Page:An essay on the transfer of land by registration.djvu/53

 CHAPTER VII.

exceptionally favourable conditions for applying registration of titles there existing, as well as the tendency to subdivision of the land into small freeholds, encouraged by recent legislation, as also the diversity of tenure in the two countries, indicate the expediency of having a separate Act for Ireland.

As has been already stated, the Bill introduced in 1863 with that object was marred by the introduction of certain provisions taken from Lord Westbury's Act, especially by those authorising the withdrawal of titles from the Register, by permitting the use of deeds, and by a prohibitory schedule of fees.

The consequence was that the Irish Act of 1865, like its congeners on this side the Channel, became practically a dead letter, and an amending Bill, drafted by Mr. Denny UrliSn, and introduced into the House of Commons by me, was read a first time and ordered to be printed, the 25th February, 1873. That Bill, however, never got beyond the preliminary stage. It will be found in the Appendix ready to hand, and should registration of title be taken up as a Government measure, that Bill (brief though it be, containing only 14 clauses) would suffice to rescue Irish titles from having reimposed upon them, under the existing law, the cumbrous complexities, uncertainties, and costs, from which they have been delivered by being passed through the Estates Court, and would render the Bright Clauses of the Land Act a real boon to the