The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-05-24 00:00:00

BANK OF ENGLAND.

Three and a half per cents £ 120,088 8 6
Two and a half per cents
Exchequer bonds

Total

.. • ... £1,425,767 19 6

SOUTH SEA HOUSE.

Three and a half per cents £30,824 3 6
Two and a half per cents
Exchequer bonds..

6,935 0 0

£125,815 8 11

TRANSFER OF LAND.

AMONG the many grievances which have from
time to time been brought before the attention of
the Legislature, the one which has appeared the
most hopeless of a remedy is that of the difficulty
and great expense attending the transfer of landed
property. To acquire an ownership in the soil
seems to be an ambition almost universal ; but the
transfer has become so loaded with accumulated
legal requirements, that the cost of transfer in
minor cases is almost as great as the value of the
property to be conveyed ; so that land, instead of
being a marketable commodity, is in reality in the
hands of but few owners, because those who would
willingly become small proprietors, are debarred
from investing their limited capital in this direc-
tion, through fear of incurring the heavy legal ex-
penses which are inevitable. This is an evil which
has not only been seriously felt, but proposals for a
remedy have been anxiously discussed both in and
out of Parliament. No sooner, however, has one
great legal authority suggested a simple form of
conveyance, which shall apply to all cases, and be
comparatively inexpensive, than another luminary
equally renowned for his legal experience discovers
grave objections, which he deems fatal to the pro-
posed alteration. It may be that he casts a long-
ing lingering look behind on the ample bills of
costs which gave some substantial value to his pro-
fession, and views with regret any attempt to dimi-
nish them for the future ; or it may be that he
really foresees in the stern simplicity sugested a
fertile source of future litigation on disputed titles.
Such was the course of argument in the discussion
on the Registration of Assurances Bill, which pro-
posed to establish a register of each man's title to
his landed possessions ; and the caution of the ex-
Lord Chancellor, who raised the objection, has

met with a cordial response from many a sage at-
torney long practised in legal technicalities, and the
glorious uncertainty which is said to be the charac-
teristic of English jurisprudence. It is far easier,
however, to raise objections than to remove them ;
and, whi:e lawyers dispute as to the practicability
of a remedy, the evil remains unremedied. It was
so in Ireland to a far more ruinous extent than in
our own country ; but Parliament cut the Gordian
knot which it could not unravel, and established an
Incumbered Estates Court, which superseded all
previous axioms of law, and selling property thus
transferred to the highest bidder gave the purchaser
an Act of Parliament title;--the best, because the
simplest. A bill with a similar object in view has
been introduced into the House of Commons by
Mr. VINCENT -ScuLLT, and now waits for discus-
sion.

It is entitled "A Bill to facilitate the Trans-
fer of Land in Ireland ;" and it proposes to super-
aede and virtually continue the expiring powers of
the Cotrmissionerc under the Incumbered Estates
Act, by establishing a Land Tribunal, to consist of
three judges, before whom any land in Ireland may
be brought by. application of the owners. It is to
constitute a court of registration of titles and in-
cumbrances ; and one of its main features is the
power to issue debentures on estates brought
within its jurisdiction, not to exceed ten years' net
annual value, and to he repayable within the same
period. These debentures are to be granted under
the authority of the proposed Land Tribunal to the
owner, and form negotiable instruments similar to
bills and promissory notes. It remains to be seen
whether the Legislature will sanction this plan of

raising money on landed property made easy ; but
it has seriously been debated whether the time is
far distant when some such a system will be wanted
for England as well as Ireland. The discussion on
the Registration of Assurances Bill shows that the
legal difficulties attending disputed titles are almost
insurmountable. The Duke of BUCKINGHAM fell
a sacrifice to the law expenses on mortgages and
similar proceedings eating up princely possessions ;
and the active operations of Freehold Land Societies,
though avowedly with a political object, go to prove
the intensity of the desire for the acquisition of this
species of investment, and the bar which exists to
its realisation. It is a subject which well deserves
the serious attention of the Legislature ; and it is
to be hoped that some of our legal luminaries will,
ere long, introduce into Parliament a bill to facili-
tate the transfer of land in the United Kingdom.

THE SECOND ROYAL LANCASHIRE MILITIA assem-
bled yesterday morning, at nine o'clock, at the depot,
Everton, for a month's training, under the command of
Col. Sir Thos. Geo. Hesketh, Bart. When the roll was
called over the greater proportion of the men were present.
The day was occupied in preliminaries, and it is not ex-
pected that the regular exercises of the corp will corn
Dance before to-morrow.