24 JUNE 1922, Page 3

The Law of Property Bill, which effects many changes and

sweeps away many picturesque survivals of mediaeval land tenure, was read a third time in the House of Commons on Friday, June 19th. The Solicitor-General said that there had been only one division on the Bill, though it ran to three hundred pages. We may presume that few members understood the subject or took any interest in it. Experience alone can show whether the simplification of the law has gone far enough, and whether the transfer of land will, from January, 1925, be as cheap and expeditions as the Solicitor-General hopes. The legal pro- fession appears to take a somewhat cynical view of the Bill. Yet the abolition of the manorial system with its eopyholds and incidents is a stop towards a simpler state of things.