The Express.
London, England, 1865-08-10 00:00:00

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LONDON, TBURSDAY, AUGUST 10.

Ir will probably be a mutter of surprise to most
persona, bat it will certainly be is subject of satis-
faction to all who are outside the legal profession,
to learn that the amount of litigation in this
country is undergoing a steady process of diminu-
tion. This fact, indeed, is tolerably well recog-
nised in the profession itself, where the complaints'
that " business is not what it used to be," are
deep enough, if not loud. But the public is apt
to think these grumblinp are like those of farmers
with the weather and prices, and ars quits °as-
sistant with the making of very tolerable profits
and obtaining due tribute from the progressive
wealth of the country. There are, however, actual
figures to show that the complaints of the lawyers
have a real foundation. The judicial statistics
_ _

published every year, and which for the year 1864
have lately been issued, supply evidence that the
public is growing wiser, and that the tax of liti-
gation is growing annually lighter. And this result
becomes very marked when we reflect that our
population alone grows at the annual rate of more
than one per cent., and that oar wealth and our
complexity of business transactions, the greet
sources of litigation, increase in an infinitely greater
ratio. Yet not only does the business of the tonne
of law not increase in an equal ratio, but it even
shows in most instances a decided tendency, with
slight oscillations, to decrease. Thus in the County
Courts, of which the business for a number of years
after their establishment rapidly augmented, the

maximum was reached in 1861. when the number
of plaints entered was 903,957. But this num-
ber was diminished in 1862 to the extent of 6 per
cent., in 1863 to the further extent of 6 per cent.,
and lut year by nearly 8 per cent., so that there
were only 738,481 plaints entered in that year,
almost exactly the same number as in 1858. But
the average amount claimed in each plaint
has been undergoing • still more steady and
marked decrease. In 1853 it was close upon 31.
In 1858 it had fallen to 21. 14s. ; in 1860, to 21.

95. ; in 1863, to 21. 61. ; but in 1864, it rose to
21. 7a. Bd. A like reduction is apparent in the
amount and value of the besieges transacted in the
borough and other local courts. Chancery prac-
tice shows • somewhat similar course. In 1864
there were 2,966 bills and other originating writs
filed, against an average for the five preceding
years of 2,968. Of petitions in the Lord Chan-
cellor's department there were 2,149 filed,
against an average of 1,865, but the difference
was more than accounted for by the growth of a
single item—the applications under Railway and
other Public Works Acts, which amounted to 703,
instead of the average of 383. In the Rolls office
the petitions gave similar respite. In the
Common Law Courts there was, however, an in-
crease in the business commenced, the
writs armed being 113,158, against a quin-
quennial average of 100,349, but this appears ex-
ceptional-1863 exhibiting only 100,042, while
1861 furnished 114,301. It is remarkable, how-
ever, that the increase in 1864 appears to have
arisen not from increase in causes of litigation,
but of disposition to resist payment, for only 2,589
cases came to actual trial, and in that there were
only 275 that resulted in • verdict for the de-
fendant, against 363 in the preceding year.
On the whole it cannot be disputed that we go
less to law than we used to do. And it cannot be
said that this is because going to law is more
costly than it used to be. This is proved by the
smallness of the sums contested. Of the 1,565
verdicts in the superior courts for the plaintiff,
860 were for sums below 1001., and 204 were for
sums below 201. The lowness of the average sued
for in the County Courts has been already pointed
out. It is, indeed, notorious that law has
been immensely cheapened within the last score of
years, and it is highly satisfactory to find that
though, of course, the first consequence is to invite
into the courts • clear of suite that formerly would
not bear the expense, yet the cheapness does not
operate as a continuedencouragement to litigation, ,
but that as goon as the natural limit is reached
there begins to appear a tendency to diminution
in the number of disputes which are brought to
this method of settlement. And indeed the great
preponderance of cases settled before coming to
trial, and among those tried the number in which
the verdict is for the plaintiff (still more marked
in the County Courts), prove that the chief use
made of the courts is rather to enforce scarcely
disputed rights than to contest doubtful points.
Sloe., then, it is not the cheapening of law that
accounts for the diminution, we may fairly claim
the gradual improvement of the law ea entitled to
the credit. It becomes year by year, slowly enough
indeed, butstill steadily, a little clearerand simpler.
Men's rights are better defined, it is less easy to
perpetrate injustice,it is more apparent when the
law is violated, and the parties shrhik from bring—
ing into court • case in which they must clearly be
the lasers. Of course the progress of society
makes necessary every year some sew kW, to re-
Oats the new forms of industry, of commerce, of
social relations, and these inevitably draw with
them the necessity of litigation to make them
known and to settle their precise poops and mean-
ing. But it is very striking that in spite of those
reasons for increased contention, the falling off of
other motives is so large as to meow than balance
them. Nor can anyone fail to rejoice at each a re-
sult. Of all money thrown away that which is
spent in ascertaining disputed legal rights is the