B4 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
selves beaten. On the contrary, they claimed victory all along the line, 
and asserted that their meeting was an eminently successful one. 
XXXII.—Tatpor’s System or LAND TRANSFER. 
The Torrens system of land transfer has well known advantages. 
Questions of title are settled by it once and for all. Transfers are 
effected with simplicity and dispatch, formalities are waived, and a 
claimant knows exactly how his title stands. But this system was 
anticipated by Colonel Talbot long before Torrens was heard of. His 
townships maps were long famous. They are now preserved in the 
Crown Lands Department, and in future ages will be interesting relics 
of the pioneer age of Upper Canada. Copies of the Surveyor’s maps 
were in Talbot’s custody. When an applicant’s claim was allowed, 
the Colonel with a lead pencil wrote the name across the lot selected. 
There the entry remained for years until the settlement duties were 
performed to the Colonel’s satisfaction, and the certificate issued, which 
would entitle the settler to his patent on payment to the Government 
of the survey and patent fees. If the applicant failed to perform the 
conditions, an eraser in the Colonel’s hands soon cancelled the name, 
and the settler’s chance of reading his title clear vanished. If the 
settler sold out to an approved successor, the name of the transferee 
was as readily substituted by the successive use of the eraser and pencil. 
What could be simpler, fairer or more effective? Let the lawyers 
answer. Probably the answer would be that every Crown Land Agent 
might not be as honest or as methodical as the crusty Colonel. His 
merits as superintendent of settlement were acknowledged even by those 
who denounced the objectionable features of his language and conduct. 
He tried to discriminate between the honest and industrious appli- 
cant and the crafty, shiftless or dishonest. He refused to admit bad 
characters amongst the settlers, and insisted in general on a reasonable 
compliance with the settlement conditions. 
In receiving pay for lands, however, he was especially strict on one 
point. Notes of the Bank of Upper Canada were always legal tender 
with him; but woe betide the man who asked him to accept bills of 
the Agricultural Bank, or the Farmers’ Joint Stock Bank, or any other 
new fangled institution. 
XXXIII— TALBOT AND THE AIREYS. 
Being unmarried, Talbot’s desire to acquire a great estate included 
the wish to leave it to some near kinsman, who should thereby be able 
to sustain in the New World the ancestral dignity of the Talbots de 



