§ Lord Lyndhurst, in moving the second reading of this Bill, said that all that was necessary for him to state in support of this motion at present was, that this Bill was intended to follow up the intentions which had been partially expressed in one of the Reports of the Commissioners on the law of real property. Unfortunately, before those Commissioners had made their fourth Report, the time for making it had expired, and their Commission had not been renewed. Mr. Tyrrell, who was a member of the Commission, had, in consequence, prepared the heads of a Bill which had been circulated extensively among the members of the profession, and had been very generally approved of. A Bill prepared on those heads had been presented to the House of Commons in the Session of 1834. It was sent to a Committee up-stairs, and there underwent some alterations; but owing to those alterations, and to the multiplicity of provisions which the Bill contained, it had not passed during that Session. It was nevertheless circulated extensively, and was approved universally. The object of the Bill was shortly this:— Their Lordships were aware of the intricate nature of the law of real property in this country. The main reason of that intricacy was, that it applied the ancient institutions of the law to the new habits and circumstances of the country. The law of conveyancing was full of forms, distinguished by great prolixity, and, at the same time by great nicety. The object of this Bill was to lessen the prolixities and to get rid of the niceties which formed so constant a subject of litigation in the Courts of Law. He would illustrate his meaning by two instances. In all ordinary conveyances, the mode adopted was by deed of lease and of release. The deed of lease was rendered necessary to put the purchaser into possession of the property, in order that he might be in a situation to take the benefit of the deed of release. Now this Bill would substitute one deed, which would have the effect of the two old deeds of lease and of 1168 release. Again, where a party wished to convey property to himself and to his wife, it was necessary at present to convey it first of all to trustees, and then to convey it through them back again to the party and his wife. Now this Bill would substitute one direct deed of conveyance for the other two. These were samples of the objects of the Bill, and having made this statement, he hoped that he had said enough to convince their Lordships that it ought to be read a second time.
§ The Lord Chancelloragreed in the principle and the propriety of this Bill. The rules of conveyancing ought to be adapted to the circumstances of the property of the country. There were some details in this Bill from which he differed, but he would reserve them for discussion in the Committee.
§ The Bill read a second time.