of the cautioner so dying, becoming bankrupt or insolvent, or marrying. Here, again, no provision was made for the case of a sale, and conveyance or assignment of the interest in respect of which the caution may have been lodged; and moreover to enact that the representatives, or assignees, or husband of a cautioner, shall be entitled to notice without requiring them first to give notice of the death, bankruptcy, &c., of the cautioner, and to furnish their own names and addresses, is simply absurd. It will also be observed that no provision was made for the case of an interest in land, descendible to the heir of a cautioner, or of any interest devised or bequeathed by him.

In lieu of secs. 48, 49, & 55, the amended bill contains a new section (sec. 77), empowering the Landed Estates Court, with the sanction of the lord chancellor, to make rules for the transfer, transmission, and withdrawal of notices of leases and of caution, and for the regulation of any matters relating to registry not provided for by the act.

Section 53 directed how notices were to be served on a cautioner. The amended bill, however, contains a nest of clauses relating to notices, of which we shall presently say a few words.

The new clauses of the amended bill No. 2, are secs. 12, 21, 44, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 77, 78, 79, 87, 88, 90, and 91.

The registration commissioners in their report of 1856, in considering the objections to a system of registration of assurances, remark (p. 13), that one objection "to a registration of assurances would be the enhanced difficulty of obtaining loans by a deposit of deeds. The transactions of this kind are very numerous. At present a respectable man in possession of title-deeds may, and does, obtain relief in sudden emergencies confidentially, easily, and at a few hours' notice we may confidently conclude, that any system of registration which did not provide for arrangements equal in convenience to the deposit of deeds, would fail to meet with general acceptance." Notwithstanding these remarks, no provision equal in convenience to that of a deposit of deeds was made in the original bill. Section 12 of the amended bill provides that the deposit of the land certificate, shall for the purpose of creating a lien on the land, be deemed equivalent to a deposit of title-deeds.

The original bill did not empower a registered proprietor to charge his land with the payment of an annual sum, but merely with a gross sum and interest (see sec. 15); sec. 16 of the amended bill remedies this defect, and sec. 21 gives the proprietor of a charge of an annual sum, not having a power of sale over the land charged, all such remedies for the recovery of such annual sum as he might have enforced if the same had been a rent

charge duly charged upon the land by an unregistered instrument. How is a person to determine what remedies he might have had if an instrument existed which does not exist?

Section 44 supplies a grave defect in the original bill; it requires the registrar, on the request of a proprietor, to certify the state of the title of the proprietor-in fact, to furnish him with an authorized abstract of his title, and of all charges, cautions, &c., affecting his land.

Vast powers are given to the Landed Estates Court by this bill. Section 61 provides that barristers, solicitors, and certificated conveyancers, may practise in matters arising out of the act, in the same manner as they are empowered to practise in that court by the act No. 1.

Section 62 provides, that in a suit for specific performance, the court having cognizance of such suit, may cause all persons having registered interests in the land in question, or having entered up notices of leases, cautions, &c., to appear in such suit, and shew cause why the contract should not be specially performed; and sec. 63 provides for the payment of the costs of all such persons.

Sections 64-68 relate to notices, and comprise additions to, and alterations of, various sections spread over various parts of the original bill. By sec. 64 every person whose name is entered on the register as proprietor of land or of a charge, or as cautioner, or as entitled to receive any notice, or in any other character, is required to give an address in England. The original bill required an address in the metropolis to be given in all cases. By sec. 65 every notice required to be given to any person may be served personally, or may be sent by post in a registered letter, marked outside, "Landed Registry"-why not Land Registry?— and such notice-"if served by post," ought to have followed, as in bill No. 1, sec. 40-unless returned, shall be deemed to have been served on the cautioner" at the time when it would be delivered to him in the ordinary course of the post; but no proceeding is to be taken on the faith of such notice having been served until the expiration of such period, not less than five days, as the Landed Estates Court may by general order appoint. It must be here observed that the registered proprietor of land, or of a charge, is in certain cases entitled to notice; but, as he is not a cautioner, the portion of sec. 65 which limits the time within which notice is to be deemed to have been served, does not apply to him. This is an example of the evil of patching; the piece of section 65 which we allude to is taken out of bill No. 1, sec. 40; there the term "cautioner" is extensive enough, because under that bill cautioners are the only persons to whom such notices by post are required to be sent; but this little bit does not match the clauses in bill No. 2.

Sec. 66 relates to the return of letters to the Registrar, and is similar to sec. 41 of bill No. 1. Sec. 67 is in these words—“ On the return of any letter containing any notice, the Registrar shall act in the matter requiring such notice to be given, except under the direction of the Landed Estates Court, &c." The word "not" has been omitted between the words "shall" and "act." The draftsman may console himself with the reflection that a similar mistake has before occurred, not only in bills, but in an act of parliament (See 9 Geo. IV., c. 55, s. 46; 5 & 6 Will. IV., c. 34). Sec. 68 relates to the protection of purchasers, and is similar to sec. 42, in bill No. 1.

Sections 77, 78, and 79, relate to the rules to be made by the Landed Estates Court. Sec. 77 we have already had occasion to refer to. Sec. 78 provides that the rules shall have the force of an act of parliament, and may be altered, &c.; and sec. 79 directs that the rules shall be laid before parliament.

The original bill declared the forging of the registrar's seal, and other offences of a similar nature, to be forgery, but did not define the punishment on conviction. To this clause are added four sections, viz., secs. 87, 88, 90, and 91. Sec. 87 declares that if any person fraudulently procures an order of the Landed Estates Court, in relation to registered land, or any entry, erasure, or alteration on the register, such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and it provides that the parties to the fraud shall not be benefited by it. Sec. 88 provides, that no proceeding or conviction for any act declared to be a misdemeanour, shall affect the civil remedy which any person aggrieved may be entitled to against the person who committed the act. Sec. 90 defines the punishment for felony; and sec. 91 relates to the obligation to make discovery notwithstanding the enactment of penalty, and is similar to sec. 49 in bill No. 1, already referred to.

We cannot refer particularly to all the alterations, material and verbal, that have been made by the Solicitor-general in his original bills; for the only mode of distinctly pointing these out would be by printing the original and altered sections side by side. We must content ourselves with noting the sections of the original bills that have been altered, and the corresponding sectious in the amended bills, and with mentioning some few of the more prominent alterations and of the grosser blunders, in addition to those we have already incidentally noticed, leaving the reader, if so inclined, to compare the remainder of the clauses the one with the other.

As to Bill No. 1.

The sections of the original bill, materially altered, are:Sects. 8, 9, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 23, 25, 29, 34, 36, 37, 41, 48. The corresponding sections of the amended bill are :—

Sects. 9, 10, 14, 15, 18, 20, 22, 25, 28, 30, 37, 39, 40, 46, 55. Sections verbally altered are:

Sects. 3-7, 10, 11, 12, 21, 22, 30, 31, 32, 38, 39, 40, 43, 50, 56, 57, 62, 64, 70, 72, 73, 75.

The corresponding sections of the amended bill are:

Sects. 4-8, 11, 12, 13, 23, 24, 32, 34, 35, 43, 44, 45, 50, 57, 63, 64, 72, 74, 80, 82, 83, 85.

As to Bill No. 2.

The sections materially altered are:

Sects. 6, 12-16, 19, 20, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30, 38, 41, 42, 47, 52, 54, 62, 70, 76.

The corresponding sections of the amended bill are:

Sects. 6, 13-17, 19, 20, 24, 25, 27, 29, 30, 31, 39, 42, 43, 48, 51, 52, 59, 75, 84.

The sections verbally altered are :—

Sects. 2, 4, 7, 8, 18, 21, 22, 31-37, 39, 40, 45, 46, 50, 51, 57, 58, 59, 61, 72, 73, 74, 78.

The corresponding sections of the amended bill are :—

Sects. 2, 4, 7, 8, 18, 22, 23, 32—38, 40, 41, 46, 47, 49, 50, 54, 55, 56, 58, 80, 81, 82, 86.

We will now examine some of these amendments. Sect. 15 of the amended bill, No. 1, is as follows::

"Whenever a final declaration has been made establishing the title of any person to land, every purchaser for valuable consideration of the land mentioned in the declaration, or of any part thereof, or of any interest in such land"-the words "or in any part thereof" are wanting-"shall be deemed to hold the same for an estate in fee simple, or for such less estate as may be conveyed to him, with the reservation, and subject to the incumbrances (if any), appearing in the declaration, or created since the date of that declaration, and subject also, except in so far as the contrary is expressed in the declaration, to such charges and interest (if any) as are herein before declared not to be incumbrances, but free from all other estates, incumbrances, and interests whatsoever "-here the 14th section of the original bill stopped, the amended section proceeds-" including all estates, interests, and claims of her Majesty, her heirs and successors."

The maxim, Roy n'est lie per ascun statute si il ne soit expressement nosme, must have been forgotten by the framers of the original bill, or perhaps they thought it advisable to leave it open whether the Crown would be bound by the general nature of the words of the section or not. The same blunder occurred in several other sections of the original bills, and is, in all cases, now rectified (see original bill, No. 1) sec. 25 declaring the effect of conveyance by court; original bill, No. 2, sec. 13, defining the nature of the estate of the first registered proprietor;

and same bill, sects. 28 and 29, defining the nature of the estate of a purchaser for valuable consideration, and of a voluntary transferee respectively, and the corresponding sections of the amended bills.

Section 8 of the original bill No. 1, contained an enumeration of the several charges and interests which were not to be deemed incumbrances under the act. Amongst them we find tithe rentcharges, quit rents, easements of various kinds, &c., but land tax was not noticed. In sec. 12 of the original bill No. 2, which defined the various charges to which all registered land was to be deemed subject, unless specially excepted, land tax and quit rents were not mentioned. These defects have been cured in the amended bills; but whether land, in respect of which an indefeasible tithe has been procured, would be subject to parliamentary or parochial taxes (other than land tax), and rates of a general character, seems to be questionable.

Section 34, original bill No. 1, provided that, when the court had made a declaration or conveyance, all deeds relating to the land should be retained by the court. This section proves one thing beyond a doubt; namely, that the framers of this bill were totally ignorant of the ordinary detail of the practice of conveyancing. The authors of it could never have perused a single abstract of title, or a set of conditions of sale, or a covenant for production of title-deeds, otherwise they must have known that title-deeds do not always relate solely to the property of one individual, and that some of the title-deeds relating to one property frequently relate to other properties, otherwise held under perfectly distinct titles.

Section 37 of the amended bill No. 1, is indeed rather a new clause than an amendment of sec. 34. It properly provides that all such deeds delivered to the court as relate exclusively to the land, and are of no avail except for the purpose of substantiating the title to the land, shall be retained by the court, and all other deeds shall be returned, marked in such manner as to give notice to any person inspecting them, of the proceedings of the court in relation to the land comprised in such returned deeds.

Many of the powers which, under the original bill No. 2, were vested in the registrar, are by the amended bill taken from him, and vested in the Landed Estates Court. For instance, where, upon the first registration of land, notice of an incumbrance has been entered on the register, the registrar, on proof being given to him of the discharge of the incumbrance, was directed to enter on the register a memorandum of the discharge (sec. 14). By the amended bill, sec. 15, the Landed Estates Court is to direct the registrar to enter such memorandum. Again, the registrar, on the requisition of the proprietor of a charge, or on the production