To provide what was thought to be a final remedy for the removal of this barrier of uncertainty, various recording laws were enacted imposing upon the recipient of a conveyance the duty of having the same made a matter of public record. This is accomplished usually by filing it with some public officer authorized by law for that purpose. By these same recording laws certain legal effect was given to all bona fide instruments thus publicly filed. The first effect was designed to secure ownership. Another object was to secure priority of liens among creditors where land was made the basis of credit. Secret titles were now no longer recognized and secret liens were abolished. The general effect was to stimulate transfers of land. Creditors recognized for the first time the value of real estate in affording to them the safest security for their claims. It is a matter of history that all genuine reforms and nearly all moves tending to the betterment of social or commercial conditions are met by violent opposition. This is true of the advancement made in the law of conveyancing, and especially of the recording acts just mentioned. Land owners who were obliged to pledge their land as security for one or more loans, were seriously opposed to having made public the fact of their straightened circumstances. But as in other contests, that which is best will eventually survive, and the publicity feature of the recording acts has proven itself to be no exception to the rule. It is by virtue of this beneficent idea that land began to play the important role it now occupies in our economic and industrial life. Under its benign influence devolutions of title began to multiply. The country developed and has continued to develop at a rapid pace. With the development of land came increased values, and advancing values logically resulted in more frequent conveyances of the fee as well as in providing the best known security for loans and the extension of credit. While this development continues from year to year, it must be apparent to all that a new condition in relation to land titles is gradually forcing itself upon us. This condition varies in proportion to the length of time that has elapsed since the Government issued a patent to the first grantee. We frequently find in the older communities that the same land has been conveyed in fee dozens of times; that numerous liens have from time to time been fastened upon it and that various charges or other incumbrances have at different periods affected the title. Even though publicity prevails, and the laws charge all persons with notice of that which the public records disclose, it can not be denied that a careful examination of those records with a view of ascertaining the condition of a title is a matter of no small importance, and can be done only at an expense usually of considerable time and money. He who undertakes to examine the recorded documents must not only look to their sufficiency in form, but must likewise know their legal effect. With the frequent change of ownership, either by purchase or descent, together with divers incumbrances and occasional, litigation, the title grows more complex. It in time arrives at that stage where the layman can do little more than hazard a guess as to its true condition.

With the increasing complexity of titles has arises a demand for the careful inspection of the same before acceptance by the intending purchaser or by the lender as security for a loan. This examination should be made by a skilled attorney or by some person well versed in the law of real property. Since it would be almost an endless task to make a proper examination by resorting to the records in the first instance, a demand has been created for a new profession. It is the profession of abstract maker. The field of the competent abstract maker and the ends achieved by means of a well prepared abstract of title are so favorably known that their value need not be further commented upon in this connection. While the profession of the abstract maker is a noble calling, and the pleasure of making a legal examination of an abstract of title is not to be despised, it must be admitted by all fair-minded persons that the system thus employed is to a very great extent cumbersome, dilatory and expensive. The twentieth century in its onward rush of progress is calling for and demanding a system of greater simplicity; one which will expedite business in the shortest possible time and one in which the expense will be reduced to a minimum.

Here again, as many times before, the needs of the hour are met by legislation designed to solve in a highly practical manner the perplexing problems presented under the recording acts previously mentioned. The one great law which is bringing about the desired reforms is what is known and designated as the Torrens law. For the history of this law, we must, as in a former case (the Australian Ballot), turn to the Island-Continent Australia. It was here in 1857 that Sir Robert Torrens, an English Knight, by his own efforts worked into practical form for the province of South Australia that system of land transfers, which, with some modifications, has been enacted into law by several of the states of the Union. The Torrens law, it will be observed, retains the name of its originator, and titles brought under its operations are for want of a better name, known as Torrens titles.

Before treating of the operation, effect and benefits of the Torrens law, it is perhaps better at this point to fix clearly in mind the great fundamental principle upon which the Torrens system differs from the old system of recording with which all are familiar. As was said in the beginning, the end and aim of various laws from time to time has been to render titles safe from attack. In this respect the Torrens law no doubt marks the culmination of human endeavor. It provides that any land owner to whom has been issued a Torrens certificate of title, shall in law conclusively, be presumed to be the owner of the land described in such certificate. Any intending purchaser or mortgagee, in order to be fully protected need only notice the fact that the vendor or mortgagor is possessed of a Torrens title. Under the Torrens registration system the law reaches out to the title itself, and proceeds to set it at rest against the world. Under the old method of recording deeds and other written instruments no such far-reaching results have yet been obtained. A deed recorded in the regular way is always open to contest and must remain, to a limited degree at least, a possible object of future controversy. A deed is not, nor is the record of a deed ever conclusive evidence, but prima facie evidence only. And herein arises the main distinction: under the Torrens law the title is registered; under the recording laws only the deed is registered. While the fundamental principles of all Torrens laws are necessarily the same, it is not essential, however, that the minor provisions relating to the details of the method of making the practical application of the law should correspond. Such minor provisions should, and in fact, are so shaped, as to meet and harmonize as far as practicable with those laws already in force in each of the several states.