The Express.
London, England, 1847-10-14 00:00:00

2

rattly passes through the gate which he has no
occasion, except in • financial experiment, to nee.
The keeper of the north gate, delighted with
a gratuitous customer, allows him to pass at a
reduced rate, and furnishes him with a ticket,
with which he turns round and passes through
the indignant south gate without discussing in any
way the rate of the tolls. After a few journeys per-
formed on this principle, the keeper of the south gate
discovers that he may as well receive the diminished
tolls as his neighbour, and a compromise is effected at
the expense of-the superior lessee, or of the public.
Another mode by which the reduction of tolls can
be enforced is by making use of circuitous routes
along the untolled highways, or as they are called in
Scotland, statute-labour roads. The toll-keeper, as
in the other cases which we have suggested,
finds that it is better to receive a part of
the legal toll, than to lose the whole for the sake of
putting the recusant traveller to an inconvenience. It
was an attempt, by the erection of side-bars, to put a
stop to this method of evading the payment of tolls,
which first excited the hostility of REBECCA against
the Welch trustees. The hill-farmers, who, in dislike
to parting with money, resemble the Scotch, thought
that if they chose to dispense with the use of the
turnpike-roads, they could not fairly be asked for tolls.
It seems that in Fife and Kinross the option of using
the highways is still generally open to those
who are willing to travel by inferior and cir-
cuitous roads. Whether the power is actually
exercised, or whether it is applied as a mode of com-
pelling the collectors to submit to reduced scales of
payment, the loss to the public is equally evident.
It appears then that under a system of taxation by
toils, there is, first, a large necessary and legitimate
deduction to be made for the risks and expenses of
collection. In the next place there are three unlaw-
ful but not less voracious claimants to be provided
with pickings out of the public funds : the lessees by
secrecy and combination, the collectors by the facility
of fraud, and individual travellers by ingenious con-
trivances to evade payment, all diminish the sum which
ought to be received by the public or their trustees.
In addition to the pecuniary loss, the utility of the
roads to the public is greatly diminished, by making
it the interest of every person to use them as little as
possible. Taxation, varying inversely as the self-
denial and economy of the tax-payer, is always an
impediment to consumption and to enjoyment. It
would be better that every one should use the roads
as often as he finds it convenient, and that he should
pay, not according to his actual use, but either accord-
ing to his means or according to his assumed fre-
quency of making use of the roads. Mr. PAGAN
proposes that those who use the roads should be
made to pay for them by a rate on horses. Others
may think that a taxation according to the means of
the taxpayer would be more equitable. On • future
occasion we shall probably investigate this subject.
For the present oar object has been to open the way
for a change, by showing the inconvenience of the
present system.

We may be certain that when a class, professional
or political, takes the initiative in reforming its own
abuses, there is some effective, though perhaps an-
avowed. power, in action. And to no class is this
more applicable than the English lawyers. As a
body, they ore strenuous upholders of existing insti-
tutions, and, with a large majority of them, the
abuses and anomalies by which institutions often
become surreunded are cherished as fondly as the
instltutione themselves. This might have been called
the distinctive characteristic of the profession down
to the retirement of Lord ELDON. It is true that
many distinguished exceptions have occurred, bat
still the prevailing tone of mind amongst our lawyers
has been that of unreasoning conservation. When,
therefore, we find the lawyers originating a " Society
for promoting the Amendment of the Law," we may
be sure that there is some new force at work, or some
old one acting with additional vigour. 'this force
will be found to be the progress of industrial ideas—
the development of the power of the middle classes.
The first great attempt to improve the law was Sir
Roemer PEEL'S consolidation and amendment of the
criminal law—an attempt nearly contemporaneous
with the first steps towards the amelioration of our
commercial code. Both indicated the decline of aris-
tocratic, and the advance of industrial, influence. Since
that period there has been a constant change going on
in the law. In the law of bankruptcy and insolvency,
in the law of property, in the procedures of the courts
of law and equity, the alterations have been such as
to render each and all of those branches something
totally different to their former state ; and all such
alterations have been so far in the right direction, that
they have been intended to meet the convenience of
the public.
Most of these changes, however, merely removed
evils so glaring, that, when plainly stated, they could
not be defended. For instance : real property has
been made liable to the simple contract debts of
a deceased landholder ; a somewhat more rational
limit has been put to the period within which the
title to land may be litigated ; deeds accompanied by
certain formalities have been substituted for the ficti-
tious suits called " fines and recoveries" as. con-
veyances of peculiar interests in landed property, and
many others which will at once occur to the profes-
sional reader. Bat such alterations had the aspect of
patchwork legislation a leak was stopped here, and
a particular grievance abolished there, yet the main
body and principle of the law remained in a great
degree unchanged.
In 1814, political events and social progress had
induced the application of the test of utility to some
of our laws which were supported by the most pow-
erful influences, and some of our more intelligent
lawyers felt the time was come when the same test
must be applied to the general body of our law. This
led to the formation of the Society for Promoting the
Amendment of the Law, to which we have referred.
We have now before us the four annual reports
made by the society, and thereby we propose briefly
to trace the progress of opinion in favour of amend-
ment of the law which has been made amongst the
professional class.
The first report in June, 1811, when the society
bad been only a few months in existence, states,
" that from the profession the society has met
with far greater encouragement than was ever
anticipated." The plan of action adopted by the
society is one not ill-fitted for inquiry ; the
members are divided into committees on various
branches of the law, and each committee reports from
time to time to the society at large, when the report
is considered, discussed, and referred back to the com-
mittee. or adopted and published as the report of the
society. Of course, these reporfs would be framed by
a comparatively few of the members, and generally
by men not much distinguished as successful practi-
tioners ; but still if the more eminent members of the ,
profession be induced to give their countenance and
occasional assistance,tbe reports will fairly enough re-
present the opinions of the profession. And taking
that to be the fact, these reports possess considerable
interest. The second annual report (June, le-15)
gives evidence of a growing interest in the objects of
the society. The members had greatly increased, and
the recruits had come from both the senior and junior
ranks of the law. This report says " The impres-
sions we have to produce are of slow growth, requiring
much time for their maturity, yet more for the
ascertaining of their true value," and indicates that
the "institution is calculated to facilitate the labours
of the legislature." The " parliamentary committee "
had made a report on the establishment of a board
for revising bills presented to parliament, and which
the fragmentary character of our past legislation
seems to require. It must, however, be remembered,
that much of our partial and sometimes inconsistent
changes arises from the aversion entertained by the I
legislature to large and thorough changes anerevi-
sio
ns thelaw. No care in framing bills can meet
this evil ; it is inherent in the temporising system
which has hitherto prevailed in parliament. Amongst
other recommendations of the society recorded in this
report were the provisions of two bills "to facilitate
the conveyance of real property and the granting of
leases," and " for super-eding the necessity of assign-
ing outstanding terms," then pending in parliament,
and which in • later report are stated to have
become law, and to be acting beneficially. Now this
abolition of outstanding terms is the mere removal of
an absurdity, productive of great expense, in in-
vestigating the title to land, and of no earthly
use to the owner ; its abolition, though useful,
is a small matter for a society professing
such large aims. Another subject of more importance
is also mentioned in the second report as having been
referred to the committee on the law of property,
via.: " Whether it be possible or expedient to adopt
the machinery of the public funds to the transfer of
real property." The committee seems to have re-