A squatter will be able to apply to be registered as proprietor after ten years ' adverse possession.
The second was called for by the preference which the common law gave to a distant collateral over the brother of the half-blood of the first purchaser; the fourth conferred an indefeasible title on adverse possession for twenty years (a term shortened by Lord Cairns in 1875 to twelve years); the fifth reduced the number of witnesses required by law to attest wills, and removed the vexatious distinction which existed in this respect between freeholds and copyholds; the last freed an innocent debtor from imprisonment only before final judgment (or on what was termed mesne process), but the principle stated by Campbell that only fraudulent debtors should be imprisoned was ultimately given effect to for England and Wales in 1869.1 In one of his most cherished objects, however, that of Land Registration, which formed the theme of his maiden speech in parliament, Campbell was doomed to disappointment.
Squatters still in adverse possession after two years will be entitled to be registered as proprietor.
