With regard to the second objection, namely, that the effect of a settlement is to render lands impossible or difficult of alienation, it may be said that in view of recent legislation it has now been removed. There are roughly speaking two classes of limited owner, namely, the tenantin-tail and the tenant-for-life. The tenant-in-tail has been already dealt with, and it has been pointed out that when in possession of the land he has practically absolute power of disposition over it. The disability of the tenant-for-lifeto part with the estate has been almost entirely removed by the passing of Lord Cairns' Settled Land Act of 1882. This most useful Act enables a tenant-for-life (and certain other persons in an analogous position) to sell the settled land and convey it free from all the limitations and incumbrances of the settlement. The purchase-money is not,. however, to be paid to him, but to certain trustees for the purpose of the Settled Land Act, who deal with it in the manner provided by the Act, any investments made with it. following the same course of devolution as the land would have done if not disposed of. This Act has been very much resorted to by tenants-for-life, and large amounts of land have changed hands under its provisions. All attempts. to evade its provisions, and to impose any incapacity to sell on the tenant-for-life, have been frustrated. At the present time it seems to be impossible (with few and special exceptions) so to settle land that the person in the enjoyment of it for the time being cannot, if sominded, dispose of it as he will. The result seems to be that while settled land is now as freely alienable as land absolutely held, no violence is done to the provisions of a settlement, the only effect of a sale being that the settled property is converted from land into personalty. This result is highly satisfactory, and removes what was formerly the most serious objection to the settlement of

land. Indeed, it may now be claimed that the principles of our law relating to the settlement of land are wise and beneficial, and answer to the requirements of the community.

S. AUG. SILLEM.

CHAPTER LXXVII.

EASY TRANSFER OF LAND.

By C. F. DOWSETT, F.S.I.,

Author of various Articles on Land and House Properties; “Striking Events in Irish History"; etc.

To make land more readily marketable a more simple method of transfer from vendor to purchaser is needed, and to accomplish this the re-examination of title by each successive purchaser would be unnecessary if the title were once for all examined by a Government title examiner, and then registered as either an absolutely perfect title, or as a good holding title, and in the latter case the title would by effluxion of time grow into an absolutely perfect or indefeasible title.

The cry for cheap land and cheap transfer of land comes from the people, and therefore the people must pay for it; that is to say, if the means to effect it cause a diminution of revenue, charges of taxation must be laid on something else if necessary. The stamp duty of ten shillings per cent. adds much to the cost of conveyance, and might be reduced to two shillings and sixpence per cent., and even then the revenue would probably not suffer, because, with this and other reforms, sales would be quadrupled, so that the result would be the same, so far as public revenue is concerned.

It is shown, in another chapter, that the workings of the Acts of Lords Westbury and Cairns were failures

because owners would not voluntarily incur the expense of having their titles investigated and placed upon the register.

It is necessary, therefore, to adopt a system of limited compulsion, that is, that on every sale of land it should. be compulsory on the part of the vendor to submit his title to a Government title examiner, so that it might be registered, the purchaser to pay for his conveyance or transfer ticket. If it were made compulsory on the part of the purchaser to put the title on the register, the cost thereof would prove a great hindrance to sales; the vendor can, if necessary, regulate his price to cover him for any additional expense. The way to effect easy transfers of land is to facilitate the method of conveyance and the cost of conveyance.

It is a common remark of solicitors that no improvement in the present system could be made, but so great an authority as Lord Coleridge held a different opinion. When presiding some years ago at a Congress of the Law Amendment Society, his Lordship said: "I have never been able to perceive the obstacle to applying to land the system of transfer which answers so well when applied to shipping; but as my learned brethren, one and all, have declared that to be impossible, I had become impressed with the belief that there must be something wrong in my intellect, as I failed to perceive the impossibility. The remarkably clear and logical paper which has been read by Sir Robert Torrens relieves me from that painful impression, and the statistics of the successful working of his system in Australia amounts to demonstration; so that the man who denies the practicability of applying it might as well deny that two and two make four."

Sir Robert Torrens described the system of regis

tration in South Australia, in which the following occurred:

"1. Titles being indefeasible, proprietors may invest capital in land, secure against risk of deprivation and the no less harassing contingencies of a Chancery suit; mortgagees, having also no further occasion to look to validity of title, may confine their attention to the adequacy of the security. 2. A saving, amounting on the average to ninety per cent., or eighteen shillings in the pound sterling, has been effected in the cost of transfers and other dealings, irrespective of the contingent liability to further expenses resulting from suits at law and in equity, the grounds of which are cut off by the alteration of tenure. 3. The procedure is so simple as to be readily comprehended, so that men of ordinary education may transact their own business. 4. Dealings in land are transacted as expeditiously as dealings in merchandise or cattle, fifteen minutes being the average time occupied in filling up the form and completing the transaction."

The late Mr. Joseph Kay, Q.C., in his collection of letters on Land, thus described the registration of titles in Belgium :

"There is in Belgium, as in all the countries under the French law, an excellent system of registration, which, by enabling a buyer to ascertain at once the exact state of the title to the land he wishes to buy and of the claims upon it, renders the purchase very easy, very expeditious, and very cheap. If anyone wishes to buy, he goes to a notary, who obtains for him a copy of the exact state of the title from the official entries in the registry office.

"The notary then prepares the deed of sale, which in all these countries is very short and simple, as none of our complicated settlements and arrangements are possible. This deed of sale is then signed by the buyer, the seller, two witnesses, and the notary. The minute or abstract of this deed is then taken to the office of the registrar, who puts an abstract of it on his register. After this the registrar transcribes the deed in full. The purchaser of the property who has been the first to have his deed transcribed is the legal purchaser as against all other subsequent buyers. There is, by these means, no difficulty whatever in ascertaining the state of a title of a plot of land at any moment. The whole transaction is very short and simple, and the expenses are very small.