§ LORD ST. LEONARDSsaid, that he could not expect at so late a period of the Session to be able to pass the Bill into law, but, as he had been somewhat mis- 1128 understood when he had addressed their Lordships on a former occasion, he wished in a very few words to state what were the provisions of the measure. He was aware that the noble Lord who had presided over the Commission which had been appointed to inquire into the subject proposed to introduce a Bill next year, founded on the recommendation of that Commission, which was based upon a principle of registration; and a noble and learned Friend of his (Lord Brougham) had somewhat anticipated that measure by himself introducing a Bill which recognized that principle. Now, the object of the present Bill was to render a system of registration wholly unnecessary. The Bill dealt with the present system as regarded perpetuity, and amended and explained the present law. It proposed also to reduce the period of forty years of uninterrupted possession, which the law at present recognized as giving a valid title, to twenty-five years, and it rendered it unnecessary to include in a conveyance abstracts of title for more than forty years back. At present a registered judgment might be executed against a purchaser any time after the purchase had been completed, but he proposed that when there was a bonâfide purchase no purchase should be attached upon a judgment or Crown debt unless execution issued before; the purchase was completed. The Bill proposed that no purchaser should be bound by any engagement of which he had no actual notice. The Bill also provided for the exemption of purchasers from the succession duties, and it enabled trustees to give a perfect discharge to purchasers from any claims upon the property. The last proposition was to make any seller, agent, or solicitor concealing an encumbrance with a fraudulent intent liable to punishment as being guilty of a misdemeanour, and he believed such a provision would be found to operate beneficially. He would therefore move that the Order; of the Day for the Second Reading be read in order to its being discharged.
§ Order for the Second Reading read and discharged.