The feeling in favour of an easier transfer of land
must be rising fast. Sir R. Webster, the Attorney-General, speaking at Ventnor, has been obliged to say that he was in favour of making land as transferable as any other object of sale. He would, there- fore, remove all legal obstacles, and, moreover, would exert him- self to destroy the great obstacle, the excessive expense of convey- ance. He himself had known of transfers of small pieces of land in the Isle of Wight in which two years' income had been paid in mere expenses. It cost £50 to convey land worth £500. These are, of course, extreme instances ; but it must not be for- gotten that the proportionate expense increases in an inverse ratio to the extent of the property. It will be most difficult, in the teeth of the legal profession, to remove this obstacle to transfers completely; but if the agitation is strong enough to compel Sir R. Webster to yield to it, a way will be found.- It has long been foreseen that a radical alteration in the methods of conveyancing would involve as a corollary a complete change in the methods of paying lawyers.
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