Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/354

324 business of an ironmonger would be bad ; but a contract made by the seller of an ironmonger's businsss not to compete with the buyer would be good. It is held that to make such a promise binding, it must be founded on a valuable consideration, must not be unlimited as to the area over which the restriction is to extend, and must not otherwise go beyond what is reasonably necessary for the protection of the other party. On the whole, it would be simpler to leave individuals to make what contracts they please in this as in other matters. The public policy which disallows contracts in restraint of marriage depends on a different set of considerations. A contract not to marry at all is void ; in one case it is described as a contract to omit a moral duty, and tending to depopulation, &quot;the greatest of all political sins.&quot; But apparently a contract by a widow not to marry is not void. The whole doctrine of public policy appears to have grown up out of the efforts of judges to counteract the admission of wagers in the common law as legal contracts. In their desire to avoid enforcing them in particular cases, they developed a theory of state interests of startling wideness and originality. A wager about the death of Napoleon I. was held void because it gave one party an interest in keeping the king s enemy alive, and the other an interest in putting him to death. (See Pollock on Contracts, p. 252.) Contracts may be vitiated by mistake, misrepresentation, fraud, undue influence, &c. Mistake, to avoid a contract, must be such that there was no real agreement at all, or that the real agreement was erroneously expressed ; and money paid under a mistake as to fact may be recovered. The general rule is that relief will be given against mistake as to fact, but not against mistake in law. Contracts induced by fraud, misrepresentation, &c., are in general not void but voidable at the instance of the party injured or imposed upon. The common law did not permit the benefit of contracts to be assigned SD as to give the assignee a right of action in his own name—a right which was, however, recognized in equity. By the Judicature Act, 1873, section 6, a legal right is created in the assignee when the assignment is absolute and in writing, and notice in writing given to the debtor. The only remedy for breach of contract given by the common law was an action for the sum certain due by the defaulter, or for damages, to be ascertained by a jury. The mere payment of damages would in many cases not be a complete satisfaction to the other party, and the Court of Chancery accordingly gave in certain cases decrees for the specific performance of the contract. The best English works on Contract are those by Addison, Cliitty, and S. Martin Leake. The Principles of Contract at Law and in Equity, by F. Pollock, is a recent work of great merit.  CONVERSANO, an episcopal city of Italy, in the province of Terra di Bari, and 20 miles south-east of the city of Bari, with about 10,000 inhabitants. It has a castle, a cathedral, several convents, a diocesan seminary, a hospital, and a foundling asylum. Some trade is carried on in wine, oil, almonds, and cotton.  CONVEYANCING, the art of preparing writings to effect the transference or conveyance from one person to another of any piece of property or valuable right. It is sometimes applied in a restricted sense to the cumbrous forms which the feudal system has rendered necessary for the transference and tenure of landed property. When left to shape itself by individual practice, without legislative intervention, there were several causes rendering such con veyancing cumbrous and complex. The theory of the feudal tenures and hierarchy remaining unchanged through out the social revolution which had virtually abolished superiority and vassalage, and brought land out of feudality into ordinary commerce, it became necessary to retain the feudal ceremonies of the Middle Ages, and to adapt them by fictions and explanations to modern exigencies. Hence, many years have not yet passed since, in Scotland, when a field was bought and sold, a party of men assembled on it, and went through the old form of symbolic investiture by the delivery of so much earth and stone from the superior bailiff to the vassal s attorney, who took instru ments and had the whole recorded at length by a notary of the empire. In England, from the want of the general system of registration known in Scotland, the complexities of conveyancing had become so inextricable, that one of the most approved forms of transference was a fictitious suit and judgment of possession called a fine and recovery. To these innate sources of complexity must be added the timidity of conveyancers, who, afraid to commit themselves by attempting to abbreviate or reconstruct the forms which they find in existence, repeat them with additions from time to time as new circumstances must be provided for. Hence, to keep conveyancing within rational bounds, the legislature must interfere from time to time to sweep away excrescences, and provide brief and simple forms. This, however, is a task which cannot be easily accomplished, since it requires the very highest legal skill to adjust simple forms to all exigencies, and anticipate the various shapes in which property may fall to be dealt with. This service has been on various occasions performed by distinguished lawyers ; and, while it is productive of the greatest benefits to society, it is one of the public services least susceptible of popular appreciation. In 1834 the Act abolishing fines and recoveries created a reform of this kind in the con veyancing of England, and a series of statutes passed in 1847 purified and simplified the conveyancing of Scotland. An attempt was made in 18G2 to simplify the practice of conveyancing by two Acts one entitled an Act to Facilitate the Proof of Title to and Conveyance of Real Estate, and the other the Declaration of Title Act, 18G2. The former (called also the Land Registry Act) provided for the registration of real estates and of the title thereto. The latter was intended to enable persons having interests in land to obtain a declaration of their title by which they could give an indefeasible title to any person purchasing from them. Both statutes have failed; of the latter a standard book of practice says, &quot; it is deemed unnecessary to detail its provisions.&quot; A commission, reporting in 1868, attributed the failure of the Registry Act to the principle of registering indefeasible titles only. The &quot; Act aimed at a standard of certainty and perfection of title beyond what is ordinarily required in conveyancing transactions, and hence as a natural consequence instead of facilitating it was found in practice to impede the transfer of land.&quot; Another attempt has been made by the Land Transfer Act of 1875, which allows the registration of a possessory, as well as of an absolute, title. It is the opinion of an eminent conveyancer that the statute will probably achieve a success greater than that achieved by its predecessors, but less than that which would be commensurate with the ability and labour with which it has been framed. Conveyancing, which in Scotland forms part of the ordinary business of a solicitor, is in England almost a profession by itself. It is to a large extent undertaken by barristers who devote themselves specially to the work. There is also a class of conveyancers, qualified to be called t &amp;gt; the bar, but not called, who practise under annual certificates. An Act was passed in 1868 to consolidate the statutes relating to the constitution and completion of titles to heritable property in Scotland, and to make certain changes on the law of Scotland relating to heritable rights, and an 