A FULl. REWARD FOR THE TILLER. 403 



Chancellors — Lords Selboriie, Halsbury and Herschell — 

 to place Registration of Title on the Statute Book. All 

 this has resulted only in the adoption of clauses in the 

 Land Transfer Act of 1897, which make registration optional 

 — and compulsory onl}' on the application of a County 

 Council in respect of its own particular county — except in 

 one case, the first of an expected but thus far not forthcoming 

 series, in which the Privy Council was given power to issue 

 the necessary fiat. The County so brought under the Act 

 was that of London, which is not, strictly speaking, an 

 agricultural county. However, Land Registration is useful 

 for all land values, and its progressive, thoroughly timid 

 adoption has in a skeleton way covered a large part of the 

 ground assigned to it. Within that area registration has 

 worked smoothly and satisfactorily, and up to August, 

 1916, about 170,000 titles had been entered (since 1898), 

 the work being done gradually, by districts.^ 



In the United States, where the question of " farm loans " 

 is now very much to the fore, the " Torrens system " is 

 likewise much appreciated, more particularly as a means 

 of facilitating credit. As a first step towards popularised 

 credit " Torrens " registration was recommended. There 

 turned out to be legal difficulties, and registration has thus 

 far been adopted (m a fair number of states ; a short time 

 ago the number was thirteen) purely in an optional form, 

 which very greatly reduces its utility. 



Optional registration has, as already shown, been resorted 

 to in a fair number of cases in this country, owing to the 

 substantial advantages which it manifestly confers ; and 

 the inquiry instituted in 1908 and 1909 by a Royal Com- 

 mission presided over by the late Lord St. Aldwyn has 

 provided conclusive proof that it has given full satisfaction 

 to those who have resorted to it, securing for themselves 

 an absolutely indefeasible title to land, minutely marked 

 out on a map to the very inch, at about half the ordinary 

 cost to the purchaser and about a third only to the vendor, 

 and without any bother and trouble, any preparation of 



^ The Counties of Yorkshire and Middlesex have had Optional 

 Registration since some time. 



