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WOOLLEY, SAMUEL. sen. Birmingham, Iron Merchant. Birmingham. Pet
March 15. Ord April 7
YOUNG, JAMES, Blackburn, out of employment. Blackburn. Pet April 7. Ord
April 7

SALES OF ENSUING WEEK.

April 18.-Messrs. BAKER & SONS. at the Hoskin's Arms Hotel, Oxted, at 2.30 p.m.,
Freehold Building Land (see advertisement this week, p 4).
April 18 and following days.-Messrs. FLETCHER & CO., at 171, Strand, at 2 p m.,
Artist Proof Etchings. Photogravures, and Proof Engravings (see advertise-
tisement this week. p. 4).
April 19.-Messrs. BEAN. BURNETT, & ELDRIDGE, at the Mart, at 2 p.m., Contin-
gent Reversion to Freehold Property (see advertisement this week, p. 4).
April 19.-Messrs. BEAN, BURNETT, & ELDRIDGE, at the Mart, at 2 p.m., Policies

of Assurance (see advertisement this week, p. 4).

April 20.-Messrs. FAREBROTHER. ELLIS, CLARK, & Co., at the Mart, at 2 p.m.,
Leasehold Properties (see advertisement April 2, p. 4).

April 22-Messrs. BAKER & SONS, at the Mart, at 2 p.m., Freehold Properties (see
advertisement this week, p. 4).

April 22.-Messrs. FULLER & FULLER, at he Mart, at 2 p.m., Freehold Building
Land (see advertisement, March 26, p. 4).

BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS.
BIRTHS.

EVEREST.-April 5, at Eltham, Kent, the wife of Lancelot Feilding Everest,
barrister-at-law, of a son.
JENKINS.-April 1, at Inverness, the wife of R. P. Jenkins, solicitor, of a son.
MARRIAGES.
MEGGY-MASOM.-April 7, at St. Thomas's, Portman-square, Charles Meggy,
solicitor, to Kate Mason, daughter of the late William Mason, of Windsor.
POLLOCK-SALT.-April 12, at St. Saviour's Church, St. George's-square, S.W.,
Ernest Murray Pollock, barrister-at-law, to Laura Helen, daughter of Thomas
Salt, M.P., of Stafford.

DEATHS.

CHINERY.-April 8, at 1, Red Lion-square, Bloomsbury, George Whitmore
Chinery, solicitor, late of Twickenham, aged 76.
HEWITT.-April 1, Henry Marmaduke Hewitt, Inner Temple, barrister-at-law,
aged 44.
STROTHER.-April 5, William Strother, of Killinghall, Ripley, Yorkshire, aged 47.
The Subscription to the SOLICITORS' JOURNAL is-Town, 268. 6d. ;
Country, 288. 6d.; with the WEEKLY REPORTER, 538. Payment in ad-
vance includes Double Numbers and Postage. Subscribers can have
their Volumes bound at the office-cloth, 28. 6d., half law calf, 5s. 6d.

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BRUCE.-April 7. at Blackrock, county Dublin, the wife of William R. Bruce, CORRESPONDENCE
Master of the Queen's Bench, of a son.

SCHWEITZER'S COCOATINA.

Anti-Dyspeptic Cocoa or Chocolate Powder. Guaranteed Pure Soluble Cocoa of the Finest Quality, with the excess of fat extracted.

The Faculty pronounce it "the most nutritious, perfectly digestible beverage for Breakfast, Luncheon, or Supper, and invaluable for Invalids and Children."

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To Her Majesty, the Lord Chancellor, the Whole of
the Judicial Bench, Corporation of London, &c.

Highly commended by the entire Medical Press. Being without sugar, spice, or other admixture, it suits all palates, keeps for years in all climates, and is four times the strength of cocoas THICKENED yet WEAKENED with starch, &c., and IN REALITY CHEAPER than such ROBES FOR QUEEN'S COUNSEL AND BARRISTERS. Mixtures.

Made instantaneously with boiling water, a te spoonful to a Breakfast Cup, costing less than a halfpenny. COCOATINA A LA VANILLE is the most delicate, digestible, cheapest Manilla Chocolate, and may be taken when richer chocolate is prohibited.

SOLICITORS' GOWNS.

Law Wigs and Gowns for Registrars, Town Clerks,
and Clerks of the Peace.

In tins at 1s. 6d., 3s., 58. 6d., &c., by Chemists and CORPORATION ROBES, UNIVERSITY AND CLERGY GOWNS

Grocers.

Charities on Special Terms by the Sole Proprietor,

H. SCHWEITZER & Co., 10, Adam-st., Strand, London, W.C.

SOLICITORS'

ESTABLISHED 1689.

94, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.

BENEVOLENT

INSTITUTED 1858.

392 397

LEGAL NEWS .................... 398
COURT PAPERS..
WINDING-UP NOTICES
CREDITORS' NOTICES
BANKRUPTCY NOTICES

.......... 399 ..... 400 ............. 400 - 400

UNTEARABLE LETTER
COPYING BOOKS.

(HOWARD'S PATENT.)

1,000 Leaf Book, 5s. 6d.

500 Leaf Book, 3s. 6d. English made. THE BEST LETTER COPYING BOOK OUT. WODDERSPOON & CO.,

7, 8ERLE STREET, AND 1, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN'S INN, W.C.

ASSOCIATION.

For the Relief of Poor and Necessitous Solicitors and Proctors in England and Wales, and their Wives,
Widows, and Families.

The FIFTY-EIGHTH HALF-YEARLY GENERAL MEETING of the Members of this Association will be held at the LAW INSTITUTION, Chancery-lane, London, on Wednesday, April 20th, to receive the Board's Report and Statement of Accounts to December 31st, 1886, and for the transaction of other general business.

Mr. W. BERIAH BROOK will move :-" "That no Autumn General Meeting of Members be held this year."
The Chair will be taken at Two o'clock p.m.

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The Companies Acts, 1862 to 1883. THE MORPHIA HABIT and the

Every requisite under the above Acts supplied on the

shortest notice.

ABUSE of DRUGS.

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The BOOKS and FORMS kept in stock for immediate A PRIVATE HOME (Established 1864) Messrs. J. & D. are enabled to include large or small

280.

MEMORANDA and ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION speedily printed in the proper form for registration and distribution. SHARE CERTIFICATES, DEBENTURES, &c., engraved and printed. OFFICIAL SEALS designed and executed. No Charge for Sketches.

Solicitors' Account Books.

RICHARD FLINT & CO.

(Late ASH & FLINT),

Stationers, Printers, Engravers, Registration Agents, 49, FLEET-STREET, LONDON, E.C. (corner cf Serjeants'-inn).

Annual and other Returns Stamped and Filed.

for the Treatment and Cure of Ladies of the
Upper and Higher Middle-classes suffering from the
above. Highly successful results. Carriage kept.
Private sitting-rooms if required. Medical attendant,
Dr. J. St. T. Clarke.

For terms, &c., apply to the Principal, Mrs.
THEOBALD, Tower House, Leicester.

In consequence of the frequency of their sales quantities at short notice (if required). Sales of Furniture held at private houses. Valuations for Probate or Transfer. Terms on application to the City Auction Rooms (established 1793), 38 and 39, Gracechurch-street, E.C.

Messrs. Johnson & Dymond beg to notify that their Auction Sales of Wearing Apparel, Piece Goods, Household and Office Furniture, Carpets,

FURNISH Your HOUSES or APART- Bedding, &c., are held on each day at the week

MENTS THROUGHOUT on
MOEDER'S HIRE SYSTEM.
The original, best, and most liberal.

Founded A.D. 1868.

Cash prices. No extra charge for time given. Particulars, estimates, Press opinions, testimonials post-free.

F. MOEDER, 248, 249, and 250, Tottenham-courtroad, and 19, 20, and 21, Vorwell-street, W. Established 1862.

ALSO for HIRE ONLY.

excepted).

HODGKINSON & CO.'S HAND-MADE BRIEF, FOCLSCAP, and other PAPERS.

THE MOST SUITABLE FOR SOLICITORS,
Can be obtained through all Stationers.

LAW UNION FIRE & LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY.

ESTABLISHED IN THE YEAR 1854.

The only Law Insurance Office in the United Kingdom which transacts both Fire and Life Insurance Business.

CHIEF OFFICE-126, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.

The Funds in hand and Capital subscribed amount to upwards of £1,900,000 Sterling. By express provision in the Company's Deed of Settlement, and by the Conditions of the Policies of the Company, the Capital and Funds of each Department are and always have been kept distinct, and under no circumstances oan the Capital or Funds of one Department be applied to the payment of Losses or Expenses incurred in the other Department.

CHAIRMAN: JAMES CUDDON, Esq., of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law.

DEPUTY-CHAIRMAN: C. PEMBERTON, Esq. (Lee & Pembertons), Solicitor, 44, Lincoln's Inn Fields.

Extract from the Report of the Directors for the year ended 30th November, 1886 :

In the Fire Department new Insurances were effected for an aggregate amount of £6,994,418, yielding in new Premiums the sum of £10,618 12s. 4d. In the Life Department during the same period 252 Policies were effected, insuring £236,245, the new Premiums received thereon amounting to £8,085 198., of which £1,298 168. was paid away for re-assurance. Seventeen Proposals for insuring £21,150 were declined, and 46 Proposals for insuring £73,180 were uncompleted in the year.

Nine Life Annuities for £679 2s. 10d. were granted, the purchase-money for which was £5,742 78. 8d. Sixteen Annuities for £999 10s. 6d. became void during the year by death.

The Claims under Life and Endowment Policies amounted to £46,519 38. 6d., which amount, although in excess of the Claims for the year 1885, is below the expectation.

The total amount of losses by fire, paid and outstanding on 30th November, was £21,615 15s., being about 45 per cent. of the net Premiums rec-ived in the year. The average rate of Interest realized on the assets of the Company (whether productive or unproductive) was £4 118. 2d. per cent.

Liberal Settlement of Losses. Moderate Rates of Premium. Profits divided every five years in the Life Department.
Life Policies, free from all Conditions and Restrictions, are granted at a slightly increased Premium.

Policies of Insurance granted against the contingency of Issue at moderate rates of Premium.

Claims under Life Policies payable immediately on proof of death and title.

Loans are granted on Mortgage of Life Interests, Reversions, Leasehold Houses, &c. Reversionspurchased.
Prospectuses and every information may be obtained from

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FRANK MCGEDY, Actuary and Secretary.

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Fire Premiums

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Life Premiums
Interest...

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£577,000

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191,000

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Accumulated Funds

132,000

£8,134,000

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ESTABLISHED 1851.

BIRKBECK

BANK.

Southampton-buildings, Chancery-lane.

THREE per CENT. INTEREST allowed on DEPOSITS, repayable on demand.

TWO per CENT. INTEREST on CURRENT ACCOUNTS calculated on the minimum monthly balances, when not drawn below £100.

The Bank undertakes for its Customers, free of Charge, the Custody of Deeds, Writings, and other Securities and Valuables; the collection of Bills or Exchange, Dividends, and Coupons; and the purchase and sale of Stocks, Shares, and Annuities. Letters of Credit and Circular Notes issued.

The BIRKBECK ALMANACK, with full particulars, post-free, on application.

FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager.

ORDINARY SHAPE, 8/6 TO 70/

PATENT OPENING, 30 TO 100/

THE LARGEST STOCK OF BRIEF BAGS IN LONDON. Bags made to order on the Premises in one day. Catalogues post free.

S. FISHER, 188, STRAND.

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455

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North Central Wagon Co. v. Man-
chester. Sheffield, and Lincoln-
shire Railway Co. (No. 1)
North Central Wagon Co. v. Man-
chester, Sheffield, and Lincoln-
shire Railway Co. (No. 2)........ 447
Official Receiver, Ex parte, In re
Gould

Smith v. Smith and Graves....... 459

Soper v. Arnold..

Veale & Co. v. Automatic Boiler
Feeder (Limited)
Wilcock, In re........

The Solicitors' Journal and

LONDON, APRIL 23, 1887.

CURRENT TOPICS.

..........

.......

451

portion of the business arising out of Chancery causes commenced in the Manchester and Liverpool District Registries indicates that much still remains to be settled in reference to this portion of the work. For the purpose of business in chambers the convenience of solicitors who have to come up from the country cannot be altogether lost sight of, and the same remark applies in a lesser degree to applications made in court. Then there is the question whether the district registrars are to oscillate between London and their respective districts with a view of performing the multifarious duties assigned to them as registrars, chief clerks, and taxing masters. 458 If the judge is to take the interlocutory work in London, it would appear more convenient that he should be attended by the officials who are on the spot, and that the Lancashire officials should not be called away from their duties at a distance. Again, if the record of the whole of the proceedings in each case is to be preserved in one place, that one place should be the place of trial, seeing that it is often necessary at a trial to refer to authentic notes of interlocutory proceedings. Many other minor points of procedure are likely to crop up from time to time, which will require a small code of rules or regulations to settle. We observe, by the way, with much pleasure, from Mr. Justice KEKEWICH'S observations, that there has apparently been a change of plan with regard to the judge who is to try the Lancashire causes, and we gather that it is now intended that some other judge shall go down to Lancashire to try the causes marked for Mr. Justice KEKEWICH, so as as to prevent the results to which we drew attention last week.

454

450

Reporter.

IT SHOULD BE NOTED that Mr. Justice STIRLING will devote Monday in each week in the present sittings to chamber business, instead of Friday as heretofore, and that he will take motions on Fridays.

ON TUESDAY Mr. Justice NORTH announced that he intends next week to take further considerations, and that in the following week (commencing the 2nd of May) he will take witness actions. In consequence of the pressure of other business, and especially of the great number of adjourned summonses, this learned judge has heard no witness actions since the last Michaelmas Sittings.

IN THE COURSE of the hearing of a motion on Tuesday, Mr. Justice NORTH asked for a copy of the notice of motion, and said that he wished that solicitors would always furnish a copy of such a notice for the use of the court. Mr. COOKSON, Q.C., who was engaged in the case, explained that he understood it to be the practice of the taxing master to disallow on taxation the costs of a copy of a notice of motion supplied for the use of the judge. Mr. Justice NORTH said that in his opinion those costs ought to be allowed. If a notice of motion was at all complicated it was essential that the judge should have a copy of it before him, and it was very inconvenient that he should have to borrow the copy supplied to counsel.

WE GIVE elsewhere the amended “ "rules, orders, and instructions" for the registrars of the Probate Registries which have been framed for the purpose of giving effect to the decision in In the Goods of Price (ante, p. 348), that probate is in future to be granted of a will whereby a married woman disposes of her separate property in the ordinary form, and without the words of limitation hitherto used. The old rule (No. 15 in the rules relating to the Principal Registry and No. 18 in those relating to the District Registries), which provided that, "in granting probate of a married woman's will made by virtue of a power, or administration with such will annexed, the power under which the will purports to have been made must be specified in the grant," is repealed, and it is provided that, in granting probate of the will of a married woman, or of the will of a widow made during coverture, or letters of administration with such wills annexed, it shall not be necessary to recite in the grant or in the oath to lead the same, the separate personal estate of the testatrix, or the power or authority under which the will has been, or purports to have been, made; and the probate or letters of administration with will annexed are to be in the ordinary form without any exception or limitation.

THE VERY REASONABLE APPEAL made by Mr. Justice KEKEWICH to the members of the bar who practise before him for suggestions as to the most convenient mode of transacting the interlocutory

MR. DANIEL, Q.C., has written to the Times stating that his experience as a county court judge taught him that "no man ever signs his name twice exactly alike. If two signatures are produced exactly alike one of them is imitated." The statement is, perhaps, too broadly expressed, but there is high judicial authority for the proposition that very little reliance ought to be placed on small differences in the formation of letters. In Robson v. Robson (2 Addam's Rep. 79) Sir JOHN NICHOLL remarked that the evidence afforded by handwriting was very inconclusive "from the dissimilarity which is often discernible in the handwriting of the same person under different circumstances." Few persons, he said, wrote so uniformly that dissimilar formations of particular letters were grounds for concluding them not to have been made by the same person. And in a subsequent case (Constable v. Steibel, 1 Hagg. Eccl. Rep. 61) the same judge took occasion to point out that dissimilarity in the handwriting of the same person may be occasioned by a variety of circumstances the health and spirits of the writer, his writing miterials, his position, and his hurry or care. It is true that in recent times more weight has been attached to the evidence afforded by a comparison of handwriting, and in the Lovat Peerage case, in 1885, the learned law lords carefully scrutinized two signatures separated in date by over fifty years, and the conclusion that they could not be the signatures of the same person exercised a consider. able influence on their decision. But the conclusion as to the handwriting does not appear to have turned on any special formation of letters or other eccentricities, but upon the general character of the handwriting. The one signature was the "bold, well-written signature of an educated man," the other was that of a boor. The fact is that small peculiarities in handwriting are very apt to be dropped. It may perhaps be remembered that a remarkable instance of this came to light in the Tichborne case. In the admittedly genuine letters of the real ROGER TICHBORNE the following peculiarity was observable. From a very early period up to the it occurred at the end of a word, but in his letters after the year 1851 there was always a dot over the letter "y" whenever 1851 this eccentric practice was altogether abandoned. Tricks of handwriting may be of some importance in the comparison of letters written about the same time, but they are of no value in the comparison of handwriting written at dates severed by an interval of years.

year

AN INTERESTING ACCOUNT is given in the current number of the Law Quarterly Review of the Statute Law of the United States. The ease with which new legislation is frequently carried on the

other side of the Atlantic makes the statute books of the different also a further question whether the chief clerk could make a perStates a much more accurate index to the opinions of the people sonal order for payment of any such sum. In the case in question than with us; and when we find the laws of a large number of the action was for partition, and the defendant had, throughout the them setting in the same direction, this may perhaps indicate the proceedings, been in default, not having entered an appearance probable tendency of opinion among ourselves. There seems no to the writ. The judgment was for partition by the judge at sign of this at present, however, with regard to the election of chambers, and the difficulty which subsequently arose in effecting judges. Fourteen States originally intrusted this to the Legisla- the partition was not anticipated. Under the circumstances it is ture; of these all but five have gone over to popular elections. But doubtful whether, even if the point had been foreseen, the court upon another point in the same connection even the Americans are would have had power to insert in the judgment anything not cautious, and California alone stops the salary of any judge who asked for by the statement of claim. On this point there was no keeps a cause undecided after more than ninety days from the decision. But Mr. Justice STIRLING held that a chief clerk has no hearing. In general, the legal profession can only be entered by more power to award a sum by way of owelty of partition than an examination under the direction of the courts, but Indiana is commissioners of partition would have had in cases where that content to take integrity instead of knowledge; and every voter of power was not given by the judgment. He also decided that good moral character may be admitted as an attorney-at-law. More there is no power, in awarding such a sum, to make a personal practical for ourselves it may be to notice the education laws. In order for payment. every State but three the Legislature is required to provide for the maintenance of free schools, while eighteen States provide also for a State University in connection with their system of free education. In two, moreover, a public library must be kept open in every town. American legislation, again, is interesting, as shewing the manner in which special dangers are dealt with. In their own literature the Americans have freely revealed the corruption of politics. Their statute books exhibit the manner in which this will be dealt with. Thus, in two States, "lobbying" is declared to be a felony; and one of these defines it as "seeking to influence the vote of a member of the Legislature by bribery, promise of reward, intimidation, or other dishonest means"; while in another the mutual promises of two members to support each other's Bills render them criminally liable. It is curious, too, to note that in one State no salaried officer of a railroad can hold a seat in the Legislature. The Maine Liquor Law, of course, is well known;

but two other States-Iowa and Kansas-have now taken the same step, and in the latter State a brewer has claimed protection under the United States Constitution for the damage done to his property, which has been rendered useless. An appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States in this matter is now pending. The department of private law is, of course, less interesting. With regard to real property, the natural tendency has been at work: tenures have been simplified, entails abolished or restricted to one generation, and the rule of equal distribution has been introduced. The previous state of the law has generally been ascribed to the interest of the ruling class. Perhaps this will account also for the curious provision we find in the Civil Code of Georgia, by which the rights of creditors are to be favoured by the courts, and every facility is to be afforded them to defeat any efforts to deprive them of their just rights. The marriage laws are, of course, freer than with us; but it is worthy of note that five States and most of the territories forbid the inter-marriage of first cousins. Marriages between blacks and whites are generally prohibited, and the law as to the negro's equality of rights is easily satisfied by punishing the white offender equally with the black. In Pennsylvania and Tennessee absence for two years, coupled with a report of death, justifies a re-marriage; and, should the absent spouse return, he is put to his election whether to reclaim his wife or have a divorce. But the diversities between all these different systems are, of course, endless, and must greatly complicate legal relations between citizens of different States. Surely where the diversities, as is often the case, are merely on matters of detail, the common sense of the Americans will ultimately overcome State jealousies, so as to allow some common system to be established.

COMMISSIONS FOR PARTITION are seldom issued, the present practice being (where partition, and not a sale, is directed) to direct that the partition be carried out in chambers. Such commissions had power to award a sum by way of owelty of partition when the decree directing the commission gave authority for such an award, but when the decree gave no such authority they could not do so. The authorities for the latter portion of this proposition are contained in Mole v. Mansfield (15 Sim. 41) and Peers v. Needham (19 Beav. 316). In a case before Mr. Justice STIRLING on Weday last (Re Cooper, Cooper v. Cooper) the question was raised Mr a chief clerk has any more power to award such a sum thanmmissioners of partition would have had; and there was

1

THE LIST OF CASES to come before the two divisions of the Court of Appeal includes 66 from the Chancery Division; 9 from the Chancery Court of the County Palatine of Lancaster; 77 from the Queen's Bench Division; 5 from the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division; and 12 appeals in Bankruptcy. The total of these appeals is 169, whereas a year ago the number of appeals in the list was 184, and at the last sittings 189.

THE CAUSES in the lists of the Chancery Judges comprise 130 before Mr. Justice KAY; 152 before Mr. Justice CHITTY; 190 before Mr. Justice NORTH; 140 before Mr. Justice STIRLING; and 149 before Mr. Justice KEKEWICH, making a total of 761 causes, of which upwards of 420 are witness actions. A year ago the total was 669 causes, and at the last sittings 820.

ON LOOKING at the Queen's Bench Division Cause List it will be observed that the number of causes for trial with juries is 405, and of those to be tried without juries 384, showing that the jury and non-jury cases are becoming nearly equalized. A year ago the numbers were, 583 with juries, and 490 without.

THE LAND TRANSFER BILL.

III.

We concluded our last week's notice by an observation, suggested by one of the new features in the Bill-confirmation of boundaries-to the effect that probably, unless special precautions are taken to guard against them, greater difficulties will be met with in the future manipulation of certified boundaries than in their registration as conclusive in the first instance. As we propose to devote a separate section later on to the discussion of the whole question of maps, plans, boundaries, descriptions, alterations, and the like, we shall excuse ourselves from now following up the inquiry so suggested, and will proceed to consider the third, and, as we believe, the really most important and beneficial new feature introduced by the Bill.

IV. THE INSURANCE FUNd.

The unbending rigidity which mere justice has hitherto rendered necessary in all dealings in the Land Transfer Office would, we submit, have proved simply intolerable if applied on any extensive scale and to more or less unwilling subjects, and it is principally owing to the extended freedom which the existence of the insurance fund will confer upon the officials that we have ventured to express our confident expectation that the present Bill will prove a success. But at the same time we do not forget that in dealing with so special a subject-matter as landed property exactness and certainty are no less important than facility and despatch, and it will be seen that, in the following exposition of the value and functions of the insurance fund, we shall strive to show the limits as well as the extent of its proper use.

General aspect of the insurance system. In the first place, it is a very curious thing in itself that we have not had an insurance fund all along. The Report of the Commissioners appointed in

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1854 to consider the subject of the registration of title with reference to the sale and transfer of land (presented in 1857), and which led more or less directly to the legislation of 1862, assumes, almost as a matter of course, that some such provision will be made if titles are to be publicly certified against all the world. "In such a case it would not be unreasonable that the registered owner, who had thus obtained a warranted title [by warranted' the commissioners appear to mean 'absolute'], should pay a small premium on that account; and the aggregate amount of the premiums paid would constitute a fund to indemnify the State as the public insurer in case any latent claim should be subsequently established" (p. 18). "The registrar will cause the title to be investigated, and, if the title is a good one, then, on the payment of a small premium, to be calculated by way of a percentage upon the estimated value of the property in question, he will register the ownership as a warranted one. The premiums will be paid into the Exchequer, and the Consolidated Fund will be liable to make a fair and reasonable compensation to any person who may establish a claim in respect of the estate (p. 34); and later (p. 44), while admitting the weight of certain objections and difficulties to be encountered in establishing the fund, the commissioners do not even stoop to mention the possibility of proceeding to grant absolute titles without it.

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A proviso to this effect in Lord Westbury's Bill was objected to by Lord St. Leonards (Hansard, Feb. 17, 1862, 369) on the ground, apparently, that it would not be wanted in safe titles, and that shaky titles could already be guaranteed by an existing private company; and eventually the Act was passed without it. The Bills of 1857, 1858, and 1859, do not contain any mention of the compensation principle. The Commissioners' Report of 1870 gives it no place in its recommendations; Lord Selborne's Bill of 1874 and Lord Cairns's Act of 1875 make no provision of the kind, and the report of Mr. O. Morgan's Committee (1879) is alike silent it.

upon

Owing to this omission, the registry practice in England has all along been fixed upon the horns of a dilemma. If the registrar had acted as ordinary buyers of land do, " chancing" an occasional error in order to expedite business, he would have been abusing the confidence reposed in him by the sleeping owners of property, whose rights he was thus registering away without consulting them. Very properly, the rules embraced the other alternative-namely, to make the registrar stricter than ordinary purchasers, but at the same time as nearly as possible infallible; and as a fact no mistakes involving loss have yet occurred in the Land Registry Office.

But the administration of such a system must be a great responsibility, which the registrar has probably felt the weight of more than once. For it must be remembered that not only does the possibility of error and damage to innocent persons occur when land is brought under the Act for the first time, but also on every registered dealing with the registered land that afterwards takes place. Both Lord Westbury's and Lord Cairns's Acts give a registered purchaser for value an absolute title as against all unregistered claims; and it is the opinion of all authorities that such claims would have to be postponed even if they had previously been registered and their erasure from the register had been effected by fraud or mistake. On this the Bar Committee tersely remark: "If this feature of the system had been understood by the public, it might, perhaps, have materially reduced the number of applications for registration under the Act. It does not appear, so far as the evidence goes, to have exercised any influence. Persons who heard that they were to acquire an indefeasible title to their own land do not seem to have adverted to the fact that a new method was devised by which an indefeasible title against themselves might by possibility be acquired by other persons (Land Transfer, p. 41). To avoid this danger in practice, the same repulsive rigidity at all doubtful points has been introduced into subsequent registered dealings as had previously characterized the procedure on first registration, and it has been found by many who have had to deal with land already registered that, in certain classes of transactions, more trouble and expense has to be incurred in getting the matter through than would have been experienced had the business been in private hands. It must not be supposed that any personal reflection is here intended on the conduct of the officers of the land registry. To quote again from the Bar Committee:"The precautions

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adopted by the Registration Office were not only justifiable, but such as could not have been neglected without the grossest dereliction of duty. The fact that some of them are often waived in practice by willing purchasers affords no reason why a dormant claim, as to which the purchaser is willing to 'take his chance,' should be arbitrarily abolished by a public official. It should be remembered that 'waiving a requisition' means only, on the part of a purchaser, voluntarily choosing, for the sake of readily completing a purchase, to incur a given risk; whereas, on the part of the registrar, it may mean confiscating somebody else's legal rights. Nobody can question a purchaser's right to accept any title for what it is worth, relying on the probability that dormant claims will continue to sleep. But it is quite possible to question the propriety of permitting a public officer arbitrarily to bar dormant claims, merely because he thinks it unlikely that they will be effectively prosecuted" (Land Transfer, pp. 46, 47). The only successful systems of registration of title hitherto established on any large scale-namely, the Torrens system, and the Prussian system (of 1872)-have had insurance as the basis from the beginning. In the Torrens' system it is effected by a separate fund, as is now proposed for England. In Prussia it is provided for out of the general surplus of the registry fees, "thus establishing a mutual assurance system between the holders of registered titles against the possible mistakes of the registers" (Report from Prussian Upper Chamber, quoted in Annuare de la législation étrangère, 1873).

A few facts and figures from actual experience will shew the way in which it works out in practice.

1. What will be the risk to the State?-This, it is true, is not our immediate special concern; if the State is willing to undertake a risk for the benefit of landowners, well and good, it is not our place to object to it. It may be observed, however, that the risk to the State admits of estimation with tolerable exactnessthus: the sources of risk will be (i.) first registrations of absolute and qualified titles, and confirmations of titles and boundaries; and (ii.) registered dealings. The Report of the Land Transfer Commissioners of 1870, and the evidence therein referred to (p. xx., par. 43) is conclusive, if anything ever can be, that the protection offered by the existing practice to purchasers on sales is absolutely perfect, and this is repeated and confirmed by the Bar Committee (Land Transfer, pp. 63 and 68-71). Therefore, it seems that if the registrar can exercise the same amount of vigilance on first registrations as is usually given by ordinary purchasers on sales, the losses from this source would be very trifling. The losses to be expected on registered dealings are amply exemplified from the statistics of the Australian assurance funds which are, shortly, that, in an aggregate of transactions that have taken place in the seven Australian colonies which have adopted the Act in the course of the last thirty years, amounting to about £400,000,000 value, the aggregate of losses requiring compensation from the fund has been £2,500.

2. Will it be a tax ?—The proposal is to levy one farthing in the pound on first registration with an absolute or qualified title, and one halfpenny in the pound on every subsequent dealing for value, one-half of which is remitted if such dealing takes place within ten years of the first registration. The following table of costs, picked out at random at various points of value from £100 up to £50,000, will furnish the means of judging as to this. In the third column will be seen the total expense of a transfer for value apart from professional charges; the office fees are calculated at the present Land Registry rates; the 15s. out of pocket includes a fixed fee of 10s. for altering the certificate of title and the fees for declarations, forms, and postage.

Office payments on a Transfer for value
under the Proposed System.
Total, with
Value of To Insurance Office Fee for 15s. Out of
Property. Fund. Registration.

Pocket Expenses.

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