124 REPORT — 1866. 



twenty since it has experienced the advantage of that policy — should be recognized 

 in interpreting- the money value of the first necessaries of life ; while the effects 

 .of speculative purchases and forced sales are equally dominant in the price current 

 of its conveniences. To interpret a rise and fall in the value of money (the efflux 

 and influx of which, as a merchanlable commodity, is inevitably more free than 

 that of any other article of value) by the money measure of that which is open to 

 a vast variety of influences, must be an operation in which infinite caution is 

 necessary, in order to prevent the inference from becoming wholly imtrustworthy 

 and delusive. 



On such occasions as those in which the British Association has met in consider- 

 able manufacturing towns, the Section over which I have the honour to preside has 

 generally had the benefit of local trade reports. In so considerable a town as 

 Nottingham, one too which for a long time has been distinguished as the centre 

 of important and special manufactures, the Section may hope to have the advantage 

 of hearing these reports, and obtaining information as to local expenditure and 

 improvement. To such reports it is our practice to give priority in so far as may 

 be consistant with the general convenience of the business before the Section. For 

 the rest, the committee will endeavour to group the papers which are to be read 

 80 as to make the discussions of each day as congruous as possible. 



On the Transfer of Beal Property. By Thomas Browke. 



It was calculated, the author said, that one-third of the land in England was 

 mortgao;ed. Every mortgage might be estimated to cost £5, exclusive of stamps, 

 and to be of an average duration of only five or six years. We could therefore 

 readily gather what an immense sum was annually paid for the preparation of 

 mortgage-deeds alone. Perhaps in no case were the fictions of the law better 

 exemplified than in a mortgage-deed, which was nothing better than a sham. 

 Two-thirds of the matter was the repetition of an established form. The amoimt 

 of the remuneration of the lawyers depended on the length of the deeds ; and for 

 short deeds, therefore, the payments would be ridiculously small. If it should be 

 decided to abolish the present system of convej'ance, on the ground of its artificial 

 character, and there being no longer any reason for distinguishing between real 

 and personal property, the time would be opportune (especially as the Board of 

 Trade were obtaining statistical details to show the acreage of England, and the 

 owners of landed property and the modes of cultivation) to attach to some standard 

 survey map of England, and dulj' apportion by figures for reference all the landed 

 property of England. It might be allotted, on the principle of a limited liability 

 company, into so many shares, say one acre each. These might be issued in the 

 form of scrip, from a foot-registry, to the present owners of the land, upon their 

 affording satisfactory proof of ownership ; and they would then be transferable 

 in the same manner as other shares. This plan need in no measure interfere with 

 the law of primogeniture. Q^he author deprecated any rash change. 



Some of the Besults of the Free Lkensiny System hi Liverpool during the last 

 four years. By the Rev. William Caine, M.A., of Manchester. 



Five years ago the magistrates of Liverpool adopted the plan of granting public- 

 house licenses to all supposed respectable persons who applied for them, without 

 regard to the requirements of the neighbourhood in which the houses were situated, 

 or the vsnshes of the inhabitants. In Manchester and other towns the wishes of 

 the inhabitants of the districts are in some measure attended to. It may be inter- 

 esting to the members of the British Association to know the effect of the new 

 plan adopted by the Liverpool magistrates. I am able, from official returns, to lay 

 before this Section the number of drimken cases in the borough of Liverpool deter- 

 mined summarily by the justices during the last eleven years ; that is, during seven 

 j-ears while the magistrates restricted the grant of licenses in the way in which 

 they are limited in other towns, and during four years under the new method : — 



