1. General matters relating to the abstract.

2. When perfect; - what it must contain and show.

3. What should be furnished, in various specified cases.

4. As to its preparation, contents, and delivery.

5. As to its examination and perusal.

6. As to its verification.

(1.) A purchaser may require to be furnished with an abstract prepared in the usual way (a), even although he have agreed to accept the title (b): he may retain it, during negotiations upon, and even after rejection of, the title, until the dispute be finally settled, for the purpose of showing the grounds of such rejection (c); and, in the interim, he may maintain trover for it, even against the vendor (d): when the contract is finally abandoned by both parties, he must return the abstract, and may not retain any copy of it (e); counsel's opinion and observations he may, it appears, retain if written upon separate paper (f); or, if written upon the abstract itself, he may erase them before returning it (g).

The vendor, as a general rule, pays for the abstract (h);but on sales to a company under the provisions of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, whether such sales be voluntary or compulsory, and whether made by absolute or merely statutory owners, the costs of the abstract (in the absence of agreement) are thrown on the company (i): and similar provisions (j) are contained in most of the earlier railway and other similar Acts.

Purchaser's right to abstract.

His right to retain.

Must be given up, if contract abandoned.

Vendor pays for.

(a) Horne v. Wingfield, 3 Sc. N. R. 340; Sug. 431.

(b) Morris v. Kearsley, 2 Y. & C. 139.

(e) 2 Taunt. 278; Sug. 447. (d) Roberts v. Wyatt, 2 Taunt. 268.

(e) 2 Taunt. 277.

(f) 2 Taunt. 270; but see Sug. 447.

(g) Wood v. Court, 2 S. Atk. Conv. 463.

(h) Sug. 431.