Immediately succeeding the _Avitische Patent_, the _registration of
land_ was made law, in conformity with which all estates had been
surveyed and entered on the registry as belonging to those owners who
possessed the same in consequence of the above-named patent."
"But how about disputed inheritance-lands held by mortgagees, and other
contingencies always arising in regard to estates?" I asked.
"I am sorry to say that dreadful cases of injustice were caused by this
enactment. Whole families were reduced to beggary, and the greatest
rascals obtained possession by this law of enormous estates, simply
because they happened to hold the land in 1848, and the rightful owner
did not advance his claim within the prescribed time. The evil could
not be redressed, and in 1861, when the Hungarian Constitution was
reinstated, the Diet of that year was obliged to accept and confirm the
_Avitische Patent_, and the registration of land as directly following
it. The grievances are past, but the benefit remains to us and our
children. In Hungary at the present time the transfer of land is as
simple as buying or selling the registered shares of a railway company.
The registry forms the basis of every transaction connected with landed
property, and, as we lawyers say, what is not entered there _non est in
mundo_. Mortgages must be set down against the registered title.
Contracts of leases are also entered, and in the case of farms being
taken, caution-money, amounting generally to a quarter's rent, must be
deposited with the authorities.
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