The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-08 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1849.

Notwithstanding the opposition offered by the law-
officers of the Crown and other members of the Go-
vernment, the Hon. Member for West Surrey suc-
ceeded yesterday in carrying the second reading of his
Bill for facilitating the transfer of real property by a
majority of 10—the numbers being for the ATTOII...
NET•GRNERAL'S amendment 45, against it 55. A
stronger evidence could not be afforded of the general
anxiety that exists throughout the country for ex-
tensive measures of legal reform. The law of real
property must be simplified, the dust and cobwebs
that have accumulated during successive ages
must be swept away. There is no reasc,n why the
titles.to landed .property should be rendered so ob-
scure and complicated that months would be con-
aomed, and a most tedious and expensive investiga-
titer) rendered necessary, before it could be ascertained
that a person in whose family an estate hal descended
for centuries, without question or doubt, was really
the.bona-fide proprietor thereof, and could convey a
good title to a purchaser, or make it a valid security
foe any pecuniary accommodation he might require.
In almost every other nation, of Europe there are
facili ties for transfer and a security of title
comparatively unknown in this country.
Even Ireland is far before us in that
respect, for every deed anti instrument relating to
property must be registered, or the priority to which
it iyould otherwise be entitled may be forfeited as a
penalty for the negligence. The frauds and losses
mortgagees, and others are ex-
to which purchasers,
posed in England under the existing system, and from
which no amount of precaution can effectually protect
them, is thus obviated in the sister kingdom. No
dee.i of importance can be effectually withheld or
conceeled. Express notice is given of its existence,
and of the general nature of its provisions, on the
face of a registry open to all who choose to pay the
small fee of 2s. 61. for liberty to search. Vast expenses
are incurred in every transaction relating to property
in order to guard against the consequences of possible
fraud or mistake—expenses which in ninety-nine
cafes out of a hundred are quite unnecessary, but still
they must be encountered. Every person about to
acquire an interest in property will fear that he may
be the one unfortunate person on whom the loss may
fall, and he will spare no expense to prevent the pos-
sibility of such an event. Sir EDWARD SUGDEN has
stated, in his great work on " Vendors and Pure
chasers " (11th Ed., p. 986), that " the present
expense in regard to titles is, in forty-nine cases out of
fifty, superfluous," and Master SENIOR, in his evidence
before the Lords' Committee in 1846, said—" I think
there is little of really defective title. Titles almost
all seem to be safe for holding, but the difficulty is
to transfer them. There are many objections to title
as to marketableness—few as to safety." Under such
circumstances, the suggestion male by the Hon.
Gentleman, "that substantial justice would be done
in ninety-nine caws out of every hundred, if they were
to pass a declaratory Act, to the effect that every
man should have a Parliamentary title to his estate,"
does not appear to be so very absurd, or to have
merited the derisive cheers with which it was received.
We believe that there could be nothing more bene-
ficial to the country in general than such a course,
by which the innumerable entails and contingent
remainders would be cut off, and a " free trade in
land," that cheap and expeditious mode of transfer
suggested and so powerfully advocated by Mr. JAMES
STEWARD, might be attained.
In all the arguments adduced in opposition to the
present Bill the great evils of the complexity
which prevail in the established system were ac
knowledged and deplored. The strongest opponents
oC the Bill admitted the necessity of some great and
zomprehensive measures of reform; but attempt

to introduce such a measure has hitherto been opposed
with the most determined hostility, as if the system
were perfection itself, and that it were little better
than sacrilege to sanction any innovation. Mr.
DRUMMOND has, however, at length succeeded in
bringing his Bill fairly before the House and country.
The principle of the measure has been sanctioned.
Alterations will undoubtedly be necessary in the de-
tails, but these minutia may be fairly considered in
the Committee to which it will be referred, and
which Mr. DRUMMOND does not propose they shall,
go into until the Courts shall have moved to
Westminster, in order that the House might have
the opinion of lawyers on those (points, wherever
their knowledge would be useful.
The measure appears to be founded on the admi-
rable reports of the Society for Promoting the
Amendment of the Law, whose invaluable labours
have been productive of so much benefit to the
country. That enlightened body have already expa-
tiated on the vast advantages to be derived from " a
general register of titles," under which landed property
might be transferable like stock in the public funds,
and by which the necessity of retrostpective deductions
of title—a necessity which entails such enormous
expense and inconvenience to the owners of property
—might be obviated. Under the present system the
poorer classes are precluded from the acquisition of
land ; the expenses and difficulty attendant upon a
transfer act as a complete prohibition to any dealing
with respect thereto. As the society most truly state,
in their second report on registration, " Practically
speaking, small properties cannot be dealt with except
as articles of luxury—the large proprietor is debarred
from selling, and the poor man from buying by
the expense of the transfer. Retrospective titles,
then, are not merely a legal inconvenience,
but a great social evil." This great social evil must
be averted. The eminent lawyers who compose the
committee of the society conceive that the object
could be effected by a well-devised system of
registration, and a judicious carrying out of the prin-
ciple of insurance of titles, by which not only perfect
security might be afforded against the possibility of
loss of any description, but great facilities would be
conferred for transferring or incumbering the proper-
ties insured.,
There is, we are happy to state, every pros-
pect of these desiderata being speedily attained.
The principle of the Bill for establishing a general
register has just received the sanction of the House
of Commons, and any defects will doubtless be reme-
died in Committee, while a company is in course of
formation for the purpose of guaranteeing against any
losses arising from defective titles, and thereby to
enable parties to transfer or charge their properties in
a much shorter time and at one-fourth of the expense
that must be submitted to under the present system.
The prospectus of the company, which is a very
clear and well-arranged document, is now
before us, and it explains, in the most satisfactory
manner, the mode in which this novel species of
assurance may be carried into effect, and the benefi-
cial results that may be expected to flow therefrom,
by which the saleable value of land may be improved
by several years' purchase.
By a reference to our advertising columns, our
readers will perceive that copies of this prospectus
may be obtained at the office of The Legal
Title Insurance Company, and we would
heartily commend it as well worthy of a
calm and attentive perusal. The company
dues not contemplate the slightest interference with
the business of any existing society. The established
and well-recognised principles of insurance, the
doctrine " that the average of uncertainties may be
easily measured," is applied in a novel and ingenious
mode, by which the proprietors will undoubtedly realise
considerable profits, and vast advantages will result to
the community in general.

In spite of the garbled accounts of the Hungarian
war which have appeared in the reactionary news-
papers both in England and Germany, the truth
glares through the flimsy screen of falsehood and mis-
representations. WINDISCHGRATZ, so far from being
victorious, has in reality met with a succession of
reverses. BEM, instead of being killed or conquered,
is in bodily health while his mind is in that state of
exhilaration which is peculiar to even the most phleg-
matic captain when his forces are proving triumphant.
JELLACHICII, in place of retaining his romantic
popularity amongst his followers, is deserted by them
in whole regiments. Kossuru, at the very time he is
spoken of as a fugitive, skulking in the back streets of
Berlin, is in the zenith of his power as supreme
ruler over the Provisional Government. While it is
solemnly announced in the journals of Vienna that
the Imperialists hold an unbroken military cordon
from Waitzen to Losonez, and from llatvan to
Szulnok, it actually appears that the Hungarians
have complete possession not only of the northern
and southern districts of the kingdom, but of the
mountainous tracks of Transylvania and the Car-
pathians. According to the Government organ of
the Austrians (the Wiener Zeitung) the PII.INCE-
MARSHAL has marched towards Gyoragyos, driving
the insurgents before him in four different directions;
whereas, according to the Government organ of the
Magyars (the Kozlony), the Hungarian army has
advanced instead of retrograding, has assumed the
offensive instead of the defensive, has been success-
ful instead of unsuccessful.
Since the Schwartzenburg Ministry has called in
the assistance of Russia, the cause of the young
EI‘IrEROR has not merely darkened throughout Hun-
gary, but has sunk immeasurably in the estimation of
the whole empire. The apparent assistance derived
from NICHOLAS has been in reality the cause of many
severe disasters to the forces of FRANCIS JOSEPH.

The appearance of the dragoons of St. Peter6burgh
in Transylvania has only had the effect of exaspe-

rating to madness the national feeling of the Hun-
garians. One of the most heroic of the tribes of
that brave race has risen, indeed, against the mer-
cenaries, and inflicte 1 upon them condign chas
tiement for their interposition. This tribe was
the tribe of the Szdtlers ; and they appear
only to have been prevented from annihilating their
antagonists by the arrival of aid from the garrison of
Cronstadt. S,nce than, namely, on the 15th ult., a
pitched battle has taken place at Hermannstadt be-
tween the Austrians, under General PUCHNER, and
the Hungarians under General BEM. The action
resulted in the latter proving signally 'victorious,
following up the discomfiture of his opponents by
taking the fortress of Hermannstadt by storm—and
this, be it remembered, in the teeth of the garrison
of Russian auxiliaries. In celebration of this
triumph of the national arms a solemn Te Deuin
was chaunted on the 20th ultimo in the
church of Debreczin. It is in that city that
the Provisional Government, presided over by Kos-
sun', is assembled—a Government which has been
recently completed by the appointment of General
lion, L.
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still further the enthusiasm of his countrymen. To
this end he is distributing rewards and
promotions to
whoever distinguish themselves against the common
enemy—having within the last few weeks conferred
the title and baton of a Field-Marshal on General
Kis. So great is the ardour displaying among
the
whole Magyar race that not all the battalions
of Russia can enable the Austrian EMPEI2OA to extin-
guish it. If the forces of WlNDiscuottAm find it
impossible to keep to themselves the towns of Zyps,
or to preserve Transylvania without assistance from St.
Petersburgh, they may rest assured that it will be
difficult to an extraordinary degree to wrest from the
Power of BEM and KOSSUTH the whole of the magni-
ficent territories of Hungary, especially when there is
every likelihood that even the Croatians will rise
against the oppressors of so many nationalities. n
another victory which took place on 26th ult.
at Zibakhaza 2,000 of the fellow-countrymen
of JELLACIIICEI deserted from the ranks of the
Imperialists—harbingers of additional defection from
the cause of Austria, and of additional advantage
to the Hungarians. From the experience, therefore,
which has been derived from the reactionary news-
papers as to the want of exactitude in their declara-

tiuns, it must surely be unnecessary to warn the
public from all their erroneous and unauthentic nar-
ratives. Whatever may be sail either by the
Wiener Zeitung, or by some of our own contempo-
raries, as to the triumphs of WiriptsenGßATz, it is
certain that the colossal power of Austria has
failed to do more than goad on the in/lab/Laub of

Hungary to a condition of patriotic enthusiasm that
gives promise of proving altogether irresistible.

Actuated with the same determined views as the
promoters of the Anti•Corn•law League, the
agriculturists are combining in an agitation against
the taxes upon malt and hops. It will be observed
that a numerous and influential meeting in further-
ance of this extension of the principles of free trade
was held yesterday in Blackfriars, with Mr. W.
Suaw, editor of the Farmers' Journal, as chairman.
Although the different speakers appeared to recoil
from anything that might be construed into a
suggestion as to the mode in which this
obnoxious impost shall be removed, although, indeed,
one of the resolutions went directly to maintain the
impolicy of any such suggestion in the present stage
of the movement, the proceedings of the assembly
were far from being unmarked by observations of a
practical character. The orators grew eloquent when
dilating upon the grinding influence of the malt and
hop duties, not merely upon agriculturists and
brewers, but indirectly upon all classes of the
population.

It is eminently gratifying to witness the rapid
and almost unconscious acceptance of the ideas of
political economy advocated by the memorable
"League" and its organs, and to see foremost among
the converts to the new philosophy founded by
ADAM SMITH, and accepted by IlusxissoN, the
farmers of old England. Yet the change cannot be
regarded as very surprising, seeing, that before the
farmers became neophytes to the creed of Free
Trade, the orators and journalists of the " League"
had to proselytize not only one, but a hundred sec-
tions of the community. The shopkeepers, or as
they call them in France the bourgeoisie, were, out-
and-out, for Protection. But EBENEZER ELLIOT
sang his songs, and W. J. Fox delivered his lectures,
and Colonel TuoasrsoN wrote his catechisms,
and Jourt BRICIIT proposed his resolutions, and
RIcUARD COBDEN spoke his orations, and the
shopkeepers soon found out that the shoe (lid pinch,
and they found out moreover where it pinched, and
they were converted. So it was with the gentlemen
of the three kingdoms, so it was with the merchants,
so it was with the manufacturers, and so, at last, it
was with the Members of the Imperial Parliament.
Every one in turn offered allegiance to the newly
discovered principles, and the sentiment, contagious
from its truthfulness, spread rapidly from the little
back room at Manchester to the workshops,
to the factories, to the warehouses, to
the city offices, to the country-houses, to the coffee-
shops and the public-houses, and ultimately Into the
very chambers of the Lords and Commons at West-
minster. It has since then gained fresh admirers,
and those admirers are, as the Hon. Gentleman the
representative of the West Riding foretold from the
floor of the Lower House, the farmers and agricultu-
rists of England. They have found out after all
that Free Trade is no such bad thing—
that it offers cherries worth the having, if they
only make up their minds to jump. Now
that the barrier of Monopoly has been broken down
a new light has flooded in upon them, and they
are earnestly and heartily for the abolition of the
malt and hop duties. Surely we need scarcely assert
that the effort has our good wishes, and that the
change that has " come o'er the spirit of the dream"
of the agriculturists has our felicitations. Having► re-
cognised the justice of their claims upon the attention
of the Legislature, it is to be hoped that the agricul-
turists will not lightly diminish their agitation.