ral policy of
registering all documents in the contents of which the public have an
interest, and its tendency has been steadily towards more and more full
registration both of documents and statistics. From the early days of
the colonial era it has been customary to record wills and conveyances
of real estate in full in public books, suitably indexed, to which free
access was given. During the last decade of the 19th century, three
states--Illinois, Massachusetts, and Ohio--adopted the main features of
the Torrens or Prussian system for registering title to land rather than
conveyances under which title may be claimed. These are the
ascertainment by public officers of the state of the title to some or
all of the parcels of real estate which are the subject of individual
property within the state; the description of each parcel (giving its
proper boundaries and characteristics) on a separate page of a public
register, and of the manner in which the title is vested; the issue of a
certificate to the owner that he is the owner; the official notation on
this register of each change of title thereafter; and a warranty by the
government of the title to which it may have certified. To make the
system complete it is further requisite that every landowner should be
compelled to make use of it, and that it should be impossible to
transfer a title effectually without the issue of such a government
certificate in favour of the purchaser.

Constitutional provisions have been found to prevent or embarrass
legislation in these directions in some of the states, but it is
believed that they are nowhere such as cannot be obeyed without any
serious encroachment on the principles of the new system (_People_ v.
_Chase_, 165 Illinois Reports, 527; _State_ v. _Guilbert_, 56 Ohio State
Reports, 575; _People_ v. _Simon_, 176 Illinois Reports, 165; _Tyler_ v.
_Judges_, 173 Massachusetts Reports; 55 North-Eastern Reporter, 812;
_Hamilton_ v. _Brown_, 161 United States Reports, 256).

Conveyances which have been duly recorded become of comparatively little
importance in the United States. The party claiming immediately under
them, if forced to sue to vindicate his title, must produce them or
account for their loss; but any one deriving title from him can procure
a certified copy of the original conveyance from the recording officer
and rely on that. Equitable mortgages by a deposit of title-deeds are
unknown.

The general prevalence of public