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Sale and Transfer of Land. 2. These Registers do not, as we have already observed, contain an inrolment of the deeds, but memorials of them only ; and these memorials are not required to show more than the names of the parties, and the property affected. 3. In the next place, these registers do not confer a title according to priority of registration, so as to make it indifferent whether the registered deed confers a legal or an equitable estate, or so as to protect the sale of an equitable estate from the infirmities and risks we have already noticed as rendering it practically an unmarketable interest. A subsequent equitable right may obtain precedence over a prior registered right, by tacking to it a legal right prior to the former on the register, (a) 4. The objectionable tendency of the rule lastly stated is enlarged by a general doctrine long since settled, that registration is not notice, either actual or constructive, of the deed registered. 5. On the other hand, the efficiency and value of the register are impaired by a general doctrine, that express notice of an unregistered deed is equivalent to the registration of it. A purchase deed brought to the register, with notice of a prior deed kept off the register, is postponed to the prior deed, although the person claiming under such prior deed has (purposely it may be) disregarded the provisions of Register Act in not bringing his deed to the register. Thus, from the combined effect of the rules which postpone registered deeds to what may not be on the register, and do not secure priority in all cases to registered deeds over what may come after them on the register, the systems of registry in Yorkshire and Middlesex fail in fulfilling many of the most important offices of a registration of deeds. In all the particulars which we have here pointed out, the defects and errors of the local registers were proposed to be remedied or removed in the scheme for the registration of assurances which was last submitted to Parliament. It is plain, then, that the existing registries of Middlesex and Yorkshire do not furnish any evidence in answer to the observations we have already made on the deficiencies and the objectionable operation of registration of assurances in general. In those observations we have assumed the system to be free from the objections in the local registers which we have hero noticed, and we may add, that most though not all of the above remarks upon the local registries of Middlesex and Yorkshire are applicable to the general register of deeds in Ireland. As to Registration of Title. Various plans proposed. Objections thereto. XXV. Having regard to the many and great objections to a registration of assurances which we have considered, we cannot be surprised at the growing conviction that a measure of that description will not be adequate to answer the purposes for which registration is required. The unmanageable accumulation of deeds and instruments in one place ; the certainty of an immediate addition to the expense and delay of every transaction relating to land ; the risk of involving titles, at no distant period, in increased complication and embarrassment ; the apprehension of disclosures, especially in cases of private settlements and family arrangements ; and the diminished opportunities of obtaining loans on the security of the land for occasional purposes ; the risk of disturbing possessory titles ; and the complication of indexes, have naturally induced the distrust of a scheme, the supposed advantages of which as an additional safeguard and security to titles, are more or less speculative or remote. Even those advantages are much exaggerated, while the positive objections are certain and immediate. The main desiderata to which attention is most anxiously directed, are not so much security of title (for that, in fact, is, to a great extent, practically obtained), but the simplification of title, facility of transfer, simplicity of form, and the consequent diminution of delay and expense. To obtain these desiderata, a registration of title is the remedy proposed ; and several plans for accomplishing that object have been submitted to us. We propose to consider them in due order. XXVI. The first of these plans (b) proposes the establishment of a Land Tribunal, to which owners of land (including- tenants for life and in tail, as well as in fee) may apply to have the land placed upon the public register, and declared to be registered land. The Tribunal is to inquire into the nature of the applicant's title to the land and its existing circumstances, so as to decide upon the expediency of simply admitting it upon the register. When the land has thus become registered, no subsequent act is to create any new estate less than a fee simple, except registered leases or easements ; nor any new incumberance, except registered debentures to a limited amount. The plan also proposes that the owner of such registered land may further apply for a full investigation of title, and for an order declaring, in a conclusive form, all existing estates and incumbrances ; and that, after the making of such order, the Tribunal may give to each person so found to be interested, a certificate of his title. It is also suggested, that, in order to obviate all chance of any injustice

Registration of title suggested instead of Registration of Assurances.

Plans proposed. First plan.

search may be made for conveyances or charges by the grantor and grantee in that deed. Whether in any particular case the search can be continued downwards, so as to get at the whole of the subsequent evidence of title, must depend upon what may be disclosed by the memorials of the respective deeds to which a reference has been obtained by the previous search ; and although there would always be the means of ascertaining the subsequently registered title, if registration at length or a deposit of the deed were substituted for the memorial required by the existing registers, it is obvious that a register, framed upon the principle of indexes by the names of parties, could never be relied on for the discovery of the title anterior to the the earliest deed to which the purchaser may have access." (a) 2 Re. Pr. Com. Rep. p. 35. (l>) See Mr. Scully's plan with the Bill annexed in Appendix A.