AND PERSONAL SECURITIES, JUDGMENTS, LEGACIES, INTERESTS IN SHIPPING; OF HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE AND OTHER MOVABLE EFFECTS; AND ALSO OF MIXED II. Mortgages of shares in or by public companies III. Mortgages of policies of assurance upon lives; debts, bills of exchange, promissory notes, and other personal secu- ... V. Mortgages of household furniture and other movable effects 407 VI. Mortgages of mixed kinds of property VII. Bonds and warrants of attorney for securing the payment MORTGAGES BY WAY OF FURTHER CHARGE; TRANSFERS OF MORTGAGE; AND ASSIGNMENT OF BONDS. I. Of the various kinds of remedies a mortgagee may resort to 448 II. Of the priority of incumbrances, and the tacking of incum- brances as between prior and subsequent mortgagees III. Of proceedings by entry and ejectment IV. Obtaining receipt of the rents and profits... The Practice OF CONVEYANCING. INTRODUCTION. THE practice of Conveyancing, as conducted in a solicitor's office at the present day, comprehends not only the preparation of every kind of assurance, from a simple indenture of apprenticeship to instruments of the utmost importance and most complicated nature, but includes also the management of every transaction connected with these proceedings, from the moment the relation of Solicitor and Client commences, until the whole business is brought to a final termination. This practice forms one of the most important branches of the law, and to discharge its duties effectually calls for as great, if not a greater, versatility of talent than any other branch of the profession. A practitioner in conveyancing ought to be well read in the best ancient and modern works bearing upon the Law of Real Property; he should possess an acute understanding, quick perception, retentive memory, sound judgment, a due portion of vigilance and caution, and last but not least, active and business-like habits. Fluency of speech he does not need, but he must know how to speak about the business upon which he is engaged, and be able to keep a safeguard upon his tongue, so that nothing may slip out heedlessly which may prejudice the interests of his client; and, although it is not essential that a conveyancer should be able to make a good speech, it is absolutely necessary that he should be able to write a good letter, and express himself clearly on every subject he finds it necessary to write upon. All the above-named qualifications, numerous as they [P. C.] B appear, ought to be combined in a greater or less degree in the same individual, in order to make him a good practical conveyancer. No one of them taken singly to however great an extent, not even learning itself, will make up for the want of at least some portion of the other essential qualifications. In fact, we may meet with numberless instances of gentlemen endowed with business-like habits, but possessing no more legal knowledge than they have picked up in the course of practice, and a cursory perusal of Blackstone's Commentaries, and some of the leading modern practical works, who discharge their duties, if not better, at any rate in a manner more satisfactory to their clients, than their more learned brethren, who, notwithstanding that they may have treasured up in their minds all the legal lore contained in the books, from Coke upon Littleton down to the last work that has issued from the press, besides being conversant with every leading or important case in the reports from the Year Book down to the present time, are yet deficient in the important qualification of being good men of business. So, on the other hand, those possessing the reverse qualifications and defects, are always in danger of making gross professional blunders. A clever man of business who knows little or nothing of law resembles a smart practical seaman, well up to the management of his ship, but utterly ignorant both of geography and navigation, who, confident of his nautical skill, approaches a strange coast that is encompassed with sunken rocks, shoals and quicksands, without shortening sail, consulting a chart, or even attempting to take soundings with the lead, deeming it quite enough to keep a sharp look-out a-head, and trusting to his own smartness, the dexterity of his crew, and the handiness of his craft to get him out of any danger he may encounter. He can often, it is true, obtain the aid of a skilful pilot to conduct him safely through every peril, and of whose valuable services he may have the good sense to avail himself. So, a solicitor can always have the assistance of counsel to help him out of a difficulty; yet the important aids to be obtained in either case will prove of little avail, unless employed at the proper time; and for want of sufficient knowledge of the science of their respective occupations these may be called for by either when nowise needed, and rejected altogether when most essential. It is also a great, though no uncommon, error, to suppose that little skill is required in preparing a case in such a way as to insure a correct opinion of counsel. But as learning and ability are required in the counsel who gives the opinion, some portion at least of those qualifications are necessary to enable the solicitor to frame the questions upon which such opinion is to be founded, and it is often a task of greater difficulty to lay a case properly before counsel, than for the latter to advise upon it afterwards; for, if the case be placed in a wrong point of view, or if some of its important features be omitted, a conclusion may be arrived at, and an opinion given diametrically opposite to what it would have been, had the case been properly stated, so that, instead of an opinion thus obtained proving a benefit, it must necessarily mislead, and may produce the most disastrous consequences. It is by mishaps of this kind that many clever young men have marred their future prospects at the very outset of their practice. An experienced practitioner in any branch of the law, who has been fortunate enough to gain a reputation, may neglect his duties, and commit blunder upon blunder, and yet his business will be little or none the worse in consequence, whilst an error in a novice who has a reputation to acquire, if it does not ruin his practice outright, will certainly throw him down more steps on the ladder he has been striving to ascend than he will be able to regain without much time and toil, to say nothing of the vexation and anxiety he must endure in the meantime, the memory of which may prove a lasting source of regret, the miseries of which he will feel still more acutely if conscious that his misfortunes have arisen from his own neglect in not availing himself of the opportunities he has allowed to pass by, of acquiring some knowledge, at least, of his profession before he ventured to practice it. On the other hand, results equally injurious to a client's interest as those we have already alluded to, may arise from gentlemen who are not only well acquainted with the law itself, but also thoroughly conversant with all its practical details, not paying sufficient attention to the conduct of the affair they may be engaged in, which too often occurs from a bad habit of putting off from day to day matters which require immediate attention, or, to call things by their right name, "procrastination," that "thief of time," and in its consequences worst of all the passive vices, which, if not the crying sin of the profession, is, at any rate, a sin that besets a great many of its members; so that all should take especial care to resist its influence, the best safeguard against which is to keep well a-head with whatever work may chance to be in hand, always bearing in mind that many unforeseen obstacles and delays, often beyond all human power of control, may arise in the course of a transaction which must necessarily tend to retard its progress; so that, if some precaution is not taken to provide against accidents of this nature, the chances are that the business cannot be completed, or at any rate done as it ought to be at the time it was originally intended. But as this is a subject we shall often have occasion to comment upon during the progress of the present work, we forbear making any further remarks upon it at present. To such of our readers, therefore, as, though well read in law, are deficient in business-like habits, we recommend that they spare no pains to obtain the latter qualification; and to good men of business who lack learning we recommend reading and study till they acquire knowledge. By adopting this course, both will make themselves thorough masters of their profession, an object well worth striving for, and one that may be eventually obtained by all who persevere with energy, undaunted by all the checks and difficulties they must necessarily encounter, every one of which they may overcome if they will only act up to the maxim of one of the ablest judges of the present day, that "whatever is worth doing, is worth doing well." With respect to the course of study to be pursued, it is advisable that a solicitor should be somewhat deeply read in the obsolete learning of former days, and it is absolutely necessary that he should make himself thoroughly acquainted with the law as applicable to the practice, not only of the present day, but of the last sixty or seventy years past; for questions upon such matters continually arise in the daily course of practice: as for example, the laws relating to fines and recoveries; for although both these modes of assurance have been abolished, and more simple ones substituted in their stead, there is scarcely a title relating to property of any considerable value in which those assurances do not occur, and upon which nice questions are not perpetually arising. Some works therefore must be read, and not only read but closely studied. The first of these is the second volume of Blackstone's Commentaries, which should be perused attentively at least twice before any other author is attempted. After this, Watkins' Principles of Conveyancing may be taken up, and, when the student has made himself sufficiently master of that, he may venture to look into Fonblanque's Treatise on Equity, and when he finds the latter work intelligible, he should read Sanders on Uses, and Lord St. Leonards' valuable Treatises on Powers, and on the Law of Vendors and Purchasers; Mr. |