A FULL REWARD FOR THE TILLER. 393 



of the pen at a trifling fee will do the business. In 1863 I 

 bought, and in 1869 I sold, an agricultural estate of just 

 1,000 acres in Prussian Lusatia. The bargaining with the 

 vendor — and subsequently with the piurchaser — completed, 

 the transfer was effected and possession was surrendered 

 on the spot. From the entries in the register I knew to 

 an inch what land I had bought, with the boundaries clearly 

 marked out on a map appended to the register, and I knew 

 all the encumbrances, permanent or temporary, which 

 rested on the property. In 1879 I sold a little bit of land 

 at Deptford, forming part of the land on which Lawes' 

 Manure Works stand, with a water frontage on the Ravens- 

 bourne Canal, which had been in my father's and my own 

 possession ever since 1833. But for the truly lucky fact 

 that the agent collecting the rent had collected it for just 

 twenty years, I should have had great difficulty in proving 

 my title, although there was no doubt whatever about its 

 validity. On the strength of the rent-collector's affidavit 

 I could give a " twenty years' title." How'ever, after I 

 had sold the land, it turned out that this man had indicated 

 the wrong boundaries, thereby leading me to sell a wedge 

 of land that did not belong to me ; and that wedge w^as 

 specially valuable, because it provided the only access to 

 a road. The cost of transfer had been considerably heavier 

 than that attaching to either the purchase or the sale of 

 my 1,000 acres in Prussia. And on the top of that I was 

 made to disgorge a goodly sum out of the purchase price. 

 That occurrence certainly seems to argue strongly in favour 

 of a register. 



The importance for owners of land of easy access at all 

 times to cheap and safe mortgage credit does not require 

 to be proved. 



"In terra nummus rex est hoc tempore summus." 



More particularly in Agriculture has the command of 

 sufficient working capital become a matter of prime neces- 

 sity. Accordingly it is imperative that all means of raising 

 cash upon valid security should be made available, so as 

 to be at command if required. 



