REGISTRATION OF PROPERTY TITLES. The United States leads the world in its system — which is practically the same everywhere throughout the Union — of record ing property transfers. The possession of a deed of property is not proof of title. The title rests legally in the person in whose name it is recorded in the books of the register or recorder, or by whatsoever name the official hav ing charge of such records is known. The first business, therefore, of a person acquiring prop erty is to have the deed registered. Otherwise the former owner could sell the same property to another, and if the latter had' received no notice of a previous transfer, and gave value for the estate, and had his deed recorded first, he could hold the •property against the person who had received a previous deed, but had failed to put it on record. The officials in charge of the records are sometimes county and sometimes •town and city officers, and the .deed is I corded the moment it is received, even although not entered on the books for some time after. Therefore it is carefully stamped with the hour, minute and even second of its presentation. The old cumbersome English
method of vesting title on a trunkful of deeds is, therefore, unknown in America, where regis tration has been the rule from the time of the earliest settlers, who allotted lands to each freeman, and made a record of the division.
Chattel mortgages are also recorded; other wise the mortgagee is without protection against transfer to a third and innocent party who might purchase the goods, or advance money on them.
England has been slow to follow the ex ample of the United States in this matter, but the convenience of the American system and the cumbersomeness of the English, which was growing more top-heavy year by year, has led to the adoption of a method of voluntary regis tration which makes it possible to transfer and hold property without having to hand over or keep a mass of old title-deeds. In Scotland an excellent system for the registration of transfers of heritable property has existed since 1617.