182 LAND LAWS AND TRANSFER 



Lord Halsbury's Bill, whicli will probably be reintro- 

 duced in the ensuing session, abolishes primogeniture and 

 entail, but leaves untouched the power of testamentary 

 disposition and of settlement. Taken in conjunction with 

 Lord Cairns's Act, it relegates this side of land law reform 

 to the limbo of obsolete grievances. Short of abolishing 

 settlements altogether, it is difficult to see what additional 

 freedom can be given to life tenants, unless, indeed, the 

 power of creating life estates were limited to their creation 

 in favour of children. 



The second object of land law reform is to cheapen and 

 facilitate the transfer of real property. Examinations of 

 title are costly, tedious, and insecure : mountainous piles 

 of unintelligible deeds, lengthy abstracts, heavy law 

 charges, and blistered titles characterise the existing 

 system. It is said that the transfer of land cannot be 

 cheapened or facilitated until it is freed from the com- 

 plicated titles which settlements encourage. The heroic 

 remedy is therefore suggested to abolish settlements. If 

 this course were adopted, indefeasible titles might be safely 

 conferred by registration ; without this preliminary step, 

 it is doubtless hazardous to guarantee registered possessory 

 titles, even when, after due notice, they remain unchal- 

 lenged. This risk is less than lawyers make it appear. 

 Legal conservatism may go too far. National interests 

 would suffer from the loss of the power to prevent property 

 accumulated by thrift from being squandered by extrava- 

 gance. But if lawyers insist too strongly on the injustice 

 of guaranteeing titles by registration, they peril the exist- 

 ence of settlements. A cheap and easy method of transfer 

 is imperatively demanded. Among European nations the 

 want is almost universally supplied ; England' is nearly 

 the solitary exception. It may be impossible to combine 



