iv.] DISTRIBUTION OF LAND IN ENGLAND. 93 



stock becomes, at law, the absolute property of those 

 persons or person, so far as the books convey infor- 

 mation. You are not allowed to enter in these 

 books the name of a person as having merely a 

 limited interest, for example an interest for life, in 

 a sum of stock. 



So under the present Land Act (putting leaseholds 

 out of the question), a person can be registered as 

 owner of an absolute estate or fee-simple only. If 

 a life interest is to be conferred, it must be given by 

 way of trust ; the person registered as owner in fee 

 must execute an instrument declaring that he holds 

 the land in trust for the person designated, for his 

 life the Act not making any provision for the 

 registration of trusts. 



As the Bank of England will not take notice of 

 any trust of stock, the new register, like the Bank 

 books, is a register of absolute owners. The Act, 

 however, permits the registration of money charges 

 on registered land. 



Hitherto a provision (say for infant children) out 

 of land, has been considered more secure than a 

 provision out of stock. The la,tter is at the mercy 

 of a trustee. The purchaser of stock from a trustee, 

 in whose name the stock stands, is safe, in the 

 absence of notice of the trust, and the person bene- 

 ficially entitled has no remedy except against the 

 trustee personally. A trust estate in land could not 

 without difficulty be defeated by a sale, because a 



