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The Country Gentleman^s Magazine 



put upon its trial at all in either of those 

 measures, but only a hybrid measure blending 

 together the incompatible principles of registra- 

 tion of assurances and registration of title. The 

 old fiction of transferring the legal state is 

 abolished, and the object is accomplished by a 

 direct instead of by a circuitous course. In 

 the language of the Act, " mortgage and encum- 

 brance shall have effect as security, but shall 

 not operate as a transfer of the land thereby 

 charged, and in case default be made in the 

 payment of the principal sum, interest, annuity, 

 or rent charge thereby secured or in the ob- 

 servance of any covenant, and such default be 

 continued for the space of one calendar month, 

 or for such other period of time as may 

 therein for that purpose be expressly limited, 

 the mortgagee or encumbrance may give to the 

 mortgagor or encumbrancer notice in writing to 

 pay the money then due or owing on such mortgage 

 or encumbrance, or to observe the covenants 

 therein expressed, and that sale will be effected 

 unless such default be remedied." In such 

 case the registered proprietor of the charge 

 may proceed to sale, and should the sum bid be 

 inadequate to cover the amount secured, he may 

 foreclose without further expense or delay, by 

 producing to the registrar evidence that the re- 

 quirements of the law have been complied with. 

 In either event the registrar is required to regis- 

 ter the proprietor of the charge, or his purchaser 

 as owner of the land. The Act further enables 

 the proprietor of the charge, in such case, to 

 distrain or enter into receipt of rent and 

 profits. Charges are released by memorial 

 entered on the appropriate folium of the re- 

 gister, and upon the certificate or other instru- 

 ment evidencing title, which memorial the 

 registrar is required to make upon production of 

 receipt for the sum of money, annuity, or rent 

 charge ; or upon production of evidence of the 

 decease of the annuitant ; or that the circum- 

 stances or conditions upon the occurrence of 

 which the charge was contingent have ceased 

 to be possible. These charges on land are 

 transferable by endorsement in a simple form, 

 printed on the back of the instrument, evidenc- 

 ing the charge, and as the title is indefeasible 

 they pass as freely as Exchequer bills between 

 parties acquainted with the value of the property 

 to which they attach. The expense attendant 

 on creating a charge is but los., the cost of 

 transfer 5s., and of release 5s. Equitable mort- 

 gages for the purpose of securing cash credit 

 and advances for fluctuating amounts, and 

 also when parties desire secrecy, are created 



under this system with a degree of security 

 and facility for realizing, unattainable under the 

 English law of conveyancing, because the title 

 is indefeasible ; and so long as the banker retains 

 the certificate of registration of that title, no deal- 

 ing therewith can take place without his consent. 

 Thus, whilst it is admitted that, as applied to 

 transfer and mortgage of property in ships, the 

 results of registration of titles are all that can be 

 desired, it is argued that the system is inapplic- 

 able to dealings with land, because " ships are 

 legally divided into 64 parts. The share in a 

 ship is an abstract thing, though the ship itself 

 is a concrete thing, and one of the simplest des- 

 cription, and unalterable so long as it remains 

 in existence at all. But land is concrete alto- 

 gether. There is no such thing as an abstract 

 acre of land, and the same acre may vary in 

 appearance and description at different times." 

 True, an acre of land maybe altered in appear- 

 ance, converted from a garden to a building 

 site, &c.; but for purposes of description on the 

 registry, that is absolutely matter of indifference. 

 It is the external outline and the relative posi- 

 tion alone that we need regard ; and as land is 

 measured as a plane, these will remain the same 

 even though the acre should be uphove by an 

 earthquake. To the argument from the more 

 recent origin of titles in the colonies it is only 

 necessary to observe that many of the titles there 

 dealt with, and those amongst the most valuable, 

 date back forty years or upwards, and that, owing 

 in part to the unskilful conveyancing in the 

 earlier days, and in part to the frequency of 

 dealings with land in new count; !.'^, complica- 

 tions and difficulties no less grievo..s than those 

 which oppress the landed interest in this country 

 had been superinduced upon comparatively re- 

 cent titles. Admitting freely that there are in this 

 country some titles so defectively evidenced that 

 it would be unsafe to place them on the register, 

 I must remark that titles of the like character are 

 by no means unknown in the colonies, and here 

 as there they must be left to be cleared by efflux 

 of time under the statute of limitations. Such 

 titles are admittedly rare and exceptional, and 

 their existence is no argument against, but, on 

 the contrary, a cogent reason in favour of apply- 

 ing to the great mass of good holding titles a 

 system which will guarantee them against ever 

 falling into the like predicament. Estates Court, 

 Ireland, and the recording of the title under the 

 English'Act of 1862, do practically remove all 

 doubts and complications, and to all intents 

 place the land, for the purpose of being dealt 

 with under the system of registration of titles, in 



