PREFACE. THE labour of research is considerably diminished by a separate treatise on a single subject; this, it is hoped, will be admitted to justify the publication of the following pages, whatever apology may still be wanting for their execution. Method was said, by Lord Bacon, to be "the firm handle of science;" the author, or rather compiler, has endeavoured, by a methodical and perspicuous distribution of the subject, and arrangement of the cases, to facilitate investigation of the proper measures for carrying the statutes into effect, and of their operation. The observations are the result of due consideration of the acts of parliament and de b cisions, and of the opinions of those who have previously written upon them, and are made with a consciousness of the temerity of advancing such as have not received the sanction of better authority. The merit of pointing out errors in practice is principally due to Mr. Sugden's valuable book on the law of Vendors and Purchasers, to which the liberty has been taken of occasionally referring. The extracts are taken from the Middlesex Act, and any material variations in the others are explained as they occur. 7, Gray's Inn Square, 6th November, 1818. CONTENTS. THE acts of parliament for each county, &c. Rule of common law and reason for these alterations Memorials of deeds and wills, &c. to be registered is not a sufficient registry of those deeds ib. Certificates of the discharge of mortgages may be registered, and of judgments, statutes, and re- Devises by will void against subsequent purchasers, Within what time memorials of wills to be regis- tered, and the effect of omitting to comply How far necessary to search for incumbrances in the books of the courts at Westminster |