The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-07-07 00:00:00

LAWS OF ENGLAND.

- --
Having pledged ourselves in a former number, to give
some idea of the mode by which, according to our view of
the subject, a simplified code of laws may be obtained for
this country, we now resume our observations.
It is certainly more easy to discover imperfections than
to find out and apply a remedy for them ; and when we
pros we to frame our laws into a code, two difficult ques-
tions suggest themselves. lit, How this may be done ?
and Odly, Who is to do it ?
. It would require a long and tedious dissertation, which,
perhaps, would neither be read nor understood by general
readers, to explain minutely how our laws may be re-
duced into a systematic form. We will content ourselves,
for the information of such persons, with merely stating
the outline of a plan ; by no means asserting it is the best
and most feasible, but producing it for the purpose of
shewing that it is easy to invent one.
Any person, who has ever examined a treatise upon any
particular branch of law, must have discovered that the
greatest part of the book is filled with statements of contra-
tlictssry statutes, conflicting decisions, and nice distinctions,
from all which the writer deduces certain principles of law.
If these principles were made law by the Legislature, and
arranged systematically, that which must now be sought
after with so much labour, through numberless vo-
lumes of reported cases (fur treatises are not authori-
ties), would be known without difficulty, by reference to
the Code which should thus have been formed.—
The essence of the Statutes and decisions would therein
be arranged, under various subdivisions of certain sorts, or
classes of law, and M ing put into proper and concise forms,
would receive the sanction of the Legislature, and become
the settled written law of the country. Now, lawyers, for
their own convenience, have lung been in the habit of '
snaking certain heads or divisions of law. Let us suppose
the laws to be classed smiler the general heads of criminal
and civil. The subdivision of the class of criminal laws
will be according to the nature of offences, and the punish-
ments by which they arc visited. The civil may be sub-
divided into laws affecting fixed and moveable property,
and such as affect personal rights.
It will be found expedient to class by themselves those
that relate to commerce; and the same must be done with
parochial, including poor laws. Ecclesiastical law must
in this country be classed separately. The Constitutional
Laws it will perhaps be judicious not to meddle with,
until some skill has been acqvired in the classification and
formation of a Code.
It will he the business's of the persons to be employed in
this work to extract from the statutes, and from the deci-
sijns
of the different Courts, their best and plainest mean-
ing, and set that down in clear and concise language, in '
such natural order as the subject may suggest, under the
subdivisions of the general heads, or classes, above alluded
tu, and such others as may appear to be necessary. This
will give the actual state of the law. Where that shall
appear to be productive of injustice, alterations may be
made, as we will suggest presently. But it is an uncertain
law which is the greatest injustice.
We shall proceed to the second question, viz. to what
persons must the performance of this work be entrusted?
The majority of them must be Lawyers. It will be
necessary to employ one or two Civilians as well as Barris-
ters; and for the Commercial Code, laymen may be added,
who have great knowledge and experience in mercantile
concerns. They should be men still in the full possession
of their mental vigour. They may be induced to abandon
their practice by high salaries, and pensions to be secured
to them for life. A Judge might be chosen whose health,
though unequal to the labours of the Bench, would still be
sufficient for the exertion necessary in framing a Code.
These Commissioners should be under the superintend-
ence of Committees of the Houses of Lords and Commons, to
whom they should state the result of their investigations,
and be by them directed to give it the form of enactment.
Certain portions of the Code, complete in themselves, should
be successively subinittoti to the two branches of the Legis-
lature, and receive the sanction of the Crown.
No alteration should be proposed in the existing law,
without notice having been given to that House in which
the proposition is to be tnade; but the Committees should
have the power, without notice, of ordering the consoli-
dation of all the Statutes upon the same subject, in a way
similar to that which has been adopted respecting certain
parts of the Revenue Laws, those concerning Juries, and
in Yr. Boats Atilt, brought Us lain Session, to settle the law
upon the crime of' theft.
It may be thought that a long period of time must
elapse before any material part of the Code could be framed.
But it is conceived that when persons skilled in law shall
come to the examination, even of unsettled points, with
min Is free from prejudice, and when no ingenuity is to be
exercised in order to support the weak side of a question,
much time will not be required to come to a decision. In
the Courts of Judicature the case is very different. The
business of a lawyer is not unfrequently to invent argu-
ments contrary to the conviction of his own mind. These
arguments must be answered, not only by the advocate op-
posed to him, but also by the Judge ; and hence often
mists the delay experienced in obtaining judicial decisions..
It is hardly necessary to observe that no such obstacles will
impede the progress of the persons whom we propose to
employ. If difficulties should occur upon which the Com-
missioners cannot make up their minds, they must be re-
ferred by the Committees to the great law authorities.
The Conimithioners must pursue their labours during the
greatest part of the year, whether Parliament be assembled
or not.

The expense of keeping such a set of (7ommissioners at
wo.k is, no doubt, a matter worthy of consideration. It
does not, however, seem likely that it would be of such
magnitude u to prevent the com?letion of so important an
undertaking. Supposing biz or seven persons to be em-
ployed, with 'salaries of 5,000/. per annum each, 3.imoot.
would be the amount ; then if .5,1100/. a-year be added for in-
cidental expenses, the whole would amount to 40,0001.
Shatilii their labours continue ten years, they will have cost
the country, at the close of them, from four to five hundred
thousand pounds, snaking ample allowance for unforeseen
expenses. flow many half millions have been thrown
away in the course of every ten years, for the last century,
upon objects of comparatively trifling importance!

We have endeavoured to shew the possibility of framing
a Code of Laws for this country, in which conciseness, pre-
cision, and systematic arrangement, might take the place of
the diffusiveness, obscurity, and disorder, of our present
legal chaos. We have proved that neither the time which the
wotk is likely to occupy, nor the money it would cost, are
worthy of being put into the balance, to be weighed against
the advantages it trust produce. It remains for us to con-
sider whether as great, or at least sufficient, amelioration,
may be effected by the ordinary mode of legislation.

It would carry us far beyond the limits we have pre-
scribed for ourselves, should we attempt to enumerate the
instances in which that mode of legislation has failed. It
would be absurd to undertake to produce a complete ma-
chine, by making a wheel to-day and a spring to-mor-
row, without leaving contemplated the whole together,
and termed a proper scale of proportion. So, in the amend-
ment of our laws, unless a general plan of improvement
be adopted, no real advantage can be obtained; for that
which shall be received separately, and perhaps made per-
fect in itself, will be found to work so ill with the rest, that
it must altogether be abandoned ; and, according to our
Present anode of proceeding, centuries must roll by before
any sensible effect will be produced. The insulated efforts
of one or two individuals, however talented and zealous
they may be, will do very little in the course of a session
of Parliament. Besides, their piece-meal amendments will
be so cavilled at, and so misinterpreted, that they must
have more than mortal energy of mind to enable them to
persevere. But when, influenced by a liberal and enlight-
ened Administration, in whose discretion the majority of
the people seem willing to confide, the Legislature shall
authorize a body of well-selected persons to undertake a
general revision of our laws, we may then expect the work
to proeeed with that regularity and despatch, which gene-
rdly insure success to every thing that Englishmen seri-
ously and honestly undertake.

Oar fish-market has been plentifully supplied this week
by the arrival of from six to s,:vcnhnndred tine freslsalmon
ice, from the Colerain Company. The prices have
consequently fallen in the market.—Glusgow Courier of
lueedoq.