io6 History of the English Landed Interest. 



conveyances of men's estates were to be enrolled, "Westminster 

 Hall itself would not hold the mass of documents, and the 

 costs would exceed millions of money. 



Again, another writer discusses the difficulties attendant on 

 the subject of the site or sites of a public registry office. 

 Whether London, as the great centre of buying and selling, 

 were selected for one great office, or each district were allowed 

 to choose its own particular site, many persons would be put 

 to immense inconvenience in travelling to or from the remoter 

 parts of the kingdom in order to transact their business. Fre- 

 quently men possessed lands in several counties, and they 

 would have to visit different parts of the country, in order to 

 produce or examine titles. 



No less formidable were the obstacles surrounding the second 

 of the four objections. Compulsory registratioi;i did not seem 

 to stop short of rendering the private business of the landed 

 proprietor who lived in the eighteenth century as much a sub- 

 ject of public property as that of the merchant would be, if 

 he were ordered by the State to publish annually the details 

 of his banker's pass book. " The publication of Deeds and 

 Titles," says a person of great learning, " would expose their 

 plans and defects and invite controversy ; " knowledge of the 

 future disposal of estates would create family discord ; and the 

 income of the landed capitalist would be laid bare to the 

 public eye. 



Concerning the third objection some of the disputants have 

 a word to say. Thus the author who had already objected to 

 the contention that the community at large would be benefited 

 now goes on to show that even the landed community would 

 be sacrificed for the misdoings of a small proportion. From 

 his own personal knowledge he asserts that " out of some 

 hundreds of Eslates in his neighbourhood he has never heard 

 a single whisper for thirty years past of any secret or concealed 

 incumbrance." Admitting, however, the possibility of one 

 such occurring in a thousand, was that sufficient cause, he 

 asks, for creating such great inconveniences as a registry 

 would be to the nine hundred and ninety-nine innocent 

 landowners ? 



