The Press.
London, England, 1855-07-28 00:00:00

LAW REFORM.

WHAT has been done up to the present time in
the way of consolidating the Statute Law of
England ? In February, 1853, Lord CRAN-
WORTH announced his projected undertaking,
which he entitled " A Consolidated Digest of
the Statute Laws." This attempt was only
supplementary to one made twenty years
earlier by Lord BROUGHAM, who in 1833 had
issued a Commission to five barristers to inquire
into and report upon this same subject. Lord
BROUGHAM'S Commissioners were, Mr. BELLEN-
DER KER, Mr. STARKIE, Mr. Justice WIGHTMAN,
Mr. ARROS, and Mr. AUSTIN. Lord CRANWORTH
recalled Mr. BELLENDER KER to his old post,
and put under him " four barristers of in-
" telligence and industry," who were never-
theless to be briefless, or, as it was delicately
phrased, " whose position will not be such as
" to prevent them from devoting almost the
" whole of their time to the task." They were
to be engaged for one year only—that is, on
trial—for the work could not be supposed
capable of completion in that time. Mr. KER
was to receive 1,000/. for his services, and each
of his colleagues 600/. A room at the Trea-
sury was to be assigned to them, and their
duties were to commence forthwith. Such is
the outline of the project, as we find it in Lord
CRANWORTH'S letter of Feb. 28th, 1853. The
mode of procedure was to be as follows :
First, a list to be made out of statutes (1) re-
pealed, (2) expired, (3) obsolete or unne-
cessary in the present state of society, (4)
obsolete but revised, (5) doubtful as regards
their present validity, in consequence of long
disuse. Next, after eliminating the above
superfluous matter, the existing Statute Law to
be arranged according to subjects, and a digest
thereof made, with translations of the statutes
in French or Latin. Thirdly, on this digest a
scheme of consolidation to be based, its pre
cise nature remaining still undetermined.
On the above plan the gentlemen selected
went to work—Mr. KER at their head, Messrs.
COODE, ANSTEY, ROGERS, and BRICKDALE,
acting under his general guidance. But few
regular meetings were held, and of those only
scanty minutes appear in the Parliamentary
record. Each, however, selected his own
share of duty, Mr. CooDE taking in hand a
digest of the Poor Law, Mr. ROGERS of the
Mercantile Marine Acts,' Mr. ANSTEY of Acts re-
lative to the National Debt, and Mr. BRICKDALE
of the Law of Landlord and Tenant. One diffi-
culty appears to have caused some perplexity
even from the first. What was to be done
with the old law after the proposed consolida-
tion should have taken place ? If existing
rights and interests were to be respected, and
the invariable practice in such matters fol-
lowed, the amended, or consolidated, law
could only be made prospective; but in that
case the existing statutes must remain in force
as regarded the past; they could not, there-
fore, be expunged from the books ; and the
bulk of these would be, not lessened, but aug-
mented, by the addition (not substitution) of
the new permanent enactment—a serious ob-
jection, and one which the joint ingenuity of
the Commissioners appears to have been un-
able to get over—for it is stated nakedly—
without even an attempt at solution. But other
and graver obstacles were shortly encountered.
The meetings of the Commission had been
rare and short; no formal minutes were kept;
its members assembled at the chambers of one
of their members, instead of at the office pro.
vided ; nor were these informalities compen-
sated by any particular activity in the perform•
ante of their difficult task. In truth, it soon
became evident to Lord CRANWORTH, as it had
long been to others, that the machinery he
had set in motion was not powerful enough
for the work it had to do. As early in the
session as March 17th, Lord ST. LEONARDS
had reminded him that in 1816—nearly forty
years back, when the bulk of the statutes was
far less than at present—a committee had been