COSTLY CONVEYANCING CURED BY REGISTRATIO N.
IN one of three important lectures on the transfer of real proper- S, just delhered by Mr. James Stewart at the rooms of the ociety for Promoting the Amendment of the Law, the lecturer said—" I am guilty of no exaggeration when I state, that in small purchases the expenses of transfer frequently amount to one-sixth and sometimes to one-third of the value, or even a lar- ger proportion. The circumstances have very recently come to my knowledge of one transaction in which 1501. was the pur- chase-money and the expenses were 501.; and in another, where
6301. was the purchase-money, the expenses were 200/." Mr. Stewart added, that even these enormous expenses might be en- dured were their amount definite and fixed ; " but there is a com- plete uncertainty both as to the expense and the time which the transaction will take in the completion." . The source of all this trouble and expense is a provision of our
law, intended to give security to the purchaser of land. Before any man can sell, whither by private contract or public auction, any lands to another, he must deliver to him what is called an "abstract 'of title." This is an abbreviated account of the deeds, wills, and other documents in the possession of the seller. If any flaws exist in the title, this document, assuming it to be honestly and accurately drawn, will expose them. If the counsel to whom the abstract of title is submitted goes no further than the ab- stract itself, the security it affords the purchaser is little better than elusory. Accident may have caused deeds to be mislaid ; mistake may have caused them to be abbreviated inaccurately ; fraud may have suppressed them. If a minute and careful ex- amination of the original documents is gone into, no one can con- jecture beforehand how long it may last, and how much it may cost. But some idea of the delay and expense to which parties to a transfer of landed property are liable is afforded by the state- ment we have quoted from Mr. Stewart.
Now, the most provoking- concomitant of this expenditure is,
that in a large proportion of cases it is quite unnecessary. Ac- cording to Sir Edward Sugden, the proportion of bad to good titles is not more than one in fifty : Mr. Stewart says, " I have heard it stated by professional men that for ninety-nine good titles there is only one bad." But as it is impossible to say be- forehand which of the fifty or hundred titles is the bad one, pru- dence dictates the same rigid scrutiny of all. Sir Edward Sug- den says, in the last edition of his book upon Vendors—" The present expense as to titles is in forty-nine cases out of fifty su- perfluous; but as every one may be in danger, all are guarded against it. The precaution has been very much increased within the last twenty years, but not from increased danger." Mr. Stewart proposes as a remedy for this evil, the establish- ment of a register of landed property. As the existing law makes adverse possession for forty (and in some cases for twenty) years a title against all the world, he would have it enacted that a per- 50/1 registering his land (a more public act than any deed can now be) should after twenty years hold it against all the world, allowing ten years more for persons labouring under disabilities to make their claim. Mr. Stewart would have district registers, adopting. for the boundaries of districts pretty nearly those of the existing courts ; and he would place a competent registrar at the head of each, with power to employ the services of the officers of the courts. To insure uniformity of practice, he would have a given number of registrars authorized to issue regulations from time to time.
A simple illustration will show the tendency of this arrange- ment to dispense with the present expensive mode of transfer. All dealings and transactions respecting registered lands must appear on the register in order to be valid. A debt secured by mortgage, when paid off, will at once disappear from the re- gister. But our present plan perpetuates all dealings which have taken place within the last sixty years. It is "once a mortgage always a mortgage" and the various transfers and reconveyances of the mortgage debt continue to load the abstract long after it has been wiped off.
This, like everything connected with the economical working of our legal system, deserves more attention than it receives. We all complain of heavy taxation, and not without cause. But perhaps the heaviest portion of our taxes is litmost people un- noticed. Taxes, properly considered, embrace many contribu- tions by private individuals towards the support of political insti- tutions. The "national income," which figures in the Chancellor of the Exchequer's balance-sheets, is perhaps less than a moiety. Police, highway, and church rates, with similar items, are a weighty part of our burdens; and the individual contributions of suitors towards the support of the administration of the law are as vague and uncertain as they are colossal. Here is a yet almost untrodden field for retrenchment. Economy in the accounts regularly submitted to Parliament must henceforth be effected. mainly by the introduction of modes of taxation more pro- ductive in proportion to their pressure; but great relief may be derived from taxing more rigidly the nation's annual bill of law- costs.
Mr. Stewart in his lectures, as in his books? displays a thoroughly practical spirit. He urges no rash precipitate transitions; he looks every difficulty full in the face, calmly shows that it is more apparent than real, or frankly admits its weight, and sets him- self to overcome it. His detail of the perplexities attendant on the scrutiny of an abstract of title is as amusing as a novel.
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