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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2013
Gentlemen,—At the time you did me the honour to elect me President of your Society, I was collecting information regard-the land laws and conveyancing systems of our Australasian Colonies, and also endeavouring to master the details of the legislation for Ireland which gradually led up to the passing of the Ashbourne Act, and left us with the prospect of still more sweeping measures.
It appeared to me that information on these matters could not fail to be of interest, and might be of use to you, so I determined to make them the subject of my Address, and that my paper might be more worthy of the occasion, and might better show my appreciation of the honour you have for the third time conferred on me, I decided to widen the subject and give you a sketch of the “Tenure of Land in the United Kingdom and its principal Colonies,” and in doing so to touch on cognate subjects of interest to all concerned in land as a security.
page 283 note 1 The Bill now before Parliament contains a clause prohibiting the sale of small holdings in congested districts, acquired under the Act, except to the occupier of a neighbouring holding, or to the Land Commission.
page 301 note 1 I am indebted to Mr. S. R. Scargill-Bird, F.S.A., who placed at my disposal some proof-sheets of a “guide to the public records” he has in the press, for the following with other interesting information. The “close” rolls are, and ever have been, as open to the public as the “patent” rolls. They took their name from the circumstance that they contained the enrolments, or copies, of such mandates, letters, and writs as were addressed in the King's name to individuals, and were folded or closed up and sealed on the outside with the Great Seal. “Under the general title of Indentures, a great variety of documents are enrolled on the close rolls from the reign of Henry VIII, to the present time. These include deeds of bargain and sale: deeds of lease and release: disentailing deeds … memorials of the names of trustees and of assurance companies … and other documents of a similar nature.” The Close Rolls, at first made up at the Rolls Chapel Office, were from 1573 made up at the Enrolment Office, and transmitted year by year to the Rolls Chapel Office for safe custody. An Index, under the names of the first grantors mentioned was made and retained at the Enrolment Office, known as the Index to Indentures 47 vols. MS., 1573 to 1883. As the rolls arrived at the Rolls Chapel they wei indexed under the name of the grantees in the Index to the Close Rolls, 72 vols. MS Edward V. to William IV. Both Indexes are now in the Public Record Office.
page 302 note 1 Curiosities of Literature, vol. i. pp. 76, 77.
page 315 note 1 Mr. Consul Griffin, in his report to the Government of the united States, mentions that Sir R. R. Torrens, K.C.M.G., “was born in Cork in 1814, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He emigrated to Adelaide, South Australia, and at the age of twenty-seven was made collector of customs there, with a seat in the Legislative Council. A few years later he became Colonial Treasurer. At the first election under the constitution giving the colony representative government, he was chosen a member of Parliament, and at once applied his energies to frame an improved system for the transfer of land.” Mr. Griffin gives an account of the difficulties and opposition Sir Robert, then Mr. Torrens, encountered, but by his “force and eloquence in Parliament” eventually overcame. His object was “not only to simplify the transfer of land, but to establish an indefeasible title.” Sir Robert returned to England in 1863, and a few years later was elected member of Parliament for the borough of Cambridge. He died at Falmouth in 1884.
page 315 note 1 In Scotland, however, the presumption would be in favour of compensating the purchaser for improvements during his bona fide occupation of the property.
page 317 note 1 Little is known in this country of the land laws of Quebec. For such information as I possess I am mainly indebted to the Agent-General for Canada and the Librarian at the Colonial Office, who kindly placed the statutes and codes in their possession at my service. When I wrote what appears in the text I had before me the revised statutes of Lower Canada, 1860. I now learn that the laws were at that very time being codified, a task which was completed in 1865–6, and that such sections of the statutes to which I refer as have not been repealed are now spread over a civil code, a code of civil procedure, a municipal code, and the revised statutes of Quebec 1888. I have reason to believe that while, in the course of codification and since, many changes of minor importance were made on the law regulating dealings with immovable property, the procedure and requirements indicated in the text remain practically unaltered.
page 324 note 1 Lands not held from a superior—not feudal.