The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-29 00:00:00

Law Reporting,

Yest erday afternoon a meeting of members of the bar
convened by the Attorney-General, was held in the Dining•
hall of Lincoln's-inn, to take into consideration the scheme
of reporting recommended by the committee appointed on
Dec. 2, 1863. The meeting was numerously attended.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL, on taking the chair, said he
would state in a few words why the meeting had been con-
vened. On Dec. 2 last year a meeting of the bar was called
upon a requisition sent to him, and at that meeting a com-
mittee was appointed, to consider whether any plan could
be proposed for the amendment of the present system of
editing, and preparing, and publishing law reports. The
committee which was appointed consisted of gentlemen
eminent in their profession, both as Queen's counsel and
behind the bar, and they reported on June 14. Their report
and recommendations had been widely circulated, and it had
been thought proper that the bar should have the opportu-
nity of meeting and considering whether the subject was
ripe for action or not, and accordingly a meeting was held
there on July 2, when Mr Amphlett moved the adoption of
the report, and Mr Best and Mr Miller moved an amend-
meat; and an amendment was eventually carried that the
further consideration of the matter should be postponed till
a day to be fixed in November by the Attorney-General.
He would now call on Mr Daniel to move the first resolu-
tion in the place of Mr Amphlett, who, he was sorry to say,
was absent in consequence of a domestic bereavement.
Mr DANIEL, QC., said he would not go over the old
ground of the evils of the present system. He would neither
enlarge upon them nor on the advantages to be derived
from standard reports, if such could be established, but
he would at once proceed to bring before them the
scheme which the committee had devised as a practical
remedy for a practical grievance. He would look at it in
a commercial point of view, so that they might consider
whether it was likely to be self-supporting. The commit-
tee sought to obtain information as to the circulation of
the authorised reports, as they were called, previous to the
oovamencoment of the pregent system of "compel ition. - They
went back to the time of Barnewell and Cresswell and Meri-
vale, and Jacob and Walker, to the years 1824 and 1825,
the system of competition not beginning till the years 1832
or 1833. They ascertained from various sources that the
regular issue of the Queen's Bench reports in 1824 and 1825
up to the end of Barnewell and Cresswell was 4,000, and
the regular issue of the Chancery reports was 2,000. Well,
then, basing themselves on the 2,000, which was the small-
est amount of circulation existing 40 years ago, the com-
mittee endeavoured to ascertain whether on that small '
circulation a scheme could be devised which, commercially
speaking, would be self-supporting at a subscription of five
guineas per annum, and for that purpose the committee I
endeavoured, through several of its members, to obtain
information from those who were competent to give it. He
placed himself in communication with Messrs Clowes, the
printers, of Duke-street, Stamford-street, and requested
them to furnish him with the cost price of a set of reports,
selecting for the purpose one of the most expensive of the
present authorised reports—Clark's House of Lords Reports
—a part which was charged to the profession at 12s 6d, and
he requested them to give him an estimate of the cost of
'printing, :paper, sale, and distribution of each such part,
excluding from it all publisher's commission and the pro-
prietor's profit. The result was that for an issue of 500 the
cost would be is 10;d—of 1,000, is 4d—of 2,000, is ld—of
3,000, 111 d—of 4,000, 10d—and of 5,000, 101c1 per copy of
that which was now charged to the profession at 12s 6d.
These figures seemed to him so striking that if true he could
not avoid coming to the conclusion that there was a radical
defect in the present system, as regarded consumers. Mr
Hemming, to whom he showed these figures, pointed out
that there was an omission of one item for correcting the
press. That would be small if the cases were carefully
edited, as it was proposed they should be, before being sent
to the printers, but he had added 75 per cent of the cost
of composition, and that would increase the 101 d to 11d.
These figurescoincided with others obtained by Mr Lindley.
with information given them by Mr Longueville Giffard,
and they coincided also with the results of the reports of the
Law Amendment Society published in 1852 and 1853, Fol-
lowing these data, the report proceeded upon the assumption
that the salaries in the aggregate would be £10,700 a-year,
and that the first moiety of the salaries should be guaranteed
out of the consolidated or suitors' fund. Individually he
had no desire such a source should be resorted to; he did
not think it would be necessary, and he did not think it
would be granted if it were asked for, and the committee re-
commend that in case payment of the first moiety of the
salaries should not be obtained out of the consolidated or
suitors' fund, it should be made a term of contract with the
printers or publishers that they should pay it out of the
proceeds of the sale of the reports. This scheme had been
spoken of as unbusinesslike ; but Mr Westlake, whose com-
petency no one would doubt, had gone through the figures,
and was satisfied they were rather over then under esti-
mated. Not satisfied with this, however, he went last Sa-
turday to Mr Clewed' counting-house, and putting this do-
cument into his hand asked him to take it, and appended to
it this question, "Assuming that the reports in each year
would make eight octavo volumes of 800 pages each, in your
opinion, without any capital being guaranteed from any other
quarter, would any printer undertake it ?" and the answer
was—" I would rather not give a hypothetical opinion ; we
are quite willing to undertake it on the above conditions. Do
not let it be supposed we are tendering for such a thing, but
I should bo very much surprised if any printer with a suffi•
cient capital would return you any other answer." It
must not be supposed that there would be 35 per cent. for
publisher's commission, but the actual cost of one set of
standard reports, making up eight volumes per annum,
could be had on a circulation of 2,000 copies, at 5 guineas
per annum, that being the circulation which, before com-
petition began, was the legitimate circulation of chancery
reports. And he thought that when they considered
the immense increase in the members of the pro-
fet•sion, and how the reports of the English courts
iwere g r
erne
tg
parta rd e d
of
tahse
gal uo
ht he
,o rhi
et i es
did inno t t our k
they coloniesw er e and
in a great part of the globe, he did not think they were un-
reasonable in expecting that the standard reports at five
guineas a sot per annum would be self-supporting. He had
assumed that eight volumes a year would be printed. He
believed that in that there was an error, but an error on the
side of excess, because one of the conditions of the system
suggested would be that there should be proper judgment
in the selection of the cases, which would considerably re-
duce the number. In conclusion, he moved that the report
of the committee be adopted.
Mr DICKENSON seconded.

Mr W, M. BEST moved an amendment to the effect that
the words "that the reports shall be prepared by reporters
under the supervision of editors," be omitted. If the editors
were merely to read the reports to correct typographical
errors there could be no objection, except that they were to
receive £6OO a-year for that which a clerk could do. But if
they were to suppress or alter the reports there would arise