16 MAY 1846, Page 14

"SHORT DEEDS."

TO THE EDITOR OF TER SPECTATOR.

Lincoln's Inn, 5t1 May 1846.

Snt—I will not trouble you with any attempt to answer your comments on my former letter. I am well aware that you can spare neither time nor space for a controversy with a correspondent on such a subject; and I assure you that I am very sensible of and grateful for the liberality you have already shown in giving insertion at all to views so opposed to your own.

With respect to the direct objections against Lord Brougham's plan, I will, therefore, leave my argument to shift for itself, well pleased to have got a hearing; and, with your kind permission, will proceed to consider its probable working and practical utility.

The duty of a lawyer employed to prepare a deed is plain enough: he is to pre- pare such a one as will best combine safety and economy for his client with reference to that particular transaction. That is all he has to think of; he must not allow any other consideration to interfere with that; he must not make ex- periments at his client's expense. This, I think, you will admit.

Now, it must be remembered, that it is not enough to give to a purchaser a deed which will in fact vest in him the property on which he has laid out his money: something more than this is necessary. It is nearly as important to make a conveyance simple, and unambiguous, and intelligible, as to make it valid. It is not enough to have a title which will stand the test of an action at law, if it bears on its lace circumstances unusual or suspicions, which will deter cautious pur- thasers from dealing with it hereafter, or perhaps invite dishonest litigation. I do l'ou no service in saving you 201. on the cost of your deed if I thereby diminish the marketable value of your property by IOW.; and a clear title is part of its marketable value.

Let us now look at the way in which it is the custom of this nation to deal with real property. As a matter of fact, no one thinks of dealing with it to any important extent without consulting his attorney; and no attorney will act to any important extent without consulting his conveyancer. Conveyancers have as a body, (whether rightly or wrongly is immaterial to my argument,) a decided at- tachment to the old forms, and objection to all the modern attempts to alter them. Attornies are not generally, and indeed cannot be expected to be, at all deeply versed in the cumbrous technicalities of real property law; but they know the ordinary forms of deeds by sight, and have learnt that they may safely accept them; but when anything new comes, not being able to understand it, they nate- sally look at it with suspicion, make objections, desire explanations, and perhaps lay a case before counsel. All this soon entails a cost far exceeding the amount which can be saved by any short form of deed; a cost, too, recurring every time that the property is dealt with. These prejudices and suspieions may be all foolish and undesirable enough, but there they aro, and such are their consequences; and this being the state of facts, let roe ask you fairly, if a friend or a client were to put himself absolutely in your hands when about to lay out his whole fortune on a landed estate—if you were about to lay out the whole of your own fortune in that manner—which form of deed would you choose, the older the new? You may say that these arguments are good against any individual attempts at reform, but that an act of Parliament is the very thing, with its authority and notoriety, to set all to rights. It would be so if an act of Parliament could im- part wisdom, and alter the established habits of a nation; but it is notorious that it cannot; and.any attempt of the Legislature to interfere with-the way in which people are accustomed to manage their private affairs always has proved, and always must prove, a dead letter. All the notoriety that Lord Brougham's Acts have obtained is, that they are known to be disapproved of by three-fourths of the

profession; and for authority, they have no more than would be accorded to a deed in the new form promulgated, in his private capacity, by the gentleman who drew the act: and this, I say, is not sufficient to lead me to think that it will be as effectual for my client's purposes as one of the old and known forms.

The fact is, that this is a matter in which direct legislation is improper and misplaced, and will consequently be neglected do what you will. The only way in which a system of short deeds can be really and safely attained is by the Wow process of self-amendment; every conveyancer who prepares a deed, making point of omitting every unnecessary word wherever he can do so without per- ceptibly altering the common form and appearance of the document. Thus, by -degrees, the present prolixity of our conveyances might be most extensively di- minished. As far as legal effect goes, a very short set of words will suffice: I could at this moment (without the aid of Lord Brougham's schedules) convey the whole of England on a sheet of note-paper; and my only reason for not using such concise forms is, that I sincerely believe that my client, had he my know- edge and my experience, would not wish me to do so. .A bold reformer like your- self may may ridicule the slow and cautious process above suggested; but I neverthe- less feel convinced that it is the only one by which the desired effect can be safely and completely introduced into the common daily transactions of the nation.

[We have but little hope from the self-amending process, even if it were safe. it is quite true that here and there a conscientious man might do something in this way, and a knot of conveyancers might agree to dos little more; but the =conscientious, the careless, the busy, the overworked, will stick to the old forms; and who will say that in these latter classes are not contained the great majority of the profession? Does not our Conveyancer say so himself?—" Con- Tirs have, at a body, a decided attachment to the old forms, and objection to nniceodern attempts to alter them." Will they not object as a body to the self- inffiction here proposed ? It is like asking them to draw their teeth, or to let out their blood, when you ask them to part with a line or a word. Sonic legislation, or government interference, then, is absolutely necessary: we take Lord Brougham's until we see a better proposed. Its not being liked at first by the profession, is with us really no argument at all against it. The question is, ought it to be liked ? ought it to be hied ? And if it ought, when once it vras used, the argument that it is new and untried would of course cease to have any force. As we understand the plan, it is intended to enable the profession to get the benefit by a summary process of those very long forms which the now 'so love. As to the question which we are asked, would we choose the old plan in the new? We are bound to say, without meaning any disrespect to our cor- :cleat, that his own letters have convinced IM that the new would be preferable.