The Express.
London, England, 1853-08-19 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS.—TItt:RIDAY, AUGuer IS.
The Lo to CHANCELLoIa took his test at 6 o'clock
pE twos PRESENTEI.I.
Tilt. Ct' or Loci. MAItCHAND.—Iiv Lord BEAU-
MONT, from Louis Marchand, praying-that a committie
saight he appointed to inquire into his came.

lIACKNEYCARRIAGE BILL.
Lsrd STANLEY of ALDERLEY gave notiee that he
should to-morrow MOTO the suspension of the standing
orders for tho purpose of enabling this bill to pass through
all its stages.

REPOIti OF THE BOARD FOR CONSOLIDATING
TILE STATUTE LAWS.
The LORD CHANCELLOR would take that opportu-
nity of hying on the table a report which had been made
to him by the Dosed for Consolidating the Statute law..
fie regretted that he had not been able to do so earlier in
the session, but the directions which he had given to the
lentlemen engaged in the work had been to continue their
abours until nearly the close of the session, and then to re-
port to him what they had done in order that it might be laid
On the table and printed. As the report would shortly be
in their lordships hands, he would not go into any minute
detail as to what had he, n done ; but he thought it was due
to their lordships and to the gentlemen who had devoted so
much attention to the subject, to otate shortly the course
which had be, O pursued. Tceir lordships would recollect
that very ratty in the session it was his desire to accomplish
• consolielotien of the statute law—if not of the whole, at
least of a material portion of it. The course he pursued
was tn apply tint to Mr. lierenden Ker, who was the only
surviving nu inb•r of the c =mission tunstitutcd by Lord
Brougham for a similar purpose, amply, for the consolida-
tion of the criminal and statute law. That commission did
proceed with the criminal, but not with the statute law,
and they made one report on the subject. It appeared to
him that the best way would be to continue the services of
Mr. Ker, and to plate under him four gentlemen hest quali-
fied for the task of commencing this very useful proceetlinib.
As the whole matter was to a great extent experimental,
he did nut choose to involve himself in the necessity of ex-
tending the engagement beyond a year, if it should tent
out that he had been too sanguine, and that it was a work
which could not be usefully accomplished. He, therefore,
'retained foes very able gentlemen for one year, and they
met him at his house on the last day of March with Mr.
Ker, and be pointed out the course to be taken. lie
thought, in the firs: {.lace, that it should be ascertained
whet the statutes were that remained to be consolidated.
There were some 40 quarto volumes, designated " the
Mutates at large," and printed eery closely. He had pre-
viously satisfied himself that though there were a great
many volumes of statutes to be consolidated, it was a decep-
tion to imagine that there was anything like the 40 volumes,
for they consisted not only of statutes 03.1 in force, but of
Innumerable sts'utes which had been repealed, and
some which had become obsolete, whilst others were
temporary acel local, and would form no part of
• consolidation fir general purposes. Ile, there-
fore, directed, in the first instance, that a revised
list should be made of what statutes there were now
actually in force. The board had great facilities for that
purpose, because there was a report which gave them down
te the reign of alocen Anne, and they had other asaistance,
without which they could not have accomplished such a
task within four months ; but he was happy to say that that
task had been completed. Two of the gentlemen—Mr.

Anstry and Mr. Rogers—directed their immediate atten-
tion to look through the whole statutes for this purpose.
This they did, ant: made the list, and the result was rather
a curious one. It appeared that from Magna Chart' down
to the end of the 13th and 16th of her present Majesty's
reign, there had been passed 16,412 public statutes, leaving
Out the whole of the local and personal acts. There had
been repealed 2,700, and virtually repealed by enactments
acute:stint with them' 2,600 more. There were 3,900
public statutes as to which the board were not able to say
they were not all in force. Of those again 420 related ex-
clu•ively to Scotland, 600 to Ireland, and 400
exclustvely to the colonies; and leaving those out of the
nnestten, there remained in force 2,495 statutes—say 2,500
Ice round numbers—general statutes applicable to England
Or the United Kingdom. Therefore it was to the consoli-
dation of that body of 2,590 statutes that the attention of
the commi•stoners must be mainly directed. The commis-
91011er1 in their report analysed all those statutes. The two
gentlemen to whom he had referred having made their report,
another member of the board, in order to test the accuracy
of it, had neatly completed the same process beginning
backwards—that was, going up from the reign of Victoria,
in order to be perfectly accurate. That would be an ex-
tremely useful work, nut only for lawyer, but laymen,
who would be able to see at ono, whether • particular sta-
tute was or not in force. It being a matter of doubt what
was the Ilticet course to panne—whether they
should take the laws as they now are, add
put them into one, asking them more readable
and acceasible ; or, secondly, whether it would be
better to unite with the statute' es different subjects (as,
for instance, the law of distress) the common law, the un-
written law, on the 'abject ; and thirdly, whether it would
be better to make • agent, Improving and pointing out
what alterations were aecemary—that being so, his dine-
ties was that they should take some subject which would
be the easiest, and make a consolidation in all those differ-
ent forms, in order that he might be able to decide what
would be the most expedient course to take. Ooe of the
eommtmionen selected the subject of " distress for rent,"
and he had made three digests of that—one being a digest of
the statutes lawn the earliest time, the other a digest of
those statutes, with the whole or such part of the law as
appeared to be so connected with the statutes, as to make
them intelligible ; and thirdly, a digest with considerable
aniendtuesa which he had pointed out. That was a part
of the report which he was about to lay on the table. Mr.
Cade had been connected with the poor law some
years ago, and be then commenced a digest of all the
laws relating to the pour from the reign of
Queen Elizabeth down te the present time. That digest
bed been nearly completed, and it would be a mast saint
'Batavial to have before them, as their lordships would sup-
pose when he told them that there were 160 odd statutes
on this subject consolidated, whether in the best possible
fors or not be was sot then prepared to my, but it would
ao doubt be of great utility. He thought he stated enough
to show that the gentlemen to whom the task had been
assigned bad neither been idle, or forgetful of the duty
which they owed to the public. (Hear, hoer.) Whether
their lordship. would Sri* is all they had recommended
was another matter. Mr. Her bad told them that it was
desirable that each of them should makes • suggestion in
writing as to the beet course to be punted, and they bad
•; theee fore made mush • suggestion ia writing, but of
saline they would not take umbrage if he exercised his
discretion, as be was rispoosible for the plan which might
be adopted. He had coma to the conclusion, having
got this useful basis, and specimens of the different
modes of digesting the law, as well as Mr. Coode's digest of
the poor laws—he had eons to the conclusion that the
beet course would be, that each of the gentlemen should
take some subject, and he had suggested that they should
be such as involved nothing bat statutes—such, for instance,
as the poor-law—in which there was no common law—each
would be aloe almost all the revenue laws, the laws relating
to public works, railways, end works of that sort. Whe-
ther the precise abject& had been fixed upon he could net
say ; but he had determined that each gentleman should
hake one subject and consolidate the whole statute law on
that subject, of course clear from repulsive long sections
sad formal enactments. That having been done, he
would call attentisa to one or two considerations suggested
by them, and which were of a singular petals. Their
lordships were aware that eight years ago there were passed
sortaia sets known as Railway Consolidation Acts and
Lads Clauses Acts, for coasolidating into one act
all the enactments that used to fled their way into
a railway bill. Now it was curious enough, taking the
quantity of printed pees in them acts, and the number of
acts which had since passed, which had incorporated all
those classes, to me the moult, whisk was this, that if they
had only prated area copy of each railway act there bad
hem a "'via, is printing of 116 folio pages in that one
ropy. And inasmuch as 1,000 copies were printed of each,
that they were printed over twice in the shape of bills ;
and laassauch as the seta which passed did not constitute
above one-fourth of those which wets brought in as bills,
and were finally lost, the saving which had been effected by
those consolidation ae s was enormously great; and one
direction which he had given was, that they ought to have
the benefit of the experience which might be derived from
such circumstances. They should see, therefore, whether
they could not adopt the same principle in a variety of
other matters. Most of their lordships were engaged
is the duties of magistrates; and he did not
see why the laws relating to the duties of that
saes sheuld not be pat into one act. Again, there were the
laws relating to the national debt. The Chancellor of the
Mitchequer had told him that it was troublesome beyond
measure for persons engaged in matters of Inane* to look
Into the various statutes. He might further instance the
laws relating to landlord and tenant which might be dealt
with in the ems way. He was sorry that be had not had
an opportunity of laying the report on the table before, but
he bad bad reason to hope that his noble and 1 d friends
Lord Brougham and Lord Lyndhurst would have been pre-
sent that evening. Ho regretted their absence, but he did
not think it safe to defer the matter until to-morrow (this)
evening. In conclusion, he would only say that he had the
most perfect conviction that it was • scheme which would
be of essential use to the public. (Hear, hear.)
The report woe then laid on the table.