The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-02 00:00:00

to have increased the constituency beyond the
power of Sir JAMES HOGG himself to wallow in the
dirt of such a canvass as that for a Director-
ship is confessed on all hands to be. We should
prefer, as we have already pointed out, to add to
the constituency all persons trading to India, such
as merchants and manufacturers who carried on
trade ,to a sufficiently large amount to render
them interested in the welfare and prosperity of
India.

parcel of land forming parts of the estate, with
reference numbers, and a map illustrating the
situation and quantities of such parcels, form all
the means of identification which can really be re-
quired. With regard to all the minor inte-
rests, of various kinds, arising out of land,
thus, trusts for the benefit of a wife
or younger children, legacies and annuities
charged on land, &c., &c., equitable interests of
all kinds, and adverse claims, they should be en-
tirely confined in their operation to the purchase
money paid for the land whenever a sale was
made. A purchaser, for a valuable consideration
and without fraud, should be quite safe in paying
his money and being entered on the register. The
claimants of various kinds should have the power,
on adequate proof of their interests, of applying
to have the purchase money impounded, to be
afterwards divided in satisfaction of their respec-
tive demands. If no such application was made,
the money would be paid, as a matter of course,
to the persons appearing in the register as the legal
owners.

MONEY MARKET

AND
CITY INTELLIGENCE.

CITY, TWO O'CLOCK, VII; DAY.
The sales of cotton at Liverpool yesterday were
estimated at 10,000 bales, of which 2,000 American
were taken for export and speculation. The mar-
ket was steady, but quiet, at previous prices. The
sales comprised 7,500 American, 150 Pernam and
Maranham at 6id. to 70. ; 300 Egyptian at 6d.
to 10-id. ; and 2,000 Surat at 3fd. to 40. ; and 60
Sea Island at 2s. to 2s. 9d. per lb. Railway Shares
were dull at about per cent. lower for all the
leading stocks.
A meeting of the proprietors of the General Iron
Screw Collier Company was held this morning,
and from the statement made, this new feature
in the coal trade appears to have answered well.
The following report of the Directors was adopted :
"In meeting the shareholders for the first time, the
directors have much pleasure in congratulating them on
the very satisfactory position of the company's affairs,
and in being able to state that the anticipations of suc-
cess contained in the prospectus issued prior to its for-
mation have been fully realised. The advance which
subsequently took place in the price of iron, and in
wages, has, with other contingencies, necessarily in-
creased the cost of some of the company's vessels and
added to the expense of their navigation, but these dis-
advantages have been more than balanced by the rate of
freight realised, as compared with that calculated on in
the prospectus.
"So soon as sufficient capital was subscribed to justify
the commencement of operations, the directors entered
into a contract with Messrs. Palmer, Brothers & Com-
pany for building four vessels, the terms of which have
proved highly advantageous to the company ; and im-
mediately the state of the share register warranted such
a step, they entered into a second contract with the
same firm for building six other vessels. Of these the
following are afloat :—The 'William Hutt, the Sir John
Easthope, the Northumberland, the Durham, the Jar-
row.

And then, as to the first argument, that Par-
liament has entrusted the Government of India to
to the East India Company—it is fallacious in every
point of view. It is, indeed, literally false ; for
the WOOD Directorate is actually composed of
one-third nominees of the Crown, added to
two-thirds who have purified themselves for their
high vocation in a canvass carried on with pro-
mises of patronage for the nascent brood of Indian
harpies ; the Government, therefore, is not given
to the East India Company exclusively. Again,
the East India Company is itself a figment. No
such reality exists, as has been acknowledged
again and again. The present electors of East
India Directors have no more actual interest
in India than any of us have—by no means
so much as Manchester manufacturers, who
send so large an amount of their produce
there, and who are certainly in earnest, to
enable India to send their raw material in re-
turn, to increase its consuming powers, and
to better its internal conveyance for their goods.
The holders of East India Stock have no more
concern in the prosperity of India than the holders
of Consols. A real East India Company—one
answering at all to its original idea—would be just
the persons at this time actually trading with India.
They have, at least, a real stake in the well-being
of the country. Their exports and imports vary
with it ; but as to committing India to the pro-
prietors of East India Stock, on the ground of
their being beneficially interested in Indian improve-
ment, why, it would have been quite as rational
to have tossed up for electors out of a list of all
the men in this country worth property to the
amount of 5, 0 0 0/.

Suppose such legal owners were only trustees,
and embezzled the money—let us ask which party
should, on principles of natural justice, bear the
loss? The purchaser, who has already paid the
value of his purchase ; or the person having an
equitable interest, who, or whose ancestor, ap-
pointed such trustees ? One would imagine that
there could be no difference of opinion in deciding
that the latter should bear the loss ; yet the legal
doctrine is that the purchaser is bound to see that
the persons possessed of equitable and other minor
interests are properly paid. This is, in practice,
found to be so inconvenient that in all well-drawn
deeds it is provided that purchasers from the par-
ties authorised to sell the subject matter of such
deeds, shall not be bound to see to the applica-
tion of the purchase money. The purchaser must,
however, still incur the trouble and expense of
finding out whether there are any other collateral
interests in existence to which such provision may
Rot apply, and whether the vendor and his pre-
decessors in title had good titles conveyed to them,
and whether the vendor himself can now transfer
a safe title.
The landowners themselves have the strongest
possible interest in requiring that the mode of
transferring land should be freed from its present
complexities, delay, and expense. Whatever is
saved in this way, becomes added to the value of
the land. From two to five years' purchase would
be immediately added to the value of all the real
property in the kingdom, on the establishment of
a cheap and speedy mode of transferring land.
Any system of registration which required that
the deeds themselves, or copies of them (especially
such deeds as are now prepared and executed),
should be lodged in an office, would be a very
mistaken measure. This would only perpetuate
and render intolerable all the abuses of the present
system. What order could be established in a
registry so conducted ? What building would be
sufficient for the purpose ? It is not by any such
bungling contrivance as this, that the evidence of
ownership of the public stocks and shares of va-
rious kinds is so clearly and satisfactorily evi-
denced. The result only is registered, being the
names of the owners and the identity of the pro-
perty held in such case. It is true that short
forms of transfer are executed, which are lodged
in the custody of the Bank or other Corporation.
Similarly short transfers of land might be regis-
tered ; but not the verbose and unintelligible
conveyances which are now prepared.

" The directors deeply regret they are unable to in-
clude in this list the Countess of Strathmore, a vessel
which, not less than the others, had been found to answer
every expectation they had formed of her, but which
was unfortunately lost, with the captain' and two of her
crew, in the tremendous gale of the 14th ult. ' She was
fully insured.
After mature consideration, the directors have
deemed it prudent to charter the vessels of the com-
pany with public and other well-established companies,
competent to keep them regularly employed in the coal
trade, and they have thus been enabled to secure, for
a considerable fixed period, a highly remunerative rate
of freight.
" It will be in the recollection of the shareholders,
that interest at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum has
already been received by them up to the 31st of March
last, and a reference to the accounts will shew that the
net profits have been sufficient to justify the directors
in recommending that a dividend at the rate of 7 per
cent. per annum from that time to the 30th June be now
declared in respect of calls paid upon shares. In respect
of money paid in advance of calls, it will be observed
that provision has been made in the accounts for the
payment of interest at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum
for the same period. After paying this dividend there
will remain a surplus of 1,2771. ls. 9d.
" For the future the accounts for dividend will be made
up in June and December.
" It will thus be evident, that although much of the
capital has hitherto been unavoidably unproductive, a
larger dividend might have been declared than is now
proposed, but the directors considered that the perma-
nent prosperity of the company would be promoted by
the appropriation of a considerable portion of the re-
venue to the formation of a reserved fund. Such a fund
is, in their judgment, essential to placing the company's
affairs on a sound and enduring basis ; it will lay the
foundation of a depreciation fund, and if steadily main-
tained, enable the company to become the insurers of
their own vessels, and gradually to extend their opera-
tions.
" Since the first vessel went to sea, the cost of insu-
rance, and all expenses connected with the company's
transactions have been charged to the account of

Looking, then, at the classes proposed by Mr.
HUME and Mr. NEWDEGATE as electors, common
sense would pronounce all of them but Mr. HUME'S
first-mentioned class, to be far more interested in
the good of India, and most of them far better
acquainted with India than the gentlemen and
ladies who placed Sir J. HOGG and his coadjutors in
office can possibly be. The retired Company's ser-
vants must know more of the country, while
those who hold the Company's paper, and
much more those who have shares in In-
dian railways, roads, canals,irrigation, and
draining schemes have a clear stake in the con-
dition of the country. It can hardly be denied
that Government appears to have had an eye to
but one qualification in a voter for a Director ;
and that is, that he should have no conceivable
interest whatever in choosing one, but the amount
of patronage he could get promised for his vote.
Hence the unmeasured virtuous indignation of Sir
JAMES HOGG, backed by the more cool and prudish
virtuous censure of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, when Mr.
BRIGHT held up a strking, but anonymous, pic-
ture of one unquestionable fact. Its offence was
its verisimilitude. It showed itself to be taken
from life. It needed not the superscription
affixed, as we are told, by the old painters to
their performances—" This is a horse," " This is
a tree "—it was a veritable picture of dispensing
Indian appointments, and no mistake. The
wrath of young Mr. MAJORIBANKS' father-in-law
was in exact proportion to the jobbery practised
by Directors with their patronage after election,
and their bribery with it during their degrading
canvass. Had the constituency been enlarged as
we have indicated, it would have done much to
cure the evil.

revenue.
"The preliminary expenses incurred in the establish-
ment of the company have been very moderate, and it is
proposed to make provision for their gradual liquidation
out of the ordinary income.
"By the provisions of the deed of settlement, the
Board of Directors is to consist of not less than six nor
more than twelve members. Hitherto the number has
not exceeded ten, and although in a board so composed
a vacancy has occurred, the directors have not thought
it expedient to supply the place of the retiring member,
considering nine a sufficient number to conduct the pre-
sent operations of the company, and they recommend
that this number be not increased until the business
shall have been further extended.
" The directors who now retire by rotation are—Mr.
Hutt, the chairman of the company, Sir J. Easthope,
and Mr. Prinsep, who being eligible, offer themselves
or re-election ; as do the auditors, Messrs. Nicholson
and Adam, whose term of office also expires."
The Nelson, from Melbourne, has arrived with
25,000 ounces of gold. The Queen of England
brings 40,395 ounces, and the Beulah 11,000
ounces. This, with the large imports from Ame-
rica and Mexico, makes an aggregate of consider-
able importance.
The total amount of stock converted at the
South Sea House is 1,297,2871. 19s.
The regular labourers employed at the London
and St. Katherine Docks have struck this morning
for an advance of wages, 6d. per day extra, and
are parading the neighbourhood of the docks in
large numbers. It is supposed that those who are
employed at the West India Docks will follow
their example. This is a different strike from that
of the men paid by the hour, and will entail con-
siderable inconvenience upon trade generally if
persisted in.
The English Funds have been extremely dull,
and the lowest quotations of yesterday afternoon
are current. The feeling as to a pacific termina-
tion of the Eastern imbroglio is much weakened
by the rumours which the telegraph almost daily
brings, but it is still felt that the firm attitude
assumed by the Allied Powers is much more likely
than any other course to bring about an arrangement.
Further truckling is condemned even by those most
anxious for peace, and it is hoped our ultimatum
really is to be acted upon. All business in the
money market is suspended, and the uncertainty
operates most injuriously upon all the wholesale
departments of business. Consols have been 971 -4
for both Transfer and Account. The New Three-
and-a-Quarter per Cents. have been 1011 to • and
the Three per Cents. 98i- IT. Exchequer Bills are
2s. discount to is. premium. Bank Stock after
being depressed to 2272, has rallied to 229.
The annexed memorandum is from the Com-
mittee of Mexican Bondholers :
" The Mexican packet has brought to the joint order
of Col. Facio and the chairman of the Committee of
Mexican Bondholders $15,655 86c. from Vera Cruz, and
$5,575 44c. from Tampico, together $21,231 30c. Ex-
clusive of these, there are are now at the Bank of Eng-
land to the credit of the dividends 71,3121. ls. Bd. Mr.
Falconnet's letter to the committee is dated the 2d ult.
In reply to his protest against the seizure by Govern-
ment of four months' produce of the revenues assigned
to the bondholders, the Minister wrote as follows :
" With reference to the protest with which your
letter concludes against the application of the funds
of the foreign debt to other objects, his Excellency
the President desires me to say, that it is noto
rious that on taking charge of the supreme Govern-
meet he found the Exchequer empty and all the
revenues hypothecated, so that there was no money
even for the most pressing wants of the public service ;
for which reason all persons in favour of whom the
hypothecation of the Customs' duties had been made

If, in addition to the strict evidence of legal
ownership appearing in such registry books and
transfers, the owner of the land wishes to charge
it with legacies, annuities, and other minor
and subsidiary interests, for the benefit of
his family, the deeds prepared for that purpose
should remain in the custody of the parties them-
selves, and the charges thus created should be
good against all parties, except a purchaser for a
valuable consideration, without notice of them.
Whether, and to what extent it would be ex-
pedient to permit any notice of trusts and claims
of this nature to appear on the register at all, is
a question which the Legislature would have to
determine on the introduction of the new system
of registration. On the whole, we are inclined to
think the principle adopted by the Bank, and by
all corporate and Joint-stock Institutions, of not
permitting any notice whatever of trusts to appear
in the registry, is the soundest system to be
adopted, and that which, in the end, would be
productive of the greatest amount of benefit to the
community. It is well known that the owner of

It was lately observed, with much truth, by
Mr. COLLIER, in his speech on Ecclesiastical Law
Reform, that those who were desirous of agitating
for reform of the Law did not understand the
subject, and those who did understand the sub-
ject were opposed to reform.
It is easy to comprehend that great changes in
the law of a character most advantageous to the
public can seldom be obtained, or even expected,
from lawyers. They have obviously a direct
personal interest in preserving intact the system
which they have learned at much cost of time and
money, and from which they derive their subsis
twice. The more eminent members of the pro
fession, even when actuated by a desire to reform
and when placed by circumstances above the in
fluence of those merely personal and selfish in
stincts against reform to which we have just ad-
verted, seldom have the leisure required for
the purpose. Then the exclusive and tech-
nical nature of a lawyer's education and practice
are unfavourable to the formation of large,
liberal, and enlightened views on the subject of
Law Reform ; and last, although far from least,
the opinion of his professional brethren and the
esprit de corps of the profession form most
formidable obstacles in the path of the legal
reformer.
From these combined causes it has happened
that great changes of the law have always been
very slowly produced. You may effect great com-
mercial reforms, because they are easily under-
stood and extensively agitated for ; but law lags
behind in the race of improvement. Even when

equitable interests in the funds, may prevent a
transfer of Stock by a restringas. A caveat against

the transfer of land might be allowed ; but, as
before observed, we should prefer that the form

of the remedy used in such cases should be di.

rected not against the sale, but to the preserva-
tion of the purchase-money, until all claims on it
were satisfied, after proper investigation ; just in
the same way as the Irish Encumbered Estates

Act is managed.

We should be glad to see this important sub-
ject of the Registration of titles to land submitted

to a committee of eminent Members of Parlia•

ment, assisted (but certainly not controlled) by
the opinions of some of the most enlightened
members of the legal profession.

THE QUEEN'S VISIT TO IRELAND.—We think that
we can now safely state that the Royal visit to the
Dublin Exhibition will take place about the 22nd of the
present month. It may be presumed that her Majesty
will proceed per sea to Scotland, visiting the Giant's
Causeway en route, and that the landing-point in Scot-
land will be Ardrossan. Balmoral, the Queen's High-
land residence, is situate in the eastern, not the western
Highlands.—Morning Advertiser.
LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY.—We un-
derstand that the dividend for the half-year ending 30th
of June last will be at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum.
ROYAL NAVAL COAST VOLUNTEERS.—A supplemen-
tary estimate has been laid before the House of Com-
mons of the sum of 50,0001., required to defray the
charges which shall come in course of payment in the
year ending March 31, 1854, for the Royal Naval Coast
Volunteers.
THE CAPE.—Our advices by the last mail from the
Cape of Good Hope have confirmed the rumours that
had been prevalent of General Cathcart's early return
to England. Several officers are named for the Cape
command, but we think that in all probability that high
appointment will be bestowed upon Major General
Jackson. This distinguiShed officer, it will be remem-
bered, commanded the cavalry brigade upon the
occasion of the public funeral of the late Duke of
Wellington.
THE CITY POLICE.—Last evening a meeting of the
constables of the City police was held at the Flying
Horse Tavern, Milton-street, Cripplegate, for the pur-
pose of approving certain alterations which had been
made in a petition to the commissioner of the City police
for an increase of pay. Police constable John Foster
was called to the chair. The petition, as amended,
prayed for an increase of pay on account of the dearness
of lodgings within the City and the increased price of
provisions. It was approved and then signed by 300 of
the men.
BRITISH BENEFICENT INSTITUTION.—From the fourth
annual report of this excellent charity, which has just
been published, we are glad to perceive that its finances
are in a highly prosperous condition, and that its pros-
pects are most encouraging. Though only founded a
few years ago, for the purpose of affording permanent
incomes to the widows and unmarried orphan daughters
of persons once in affluent circumstances, or occupying
a high position in society, its operations have already
exceeded the most sanguine expectations. At the pre-
sent moment twenty-four annuitants are upon the funds,
receiving each 301. per annum, and the increasing sup-
port which the institution is enjoying justifies the hope
of a speedy extension of it sphere of usefulness.

lawyers undertake reform, the changes which they
suggest are marked by great timidity and hesita-
tion. The alteration made preserves the old, and
perhaps, in reality, worn-out system, and some-
times does positive mischief by prolonging the vi-
tality of a process which ought to be abolished alto-
gether.

We have lately adverted to the present barbar-
ous system of transferring titles to land—of " con-
veyancing," as it is termed—as an example of a
monstrous abuse which calls aloud for remedy.
While mercantile men have their speedy and con-
venient modes of transferring the various repre-
sentatives of personal property, such as bills of
exchange, promissory notes, bills of lading, dock
warrants, the public stocks, and all kinds of shares
in railway, assurance, banking, water, mining,
and other companies, land presents the deplor-
able contrast of being clogged in its transfer by
the most useless, absurd, mischievous, and expen-
sive restraints—restraints which men of business
would never tolerate for a moment, if an attempt
were now made, for the first time, to introduce
them. If stock to the amount of 10,0001. is to be
transferred, it is only necessary to ascertain who the
present owners are; but if a piece of land, forming
the site of a mere hovel, is to be "conveyed," it be-
comes
necessary to find out not merely the present
owners, but who owned the property before him, and
what right such predecessors had to convey it, and
thus through a line of predecessors for 60 years past.
What real necessity can there be for this
lengthened inquiry ? Why should it be more
necessary in dealing with land than with any other
species of property ? As before observed, it is
more difficult—at least it may be made more dif-
ficult—even with the simplest mode of preserving
the evidence of ownership of land, to feign a right
to it than to stocks and shares which have an
ideal existence only.,

spontaneously agreed to place the produce of them,
up to the end of April, at the disposal of the Go-
vernment, resuming their former rights again on the
Ist of May. His Excellency thinks that he ought
to expect equal consideration from the bondholders,
convinced as they ought to be of the conservative inten-
tions of the Government, without which there can be no
security for the fulfilment of even the most sacred en-
gagements ; and that the present Administration, while
yielding to an imperative necessity in disposing of the
funds assigned to the creditors, is already occupying itself
in devising some arrangements by which without imposing
new sacrifices on the bondholders, the punctual payment
of the dividends may be secured to them in a solid and
stable manner, as it is but just, and certainly the desire
of the Government for the sake of its own credit and
good name, that it should be.'
" Mr. Falconnet, in his rejoindheer,a strongly
Govern-
ment, pressed all the proper points on t
the
the property of
and also made a formal application to
_Mr. Doyle
for his interference to protect had
nainof
interview with his the date of his letter to have an inte
bond-
holders. Mr. Falconnet expected in
.a few. days. from
Ex-
cellency the President, to deliver a memorial from the
committee on the subject of the present state of the
foreign debt of Mexico and verbally to expatiate upon it.
The project of a bank in Mexico, which was to farm the
Customs' revenues and provide for the interest on
the foreign and domestic debts, continued in abey-
ance, but without having been wholly abandoned.
The new tariff was considered much too high to be
productive. It was said that the new duty on a bale of
printed cotton goods would amount to 110 per cent. on
its real value. The agents in Vera Cruz estimated the
probable amount of the bondholders' share of the import
duties there for the month of May at $63,000, and for
June at $62,000.

The true mode of preserving the evidence of title
to land appears to be by entering the names of the
owners in books with a proper index, so as to be
capable of easy reference. This book, or a sepa-
rate book, should contain entries of the land,
houses, &c., to be dealt with, and the quantities of
such land, &c., much in the same way as estates are

UNITED KINGDOM BENEVOLENT ANNUITY FUND.—
A general meeting of the friends of this institution,
founded to give permanent relief by allowing annuities
from 101. to 301. to indigent persons of all classes, was
held on Saturday at the London Tavern, Bishopsgate-
street, for the purpose of electing three persons to an-
nuities from a list of 30 candidates ; the chair was taken
by George Henry Barnett, Esq. The Chairman, in
opening the proceedings, said he felt happy to see the in-
stitution progressing. From what he knew of the So-
ciety, he felt sure that it would eventually prosper, and
in conclusion he trusted that it would receive that sup-
port which its merits deserved. (Cheers.) Mr. C. W.
Coleman then read the report, which stated that while
the committee rejoiced in the progress of the institution,
they were deeply affected by those vicissitudes which
characterise the lot of many in this world, and felt anxi-
ous to extend more widely the benefits of the institution,
which are to relieve the sons and daughters of misery at
a period when advancing years, protracted sickness, or
other calamitous circumstances rendered them incapable of
supporting themselves by their own labour. The report
then stated that the first election took place in February
last, when one male and two females were elected on the
funds, and concluded by making an earnest appeal for
increased subscriptions, to enable the committee to rescue
these objects of charity from destitution. Some routine
business having been transacted, the election of three
annuitants was proceeded with.

entered in tithe-rent charge apportionments. The
separate quantities should be distinguished by
numbers, and these numbers should refer to a

map or plan, showing the position of each quan-
tity. The ownership of the land, &c., and its
situation, quantity, and identity would thus be

clearly shown. Thus would be shown in a manner

" The Government was rapidly increasing the army,
but had as yet failed in devising any measure to place
the finances on a better footing."

infinitely superior to the tautologous and bungling
verbal descriptions now inserted in deeds, which

are seldom assisted by maps. Wherever maps are
used, ,under the present system, they are merely
slight sketches of the land and its boundaries
within any uniform scale, and in a form too frag-
mentary to be of any real use for the purpose of
identifying the property in the event of dispute.
A distinct statement of the present legal owner-
ship' a fiat of the names and quantities of each

The foreign stock market
.has been very quiet,
but also well supported. Mexican Bonds have
been quoted 264, being flatter ; Peruvian have
risen to 84 ; Brazilian New Stock has been marked
99/ to I. The Spanish New Deferred Bonds have
been at 231, and the Certificate at 6il ; Dutch Four
per Cents. have realised 98 to.
The Railway Share Market is feeble,
sympathis-
ing with the English Stocks. The lines that ruleh
S
heaviest are Great Northern, Midland,
out

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 2, 1853