The Express.
London, England, 1857-04-14 00:00:00

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LONDOIV, TUESDAY. APRIL 14.

TO OUR

A DOUBLE NUMBER of the EXPRESS will
be published ON SATURDAYS u usual, during
the Parliamentary recess.

AMONG the more important inquiries interrupted
by the Dissolution, was that of the Committee
appointed to consider the best means of " improving
the Manner and Language of Current Legislation."
This Committee, which will probably be re-appointed
in the new Parliament, has reported the evidenoe
taken before it, but, considering the inquiry incom-
plete, abstains from expressing any opinion upon the
subject matter of investigation. The Committee exa-
mined Ave witnesses, four ofwhomi wersoilicial endow
nommoleil. The odleial vritommee were Mr. COULSON,
the Government draftsman ; Mr. BELLS/MEN Era,
the paid member of the present and all preceding
Statute Law Commissions ; Mr. RICKARDS, the
counsel to the Speaker; and Mr. Burma MAT,
the cleritassistant of the House of Commons. The
son-olieial witness was Mr. GEORGE COODI, long
and fivourably known to English jurists as
the author of an able work on " Legislative
Expression," one of the mast zealous of those four
gentlemen who. in 18,5, were appointed as sub-
cedillas ander Mr. BKLLENDEN Kan, and by their
rapid energy caused considerable alarm and diecont-
kat to that model commissioner.

The evidence of these Are gentlemen, widely dis-
cordant en many point*, is sabetantially identical an
one : they all concur in thinking that the task of re-
viling the current legislation of the Elusion ought
to be entrusted to me reeptentlie clean aided
by • more or loss numenes staff of einistants.
It mans also to to admitted by all the are
winsome that the duties of this functionary
should consist not in drawing bills, but in revising
them, and pointing out their legal effect, particu-
larly as bearing on the exiting mar of statute and
common law. It also seem, agreed that it should be
a perdu of his functions to group and classify, under
appropriate heads, the new acts which each session
adds to the present balk of the statutes. Whether
the °Mow thus appointed is to form a portion of a
new Deportment of Public Justice—whether he is to
communicate immediately with the Moue, or only
mediately through a committee, are points on which
the evidence hitherto taken throws no great light.
Incidentally, them minutes of evidence are, in
many respeeb, interesting not to lawyers only, but
.to the labile at lug*. Most of as, far instance,
may hug obliged to Mr. Essence MAT for the
segments infermation he lass supplied on the
statistics of the great law-making machine at West-
minster tar the years 1864,'63, and '36. In the ses-
sion el 1864 the total number of bills brought into
the Maus was 177. Of these, 67, or rather more
then ms•third, were introduced by private DlATl-
bars. The total number of bills that failed in pass-
ing was 66. Of these failure', no less than 49 were
among the bills introduced by private members. In
1866, the total number of bills brought in wu 197;
et bine not pealed, 83. Here, again, the proportion
. of failures among bills introduced by private mem-
been WO very considerable-63 out of 73. In 1836,
cot at 177 bills introduced, 77 did not pus. Out of
ads number, the bills introduced by private mem-
bees were 64, of which 46 dropped, or were re-
jected.

Such is the rate at which law-making programs.
It is, indeed, somewhat consolatory to learn that the
addition to the general public low of the /Taira
iiisedersi is by no means what these numbers would
indicate. Thos, taking the legislation of 1866, we
find that out of 134 Acts of Parliament, occupying
1,003 folio pages, only 38 Acts, occupying 220 pages,
really constituted public general laws such as it
would be neceesery to print for any purposes of
general reference and nee. Carrying the analysis
stall farther, we find that of these 220 pages, 99
would contain the statutes of the year relating to the
whole United Kingdom, 10 those relating to Great
Britain, 20 those relating to England and Ireland,
and 103 those relating to England only.
Even with this abatement, the annual incre-
ment in the Statute Book is • very serious
evil, and seems to indicate that without some
radical change in the science of legislative expres-
sion as hitherto practised in this country, the hope of
bringing our Statute Law into reasonable compass
must ever be to a great extent chimerical. We
have on previous occaaions indicated our opinion s f
the nature of the change required. We most no
longer attempt to frame laws to provide beforehand
for every pomade came that may arise for their appli-
cation. We must not attempt to frame laws that
shall be proof against every possibility of legal
quibbling and perverted ingenuity. Both attempts
are almost equally absurd. The one, indeed, is
utterly hopeless : the other involves a painful effort
after scrupulous accuracy which is in itself often the
cause of obscurity, and always of prolixity. Wherever
Codes exist, wherever laws are methodised, chwei-
fled, and reduced into written systems, the vole
object of the law writer is tersely and perspi-
cuously to lay down the general rale, trusting
to the law administrator that he will apply
it not in the spirit of quibbling pedantry—
sot with the desire of showing that he, the judge, is
acute enough to discover that the law does not neee•-

warily and interns =tad to the use Ware bier-bat
in a larp and liberal spiritof inaiglatenel Ihtsyreta-
tion, seeking to penetrant tote the km inteMbem Cl
the legislator, and to vitalise,. lty au intelligent se-
Plieetioe. the deed letter of Sr general revs. It is the
rules of judicial intentioned's", not only the rein of
legislative emaposition, which absolutely requite
reconsideration before our written law can ever aspire
to a character of manageable conciseness and philo-
sophical sammasy. Bo well was this understood by
our cousins wan the Atlantic, that one of the pre-
liminsry rules in many of their coder is a rule of
judicial interpretation—a direction to the judges as
to ennead the law as to give effect rather to its
spirit than to it. letter.
. That the feet is uwe have Mated it, is more than

owe explicitly admitted by the witnesses examined
before the recent Committee. " Nobody," says Mr.
BELLI:XI= Ira (Q. 343), "is more willing than I
am to give great praise to the revisers of the cods of
New York; bat our system of judicial interprets.
tion is so diligent from the way in which the law is
interpreted by the judges both in Baotou and New
York, that I am quite convinced that the code of
New York or tho code of Boston would not
mtialy oar wade here. I thiuk there is
hardly • lime of the sod* of New York
that would Not employ the Court of Queen's
Beach or the Court of amnion Pleas for weeks."
Very likely; but where does the discredit rest?
Barely not on the law-writ," who have returned to
a method of legislative expression consecrated by the
practice of the greatest jurists and the politest ages;
but on the law admigus' trators, who still cling to a
mode of interpretation which sprung up in rude
times, and was principally perpetuated in order to
defeat by a laudable chicane the Draconic cruelty of
a penal cods which had become abhorrent to oar
manners, long before it was abolished frcsa ear
Statute Book. Until this absurd. end now weedy
annecessery, strictness of julisig inkorpoteliss
onohonswi for a mode of low-sendmlotradow Mora
rational end civilised, we confess we have no hogs of
seeing the language of our written law attain to
anything hie the scientific precision and the concise
yet sionprehtinsive money of the great models of
hisiskik• alsamis‘ But, in the meanwhile, there
b imam Art, ma upon the present system of
paiiiiisildloitead against all the possible quibbles
ansiiiisalllaawm, the language of our Legislature
iseagallit at bissiimaide improvement. It may be
mama ire pub% more uniform, and less
Isatologiowg —is we know of any better method
of ottani, lbw ads than the adoption of each
principles d kiiihdins imposition a these which
Mr. Coots boo diewaroi M the Minutes of Evidence
Jul pinto& Vein plUsturely extinguished Com-
MOM

gbe Court.

BIRTH OF A

OF TIER MAJESTY.

DAY.)

PALACE, Arum 14, 1867.

At seven minutes before two o'clock p.m. this
day the Queen was safely delivered of a Princess.
There were present on the occasion in her Ma.
jestre ream his Royal Highness Prince Albert,
Dr. Loesek, Dr. Snow, and Mrs. Lilly, the monthly
nurse. Is the adjoining apartments, besides the
other medical attendants (Sir James Clerk and Dr.
Fergnma)orere the Mistress of the Robes, the lady in
waiting ca the Queen, and the following officers of
state and Reds of the Privy Council, viz.:—His
Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, the Lord.
Chancellor, Viscount Palmerston, Sir George Grey,
Earl at Clarendon, Mr. Secretary Labouchere,
Lord Papaw, Sir Charles Wood, the Bishop of
Landau, sad the Marquis al Breadolbane.

Mow Albert rode on horseback with the Prince
of WAN youborday =webs', 'Undid by Copal& De Plat.

Me Priori Aiwa and tie Priootos iodore of Hobos-
lobo Loagoakerg took equestrian exorcise is tie kldia
SelsooL

ma Duchess at Lard sad the Duke of Cambridge, the
Prisons at HiYalok. leagesbarg, Lady An.. Maria
Dam, Lady Cremona, Hr °Gorge Coupe, and the
Equerry is Waiting to the Doke of Catabridp, diesel with
her Ifejesty yester day mrseing.
•

no bond C 4 the diddelmai Guards irtee In stiondance
during Maw.
TM Qnson's plumb band dierwinia attended In Durk-
Pawn.

Dawn!his bon tin Gomm al Canada and IL
wen teselved paarday at tie Caloadsl-oane.

Viscomoraso PAuturrox.—Wo on gratified to
lama that the men eirealstall by • !nobly ecetssipooszy

that Lady Pah;teetro le laboort4 gado ladispoeltke; Is la-
correct. The caged Lord and Lady Palmerston had is
Vidor Tommy, way kir two days, after the aeblepreader's
sisottasesdag via Is Tivoli., via to pay a visit to the
Right Ha L. Sasso sad body, the ramifies at Lord
Pehaenters, who bare beta ratehot et t►at Ilswearies water-
log pleas drib the wither.

Their Pavia Rieman. the Dachas of Cambridge
sad the Mims Mazy wiU remala at Cambridge Cottage,
Kew, mall the Int week Is the temalag ma* when they
, will ammo to St. Jimmie Palace for the alaaon.

The Hereditary Greed Duke and Grand %rhea
of Maddeabersit ehditr, sad their yoothfal sou, are ex-
pasted le entre la this tawdry I. the mares of ant month,
ea a Welt to the Dachas* of Cembridge. The Hereditary
Onad Hake and Grand Dubow will stay shoat two mouths
to Leedom.

The Duke and Duchess of Bedford are at present
ces a A& with Use Due of Leiser, el Carton Howe, new
' -

ml Dueller (Dowager) of Beaufort and the
Lean likaweeet hare wriwed In town for the mason from
visiting thi Dyke lad Mame of Boanfort at Badminton,
and the Bert end Coasters of Wilton at Egerton Lodge, Wl-
ton Monkey.

The Ma;quis and Marchioness of Londonderry,
Lard end Lad? Hwy Vane, Sir Cherie' Melville, and other
&adorable company, ere among the company at Feast
sokrarsdng se the Royal Victoria Hotel, St. Lernards-on-See.
__. _ _

-The is. mai. and Marchioness—of Exeter are enter-
talegag a whet drub at Burghley Haw, Beaunfeed.

Frame' Anne Marehijoes; of Londonderry is ex-
ported to Mara to-day tram Wystard Park, Miriam.

Tits Countess of Jersey sad Lady Clementine VU.
Bare Mlt tows yesterday, to asks a aerial el visite in the
gserlatss darts. the holidays.

- .
We (Morning Post) regret exceedingly to have
Ores *Welty to ma aaaolasseestat which reached um ye.-
today, ea spasteatly load authority, to the Alai that the
Seel et Beimore wee about to *WM a mataitematal &Masse
with a dasilder of Lead &ftervilla Than Is ao loaadatioa
fix the report.

Vareaunt and ramountau Caxabermere are ex-
ported la tows cat Saturday asst, tram Coalmen Abbey,
Chubb*.

Lady Stanley of Alderley, the Rom. Mils Stan-
ley, and the Hon. Captain Stanley propose to return from
Madeira at the fad client month. The Hom. Capt. Stanley's
health Ye improved.

Lord sad Lady Willoughby d'Eresby are re-
adying • seceisdaa of visitors daring ths holidays, at
Oriostiosspa, that lest la Liscolaaldre.

Lord sad Lady Forerun= hays left town for
Damembe Part, Tortabire.

Lord and Lady Robert Grosvenor and family
have some to Moore Park 'MB the meeting or parliament
Sir Benjamin Hall has arrived in town from his
met in W.N.

Sir John Lister and Lady Lister Kaye and family
he,. imbed la Partlead-plees, fix the eemon, tram their
mat, Dolby Grew, Ti,..orksh
We are sorry to learn that General Sir James
Maodosil, 0.C.8., k Wigan!.