THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 473 



by what right it does so, and what incumbrances, if any, there 

 are on it ; and all this without any uncertainty or obscurity. 



3rd. The official survey contains a plan of each township 

 (commune), with the parcels, their areas, annual values, and pe- 

 culiarities marked on it ; and in every commune in the kingdom 

 there is to be found a copy of the plan of its territory, which 

 may be referred to by the inhabitants, and from which they may 

 claim an extract. 



In Belgium the transfer duties (which are very high about 

 seven per cent of the selling price) are levied on the property 

 sold ; but this tax is a bad one, impeding free trade in land. In 

 Prussia, where the same legislation exists, the tax amounts to no 

 more than one and a half per cent, and the notary's fees are 

 very low. If the government requires the amount of the tax, it 

 had better impose it on land directly, by increasing the land tax. 

 It falls on the owners of land in either case, but in the latter 

 there would be the compensatory advantages arising from unim- 

 peded sale of their land. In other respects the system is perfect. 

 The cadastre, or official survey, ascertains the areas, boundaries, 

 and properties of estates ; the notary puts the deed of transfer 

 into its proper legal shape, and the transcription on a public 

 register fixes the date of the transfer and publishes it to the 

 world. There is, in short, absolute authenticity combined with 

 full publicity, being just the two things needful. It is the duty 

 of the State to make these formalities compulsory, a public and 

 not merely a private interest being at stake. 



It is of the highest public interest, in the first place, that 

 landed property should easily get into those hands by which it 

 can be turned to the best account ; secondly, that the title to 

 property in land should be secure and incontestable ; and, thirdly, 

 that there should be no legal obstacles to the subdivision of land 

 when the natural economy tends to it, so that the number of 

 small landowners should not be artificially reduced by imperfec- 

 tion in the law. 



The Belgian system is only an improvement on that of the 

 French law, which has been successively adopted by almost all 

 Continental countries, on account of its conspicuous usefulness. 



