18 APRIL 1846, Page 13

THE "SHORT DEEDS" QUESTION.

Tun interest which the important branch of Law Amendment that relates to Conveyancing is now exciting in England, and the need for further explanations and repeated discussion, are shown by the following letter, in its very misapprehensions and errors. Our correspondent probably represents a class, and we believe his object to be honest: on this assumption, we give the letter a more prominent place than it would otherwise have been entitled to ; and the remarks we shall add will be less for the in- dividual than for objectors in general.

"24, Lincoln's Inn Fielck 13th April 1846.

a Bra—Though only a constant reader of the Spectator for the last few months, I have in that short period been much struck with the perfect freedom from popu- lar prejudices which distinguishes your journal: but, Sir, I cannot but regret that you should appear to cast a slur upon the legal profession, when noticing Lord Brougham's fanciful attempts at reforming the length of conveyances.

" Of course it is impossible for a lawyer to view matters in which he is concerned with the same unprejudiced eye that a mere looker-on does; but I will put it to you, whether the following view of the question, which I have good reason to be- lieve is substantially that entertained by lawyers generally, is very unreasonable.

" We do not object to a general reform of the law of real property, including shortening of conveyances, or any means of lessening the expense of small trans- actions; far from it: but we do object to a man like Lord Brougham, of great but very superficial knowledge undertaking the task. Unable to prepare a com- prehensive plan of reform, he brings forward every session some little ill- digested bill, all of which have proved failures. His 'act to simplify the transfer of property,' (7 and 8 Vic. c. 76) made so much complication that it was re- pealed the very next year, c8 and 9 Vic. C. 106); and his act to facilitate the granting of leases has, according to his own candid admission, been a perfect dead letter; and now he begins to threaten the profession. Sir, all this will have no effect; as long as certain old established forms are well understood, and every word can be inserted with a perfect knowledge beforehand how it will be construed by the Courts, it is impossible to force clients to accept title-deeds, the effect of which no one can tell till he has taken the opinion of one of the Courts of Law on them.

"Few men without the pale of the law (hardly yourself, I think) know to what an extent the Courts can draw the fang-teeth of an act of Parliament, nor the delight the Courts feel in doing so when they have an unreasonable act to deal with. Is something particularly ordered to be done in a certain manner and under certain penalties? Oh!' says the Queen's Bench, ' this provision is only directory'; s. e. it ought to have been attended to, but as it has not, why never mind. Is, for instance, execution to issue against all the shareholders in a banking company on a judgment obtained against the registered officer? says the Court, ' It is contrary to our rules to allow execution to go against a party with- out giving him an opportunity of discussing the matter: let the plaintiff issue a wire famas,'—which is equivalent to making him bring a fresh action against the shareholder; the very thing the Legislature were striving to avoid, and which action is a particularly troublesome, expensive, and lengthy process. "Sir, it will be the same with Lord Brougham's act: should yon, for instance, venture to take a lease of your office in his form, you might think yourself very lucky if the Grand Turk did not eject you before a year is out; or, if you pre- ferred contesting the matter, you might soothe yourself with the prospect of hem haw up in one of the Courts of Law for a few years on a motion for a new

while the Court was trying to put a meaning on the act. a I have written more than I intended; but I have only to add, that you would confer a real benefit, not on the profession—no, the more troubled the waters the more assistance clients want—but on the public, if you would exert your influence in obtaining a change much desired, and to which no objection has ever been raised, except that it bears too startling a resemblance to common sense. Pay lawyers, not for the number of words they scrawl, but for the wear and tear of mind in cutting down old forms to the least possible number of words capable of expressing the meaning; and get the stamps on small conveyances, at least, re- duced to a nominal amount. Your own suggestion, of a small stamp upon all con- veyances, is, I fear, beyond the present age. "I am, Sir, your very obedient servant, T. E. R."

We hope that not many " constant readers" glance their eyes so cursorily over our pages as to hazard a charge so groundless as that of our seeking to cast a " slur" on the legal profession. Had T. E. It. perused the earlier articles, to which that of last week was mainly supplementary, he would have found it stated that the profession had acted with great candour and liberality in the matter, and showed themselves perfectly willing to accept and even promote necessary reforms. The liberality and integrity of all branches of the profession—barristers, special-pleaders, equity draftsmen, and solicitors—was expressly vindicated from certain conventional traditionary reflections ; and it certainly never en- tered into our heads to suspect that judges " feel delight" in mis- interpreting and thwarting the objects of the law,—a " slur " which our correspondent makes no scruple to cast on the heads of the profession. There was no temptation to impute sinister views to lawyers in the present discussion. We believe that the measures which we have noticed are as much for the real interest of that profession as of any other class of the community; and that as this has already become apparent to many of its mem- bers, so will it in time be discovered by all of them. Nothing is easier than to make vague professions of not object- ing to a general reform of the law of real property. But faith is due to the sincerity of those alone who come forward with ;specific propositions. When a man has a burden on his back, mere recommendations to get rid of it as soon as possible; unac- companied by any effort towards his relief, are unavailing. Lord Brougham, however "superficial" his knoviledge and

" fanciful " his bills may be, has shown that there is one way in which reform may be begun, if not perfected : let any other person show that there is a better way, and we will adopt the better in preference. There is something extremely unfair in seeking to make personal imputations against Lord Brougham the means of casting discredit upon the bills for con- veyancing reform which he has introduced. They who resort to this not very original device ought to know that Lord Brougham does not profess to have drawn the bills himself. He is merely the organ of that part of the legal profession which thinks that some change of the kind is necessary : he has the power and ability to urge this reform, as he has urged other equally but not more important changes. Lord Brougham did not admit that the acts had been a perfect dead letter : he simply stated that they had been received with great hostility by a part of the pro- fession. T. E. R., not satisfied with attributing to Lord Brougham the paternity of bills of which he has been only the accoucheur, lays to his charge a measure to which he did not even stand in that relation. The Act 7 and 8 Victoria, c. 76, was brought in and carried through by the present Chancellor, Lord Lyndhurst ; and it was indeed repealed next session—because it did not go far enough. Far bolder and more comprehensive measures are now required. We presume Lord Brougham, and everybody else, would prefer that the Government should undertake the task ; and probably it may now be obliged to do so : but hitherto, the only means of compelling the Government to move has been by introducing practical measures on private responsibility. There appear to be three modes, at the least, in which Govern- ment may obtain the desired end-1. Competent persons may be employed to prepare forms required in usual transactions, which may be circulated by authority : 2. Acts may be passed embody- ing the ordinary clauses used in conveyancing, and declaring that the employment of forms contained in the schedules to the acts shall have the same effect and validity as if the customary ones had been used;—which has been already done to some extent in Railway Acts : 3. An extended application may be made of the method adopted in the acts introduced by Lord Brougham,— placing these clauses in one column, and giving the full benefit of their enactments to parties who employ the short references to them placed in a parallel column. There are advantages pecu- liar to each of these plans, and perhaps all of them might be ren- dered available for public service. Other plans may be and have been brought forward : but there is one hinted at by T. E. R. which cannot be too speedily put hors de combat. It is the proposal to " cut down old forms to the least possible number of words capable of expressing the meaning," according to the judgment and will of private con- veyancers. This would be a most dangerous innovation : it would not give the parties the benefit of the old established forms ; it would give rise to much greater diversity than at pre- sent exists ; it would be alike unsafe for the client and his lawyer. On the other hand, the suggestion that lawyers should be paid "not for the number of words they scrawl, but for the wear and tear of mind," and that stamps on all conveyances should be reduced to a mere nominal amount, is useful and judicious. We have before now pointed out the injustice and absurdity of payment by length, and urged a revision of the stamp-laws. Indeed, one of the chief recommendations of Lord Brougham's " fanciful " acts, in our eyes, was the provision, " that in taxing any bills for preparing any deed under this act, it shall be lawful for the taxing officer, and he is hereby required, in estimating the proper sum to be charged for such transaction, to consider not the length of such deed, but only the skill and labour em- ployed and responsibility incurred in the preparation thereof." (8 and 9 Vict. c. 119, §. 4—Conveyances ; 8 and 9 Vict. c. 124, 4. 3—Leases.) This is the most effectual blow that has yet been struck at remuneration according to length. It is to such " fanciful" acts, not to mere declamation about the length of deeds and general expressions of willingness to remedy abuse, that we shall owe reform. Vague phrases of that kind have been current for at least a century. But the earnest conviction that deeds may be rendered shorter and more simple, and determination that this shall be accomplished, which now pervade the mind of the general public, and of no inconsiderable section of the legal profession—and which give warrant that an effective and sweeping reform is not far distant—has been mainly created by those very exertions which have been vitupe- rated and sneered at by professing friends to improvement.