vestigation of title--an important function in the
case of purchases or mortgages of real estate. With personal estate
(other than leasehold) he has perhaps not so much concern. Chattels are
usually transferred by delivery, and stocks or shares by means of
printed instruments which can be bought at a law-stationer's. The common
settlements and wills, however, deal wholly or mainly with personal
property; and an interest in settled personalty is frequently the
subject of a mortgage. Of late years, also, there has been an enormous
increase in the volume of conveyancing business in connexion with
limited joint-stock companies.

In the preparation of legal documents the practitioner is much assisted
by the use of _precedents_. These are outlines or models of instruments
of all kinds, exhibiting in accepted legal phraseology their usual form
and contents with additions and variations adapted to particular
circumstances. Collections of them have been in use from early times,
certainly since printing became common. The modern precedent is, upon
the whole, concise and businesslike. The prolixity which formerly
characterized most legal documents has largely disappeared, mainly
through the operation of statutes which enable many clauses previously
inserted at great length to be, in some cases, e.g. covenants for title,
incorporated by the use of a few prescribed words, and in others safely
omitted altogether. The Solicitors' Remuneration Act 1881, has also
assisted the process of curtailment, for there is now little or no
connexion between the length of a deed and the cost of its preparation.
So long as the draftsman adheres to recognized legal phraseology and to
the well-settled methods of carrying out legal operations, there is no
reason why modern instruments should not be made as terse and
businesslike as possible.

Contracts for sale.

It is not usual for land to be sold without a formal agreement in
writing being entered into. This precaution is due, partly to the
Statute of Frauds (S 4), which renders a contract for the sale of land
unenforceable by action "unless the agreement upon which such action
shall be brought, or some memorandum or note thereof, shall be in
writing and signed by the party to be charged therewith or some other
person thereunto by him lawfully authorized," and partly to the fact
that there are few titles which can with prudence be exposed to all the
requisitions that a purchaser under an "open