METHODS OF LAND TRANSFER,*
Tars is a book which all who are interested in one of the most important questions of the hour should be sure to read. Sir Charles Fortescue-Brickdale analyses our present practice of land transfer, and finds it (as all must admit it to be) expensive, dilatory, and unduly complicated by the coexistence of four separate systems—registration of deeds (Middlesex and Yorkshire), registration of title (compulsory in London), private conveyancing, and copyhold court-transfer. The greater part of these defects arise, says the writer, from a single cause, the lack of method in keeping of titles—the very defect which it is the object of a proper registration system to remove. After a brief review of the systems of other countries, Sir Charles turns to an analysis of the evidence and Report of the Royal Commission of 1908, of which he himself, as Registrar of the Land Registry, was an important member. Ile shows that landowners and conveyan- cing counsel are, speaking generally, in favour of registration, solicitors (for reasons into which we have no space to enter here) against it, and general opinion too often hostile through lack of experience. To a very large extent this unpopularity is to be traced to a serious defect in the 1897 dot by which the Register was established. That Act allowed of possessory, qualified, and absolute titles being granted, but only the first were, before 1908, at all frequently used. Now, registration of possessory title is little better than no registration at all, and is certainly not worth the expense which it involves. Since 1908 every effort has been made to increase the facilities for obtaining absolute title, and it is to be hoped that con- tinued effort on these lines will in time lead to thy extension of a reform which is of vital importance to our social and commercial well-being. Meanwhile, Sir Charles Fortesene- Brickdale's lucid and well-reasoned work should be of great service in making generally known the nature of the problem and of the possible methods of solution.
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