correct references, and a strict adherence to the rules of grammar (1). NOTICE. It will be here desirable in connection with the subject of purchases to draw attention to the extremely important change with regard to the doctrine of constructive notice introduced by the third section of the Conveyancing Act, 1882, which came into operation on the 1st of January, 1883, and, with a saving clause as to pending actions, applies to purchases made either before or after the commencement of the Act. This section provides that (1) A purchaser shall not be prejudicially affected by notice of any interest, fact, or thing, unless : (i.) (2) It is within his own knowledge, or would have come to his knowledge, if such inquiries and inspections had been made as ought reasonably to have been made by him; or (ii.) In the same transaction, with respect to which a question of notice to the purchaser arises, it has come to the knowledge of his counsel, as such, or of his solicitor or other agent, as such, or would have come to the knowledge of his solicitor, or other agent as such, if such inquiries and inspections had been made, as ought reasonably to have been made by the solicitor or other agent. (2) This section shall not exempt a purchaser from any liability under or any obligation to perform or observe any covenant, condition, provision or restriction contained in any instrument under which his title is derived, mediately or im (1) Davidson on Conveyancing, 5th ed. vol. ii. p. 20. The various qualifications of a conveyancer are well stated in an ancient treatise, as follows:-"He that will arrive at any perfection in conveyancing must be well acquainted with the diversities of the limitation of estates in fee tail, for life, &c., as also with the qualities thereof as joint tenancy, &c., and the incidents, rents, conditions, and the like, and indeed he ought to be well skilled in the Institute and Reports. And yet unless he can make a due application of his notions, unless he knows how to frame and fit these materials suitable to his intended design, he will rather be exploded as an unmethodical blunderer than esteemed a neat conveyancer." The Conveyancer's Assistant, published 1702 (cited Davidson, vol. i. 5th ed. p. 10). (2) See note in Clerke and Brett's Conveyancing Acts, 2nd ed. p. 20, where it is pointed out that the line of succession of the authorities having been broken by this section, the Courts will be much slower to impute constructive notice to a purchaser; and attention is directed to several cases which would almost certainly be decided differently if they came now before the Court. The effect of the repeal of the former Yorkshire Registry Acts by the Yorkshire Registries Act, 1884 (47 & 48 Vict. c. 54) is to make the priority of assurance depend on the date of registration, and the doctrine of notice, actual or constructive, has no application: Clerke and Brett, 3rd ed. p. 248. Notice. Notice. mediately, and such liability or obligation may be enforced in the same manner and to the same extent as if this section had not been enacted. (3) A purchaser shall not by reason of anything in this section be affected by notice in any case where he would not have been so affected if this section had not been enacted. Where a purchaser or lessee has notice of a deed relating to and forming part of the chain of title, he is regarded by the Courts as having notice of the contents of the deed. In a wellknown case on this subject, a lady took a lease of a plot of ground, for seven years, for the purposes of an Art College, and proceeded to erect a studio upon it. The lease contained an express provision that she should be at liberty to erect the studio, but as the conveyance under which the lessor took the property contained a covenant that private dwelling houses only should be erected upon it, she was restrained by injunction from proceeding with the construction of her studio. The change in the law by which under the Vendor and Purchaser Act, 1874 (post, p. 114), an intending lessee or assignee cannot call for the lessor's title has made no difference in this respect. "Formerly," said Jessel, M.R., in delivering judgment, "if the lessee had expressly stipulated not to look into his lessor's title it would not have affected constructive notice. The Vendor and Purchaser Act now makes it necessary for an intending lessee to bargain that the lessor should shew a title: You may bargain to shut your eyes, but if you do wilfully shut your eyes, whether as a bargain or not, you must be liable to the consequences of shutting your eyes. If, therefore, the lessee had formerly expressly bargained to take a lease without looking into the lessor's title, the lessee would have been bound by constructive notice, and now, if the lessee says nothing, it is exactly the same as if formerly he had bargained expressly not to look into the lessor's title " (1). Notice is either "actual notice" or "constructive notice," or, as it has been called, "imputed notice," i.e. "evidence of notice the presumption of which is so violent, that the Court will not even allow of its being controverted " (2). "If a man has notice that there is a deed or document, and at the same time has notice that that deed or document is either entirely worthless or does not affect the property with which he is going to deal, he is put so completely off his guard that a (1) Patman v. Harland, 17 Ch. D. (2) Plumb v. Fluitt, 2 Anst. 438. Court of Equity does not treat him as fixed with knowledge of the document or the effect of it " (1). tive notice. The present law with regard to constructive notice was Construcmuch considered in a case decided in 1886 (2). In that case Chitty, J., said "that the Act was clearly intended for the protection of purchasers to some extent the question was to what extent against that refined doctrine of imputed notice which had been found to work very grievous injustice to honest men, the notice being implied in a very refined manner, and brought home to a man who knew nothing about the matter, and who found that though he had acted perfectly honestly, he was postponed by reason of the doctrine of the Court." "Under the former law," the judge went on to say, "a solicitor might be employed who had had a considerable number of other transactions, and amongst them might have had a dealing with the particular estate which was under sale. He might or might not have a good memory, but according to the doctrine of that law notice was imputed to the client if there was such a distance only between the former transaction and the present transaction in which he was engaged as left the Court under the impression-it could not be much more than an impression -that the solicitor had actually remembered the former transaction; and in that way knowledge was imputed to the solicitor, and then through the solicitor notice was imputed to the client. The present law is as follows: There must be something which comes to the knowledge of the solicitor as such, and in the transaction. Every word of the section requires careful weighing, and the result is (1) that it must be in the same transaction; (2) the matter must come to his knowledge, and (3) must come to the knowledge of the solicitor as such, viz., as solicitor for the purchaser or mortgagee." It may here be pointed out that a deed that is not duly Stamps. stamped cannot be given in evidence, except upon payment of the proper stamp duty, together with certain pecuniary penalties. The law as to the stamp duties on deeds is contained in the Stamp Act, 1870, as amended by the Customs and Inland Revenue Acts, 1888 and 1889 (3). An important section (sect. 20) of the Act of 1888 which may here be noticed, enacts that “ every condition of sale framed (1) Williams v. Williams, 17 Ch. D. 437. (2) Re Cousins, 31 Ch. D. 671; and see Earl of Gainsborough v. Watcombe Terra Cotta Clay Co., 54 L. J. (Ch.) 991, and authorities collected, Clerke (3) 33 & 34 Vict. c. 97; 51 Vict. with the view of precluding objection or requisition upon the ground of absence or insufficiency of stamp upon any instrument executed after the passing of this Act, and every contract, arrangement, or undertaking for assuming the liability on account of absence or insufficiency of stamp upon any such instrument, or indemnifying against such liability, absence, or insufficiency, shall be void." CHAPTER X. MORTGAGES. A mortgage, says Mr. Davidson, may be considered for the Definition. "ordinary purposes of conveyancing" as a pledge of real or personal estate, evidenced by deed, for securing the payment of money. A somewhat fuller general description is that a mortgage is an assurance or pledge of, or charge upon, property, real or personal, for an antecedent, present, or future debt or loan, as security for, and redeemable on, the payment of it (1). "Whatever property, personal or real, is capable of an absolute sale may be the subject of a mortgage" (2). "The equitable doctrine as to mortgages," as was stated in a Foundation very recent case (3), " and more especially that part of it which of doctrine. refers to the right to redeem, is founded in the first instance on what is usually called a legal mortgage, that is to say a conveyance of land in fee by the mortgagor to the mortgagee, with a proviso defeating that conveyance if a certain sum with interest is paid by a certain time. At the end of that time, the money not having been paid, there is an absolute estate in law. But the Court has held from the earliest times that the real contract between the parties is not one of vendor and purchaser, but that it is a security for money and the interest upon that money; and that, if that money and interest be paid, then the right of the grantor is to have back his property in exchange for the money and interest. The Court of Equity gives effect to what it sees to be the real contract between the parties, though it be not expressed on the face of the instrument. That has been extended to all sorts of mortgages, charges, and incumbrances; but the whole of the law on it is founded upon that one principle arising out of the mortgage in fee." (4) "The Court of Equity" (said the Court of Appeal, upholding |