The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-03 00:00:00

THEATRE

to an estate of inheritance (and this is almost invariably
the case, where settlements and entails are all
but universal), personal notice must be served
on every person having estates in remainder or other
future estates. Then follow a long series of clauses
for carrying this portion of the Act into execution.
When, however, this complicated machinery of no-
tices of affidavits, and of regulations of sale had all
been brought into operation, the purchase money paid
into the Bank of Ireland, and the deed of
conveyance properly executed, five years were
allowed to parties to rake up imaginary claims
and institute proceedings against the purchaser,
who could within that period have no real security
for his money, and who could not, of course, be ex-
pected to commence an extensive course of improve-
ments. In fact, the money he had destined for that
purpose might in the interval be absorbed in litiga-
tion,or applied in other directions, before he could

acquire a simple or indefeasible title, such as would
warrant the expenditure he had originally contem-
plated.
Other difficulties of no less magnitude prevented
the beneficial operation of that part of the Act that

was to be worked through the medium of the Mas-
ter's offices. In fact, the impediments were more
formidable and would probably be more expensive to
all parties interested therein. If a person entitled to
a subsequent charge upon lands desired to enforce a
sale, he could not proceed until he had in the first
instance paid or lodged in court the entire amount
of all sums due, or claimed as due, to any prior
incumbrance. This, of course, prevented all
such parties from instituting proceedings, and
the owners or first incumbrancers were practically
alone qualified to institute proceedings. These pro-
ceedings should be commenced by a petition, verified
as the Court shall direct, which should be as full
and precise in its statements, both as to the nature
of the title and the various incumbrances, as any bill
that should be filed under the former system. The
references to the Master—those monster abuses,
which must be modified—would be •at least
as expensive and tedious as they now are,
and, during their progress, questions might
arise that could only be disposed of in a
plenary suit. Under such circumstances, it is
by no means surprising that the provisions of the
Act should he but little resorted to, and that suitors
should prefer the old and beaten track, with all its
acknowledged abuses, to the adoption of the new
remedy, wholly untested by practice, and which
might chance to prove even worse than the disease.
Now, however, a new and independent tribunal is
to be created, which will be enabled to dispense with
or control these legal technicalities, which may regu-
late the sale of the lands brought within its jurisdiction
cheaply and expeditiously, and which will at once con-
fer a simple title upon the purchases that will be good
against all the world, and which he may transmit to
his posterity without any danger of their being de-
prived of the fruits of their ancestor's patient indus-
try. This will, indeed, be adequate to the purpose,
for which it was intended, but nothing less would
suffice.