those doctrines and principles in regard to notice
which have gone far to render nugatory the provi-
sions of the heretofore existing Registration Acts.
The Registry of Estates, the Record of Title, and
the Register of Incumbrances (if any) will in fact
form the abstract of title, and the root of the title
will be the registration. Thus registration will
facilitate the proof of the title to lands, by holding
up, as it were, in ti mirror the state of the title and
enabling such proof to be made almost at a glance ;
for every entry in the registry books will be in the
shortest form consistent with accuracy, a deed of
several skins of parchment being in the great majo-
rity of cases stated in a few lines.
We have now to consider the third object of the
act, simplifying and cheapening the dealing with
land.

The length of time which ordinarily elapses be-
tween a contract for the sale of land and its com-
pletion is well known. It is seldom less than three
months, and often, and sometimes more than three
times three months, before the conveyance is exe-
cuted and the transaction completed. This interval
is taken up in examining the abstract, in making
requisitions upon it, and answering them. Occa-
sionally, also, one of the contracting parties resorts
to the Court of Chancery to settle his differences
with the other contracting party. Under the Land
Transfer Act little time will be lost in investigat-
ing a title once registered, as the date of registra-
tion will form an epoch or fresh starting point an-
terior to which it will not be necessary to make
any investigation whatever into the title, inasmuch
as the title will be unassailable by anything which
may have happened prior to registration and the
registry of estates. The Record of Title and the
Register of Incumbrances (if any) will, as we have
already said, in fact form the abstract of title. Thus
one fruitful source of expense under the present
system of land transfer, the investigation of the
title, will be done away with.
But the Act does not stop there. The mode of
conveyance will be rendered as short as possible,
and consequently the expense of the conveyance
greatly lessened.
The Act provides that all registered land may be
conveyed or dealt with—

1. By a statutory disposition in any of the forms
described in the schedule to the Act.

2. By endorsement on the land certificate.
3. By deposit of the land certificate.

4. By any deed, will, or other instrument by
which land, not registered, may now be conveyed
or dealt with ; but no equitable mortgage or lien
on registered land shall be created by a deposit of
title-deeds. The only way, then, in which an
equitable mortgage of registered land can be created
is by a deposit of the land certificate.

The schedule comprises forms of conveyance of
land, of mortgage, of transfer of land by endorse-
ment on the land certificate, and of transfer of mort-
gage, all of them being in the shortest possible
form: For example, the form of transfer of land is
as follows :

"Dated this day of . I, AB, of &c., in con
sideration of (five thousand pounds) paid to me, grant to
C D and his heirs for ever, all (insert description of land).
"Signed and sealed by A. B.
" Witness—E F, of, &c., a Solicitor of the High Court of
Chancery, or a certificated conveyancer."

We know not whether it be intended that in all
those cases in which the forms comprised in the
schedule are used the execution of them shall be
attested by either a solicitor in Chancery or a certi-
ficated conveyancer. If so, it is clear that there
may be cases in which such a requisition would be
highly inconvenient, if not impossible to be com-
plied with. This, however, is a matter which
would seem to be readily susceptible of remedy, in-
asmuch as the Lord Chancellor has the power of
altering the forms stated in the s2hedule by pub-
lished advertisement in the London Gazette.

We should add that the lands placed in the re-
gistry may be withdrawn from it at any time, and
that the enactments of the act are purely permissive,
and do not oblige landowners to register under it.
Upon the application, by petition or otherwise, of
any of the persons empowered to apply for a regis-
tration of title as before mentioned, sales of land
with an indefeasible title may be made under the act
by the Court of Chancery, in the same manner as
sales are made by the Landed Estates Court in Ire-
land.

The act also provides for registration without an
indefeasible title in cases where the applicant or
person through whom he claims has been in the
enjoyment or receipt of the rents of land, as owner
of the fee simple, continuously for ten years prior to
the period of the application.
In these eases no investigation of title will take
place beyond the production to the registrar of the
last deed or will (if any) under which the applicant
derives title ; and, apparently, the only expense
will be that attendant on settling the description of
the parcels and ascertaining the boundaries.
The act alro does not prescribe the mode in
which the registration of land without an indefea-
sible title is to be effected; but we presume that in
this case books similar to those which will be kept
for the registration of indefeasible titles will be used.

The advantage which will attend registration
without an indefeasible title will be that the record
of title will evidence all dealings with the land sub-
sequent to such registration, as in the case of regis-
tration with an indefeasible title. After the estate
has been on the registry for a few years the title
may possibly be accepted by purchasers and mort-
gagees without further investigation ; and the re-
gistrar is empowered under the act to fix a time
when the title will become indefeasible. In this
latter case, however, we presume—for the act does
not say so—that, as in the case of lands originally
registered with an indefeasible title, the title would
be indefeasible only in the hands of a purchaser for
valuable consideration.

That the act will prove successful we can scarcely
doubt. In the case of sales under it with an inde-
feasible title by the Court of Chancery we have in-
deed the introduction into England of the principle
of the Landed Estates Court in Ireland, and that
such sales will from their manifest advantages be
resorted to we think tolerably certain. Again, it is
to be borne in mind that landowners who at the time
of the registration of their lands with an indefeasible
title have no immediate sale in view will, by such a
registration, expedite and facilitate a sale at a future
period if they should make one, and moreover that
they will thereby almost certainly insure a better
price for their land, inasmuch as the title will be
indefeasible or unimpeachable in the hands of a
purchaser for value.
Some landowners have been thrown into a ner-
vous state of excitement by the fear that their lands
may, under the Act, be conveyed away from them
but it may allay their apprehensions
indefeasiblyto
be ;
told th a
t there is only one case in Ireland in
which the Encumbered Estates Court has sold land
as belonging to one person while in reality it belonged
those who state that Mr.lVaite, the purchaser, could,
to another ; and that, as regards the Roupell case,
under the Lord Chancellor's Act, have procured an
indefeasible title had the Act been in operation at
the time of the sale to him, assume that the title of

Wm. Roupell would have passed unscathed through
the ordeal of the new Land Registry-office, an as-
sumption which, as we humbly conceive, is not
entitled to be made.

Since the above was in type we have heard that
it is not improbable the opening of the Land Re-
gistry-office may be postponed until towards the
end of October; for although the Lord Chancellor
has exerted himself greatly to bring his Act into
operation on the day ori;inally announced, the
difficulties attendant upon the first establishment
of an important public department are so numerous,
owing mainly to the delays which take place in the
communications between the different public offices,
that we understand it is almost impossible to com-
plete the arrangements for opening the Land Regis-
try-office by the day first named.

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, SEPT. 24.

The magistrates of Belfast have at length re-
solved to act with something like vigour. They
found, after nearly a week's experience, that coax-
ing and reasoning with daring ruffians, who pelted
them with stones while reading the Riot Act, had
no effect but to encourage the work of destruction,
which went on and increased night after night.
On Tuosday, therefore, the Mayor issued a pro-
clamation which he ought to have issued on Thurs-
day, after the first night's rioting. The following
is a copy of the proclamation :

"NV hereas the peace of the town has been seri-
ously disturbed by the illegal and tumultuous as-
sembling together of large bodies of persons for
several nights pest.

" Now I, Charles Lanyon, Mayor of Belfast, do
hereby give notice that the magistrates have de-
termined to apprehend all parties who refuse to
disperse and peaceably to depart to their habitations
after the reading of the Riot Act.
" Sept. 22. " CHARLES LANYON, Mayor."

Notices " to the Orangemen of Belfast" were also
placarded through the town, signed by "W.
Peebles, District Secretary," one of which stated
that—

" Any Orangeman known to take any part what-
ever in the disgraceful riots which for a certain well-
known object are now got up in the town will be
removed forthwith from the loyal Orange Institu-
tion."
The other notice is as follows :

" The riots which now disgrace our town are got
up for a certain well-known object. Orangemen,
be wise. Keep wholly away. Confine yourselves
strictly to your homes, and exhort to this course all
within your reach.''

The precautions adopted in pursuance of the pro-
clamation have proved effective. There was no
rioting last night, and it is believed they will not
be renewed. There has been a regular "flitting"
from the disturbed districts. All the Protestants
residing in the " Pound district" have packed up
and removed to other parts of the town, not think-
ing their lives safe in the enemy's camp. In like
manner all the Roman Catholics of the "Sandy-
row district" have removed to places where their
presence will not be regarded as a standing offence
to their neighbours. This moving is not a matter
of choice with either of the parties. They had got
notice to quit, and they would remain at their peril.
One of the measures adopted on Monday night
for the preservation of the peace was to have all the
publichouses all closed at 6 o'clock. Another was
to prevent the assembling of crowds in the streets.
The people were required to " move on." The
navvies marched up again from their work in regu-
lar order with their spades and hammers. They were
stopped by the military, while the police disarmed
them and lodged their weapons in the barracks.
These measures kept the districts usually disturbed
in a state of quietness; but there was another part
of the town unaccountably neglected—" entirely
given over to a riotous mob"—consisting of Roman
Catholics. The result was the wrecking of a large
number of houses. They extinguished the lamps
and attacked a party of police, which they drove
back till they were reinforced. Several hundred
Orangemen were assembled in the Orange-hall and
in the street outside, well armed and ready to de-
fend it at all hazards. They were fortunately not
attacked, otherwise there would have been some
bloody work. Daring all this night there was but
one man arrested, and that was by the Mayor him-
self in person. "Is it to be longer endured," asks
the Northern Whig," that with 2,000 armed men
in Belfast, a lot of ruffians are to set all law and
order at defiance—are to assault innocent people
who are travelling quietly to their homes, knock
them down, kick them, and otherwise abuse them,
for no cause or reason whatever ?"

Several respectable people were frightfully abused
in this way—beaten almost to death and robbed of
their watches and money, Thirteen persons have
been arrested for taking part in the riots. They
were brought before the magistrates on Monday ;
one was fined 405., the other twelve were remanded.

EXTRAORDINARY DEST_RUCTION OF A

FLOCK OF 114 SHEEP.

COSHAM, HANTS.

By one of the most extraordinary accidents which
it has ever been our lot to chronicle, Mr. George
Peel, an extensive occupier of land, and sheep-
farmer, residing at Wymering Farm, near Cosham,
within a short distance of Portsmouth, lost more
than a hundred sheep on the afternoon of Saturday
last. It would appear that, in a large field on the
Horndean-road, about half a mile from Waterloo,
there was a flock of about 500 sheep, the property
of Mr. Peel, which were in charge of a shepherd
named Francis Whitcher. This man states that he
left the sheep all right about twelve o'clock a.m.,
and went over to Waterloo to get a paunch for his
dog, which he took with him. About half-past
two word was brought to Mr. Peel's house that
the sheep were in a ditch, and on James Carter,
another of Mr. Peel's shepherds, going to the field
he found a vast number of sheep jammed together
in the ditch, and the others striving to force
their way in. With great difficulty the sheep
were driven back, and 70 were got out of the ditch
alive, but 114 were found dead in the ditch. The
ditch is about 40 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 6 feet
deep, and it would seem that one sheep having gone
in, the others followed, till they were all jammed
together, and literally suffocated. The ditch was
perfectly dry. The carcases were got out and carted
to Mr. Peel's farm-yard, where in a very few hours
the progress of decomposition was apparent. The
skins were removed, and the carcasses were sold to
knackers and tallow-chandlers. Mr. Peel's loss
will amount to upwards of £2OO. Among those
suffocated were five valuable rams, and many of the
ewes were with lamb.

SUPERSTITION IN A HIGHLAND GLEN.

-

Some days ago, in an upland strath no 50 miles
from Ben Avon, a very extraordinary disclosure of
superstitious belief in the power of "fortune-tell-
ing " came to our knowledge. The story (says our
correspondent) is as under, and we have it from good
authority :—" A band of tinkers had been peram-
bulating the district, and it would appear one of the
grannies' of the tribe had been holding forth offers
to some of the female portion of the inhabitants to
read their fortunes for so much. Having got a job
from one woman, who, by the way, gave her 2s.
extra to tell her how her husband behaved, as she
was jealous of his fidelity towards her, one part of
the performance was that the ' spae wife' would re-
quire a full suit of the woman's best clothes to be
buried for two days. The fortune-tellers' not
returning with the clothes and the tidings as to her
fortune at the time specified, the woman set out in
pursuit, but not without great reluctance to tell
any of her neighbours of what she was after. How-
ever, a neighbouring wife, whom she passed in her
pursuit, suspecting what she was after, joined in
the hunt with her, and in course the pursuers in-
creased in numbers considerably, and at last came
upon the jolly tinkers' camp. The'spas wife' was
missed, having been seen to decamp from the ren-
dezvous and conceal herself under the ruins of an
old bridge. She was soon, however, dragged from
her.den, and a regular stand-up battle of tongues
ensued. Among other remarks was that of the
second party who had joined in the pursuit, who
said—" Oh, woman, you should have given her the
half-sovereign at once ; that's what she read my

fortune for yesterday.' The squabble ended in the
deluded owner of the clothes taking them back by
force ; but the ' twa shillings' were not forth-
coming. We thought such superstitious notions
were entirely exploded ; but it would seem there
are still some jobs for 'fortune tellers' in the High-
lands.—Banffshire Journal.