THE SOLICITORS' REMUNERATION ACT.

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principles for the guidance of the framers of the rules are laid down in sects. 4 and 5, but as these rather affect those functionaries than the general body of practitioners, they need not be alluded to further here. The rules are not yet out.

The act (sect. 8) contains a very useful provision, enabling solicitors and clients to agree, before or after, or in the course of, the transaction of any such business as above mentioned, for the remuneration of the solicitor, either by a gross sum, or commission, or salary, or otherwise, and either inclusive or exclusive of costs out of pocket, fees, &c. The agreement must be in writing and signed by the party to be bound or his agent, and may be sued upon or impeached on the like grounds as any other agreement may be.

If, upon any taxation of costs, any such agreement is relied on by a solicitor, and is objected to by the client as unfair, the taxing officer may inquire into the facts, and certify the same to the Court, and if on such certificate it appears to the Court or a judge that just cause has been shown for cancelling the agreement, or reducing the amount payable under it, such cancellation or reduction (with all necessary consequential directions) may be decreed.

Such, then, is a sketch of these important acts. A great deal of the criticism which has been lavished on the Conveyancing Act has been of merely academic interest; acute verbal criticism, showing how much more neatly the act might have been expressed. Such comments I have eschewed as of little practical value. The act is not free from imperfections, and might very well have effected other very desirable changes in the law, particularly altering the unreasonable rule that an administrator does not represent the estate of the person of whom his intestate was executor or administrator, and so making it so often necessary to take out letters of administration de bonis non. The decision, too, in Want v. Stallibras (L. R., 8 Ex. 175), that where property is settled in trust for A. for life, and afterwards

in trust for sale, the trustee and tenant for life cannot accelerate the sale, and sell before the death of the tenant for life, might surely have been reversed by the statute.

In the opinion of some persons the act, coupled with the Solicitors' Remuneration Act, makes conveyancing "stat magni nominis umbra;" I think, however, that after what I have said, you will scarcely be disposed to agree with this, or to think that the statute deserves that part of its title which claims to have simplified the practice of conveyancing. I have seen it stated, that there is great danger of accountants, auctioneers and other lay personages drawing conveyances under the provisions of the act, and so taking away the work from the lawyers. It strikes me, however, that if any non-legal worthy tries his hand at it, he will be more likely to make work for the lawyers than to abstract it from them. In truth the act is very technical, and the saying of Solomon will still remain as true as ever, "without counsel purposes are disappointed."

APPENDIX.

CONVEYANCING AND LAW OF PROPERTY ACT, 1881.

44 & 45 VICT. c. 41.

An Act for simplifying and improving the practice of Conveyancing; and for vesting in Trustees, Mortgagees, and others various powers commonly conferred by provisions inserted in Settlements, Mortgages, Wills, and other Instruments; and for amending in various particulars the Law of Property; and for other purposes. [22nd August, 1881 BE IT ENACTED as follows:

I. PRELIMINARY.

1. Short Title; Commencement; Extent.]—(1.) This act may be cited as the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act, 1881. (2.) This act shall commence and take effect from and immediately after the 31st day of December, 1881.

(3.) This act does not extend to Scotland.

2. Interpretation of Property, Land, &c.]-In this act— (i.) Property, unless a contrary intention appears, includes real and personal property, and any estate or interest in any property, real or personal, and any debt, and any thing in action, and any other right or interest:

(ii.) Land, unless a contrary intention appears, includes land of any tenure, and tenements and hereditaments, corporeal or incorporeal, and houses and other buildings, also an undivided share in land:

(iii.) In relation to land, income includes rents and profits, and possession includes receipt of income:

(iv.) Manor includes lordship, and reputed manor or lordship:

(v.) Conveyance, unless a contrary intention appears, includes assignment, appointment, lease, settlement, and other

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assurance, and covenant to surrender, made by deed, on a sale, mortgage, demise, or settlement of any property, or on any other dealing with or for any property; and convey, unless a contrary intention appears, has a meaning corresponding with that of conveyance:

(vi.) Mortgage includes any charge on any property for securing money or money's worth; and mortgage money means money, or money's worth, secured by a mortgage; and mortgagor includes any person from time to time deriving title under the original mortgagor, or entitled to redeem a mortgage, according to his estate, interest, or right, in the mortgaged property; and mortgagee includes any person from time to time deriving title under the original mortgagee; and mortgagee in possession is, for the purposes of this act, a mortgagee who, in right of the mortgage, has entered into and is in possession of the mortgaged property:

(vii.) Incumbrance includes a mortgage in fee, or for a less estate, and a trust for securing money, and a lien, and a charge of a portion, annuity, or other capital or annual sum; and incumbrancer has a meaning corresponding with that of incumbrance, and includes every person entitled to the benefit of an incumbrance, or to require payment or discharge thereof:

(viii.) Purchaser, unless a contrary intention appears, includes a lessee or mortgagee, and an intending purchaser, lessee, or mortgagee, or other person, who, for valuable consideration, takes or deals for any property; and purchase, unless a contrary intention appears, has a meaning corresponding with that of purchaser; but sale means only a sale properly so called :

(ix.) Rent includes yearly or other rent, toll, duty, royalty, or other reservation, by the acre, the ton, or otherwise; and fine includes premium or fore-gift, and any payment, consideration, or benefit in the nature of a fine, premium, or fore-gift:

(x.) Building purposes include the erecting and the improving of, and the adding to, and the repairing of buildings; and a building lease is a lease for building purposes or purposes connected therewith:

(xi.) A mining lease is a lease for mining purposes, that is, the searching for, winning, working, getting, making mer

chantable, carrying away, or disposing of mines and minerals, or purposes connected therewith, and includes a grant or licence for mining purposes:

(xii.) Will includes codicil:

(xiii) Instrument includes deed, will, inclosure award, and act of parliament:

(xiv.) Securities include stocks, funds and shares :

(xv.) Bankruptcy includes liquidation by arrangement, and any other act or proceeding in law having, under any act for the time being in force, effects or results similar to those of bankruptcy; and bankrupt has a meaning corresponding with that of bankruptcy:

(xvi.) Writing includes print; and words referring to any instrument, copy, extract, abstract, or other document include any such instrument, copy, extract, abstract, or other document being in writing or in print, or partly in writing and partly in print:

(xvii.) Person includes a corporation :

(xviii.) Her majesty's high court of justice is referred to as

the court.

II.-SALES AND OTHER TRANSACTIONS.

Contracts for Sale.

3. Application of stated Conditions of Sale to all Purchases.] (1.) Under a contract to sell and assign a term of years derived out of a leasehold interest in land, the intended assign shall not have the right to call for the title to the leasehold reversion.

(2.) Where land of copyhold or customary tenure has been converted into freehold by enfranchisement, then under a contract to sell and convey the freehold, the purchaser shall not have the right to call for the title to make the enfranchisement.

(3.) A purchaser of any property shall not require the production, or any abstract or copy, of any deed, will, or other document, dated or made before the time prescribed by law, or stipulated, for commencement of the title, even though the same creates a power subsequently exercised by an instrument abstracted in the abstract furnished to the purchaser; nor shall he require any information, or make any