any support, and of its not having been scouted out of the house with all the reprobation of which its forms admitted, does, in my mind, injuriously affect the character of the council. The preferable lien act is an act to give the owner of sheep, cattle, or horses, power to mortgage the wool of his sheep; or the sheep, cattle, or horses themselves, without parting with the possession (in derogation of the common law principle enforced by the statutes against fraudulent conveyances). The result of which will be to clog the transfer of such property with legal difficulties, and to make it nearly as hazardous to buy sheep, cattle, or horses, without consulting a lawyer as to title, and searching against incumbrances, as it would be to purchase a landed estate without these preliminaries, and with this additional difficulty, that there are no means of tracing the title or knowing against whom to direct searches. When you have bought a horse, and are congratulating yourself on having steered clear of splints and spavins, ringbones curbs, and corns, and all the ills that horseflesh seems peculiarly the heir to, you may discover, that when you thought you were buying a horse, you were only purchasing an equity of redemption, which your lawyer will inform you is a horse of another colour.[1]
- ↑ But more serious injury will be done if this bill has the effect of clogging the transfer of wool with such difficulties, as to shake the confidence of merchants in purchasing. We will suppose that A and B are two sheep owners, not very scrupulous in their mode of raising money. A mortgages the wool of the ensuing clip to an indifferent person, whom we will call X, who advances a large per centage on its value, and registers his mortgage. A shears rather early, and sells the remainder of his
