TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 203 



tending the powers of the Incumbered-Estates Court, for the sale of incumbered 

 properties to properties that are unincumbered. A perpetual jmisdiction was 

 granted to the new tribunal, imder the name of the " Landed-Estates Court." In 

 1873 the amount of purchase-money for land under this Court was £1,737,222, the 

 net rental of the laud sold was £86,685, and there were 208 sales. 



All Irish estates, whether incumbered or not, can be sold, or contracted for, or 

 disposed of, through the medium of the Court, which is also judicially empowered 

 to declare a title to property, and, by later acts, to sell or lease settled estates. 

 Small purchasers of land would be benefited by a greater simplification of proce- 

 dm-e, and a reduction of expense in the professional charges, which are fixed on 

 a high scale. For instance, parties interested in the purchase of a farm worth 

 £500 may be required, as a minimum expense, to pay nearly £100 in effecting the 

 purchase. 



Having visited the Landed-Estates Register Office in Boston, Massachusetts, I 

 can report favourably of the excellent plan of recording transfers of landed property 

 in the New-England States of North America. A book is kept, in which the de- 

 scription of each estate is preserved, and the mortgages and other claims on the laud 

 are entered. If a sale is intended, the person proposing to purchase may at once 

 see the incumbrances on the property, as well as many particulars of importance 

 respecting the value of the estate. The transfer of property after the sale is didy 

 registered ; and the new proprietor thus obtains his title to the land. 



Next year (1870) a meeting of the International Statistical Congress is to be held 

 in Buda-Pesth, the capital of Hungary. Official statistical representatives of all the 

 principal governments of Europe, and of the United States of America, attend the 

 Congress, which also includes delegates from statistical societies of different coun- 

 tries : it usually meets once every two years. 



When the Congress assembled at Berlin in 1863 (under the presidency of Count 

 von Eulenberg, Secretary of State for the Home Department in Germany), the 

 statistical representatives of Great Britain comprised: — Dr. Farr, F.R.S., Superin- 

 tendent of Statistics in the General Register Office ; Mr. Valpy, Chief of the Sta- 

 tistical Department and com returns in the Board of Trade ; Mr. Hammick, Secre- 

 tary of the General Register Office, and others. 



On the 9th September, 1863, Mr. Valpy presented to the Congress the annual 

 statement and the accounts of the trade and navigation of the United Kingdom of 

 Great Britain and Ireland, and remarked that the International Congress was cer- 

 tainly doing good service to all nations. " The periodical meetings," observed Mr. 

 "S'alpy, "which we are invited to hold in the capital cities, where the Members are 

 received with such Royal and general kindness, must exercise a great and favour- 

 able influence upon public opinion in regard to national statistics. The opportunity 

 aflbrded by the Congress for the meeting of public officers and gentlemen interested 

 in statistics from so many coxmtries is productive of much advantage. The circle 

 of om- friends is enlarged ; and, speaking as an official delegate, I can say that our 

 means of usefulness at home are increased, and our efforts of improvement are 

 much encouraged, by the cordial personal intercourse between the Members of the 

 Congress." 



Dr. Farr, at the meeting in Berlin, eidogized the address of II.R.H. the late Prince 

 Consort, who had presided at the opening of the International Statistical Congress 

 in London. Dr. Farr mentioned that the labours of the Congress had been described 

 in that inaugural address " as connected with the loftiest principles of philosophy', 

 and directed to the noblest end — the good of the people of all nations." 



Mr. Hammick thanked Dr. Engel, the Director of the Statistical Department in 

 Berlin, for his able abridgement of the resolutions and works of the International 

 Statistical Congress at its previous meetings. 



The meeting at Buda-Pesth may have a special interest, as the Convention of 

 Commerce between Great Britain and the Austro-Hungarian empire is liable to 

 terminate on the 1st Januarj', 1877, and commercial treaties with various other 

 European states may also come under consideration, for modification or renewal, 

 at the same time. 



A valuable work on commercial treaties was published by Mr. Hertslet (formerly 

 at the Foreign Office) ; and his son, Mr. Edward Hertslet, C.B,, Librarian and 



15* 



