The Sun.
London, England, 1852-06-28 00:00:00

JUNE 28, 1852.

ciple, or any commercial system, to secure in all depart-
ment:, a uniform prosperity, 'or lawn will not make a
centinuel at:lands:lee; they eennos control the wines or
regulate the stason.S; they cannot even mederate poli-
tical paaoesee or so much 05 -govern the fluctuations of
fashion. There must ever be exceptions in a sta' extent
such as that before us. The beat thing we can hope for
i a st- ady and general improvement, spread over a
considerable period of time; and that we have now, on
the evidence of the tables before us; for, though there is
a trifling decrease in the aggregate of exports this year
as compared with the last, it may be accounted for by
inevitable and happily passing circumstances.
HERALD.— It is with much satisfaction (we write
without the authorised version of the last two days'
bebates) we observe that the acts of the Prince President
of. the French Republic tend, by their enlightened
equity, to falsify the interpretations which the pretended
spokesmen of his sentiments would, in their affectation of
a confidence never accorded, attempt to put upon them.
A Monsieur Delamarre, banker, member of the Corps
Legislatif, and editor of the Pattie, would seem to be
vice Cassagnac dismissed, only to run the same career
of impudent assumption, encountered by contradic-
tion and rebuke. A few days ego this gentleman,
in one of his ambitious of taking the place of organ
of the Elysee, disparaging attacks on the Legis-
lative Body, of which he happens to be a member,
so contrived to explain away the privileges conferred
by the constitution, as to leave it nothing beyond a
sort of permission to offer shadowy sugges-
tions of little weight and no real power to the Council of
State, which, should the latter warrant, might be dis-
cussed, but which, should it reject, could only be main-
tained by incurring the crime of treason. Hardly had this
great constitutional authority issued his commen-
taries on the fundamental law, when Louis Napoleon
offered a striking homage to the independent rights of
the Legislative Body by withdrawing, through his Mi-
nister of State, the bills which had been presented for
creating new taxes, on the implicit ground of assent to
the reasonable objections that had reached his ears of
the insufficiency of time for their proper discussion. In
a similar spirit of respect for the constituted authorities
the Prince President has, according to consistent ru-
mours, which were hailed with as much satisfaction in
Paris as they would be here or amongst any community
of justice-loving people, yielded to the objections raised
in the Council of State to the decrees affecting the Or-
leans property, objections only rendered the more palpa-
ble by the late decision, secured by one casting vote. We
find ourselves thus confirmed in the assured belief we
have never ceased to entertain, that, however restricted
might be :the character of the institutions created by
virtue of the authority lodged in the hands of Louis Na-
poleon by the country at large, he would give them full
and fair play. It would have been something worse
than error to have presumed the contrary. The oath of
obedience to such institutions required of all parsons in
official connexion with the State implies of itself respect
by their framer, who himself imposes the obligation. It
is only the shallow and unprincipled parasite who, in
the obtuseness of his conscience and glimmering cunning
of a clouded intellect, would offer the stupid insult of
interpreting conduct in the sense of a desire to nullify
or vitiate a constitution not yet three months in practi-
cal operation. The two great touchstones of the strength
and independence of both the main powers of the State
have turned out to be the question of general expendi-
ture and that of the Orleans property decrees. And it
speaks well for the spirit and wisdom of the Legislative
Body and the Council of State, that neither have failed
in a conscientious understanding of their duties. That
which might have been expected, and which ought to
have been desired to take place, is exactly just what
has happened. No one could have believed it to be good
that collision between one part and another of the
State machine, or the formation of an opposition, should
have arisen before time bad been afforded for a general
understanding of the working of institutions offered as
the best that could be bestowed on a country, rescued,
almost by miracle, from a fearful anarchy. To prevent
something like jealous repugnance between the Legisla-
tive Body and the Council of State required at the very
outset all the tact and firmness of the President himself:
Even now the latter body would fain absorb, in its own
hands, the rights which give to the legislative its dis-
tinctive character and name. It is probably owing
to the determination felt by the Legislative Body to
maintain the rights which properly belong to the repre-
sentatives of the people, that the rumours of a rising op-
position to the Government of the Prince President, of
which we have heard so much of late, have gained cir-
culation. The President has, therefore, acted wisely in
the distinct recognition of the rights of the Legislature,
which he has just conveyed through the letter of his
minister of State, adjourning the consideration of the
lately-proposed taxes to next year. In the meantime
we find the Government beat upon stimulation those
great railway undertakings which in France amount to
sheer and positive necessity. So large a number of con-
cessions had been made during the time the Prince had
exorcised unlimited authority, that in obedience to ex-
pressions of apprehension lest the market should be
overloaded with a particular kind of stock, two impor-
tant works, the Paris and Cherbourg and Bordeaux to
Cette lines, were postponed. The immense abundance
of capital which at this moment is seeking
profitable employment, would seem to have
proved too alluring a temptation for the Govern-
ment to resist, and as the revenue returns maintain
considerable comparative advantages over the last and
preceding years, the Government has felt itself justified
in making another year's experiment. Should the re-
venue coetinuis to be improved through the comfort and
diffusion of means produced by widely developed em-
ployment, and should the no less important consequences
of consolidated government and deepening contentment
enable reductions to be made in the military expendi-
ture, that permanent drain of the resources of the
country, it may be that so far from fresh taxes having
to be proposed we may have to see reductions made in
those which exist. The rigid principles asserted by
Louis Napoleon on the score of authority, and his adop.
t ion of the system of public companies as applied to rail-
way undertakings, are commented upon by the Paris
&Eck as involving inconsistency and contradiction. The
journal in question, true to the doctrines of the Repub-
lican school, of which it is, we believe, the sole remain-
ing organ,-is an advocate for monopoly, by the State, of
all railway lines. How a man, who would give such
preponderance to government authority, could yet sur-
render the great highways of communication to capi-
talists, confounds the comprehension of the Republican
paper. But hoW it is that Republicans, such sticklers
for the free action of men in all their relations of life,
whether political, moral or commercial, should yet be the
enemies of social combinatioa for carrying out grand
industrial undertakings, involves a more puzzling incons
sistency. Our Paris contemporary is so great a friend
to State monopoly, that even his opinion, that the exer-
cise of commercial rights by men who meet to debate
about their material interests must cut into political re-
strictions, which cannot live in the neighbourhood of
actively-exercised citizsnship, does not atone for the
sacrifice he deplores. Perhaps, after all, Louis Napo-
leon would not be sorry to see the bulwarks of authority
carried by the legitimate influence o_f citizens educated
to ability to share in the making of laws, through prac-
tical acquaintance with the necessities of business. Past
dangers have had their origin chiefly in an indulgence
of wild and impracticable theories, the folly of which
had not been proved through collision with the solid ,
facts of well-consolidated business systems. Our sur-
mise is strengthened by the preamble of the Constitu-
tion itself, which, in adopting the maxim that constitu-
tions are not made but grow, does treat the institutions
bestowed as an elastic framework for adaptation to future
times and better circumstances.

SEABORNE MAILS;.
[X signifies that the mails are sent from the General Post-office
by the night—and hi by the morning--dispatch,]

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General Poet-office r port die-
London: patched.

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LAW AMENDMENT SOCIETY.
Oa Sa.urclay the noteety or promoting the amend-
meat of the leev heel acs dinner at the Crown
awl Scepete Tavern, Gfeetiwich. The chair was filled by
Lord Baououttest. who, in proposiog as si toast, "Suc-
cess to the Society," sa-d that wes to express a wish for
what the society already possessed. They would, the:a-
fore, understand by the toast, further and continued suc-
cess! Their success had been very great, especially
during the last twelve months, in which time more consi-
derable progress had been made in the amendment of
the law than during any twelve times twelve months in
his recollection, When they met together a year ago,
even those measures which appeared nearest to success
they were not confident of obtaining; and even in that
great improvement, the new Evidence Bill, though they
had every reason to hope that it would pass, many ob-
stacles stood in the way. Then came the opining of
Parliament, under auspices equally encouraging, for the
speech from the throne announced that important im-
provements in equity and law had been considered,
and reports of commissions had been received,
and that on them measures had been pre-
pared and were abut to be presented for the conside ra-
tion aced adoption of Parliament. He hardly ever re-
membered a speech from the throne in which the
amendment of the law occupied so large a space as on
that occasion. He remembered a speech from the throne
at the end of the session of 1831, in which the subject
was referred to, but that ought to he ascribed to the dis
appointment arising from the rejection of the Reform
Bill, and he though. it likely that the Ministry on that
occasion considered it advisable to dwell on the only
success which they had achieved. In that speech, if he
recollected, law amendm-nt was spoken of as carried on
"so as tot ring justice home to every man's door. 'rent
alluded to the L Courts Act, which was postponed
to 1833, when it was defeated by a narrow majority.
This year not only had the question of law amendment
been made a prominent feature of the Royal speech, but
the most important measures had been introduced and
Were happily about to be carried, that had been passed
within his recollection. These measures had been. pro-
posed by the late Government most honestly and fairly,
and he now said so the more willingly, because at first
a difference had existed as to the mode of procedure in
the House of Lords and Commons, but all these differ-
ences had ceased, and the most important fundamental
changes in the Court of Chancery were resolved to be
proceeded with, and to be passed into law with the
least possibly delay. Politics were excluded by the
rules of the society, and he would there-
fore only say, that from some accidental circumstances,
circumstances which no one understood, and least of all
the late Government themselves—(A laugh)—they re-
tired from office. The new Government, however,
adopted their measures completely, and whatever preju-
dices any of them might have had, these were not al-
lowed to interfere, and the plans of their predecessors
were fairly and fully, and honestly carried into execu-
tion. He regarded all this as a great indication of the
progress of the spirit of reform, and of safe, because
well-considered and deliberately-prepared, amendment
of the law. It was almost the only ground on which
contending parties equally appealed to the country. It
was true that in profession a Protectionist was almost as
difficult to find as a person against law amendment; but
while as to real intention there were still many Protec-
tionists, there was nobody who in his secret wishes was
not for amending the law, all being fa. it, and nobody
against it.—(Hear, hear.) Such was the change which
had taken place during the nine or ten years for which
the society had been in existence.—(Hear.) Straws
showed how the stream ran, and he noticed that day
that in the Harrow speeches one was a translation of a
speech on law reform, which could not have been se-
lected on account of its eloquence.—(Hear.) Even if
the person who made that speech hatt been gifted with
eloquence, he defied him to exercise it in dealing with
the terms and forms of the law, with pleas, and assump-
sits, and demurrers, with writs, prectice, processes. and
bills. Tne selection of a subject so dry and intractable
showed that it was arresting attention among portions of
the community where it might least be expected to meet
with a response.—(Hear.) What remained then for the
society but to persevere in its efforts? He might draw
their attention, specially, to the subject of local judica-
tures, on which they now had six or seven years' expe-
' rience,—not a long experience certainly, but one on
which ample reliance might bee placed from the wide
surface over which during that period it had been
spread. The great, invaluable, and necessary light of
experience was indispensable to any safe and salutary
reform of the legal system—(Hear)—and having now
had the benefit of that light, let their aim be to correct
existing defects, and do all that could be done to cor-
rect and extend the local judicatures.—( Hear, hear.) In
" bringing justice home to every man's door," they
ought not to depart so far from a due centralization as
to run the risk of injuring the general system of
our jurisprudence or ruining the profession of the
law, and ens of the most important and diffi-
cult inquiries which would be intrusted to that con
mission, which he hoped to see issued on the subj ct
would be to reconcile the due distribution of local judi-
catures with the general interests of our jurisprudence,
and the welfare of that profession with which, as
supplying the judges of the land, Lord Denman in his
letter had well observed, the interests of tne community
at large were bound up.—(Hear, hear.) Between the
interests of the bar and those of the suitors God forbid
that there should be any hesitation, but he believed that
by improving the proceeding of the superior courts, both
suitors and the profession would be great gainers, and no
sacrifice of either to the other would be required.
Whatever improvements, however, might be effected in
this way, he held it to be impossible to dispense with
local courts. The digest of the law was another subject
which he considered to be of great importance, and
some progress had been made with regard to ir. A
comm ssion had 20 years ago reported in favour of such
a change, but he regretted that their recommendati
was not accompanied by a sample. Digests of the
criminal law and of criminal law procedure had since
been prepared, and should have been carried through
Parliament. He hoped, however, to see not only a
digest of the criminal law, including procedure, but a
general digest of all the law, common and statute.
Having touched on several other topics, the Noble and
Learned Lord concluded by proposing continued success
to the society.
Mr. Commissioner PANE, whose health was drunk in
connexion with a toted dedicstcd to the fusion of law
and equity, said that he presided in a court " of law and
equity," so that the union wes already recognised. He
had found often that while the inferior judge, the com-
missioner, acted on the principle of this • union as sanc-
tioned by Act of Parliament, the superior judges de-
clined to do so. The commissioner proceeded to deed
with a question of law to the best of his ability, and
when he had struggled with and disposed of it the Court
above said, " We don't understand the law; let en action
be brought." The inconvenience resulting was exhibited
in enormous bills of costs, and this tossing (or " bandy-
ing" as Bentham called it) of the suitor from court to
court, gave rise not only to that but to many other
evils. The great object to be accomplished was, that the
courts of law should undertake as re:meet of the duties of
the equity courts as were not inconsistent with then'
own duties. If their Noble President assisted the
society in its efforts he had no doubt they would succeed
in effecting this great improvement in their jurispru-
dence.
Mr. J. STEWART, whose name was coupled with the
toast of " the Free Transfer of Land," in acknowledging
the toast, said that question bad received a very cons,-
derable accession of strength from the labours of the pre-
sent Parliament. The Act for the Enfranchisement of
Copy holds was a very important measure, and might
now be regarded as settled by the deliberations of the
committee of the House of Lords on principles which se-
cured a complete and satisfactory adjustment of the
whole question. Those principles were applicable to
freeholds as well, for they had all been striving to obtain
a shorter form of conveyancing. While a sixty years'
title to land was requisite, the number of purchasers
must be comparatively small; and if the title was
shortened the number of purchasers must be propor-
tionally increased. The Copyhold Enfranchisement
Bill had. shown that this could be done. While the
purchase of land was surrounded by such enormous
expenses as was at present the case, the value of the
land must suffer proportionally; and on this point
he complimented the Lord Chancellor for having
inserted a clause to tax and moderate the charges
connected with copyhold enfranchisements. A si-
milar provision ought to he made with reference to
the transfer of freehold property. Consols were now at
33 years' purchase, while land in the most favoured si-
tuations was only at 30 years' purchase.—(Hear, hear.)
Now, be would venture to ask if the transfer of land
was placed on a proper footing, it would raise its value
to 40 years' purchase 10 years hence. Why should
land across the Channel be at 40 years' purchase when
in this favoured country it stood at 30, and, though a
better and safer investment, was under the price of
Consols?—(Hear, hear.) The improvements which he
advocated would not only increase the value of his pro-
perty to the owner, but benefit all classes connected
with the soil, down even to the agricultural labourer.
Mr. R. LOWE, who responded to the toast of " Co-
dification," with which his name was connected, said
that the subject was one which in a few years was des-
tined to occupy a prominent place in the attention of
the people and the discussions of the Lsgislature. The
State had hitherto confined itself to the grievances of
the suitor, but he would not be satisfied until the pro-
blem how best to ascertain facts and discuss p eats of
law had been solved, until that solution was applied to all
facts and law alike—and until the investigation of truth
was at all times conducted in the best possible way. He ap-
prehended that the means of investigation should be the
best that the human intellect could devise, and that they
should not be of one kind in one court and of another
kind in another. He was far from thinking that all bad
been done which could be done in this direction. Agre"
step had been taken in laying the foundations of reform
in the Court of Chancery, but the vstem of TrePxgerise
evi-
dence provided was likely to be attended
and delay.—(Hear, hear.) The doctrinem
had attained such public favour, that, oawf„ a:erre formdi dig-
had
and such was the case with. the Billrevued it to be a men_
sure to snatch at any measure thatoilsertead
caohmemPeoneflaitsy;
thought the time hatdo
procedure —(Hear, hear.)
causel of law reform,
sure calculated to
and which would have to aside as Opposed
sound principtet_(elear.
)barlc in codification, and when
come when they should embark
la
embarrasbeHate
eshebete
. have an impor-
tant to
tent effect upon procedure. Al were not
the substantive
_sevnwouid
accuse med
to consider tha-t• lawwasth t science, that LW terms ed.
mitted of definition, and sesetveyances were capable
of being reduced to sbor,, forms. At present it was im-
pose].-b •what remedy a man heti f. - breech of con-
tract until his mind wnat court he was
to proceed. v
law was studied us a substantive
el ° tell
lte
_ made up :
science &11C.11 'lbsurcattes would appear in their real light,
and the mind would be convinced of the necessity that
all law should be administered in the same tribunals—
that a man should not be obliged to go to a common law
court to prove his injuries there, then to a court of

ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and then to the [rouse of
hear,) Mr. Lowe concluded by grace-
fully cempliawaiing Lord Lircugham, on the gre,:t speech
on ltw reform, to which he hadalluded, arid on hip la-
bours in the cause of which he was one of the earliest
teachers. Ile rxpressed only thv: wishes of the society
and of the public at large when he Li.,ped that the
Noble Loid migst live to see the great work brought to
a happy conclusion of which he had raised the t °ands-
tions and built the works.
The " Law Reformers of the City" was proposed as
a toast, and duly responded to by Mr. W. Hawes, who,
in reply, made some excellent observations upon the
present working of the County Courts.
Several other toasts were proposed, the majority of
them professional, before the party broko up.