LAND TITLES.

There are two kinds of registration ; one of deeds—such as is now in use in Ireland, Middlesex, and Yorkshire. This is the plan which, with some modifications and improvements, is recommended by the Royal Commission- ers. The other is a registry of titles, which is termed 'by the Commissioners "judicial registration"—by which the title to land would be in some degree assimilated to that of property in the Funds ; but on which their report is silent.

It would be useless to attempt within the limits of a letter like the pre- sent to enter on a discussion of the comparative merits of the two plans. The distinction between them is forcibly adverted to in the late number of the Law. .11eviesv, to which your article refers. I avail myself of the opportunity of noticing one other point as to which I venture to think vou have fallen into error, in common with the greater part of the press—I mermin.attributhig merit to the Irish Sale of Encum- bered Estates Act. I trust that it will be to us a warning instead of an ex- ample. For my own part, I scarcely permit myself to speak of a measure which I regard as the last crowning act of ruinaus legislation for that unhappy country. I will state my objections to it shortly.

.Firstl as a measure of pub4mpoliey, A scheme for driving into the mar- ket an immense mass of property far 'beyond the requirements of ordinary

demand must be ruinous to the property so treated; and if so, must-he dis-. estrous to all parties interested. 1&iillmMslhltirthat so lamentable a ca- tastrophe as the utter .ruin of a rarfasit,.ft :in.lkisidipeople dragging with them their families and dependentascanshessitherstilari. a sad calamity.

And observe, I am not now referring to that state of ruinous embarrass- ment into which 'Wish estates had 'fallen prior: tosthesmealure in pant o%

and which may. be said to be their normal state of 'Mn referOi,ll that superadded ruin -brought on by the measure itselfTpfer-sed buti. and- in addition to that which, no doubt, existed previously:: This superiatIWII amount is distiuctly indicated by the'deptediation in tics valued IriehlittE-7.110 perty. Fifteen years sago, the average ivalue of land there:was :gradual* ill rising. It reached fron, twenty to twenty-4re, in some c,aiiew bs,t1sioty3-. purchase. I havq ins selfsold S at Xhe,daiier the

still on the descent : from twenty it sank to eighteen ; theMto recently, by the last advices, ]observe that it has fallen to'

twelve—in some ea-CS to nine years purchase, with theconsolato reflectioniffo uttered froth the judicial rostrum, that to adjourn:sales, with:Binh prices: offered, ".damps the sales, and discourages oompeti don ." Wv spay test this. question by an ill :tr. tiapifamiliar to us, on this side the ChanneL Suppose from- Seine national cal amity the value of the Fluids were to sink in a like proportion : would it not be to us a 'sign of impending-. if not of actual present ruin ?

Upon the marketable value of property depend a-multitude of economical. contingencies. The real burden of all pecuniary liabilities affecting it and its owners must be relative .to this standard. In proportion as you depress the value of the estate charged, so you enhance the burden of the charge upon it. Again, upon its marketable value far more than upon the return of annual income depends its desitablences for investment. As you depress this marketable value, so you discourage investment and improvement, and keep back the outlay of capital by deterring loans for that object. But it would be idle to dwell farther upon what really appears to me to be a self-evident proposition. I shall content myself with assuming, what seems to Inc not open to contradiction—that a measure the necessary effect of which is to deluge the land-market with an excessive supply, and so to. depress the value of land ruinously oelow its true level, as it must be attended with individual ruin, so it must be a great national evil.

Secondly, and in an inferior point of view, regarded as a measure for emancipating property from the trammels of litigation. The act in qUestion possesses this most undoubted merit. Coarse, violent, and unscientific, (if I may use the term,) it amputates the diseased limb with a butcher's axe. -

The Court of Chancery, whether Irish or English, is a great evil. We feel it so here; we are applying remedies. One of our great improvements last year was the introduction by the new orders in Chancery, of a simple, easy, and inexpensive remedy for a mortgagee by foreclosure. It works, I believe,. (and I speak with a little experience,) admirably. I have no intention to dwell upon it farther than to observe, that instead: of Irish legislation in this particular being-themodel for England, it -would- be far wiser to reverse the process. The mortgagee who cannot obtain payment of his interest, or his principal if required, is entitled to a short and swift remedy for enforcing. the for- feiture of the estate which he holds in pawn. Such is the justiee;of the-case. Irish mortgagees are in the same predicament as others, and entitled to-the application of this universal rule of right. But in thus limiting the remedy for the evil, „another great and would be attained. Irish mortgagees, compelled by the default of their debtors is take possession of the mortgaged estates, will become imfact, as they are by right, proprietors of the soil ; and, like other people' will set about-making the best of their position. They are for the most part bond fide capitalists instead of land-jobbers, and (though reluctantly) woulrl no doubt commence the work required—the real substantial improvement of the.00untry. 'Grant- ing that they will desire to rid themselves of what they deem an encum- brance, and therefore anxious to sell, they will find that it is simply impps- sible to obtain purchasers; and they will judge far too wisely for their own interests to throw their property into the market to be sacrificed. for nothing. They will keep it, and feed the market by degrees as purchasers-mayoffer ; in this way effectually guarding against that unnatural repletion .of the land-market of which I complain.

But, thirdly, in another point of view the Irish act is looked upon as A good—as a measure for quieting titles. It confers on purchasers the 'benefit of a Parliamentary title—cuts the knot of all questions—bars all advert* claims—purges the estate with a kind of absolution from its past sins :

great good, if attained by proper means.

But the means offbred by this act are no less monstrous than they are imperfect. They are monstrous ; for they produce this 'great result—wipe out from the title all antecedent blots,—that is, bar, shut up, and .Tot ever oonclude 'the rights of all adverse claimants, 'without .any attempt at providing adequate machinery for investigating the real rights of parties.

do not mean that no inquiry is made as to the right of a petitioning encum- brancer ; but I affirm without fear of contradiction, that there is no attempt made at sifting and examining the true state of a title, so as to enable what is in fact a judicial sentence to be pronounced upon it. So it will be found in the.course of time, that many rightful claimants have been most unjustly barred of their rights by some precipitatepreceedieg under this act.

But its operation is no lees imperfect than it-is monstrous. If this clear- ing and absolution of a title be, as I am inclined to think it is, the 826117.11ZUM beacon of real property law, let the principle be acknowledg,ed--acted upon— extended so as to embrace all property, whether sold under the decree ofthe Commissioners or in any other way. Let the measure of reform be, not casual—exceptional—transitory ; but let it be embodied in a settled, uniform; permanent system, applicable for all time and to all transactions. In short, let us have that which we really desire—a well-constructed scheme of Judi-