The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-11-02 00:00:00

Ete tourbritTe ebotatr.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1878,

LAW AND SOCIOLOGY.

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The end of another Long Vacation and the
teAssembling of the lawyers in Westminster
Hall at the beginning of the legal years suggest
SOMA reflections which are well worthy of a
thought just now. Westminster Hall, as all
our readers are aware, is a reminder of the ad-
vances which have been made in the spirit and
in the substance of our national life. It stands
precisely midway between the Palace of the
Legislature and the venerable Abbey—between
the costly pile that represents the requirements
of modern existence and the failings incidental
thereto, and that ancient structure raised by the
pious Edward the Confessor, more than eight
hundred years ago, typical of the life which is
to come. There stands the Hall, as it has
stood for centuries, with the Houses of Parlia-
ment upon the one side suggesting the evan-
escent and transitory nature of the straggles of
*day, and with the cathedral church of St.
Pater on the other, whose solemn towers are
ever pointing to a world more enduring than
the hills. For ages and ages has the great hall
itself been the home of the lawyers. There
have the statutes of the land been adminivitered
through evil and through good report, and under
all the varying circumstances which the history
of the country has furnished. Sometimes
justice has held her sway in the midst of
popular ferments that have threatened the very
4.tance of cherished institutions ; at others
her cause has been suddenly and unceremoni•
°ugly arrested by one of the advancing forces of
Mitre, as for instance in 1285, when owing to
Chi& tide in the Thames the lawyers had to
be fetched out of the hall in boats. 'Yet, gene-
radon after generation has it been the seat of
justice, the embodiment of law, the standpoint
of order. Prom this spot, during a long time.
of English sovereigns, have the judges of the
land issued forth upon their respective circuits,
bearing with them the Royal commission of
oyes and ternainer and general gaol delivery for
the shires of the land. This week the judges
will again assemble in the old Hall for the first
time since the Lammas Assizes; they will pre-
side in their Courts a few weeks, basing their
administration of the law upon the statutes
passed in the last session of Parliament, as well
U upon the decisions of the past ; and before
Christmas will have again set out upon the work
of delivering the prisons, liberating the inn°.
."1"`• and punishing the guilty. " God save the
"ilky lords the Quen's Justices," will
Tormula with which the crier of the
urt Winds up the business of each day in
every ASSize hall.
The scene changes to the brisk and cheerful
Sown of Cueltenhatu, always a pretty place, and
within the past few days exceptioualis lively.
The Social Science Congress, in following out
the peripatetic principle which has proved so
marked a success with other organizations, hav-
ing pitched its tent at Cheltenham, has had its
.various sections presided over by meu more or
bass distinguished in the literary and scientific
world. The subjects deal with Were such as to
illoe command the interest of different seetionS of
sr. the corilinnuity. Economy and trade, juris-
*- prudence and law, public health and sanitary re
11, form—here are topics which affect Us all. The
- richest and noblest in the land find that they
eannot enjoy their possessions without health;
and the strong arm of the law is as necessary for
the protection of the, peasant as of the peer.
Those who are of an enquiring turn of mind,
and are ever anxious to challenge the reason
for the ' existence of all things upon the earth,
were at first inclined to doubt the necessity of
for the. existence of a Social Science Association
at all. The stales of Justice were held with an
• hand; the predatory classes were caught
Amd pinished, Parliament sat for a fall half of
Teary year devising measures for the welfire,
ealsfy, and4rder of the kingdom; and every
session Ire 34 piles of law were being added to
our statute books. Education was making its
way amongst the masses; new Christian tem-
ples were being continually added to the list
shish already welcomed the people within their
pies. What more could be desired? The
optimist agreed that everything possible was for
the best, and that the forces of socialiprogress
were moving on as rapidly as it was proper or
nonvenient that they should do. They were
low to follow in the beaten track upon which

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