An inquiry into the foreign systems of registering dealings with land by means of maps and indexes

Abstract

The objects of registration are stated by Lord Langdale's Commission to be, "to provide for a purchaser a ready mode of assuring himself, that no document is in existence which can defeat or alter the title offered to him; and to afford him, when he accepts a conveyance, prompt and easy means of securing the title which he takes." The importance of these objects is manifest, when we remember the strictness with which our law requires the deduction of a documentary title to land; and it is equally clear that their attainment cannot be otherwise secured, than by a well devised public register of all the instruments affecting interests in real property. Yet our legislature has hitherto treated this subject with singular neglect. In England no such institution as a general register has ever existed; whilst the local registers of York and Middlesex, and the register of deeds in Ireland, are so ill adapted to their purposes, that their results are often cited as arguments against any system of registration whatever. The plan of all these offices was the same in its general outlines. A ' memorial,' or brief abstract of each deed was entered m the office-books, according to the order of its date of registry; and the medium of reference to these books was an alphabetical index of the names of the grantors and grantees, who were parties to the registered instruments.