The Sun.
London, England, 1851-03-18 00:00:00

RELIGIOUS HOUSES BILL.

At the request of Mr. J. O'CONNELL the recond reading
of this Bill was postponed until Thursday.
Mr. REYNOLDS considered this to be a favourable op-
portunity of mentioning a fact which had come to his know.
ledge that day. The lion. Baronet the Member for the
University of Oxford (Sir R. Inglis) presented a petition
the other day from a gentleman, late a Member of the
House, with reference to a Miss Talbot, who was said to
have been sent to a nunnery at Taunton. The affidavit
alleged one very material fact, which was at variance with
the truth. It was stated that the young lady was sent to
the nunnery as a postulant. That he believed was not the
truth. .

The other business on the paper was then disposed of, and
,he House adjourned at Half-past Twelve o'clock.

HOUSE OF LORDS, March 17.
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat upon the
Woolsack at Five o'clock.
PETITIONS.
Lord CAMPBELL presented a petition in favour of
the Copyhold Enfranchisement Bill.
The Earl of CANDOR presented a petition from
Pembrokeshire complaining of agricultural distress.
SALE OF ARSENIC BILL

The Earl of CARLISLE postponed the further consi-
deration of this Bill for a week, in order to enable him
to consider several suggestions which had been made
to him for its improvement.
DESIGNS ACT EXTENSION BILL.
The Earl of GRANTILLE said that a Bill on this
subject had been introduced into the other House of
Parliament under the auspices of the Government. When
that Bill should come up, he would move to refer it to a
Select Committee, on which his Noble and Learned
Friend (Lord Brougham) might serve, and he hoped
that the Bill now before their Lordships on the same
subject would be referred to a Select Committee, instead
of being proceeded with forthwith.
Lord BROUGHAM would consent to postpone the
measure of which he had given notice on the subject of
the patent law, and to have the whole subject referred
to a Select Committee. He believed that the adoption
of such a course would be most advisable for the interest
of those ingenious persons who devoted their attention to
chemical discoveries and mechanical inventions.
PASSENGERS ACT AMENDMENT BILL.
On the motion of Earl GREY this Bill was read a
third time and passed.
REGISTRATION ASSURANCES BILL.
Lord CAMPBELL, in moving the second reading of the
above-named Bill, was very indistinctly heard at the com-
mencement of his observations. The Bill had been brought
forward by the Government in pursuance of a recommenda-
tion contained in the Speech from the Throne. His Noble
Friends in the Government had asked him to take charge of
the measure in its passage through that House; and, as it
was a Bill wholly unconnected with politics, he trusted their
Lordships would be of opinion that he was fully justified in
complying with that request.— (Hear, hear.) The subject
was one to which he had long attended, and in which he
took the deepest interest. With respect to the measure to
which he now invited their Lordships' attention, he thought
it calculated to produce the happiest results, and he should
be highly gratified if he could in any degree contribute to its
success. Perhaps he should best discharge his duty by re-
minding their Lordships of the history of this question.
Here the Noble and Learned Lord was not audible, but the
general scope of his argument appeared to be, that at the
earlier periods of our Iratory the law required that publicity
should be given to deeds connected with the conveyance
of land. Subsequently and chiefly as was supposed by
the efforts of ecclesiastics to avoid the statutes against
mortmain, secret conveyances became very common. The
Statute of Uses was passed for the purpose of preventing
such secret conveyances; but it had been thought that, in
effect, it favoured them. The evil was found to be very
great about the time of the Stuarts reigns. Lord Bacon
bringing his comprehensive knoledge and great sagacity to
bear on the subject, made an attempt to remedy the evils
while he was Chancellor, without having recourse to an Act
of Parliament, for in those times the distinction between
what might be done by Act of Parliament and what by
the authority of the Crown was not as clearly established
as at the present day. By his own authority, acting
under the Crown, he issued a sort of edict, whereby it
was required that all deeds should be registered in a par-
ticular office; but at his fall this arrangement fell with
him, and that great man's destiny was supposed to have
been in some degree influenced by the secret enmity of
those whose interests were injured by the regulation which
compelled them to publish their deeds. Things continued
in this unsatisfactory state until the time of the Com-
monwealth. Then flourished some of the greatest
lawyers and jurists this country could boast of. Dur-
ing the Commonwealth a Bill was actually brought into
Parliament—framed by Sir Matthew Hale, and strongly
supported by him—for the establishment of a general re-
gister for all deeds. That Bill was opposed by all those who
thought thst their interests might be prejudiced by it; and,
perhaps, there was the less reason to regret that that mea-
sure did not pass, and that the work of registration had been
delayed to the p esent time, because it could now be effected
in a more beneficial manner than it would have been then ;
for that Bill proposed to establish a register-office in every
county, and at that time it would have been utterly impossi-
ble to have one metropolitan registration-office, because it
took weeks, and sometimes months, for a person to travel
from a remote part of the country to London. That measure
having failed - although strongly recommended by Sir Mt
lisle and the other great men of the time—nothing was done
unt 1 the reign of Charles 11., and then it so happened that
there was great agricultural distress, as there was now. The
value of landed property became depreciated, and a Committee
of their Lordship's House was appointed to consider the nature
of the distress and devise a remedy for it. The Committee
reported that one cause of the depreciation of the value of
land was the uncertainty of titles to estates, and suggested
that the remedy would be the establishment of a system of
general registration of deeds. Unfortunately their Lordships,
instead of passing a measure in conformity with the recom-
mendation of the Committee's report, passed one of a more
questionable character, namely, a Bill to prevent the im-
portation into this country of cattle and corn from Ireland.
It happened, however, that in the same year a Registration
Bill was passed for the Bedford Level, which had continued
in force dawn to the present day; and it was a well-known
fact that property in that district was distinguished fur
greater security of title and facility of transfer then attached
to estates in any other part of the kingdom. Nothing more
was done on the subject until the reign of Queen Anne, when
Bills were passed for establishing a register-office in each of
the three Ridings of Yorkshire, and in the county of Middle-
sea. The system of registration thus established was not on
t'e most approved principle, but nevertheless, with all its
defects, it had proved beneficial. Other attempts were sub-
sequently made to establish a general registration, and in
1740 a Bill for that purpose actually passed through that
House, but was lost in the other House. Nothing more was
attempted for a long space of time, but in the time of Justice
Blackstone he called the attention of the public to the sub-
ject. At present there were many persons who thought that
everything connected with the law was in the worst pos-
sible state; but in Blackstone's time it was the general
opinion that the system of English law was absolute
perfection, and no attempt, therefore, was made to improve
it. In 1815 Mr. Sergeant Onslow brought in a Bill to esta-
blish a general registration of deeds, which was supported by
the illustrious Hominy, who afterwards distinguished himself
by his attempts to improve the law, both civil and criminal,
Sergeant Onslow's Bill failed, and nothing more was done
until the memorable speech of the Noble and Learned Lord
opposite (Brougham), which opened an era of law reform in
this country. In consequence of that speech, which pointed
out gross defects in the law, the Duke of Wellington, who
was Prime Minister, and had Lord Lyndhurst for his Chan-
cellor, issued a Commission for considering the state of the
law. Over that Commission he (Lord Campbell) had
the honour to preside a distinction of which he
should always be proud—and he must say this, that from
that time to the present the most eminent public ._ll).'_e_n!
without distinction of party, had been actuated by ft
..081,110m".'e
desire to improve the law. The members of that Cook
the
sites, consisting of the most eminent convey
opinion of persons hest qualified to advise
hileev, recommended
presented a report to the King, in which
ntt aneac,erasnd in 18,9
the establishment of a general registration
after that time, having the honour of obtaine atd ei
ne dtsh e eStohoenr
ed leave to
House of Parliament, he moved
abject' and
and the Bill was
bring in a Bill to effect that
not, properly speaking, a
intro-
duced in December, 1830.
.t
Inaoasthe sanction and aid of Lord
Government measure, beuat
then
o,.atahancellor. Their Lordships would
Brougham, who was t
not favourable to the consider-
recollect that the period
ation of subjects solittle exciting as reforms of the laws, and
the sreicl,ond reading of the Bill Pasha-
before he could mov,
1831. When the new Parlia-
ment was dissolved, p
ment was assembled he again brought in the Bill ; but still it
was no time for attending to such matters, for, October
having arrived, their Lordships rejected the Reform Bill on
secondit reading and the session closed. A new session
sbegan on the 6th of November, and he again brought in a
Bill for the establishment of a general registration of deeds,
which was referred to a Select Committee. The majority of
the Committee were against tie Bill ; but, after sitting 99
days, they reported unanimously that a general registration
won dbe of decided advantage to large purchasers; that
its adoption, as to small purchases, might lead to ex-
penses counterbalancing the advantages ; but that, on the
whole, they were of opinion the system should be made ap-
plicable to all lands whatever. It happened, however, that
unfortunately the most powerful and influential body in the
kingdom, consisting of men, no doubt, most honourable,
most intelligent, and respectable,
who, as a class, Pale'"
greater influence in and out of Parliament than any other
body—he meant the country solicitors—were unfavourable to
the Bill ; and the notion got am ,ng them that the etect of
it would be to bring all business from the country to London.
Petitieis were poured i 4 ttgattilit it crew every side ad

among other representations it was stated Government in-
tended to lay on a further land-tax by moans of that mea-
sure; in fact, since Pelham's Jew Bill, he believed there
never was such excitement against any public measure, and
the consequence was, that though the 'Bill was read a second
time,, and was reported, it was as much as any Hon. Mem-
ber's seat was worth to support it, and the opposition
was so strong he was obliged to abandon the Bill at
a further stage. That was in 1832, and when Lord
Grey formed his Government, and did him the honour
to appoint him Solicitor-Genera', he made one,
and but one, condition with him, and that was that he should
not again bring in his Registration Bill.—(Hear' bear, and
laughter.) In that instance the Noble Earl, to have com-
menced his public career under whom had been the greatest
pride of his (Lord Campbell's) life, showed his statemanship,
for if public opinion was against the measure it would have
been only acquiring unpopularity without any sufficient
cause to have persisted in it. But the Bill in principle was
still supported by an able friend of his, and was again intro-
duced in 1833. It was, however, rejected by a still larger
majority on that occasion than in 102, and was again rejected
on the second reading by a m jority more numerous than
either of the preceding in 1834. (Hear, and a laugh.) It
was a mortifying thing to him that the first act of the Re.
form Parliament was to throw out • his proposition.
Nothing more was done in the case ti I 1846,
when the tide turned. A Committee was appointed in
that year to consider the burdens on land, audthey reported
that the market value of 14nd was seriously thmulished
by the expenses attendant on sale and transfer, and that a
registry of title to all real property was essential to the suc-
cess of any attempt to simplify the law and the existing
system. Government, however, did not take any steps till
July last, when a commission was appointed. which took in-
finite pains in ascertaining what peculiar burdens affected the
land, and finally reported to her Majesty that the whole sub-
ject had been so fully considered by the former commission,
they could only repeat the words of their report, and con-
clude by expressing an opinion that the establishment of a
general registry was expedient. At the opening of the pre-
sent session of Parliament, therefore, her Majesty, in the
speech from the Throne, stated a measure would be laid be-
fore Parliament "providing for the establishment of a sys-
tem of registration of deeds and instruments relating to the
transfer of property. This measure is the result of inquiries
which I have caused to be made into the practicability of
adopting a system of registration calculated to give security
to titles, to diminish the causes of litigation to which they
have hitherto been liable, and to reduce the cost of transfers."
In consequence of that intimation from the Crown the pre.
sent Bill had been prepared and laid before their Lordships,
and he trusted he had said enough as to the authority for
the measure to induce them to give a favourable considera-
tion to the Bill now upon the table. The practical evils the
Bill was calculated to prevent were these: First, there
was insecurity of title, next, expense and delay in alienation
and mortgage, and next inconveniences arising from the
want of a place where deeds might be deposited, so as to
be accessible to those who had need to consult them. In-
security of title was an evil of the greatest magnitude. Le
every civilized country the title to real property must be
proved by written documents, and mere possession gave no
indication of the amount of the possessor's interest in land,
such as it gave of the possessor's ownership of chattels.
The estate might be held in fee simple, or might be_ en.
tailed, or with life limitations; it might be encumbered
with charges for mothers, or sisters, or might be encum-
bered by the owner in fee to the last farthing of its value,
and no person could ascertain the exact nature of the interest
of the proprietor unless he saw all the deeds affecting the
land. No matter what claims might be made against the
land, any person producing a deed showing title would pre-
vail according to the priority of date of deed; and,
let a purchaser take what precautions he might, the sup-
pression of one deed might cause him the loss of the
estate after he had paid his money. The mere production
of deeds, therefore, afforded no security whatever to
the purchaser, because no one could tell whether
they were all the deeds or not ; and they had seen instances
of purchasers who had been deprived of large estates by this
want of security, after they had paid the full amount of the
purchase money. The evil of this state of things was still
greater as it affected mortgagees. There was now no record
of mortgages, and a person who imagined himself the first
encumbrancer might probably find there had been prior
mortgages, and he not only ran a risk of losing his money
from prior but from subsequent mortgages, by a process
well known as " tacking and squeezing." By this process
the third mortgagee might be preferred to the second ; be-
cause, if after the second mortgage was effected the owner
executed a third without notice, and the third mortgagee
bought up the first, he had an assignment of the legal estate,
and the second mortgagee was squeezed out of his interest;
bat the delays and expenses of sale and transfer were also
very great at present. First, after bargain completed, the
solicitor of the vendor gave an abstract of title, as it was
called, to the solicitor of the purchaser, which was some-
times halt a mile long, containing a history, not only of one
title, but perhaps of several titles. Next, the solicitor must
make cure the deeds referred to in the abstract applied to the
estate, and he must examine the boundaries, look over the
county histories, and send his clerks to make inquiries—all
at great expense—before the identity of the premises could
be ascertained. It was not enough that a title should be safe
—it should be marketable also, and a title which was quits
safe might not be marketable, and vice versa. The practice
of creating terms of years for the purpose of charging estates
had led to still further embarrassment and difficulty; for it
was necessary to trace each of the terms established to its
source, and to take its full effect in respect to the value and
encumbrances on the property. As " terms " were of the
nature of chattels, they went to the executor, and therefore
the solicitor must get probate of the will, which was another
enormous expense. There were 370 courts in which probate
might be entered; but if, as was as likely as not, it was not
taken out in the proper court, it was void, and of no avail.
If there were bona netabilia in a diocese where there was a
prerogative administration, probate would be of no good as
conveying title to them unless properly taken out in that
diocese. These terms for years had been found so mischie-
vous, however, that about seven years ago Parliament passed
a Bill by which those terms had been, generally speaking,
annihilated. But when the protection of those terms, which
secured the leg Al estate and barred equitable claims, was re •
moved it became only the more necessary to establish some
protection in its place, and none appeared likely to be se
efficient as that of registration. Again, the same evils
affected the owner in raising money by insurance. The ex-
penses augmented the interest from 4 to 6 or 7 per cent., and
the landowners were still at the mercy of the insurance.
oflices, for, though money might be got at a lower rate else-
where, it was better to be subject to a higher interest
than to be--r the expense of investigating title again.
There was another evil where the saute set of deeds repre-
sented lands in which a great variety of persons had different
interests. The vendor was bound by covenant to give at-
tested copies of the deeds, and produce the originals; but the
registration would prevent the necessity of such an expen-
sive and troublesome course When he was at the head of
the Landed Property Commission he heard of a case where
a gentleman sold a email property, and entered into the
usual covenant to give attested copies, and produce the ori-
ginals of the deeds. This he found to be a most alarming
burden, and, having a sharp attorney to deal with, the latter
tiled a bill in Chancery against him, and it was found the
attested copies would cost more than the amount of the
purchase-money.—(A laugh.) The attorney accordingly
said, " he would wave his right to the attested copies if the
owner would wave his right to the purchase-money," and
the vendor was delighted with the offer —(Laughter.) if
the deeds were deposited at a certain place, and it was pro-
vided no person should be affected by any deed not thus de-
posited, these evils would be obviated. He would state now
the machinery of the Bill, for he was aware the value of
such a measure depended on the mode of its being carried
into effect. The Bill, in the first place, provided there should
be one register-office in the metropolis for the whole kingdom ;
and he had no doubt that such a determination was wise,
and that one great central office would be infinitely preferable
to a multiplicity of local offices. When he was in the other
House of Parliament an offer was made to him to withdraw
all opposition to his liregistration Bill if he would allow it to
be changed by establishing registration-offices in every
county in England, but he had refused. He believed not
only would the expense be greater in small local offices than
in one metropolitan office, but that there would be no unifor-
mity of system and satisfaction to the public. In
York, Middlesex, and Ireland, where registration of deeds
existed, it was sometimes usual to register only a memorial
of the deed, which gave a sort of abstract, stating the names
of the parties, and, occasionally, but not always, the opera-
tive part of the deed ; but that system had been found very
ineffective, and it did not answer the purpose of persons in-
terested to see the deed itself, and it did not afford the infor-
mation required in its absence. The moat effectual mode of
obtaining the real objects in view was to require every deed,
or a duplicate copy of it, to be deposited in the register-
office. It would be found the expense of making a copy was
less than the expense of preparing an abstract. The Bill
having, therefore, provided for the deposit of the deed or du-
plicate, the next consideration was to fix the districts ; and,
though there was to be but one office, it was proposed to divide
the count-y into districts, and it had been suggested that it
would be convenient to adopt the divisions of the poor-law
unions. Then came the important question respecting which
the Commissioners were not agreed, and that was the modeof
registration. One of the most accomplished lawyers ever
known, the late Mr. Duval, had invented a mode of indexing
which did away to a great extent with the evils and incon-
veniences arising out of the original mode suggested, which
was an alphabetical list of grantors. And here he could not
but relate an anecdote of that eminent lawyer, whose friend=
ship he was glad to have enjoyed,
as exempiifyins the
earnestness and simplicity of his nature. lie (Lord.uamP-
bell remarked to him once he wondered at his patience in.
poring over papers day after day with‘it suchis
per-
severance. " Oh," said Mr. Duval,r.!liant tedious,r to be
deed—the work
sure, but sometimes I come upon a II me for all
As to the mode of
of a great master—and a bit of
laugh.) As
the tedium of the others."—(A erent of grantors, to shoe
ugwould just think the hun-
dreds by alphabetical strirS
how inconvenient it. wjaosnesesy
who executed deeds every
dreds of Smiths d
facts about any one deed vr
with certainty all the by
year in Middlesex, and that the only way of finding out
going through a Mr. Duval suggested the
all the deeds of all the Jcusses or of all the
Smiths in the register.
" which arrange'
of deeds by classification,Was to be
ment
in each class by a particular Bynitw.
marked For-
merly there was a difficulty of identifying
the land with
the symbol employed, on account of the deficiency in our
system of maps. That defect, however, bad now been sup-
plied. There had been an Ordnance survey, and a survey
and maps ander the Act for the Commutation of Tithes and
the Poor-law Amendment Act; so that now there existed
public maps extending over a large proportion of England.
He therefore had no difficulty i 1 proposing that reaps should
be employed to carry out the purposes of this Act. For each
district these maps would be provided, divided into two eom-
partments, one containing marks representing the land, and
the other an index of the land so delineated. Taking up.
for example, the map of a district, a person would see a mark
denoting the land he was interested in. He would there find
a reference to the index, and on going to the index it would
tell him whether there had been anything registered affecting
that land • and it would, moreover, indicate where he would
find all the deeds that existed with reference to it. The de-
fect that most strongly applied to any plan witliontthe.
maps was, that there would be nothing to connect the deed.
that WAS symbolized with the land that was to be conveyed ;
but, if the maps and indices were to be employed. as
ph-
he
proposed, that difficulty would
be greatly m
tied.— (Hear, hear.) The next question referred to
doctrine
the effect of unregistered deeds The
England was, that the person who claimed
d t on
postponed, a registered deed was to be an
prejudiced poned, if it
could be shown that he had notice
of the existence of a deed
that was unregistered. The uncertainty and litigation which
this state of the law created was very great, and therefore
the Bill proposed that no person should be affected by any
deed that was not registered, thus completely exploding
the doctrine of notice. With respect to the objections
urged against the measure, it was said in the first place
that this was a great innovation ; but he must say it 'vas
rather a return than otherwise to the ancient simplicity of
the law. Besides, the system had been practised in some
counties in England, for some centuries in Scotland, -where
it had operated most advantageously, an 3 had eiso been
found beneficial in Ireland. In considering this question
the important fact was ever to be borne in mind, that in
almost every country in Europe they had registration of
69131 i ellaraCter 9r another, and that ja none of 01000 Mali"

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