MWISTEK. 



REGISTER. 



1004 



third regiment in the preeent lift The third was Lord Churchill's 

 regiment of dragoon*, which was divided into six troops, and which it 

 at present denominated the First or the King'* Dragoon-Guards. 



The infantry conaUted of the following corps, namoly : Two 

 battalion* of the royal regiment of guards, now oalled tin- iln n.ulirr 

 Guard*. ; one battalion of the Coldatream regiment of guards 

 regiment (till bean that name ; one battalion of the Earl of Dum- 

 barton'* regiment, or the royal regiment of infantry above mentioned t 

 and one battalion of the Uuke of York'*, or the admiral'*, maritime 

 regiment. Thi* Lust, which was named in compliment to the king'* 

 brother (afterward* Jame> II.), was subsequently disbanded or con- 

 Yertod into a regiment of marine*. No other regiment* were at the 

 review, but there then xiftod the queen's regiment of foot, sim 

 initiated the queen's royal regiment of infantry : the Holland regiment, 

 which was raited in ltii>5, and waa so designated because it had served 

 in that country. This was then considered a* the fourth regiment of 

 infantry, after the two regiments of guard*, but it was afterwards, aud 

 is still, designated the third, in consequence perhaps of the r.- i 

 of the admiral's regiment. The same regiment is also called the Buffi, 

 from the colour of the facings of the uniform* of the men. In tlio 

 year 1684 a regiment of infantry was raised in Ireland ; and this 

 appears to have been the seventh, but not being considered as in the 

 pay of England till some years afterwards, and other regiment* having 

 in the interval been raised, it became the eighteenth on the list. This 

 is now designated the Royal Irish regiment, the epithet royal having 

 been given to it for iU gallant behaviour at the siege of Kainur in 

 1695. 



The augmentations which have since taken place in the British army 

 consist of one additional regiment of guards (infantry), called the Scots 

 Fusiliers; of 21 additi" nts of cavalry, making, exclusive of 



the guards. 25 regiments ; and of infantry, as many as make 100 

 regiments of the line, independently of the foot-guards and the Rifle 

 Brigade, the royal regiment of artillery, the corps of royal engineers, 

 and the royal corps of marines. The cavalry then consists of 2 regi- 

 ments of life-guards, 1 royal horse-guards, 7 regiments of dragoon 

 guards (numbered from 1 to 7), aud 18 other regiments of cavalry 

 (numbered from 1 to 18), of which the 1st, 2nd, and 6th are dragoons, 

 the 5th, 9th, 12th, 16th, and 17th are lancers, and the 7th, 8th, 10th, 

 llth, and 18th are hussars. The infantry consists of 3 regiments of 

 foot-guards, 100 regiments of the line, the rifle brigade, and the 

 following colonial regiments : 3 West India regiments, the Ceylon 

 rifle corps, the Cape mounted rifles, royal Canadian rifle regiment, 

 St. Helena regiment, royal Newfoundland companies, Gold Coast 

 artillery corps, and the royal Malta fencible regiment. To these are 

 now added what were the Honourable East India Company's regiments, 

 which are now amalgamated with the royal army. 



As the legions of Henry II. of France bore the names of the several 

 provinces where they were raised, so most of the regiments composing 

 the Una of the British army are distinguished by the names of the 

 counties or districts in which the men were enlisted : thus the 3rd is 

 called the East Kent regiment ; the 5th, the Northumberland ; the 

 6th, the royal Warwickshire ; and so on. The second of the guards, 

 also, is oalled the Coldatream regiment. 



For the divisions and evolutions of a regiment, see BATTALION. 



REGISTER, REGISTRATION, REGISTRY. In feudal timed, 

 the owner of land, or at least the person immediately entitled to the 

 profits arising from it, was usually the occupier, and his right was 

 notorious among his neighbours ; for in their presence possession or 

 cut* of the land was delivered to him upon the spot by the lord ; they 

 signed the instrument, which was evidence of the grant, and they 

 formed part of the lord's court, in which the grant was usually 

 recorded. [COSVEYAXCINO.] 



But this simple method of conveyance was in the course of time 

 found insufficient for the more complicated circumstances of society. 

 Land by improved cultivation became more productive, and the 

 profits arising from it were devoted to more extensive purposes 

 then when a large proportion of every great estate was waste. 

 Leans of land then became more common, and as the lessee was of 

 in actual possession of the premises, possession ceased to be 

 . idence of absolute property in laud. Purchasers there- 

 > now require not only proof of possession and production of the 

 nent by virtue of which the apparent proprietor holds the land, 

 but also an investigation of the title-deeds, or documents which form 

 the history of the land ; lest any one should hereafter be produced 

 which should be destructive of the claim of the supposed owner, and 

 therefore of the title of those who derive their rights from him. Thus 

 the evidence of a right to land, or to the profits arising from land, con- 

 sists partly of possession, partly of the facts disclosed by the written 

 documents or title-deed* relating to it, and hence partly again of the 

 possession of the title-deeds themselves. 



But there are many interest* in land which exist without either of 

 these protections. Vor instance, A, who is supposed by all his neigh- 

 bour* to be the owner of an estate which he derives from his ancestors, 

 and has occupied since his father's death, mortgages the land to B for 

 a sum far less than its value : he delivers the title-deeds to B, but (as 

 is usual) retains the possession and entire enjoyment of the land by 

 paying regularly the interest on the mortgage, and being supposed well 

 kbfc to pay the principal money when demanded, A then mortgages 



the estate a second time to C, to whom he gives notice of the prior 

 iuuiimbreiK-u to B. and thus accounts for the absence of the title-deed*, 

 which C investigates in Bs bonds. Here we observe that C has an 

 interest in the land, without the security which either possession or 

 the holding of the title-deed* give*. A ha* the one, B the other. We 

 will suppose the two sums for which the estate i* mortgaged to be 

 nearly equal to its value. A borrows a further sum upun it ft 

 whom he informs of B s mortgage, but not of C's ; and in case of dis- 

 pute the Court of Chancery has to decide between the mortgagees. 

 This would be an easy task if the ruli of equity were undeviating, 

 that priority of time gives superior right (qui prior est tempore potior 

 rut jure) ; but the rule that where equities are equal, law shall prevail, 

 destroys the simpler maxim. The two last mortgagees, C aud D, have, 

 we may suppose, only an equitable interest in the land, A having 

 granted it at the time of the first mortgage to a trustee for many 

 l.iiinliivl years, in order that the stipulations of the mortgage-deed shall 

 be fullilled. [MoiiTiiAui:. | This is called creating a term of years, and 

 it has the effect of protecting the estate from any acts done subse- 

 quently to the creation of the term, and inconsistent with the objects 

 tor winch it exists. Those terms which have not merged or otherwise 

 ceased are called outstanding term*. Now if, in the case supposed, D 

 pays off B, and takes an assignment of his mortgage and of the out- 

 standing term ; if, to use the technical phrase, he " tacks" B's security 

 to his own, he unites in himself equal equity with C, and a!> 

 Ic^.ii right which the term gives him; and then he takes precedence 

 oi C, who loses the sum which he had advanced, unless indeed be too 

 can tind and obtain the assignment of an outstanding term created by 

 one of A's ancestors antecedently to B's. But the case may be more 

 complicated, and the means of fraud still further extended. A dies ; 

 and then comes to light a settlement made by his father, to which A 

 was himself a party, which shows that A was entitled to the estate 

 only during his life, that the course in which it should go r.li. r his 

 death had been clearly defined, and that it had been conveyed, 

 father and himself, to trustees for this pur|iosc. This discovery 

 destroys the estates of B, C, and D alike. These cases, or cases par- 

 taking of the character of these, whether the result of ignorance, or 

 accident, or fraud, are frequent sources of litigation : they arise from 

 the facility afforded for the concealment of deeds by the present 

 system of conveying land ; and besides the direct injury which they 

 do to the individuals involved in them, they produce a feel. 

 insecurity concerning the titles to land, which, joined to the ditii' 

 often the impossibility, of proving titles, especially by descent, renders 

 the alienation of land or the raising of money upon it dimcult and 

 costly. Again the advantage derived from obtaining an assignment 

 of outstanding terras causes a conveyancer to investigate the various 

 transfers and transmissions of them with as much care as the title to 

 the fee ; and as it may be safest to obtain the assignment of as many 

 outstanding terms as can be procured, and especially of the most 

 ancient, there are a variety of claims to an interest in an estate, all to 

 be proved by the seller, and investigated by the purchaser. The deed 

 too assigning the term is usually distinct from the conveyance of the 

 fee, and is often of great length. Hence vast additional expense i* 

 incurred in the sale aud mortgaging of land 



But supposing it to be certain that no concealed charge affects land, 

 it may happen that the undoubted owner of it may be unable to 

 prove his right from want of the title-deeds. N possesses an estate, 

 which may be a small part of a much larger estate, of which the 

 owner, M, retains the title-deeds, giving to N authenticated or u 

 copies of them, and a covenant that he, M, when required, will pro- 

 duce the originals. But M sells the estate, and the title-deeds pass 

 into hands not bound by the corenant to produce ; or he dies, and his 

 representatives are unknown ; or again, N himself sells his portion of 

 the estate, and he cannot transfer the benetit of hi* covenant 

 [COVENANT] ; or, by a multitude of accidents, the deeds of some of 

 them are lost. Instances have been known where the mere expense 

 of giving attested copies of deeds, which a person who had contracted 

 to sell an estate was bound to furnish, has exceeded the value oi the 

 estate. 



A large proportion of the land in the country is thus unmarketable, 

 either from the fear of latent incumbrances, or from the inability of 

 the owner to produce his title-deeds. Prior incumbrances are indeed 

 somewhat assisted by the doctrine of courts of equity, that if a sub- 

 sequent purchaser or mortgagee has notice of the previous charge 

 before his own transaction with the estate, he shall not by any device 

 obtain priority over that charge. But notice does not necessarily 

 imply knowledge. [NOTICE.] Notice may be an actual direct intima- 

 tion of a fact given to the party or his agents, which is called actual 

 or it may be only something leading a discreet person to an 

 investigation, which would enable him to discover the fact ; thus the 

 existence of a suit (Us pendens) touching the land affects th 

 or mortgagee with notice. This latter class of notice is call 

 (UN . it i- n vague as to be easy of proof, and dimcult to avoid : and 

 one consequence of the admission of it in a court of equity is, that 

 solicitors often think it their duty to avoid investigations which 

 lead to constructive notice, and so endanger the priority of their 

 client's security. 



These remarks may assist the unprofessional reader in understand- 

 ing the use of a General Public Register of all deeds or instruments 



