The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

TIMES.—The resolution which was carried yester-
day by a large majority at a crowded meeting of the
Bar embodies a statement which has long been recog-
nised as a truism by the profession and the public.
To say of a system which leaves one branch of our
law to be shaped by irresponsible reporters, and
provides no authentic register of decisions affecting
the rights of every British subject, that it "requires
amendment" is to affirm what is self-evident.
Many may think that too much weight is attached
to precedents, and that it would be far better if our
tribunals were no longer absolutely bound by them.
There are but few principles of the Common Law
that have not found their way into statutes, and if
an authoritative digest of these were compiled,
modern Judges might still be guided, without being
fettered, by the opinions of their predecessors. This,
however, is not the present question. The question
is whether, assuming that the series of cases mis-
called "unwritten law" is to remain uncodified and
undigested, some adequate security should not to be
taken for their being reported properly. Hitherto no
such security has been found, or even sought in
earnest, since the Year-books were discontinued in
the reign of Henry VIII. A partial and futile effort
of Lord Bacon to procure an official record of case-
law, and constant expressions of vain regret from
our great lawyers, beginning with Coke, are the
only traces of a disposition to confer this great boon
on the nation. We are told that ignorance of the law
is no excuse for any Englishman, and yet it is a
fact, not only that we may be crushed with obscure
precedents gleaned up and down many hundred
volumes, but that the most recent have to be verified
by a comparison of several different versions. For a
proof of the inconvenience and injury to the inte-
rests of justice that may arise from discrepancies in
reporting, we need not go further back than the case
of the "Alexandra," although it was the published
notes of the shorthand writer that were there
impugned. The disputes that may occur now and
then on the motion for a new trial, for want of cer •
tainty as to the language employed by the Judge,
are, however, trifling compared with the permanent
evil of having no reports of conclusive authority.
It is somewhat hard that the mischief of an evil
precedent, once established, can be annulled by the
Legislature alone, but it is monstrous that so fatal
a power should belong to a precedent which may
have been incorrectly reported after all. This is
the main abuse with which Mr. Daniel calls upon
the legal profession to deal. He traces the history,
of judge-made law from the earliest times, show-
ing how the Year-books were succeeded by a period
of "loose" reporting„loose reporting by a close
licensing system, the licensing system by a privi-
leged monopoly, and monopoly by open competition
between " regular" Reporters, legal serials, and
newspapers. The only value of this historical
skstch is to show that we have tried every way,
except the best one, and have failed to obtain what
we have a right to insist upon. At this moment
we have six sets of reports competing with each
other, none of which can be quoted as a final stan-
dard of,reference, and all of which can be quoted as
evidence on the point decided. Mr. Denman argues
that this multiplicity of reports is the best gua-
rantee for accuracy, and the best corrective for the
tendency of judges to qualify what they have them-
selves laid down. But surely these two objects
would be more directly attained if one transcript
of the judgment were deliberately made by re-
sponsible persons from their own notes, checked as
they would still be by the trustworthy, though un-
authorised, testimony of private reporters. Mem-
bers of the bar and the public generally would then
know where to find the doctrines upon which the
fate of future lawsuits may depend. As it is, the
omission of a material element in the case, or the
confusion of an obiter thcturn with the ratio dem
dendi, may entirely vitiate the value of a precedent
as preserved in a particular report, which may
have been prepared in the utmost haste for a weekly
or monthly periodical. The only remedy for this is
the collation of it with other reports of the same
fugitive kind, and with those which come out—
sometimes years afterwards —with a certain cordial
prestige and under the names of their authors,
though not always with any paramount claim to
respect. Granting that the exact significance of the
decision can be elicited in this way, the process is
enormously dilatory and expensive. It is dilatory,
because the reporters, out of a natural anxiety to
omit nothing which others insert, crowd their pages
with cases which prove nothing, and details which
do not elucidate the cases. It is expensive, because it
involves taking in or getting access to six publications
instead of one, the price of this last being enhanced
by the very diminution of its circulation owing to
the opposition of its rivals. When we add that even
the reports which are called " regular " are
under no uniform system of management, are com-
piled on different principles, are issued at uncertain
intervals, and possess no judicial sanction, although
they are often corrected by the Judges, we have said
enough to recommend Mr. Daniel's resolution to the
common sense of onr readers. The next question,
and indeed the only one that admits of serious con-
troversy, is, what is to be done ? We might evade
this, as the meeting evaded it, by throwing it upon
the committee of eminent lawyers just appointed.
Perhaps, however;.the problem is one which would
appear more formidable to a professional than to an
ordinary mind. In the first place, there is really
no reason why the appointment of an official, or,
as we should prefer to call him, a responsible,
reporter for each Court should exclude the class
whose interests are supposed to be adverse to
change. It would be the duty of this gentle-
man, out of whatever fund he might be paid,
to select and reduce to a succinct form those cases,
and those only, which involve important matters of
law. This would take some little time; and mean-
while the curiosity of the public and the profession
would create a demand for ampler and fresher ac-
counts of legal proceedings. In the great majority
of the cases contemplated written judgments are
even now pronounced, and the responsible reporter
would have nothing to do but to embody them, as
is now done. The chief difference would be that he
would be bound to produce the results of his labours
with much greater despatch than at present, and
that the judges would revise their own words
while they were still fresh in their memories. No
doubt it would be an essential feature of this system
that no other report could be cited as conclusive ;
bat the Bench might still be enlightened by cases
borrowed from nonofficial sources, as they now
are by the extempore illustrations which counsel
frequently offer from their own experience. Some-
thing like this practice has been adopted in Parlia-
ment, and there are no apparent objections to its
application in Courts of Law. It would not in-
volve of necessity the principle that the Judge
should be virtually his own Reporter where the
judgment is oral, for the reporting body might be
made independent of the Judicature. These are
essentially difficulties of detail, and such as the
leaders of the legal profession, in concert with the
Bench, might easily overcome. What the public
and the working members of the Bar may fairly
expect is an accessible and sufficient record, at a
reasonable cost and within a reasonable time, of the
law which the Judges are always making, though
by a legal fiction they are said to declare it, and
which thenceforth becomes binding upon all. Whe•
ther this record should be prepared under State
sanction or under judicial sanction, and how far
private enterprise should be encouraged at the same
time, it is for the committee to consider.

HERALD.—It is with much regret that we find
our predictions as to the small amount of good which
the Government labour scheme would effect for the
Lancashire operatives are in course of being verified.
The Public Works Bill was passed with the express
object of giving speedy aid to the unfortunate
sufferers. The public were told at the time that
there was no cure for the evil, and all that could be
done was to afford temporary relief. The measure,
accordingly became law ; but the summer has passed
away, the autumn has gone, the winter
. has arrived,
.
and now we are informed that not until next. spring
will the act come into operation with anything like
fulness ! Can any more complete. failure
. be con-
ceived ? On the one hand, there is an idle popula-
tion existing from hand to mouth as paupers or the
elapse
recipients of charity; on the other, there is a
Ministry asking
Parliament to sanction a plan
which would afford immediate relief to the sufferers-,
and although the representatives of the country at
once gave their hearty support to the scheme, we
now find that a period of nine months must
before it is able to effect the promised good. While
e
the bill was before Parliament w d
cinterference
wi in t
thhe aat ff i i
theirs ion ft 143 deprecated State
re, unlesli :'
in the organisation of a s erference vv^~' -
more fitted to meet #l,_ Mem --
than any —' •
'

,uid result
- ALiore complete and
—4O requirements of the case,
gulch could be devised by the benevolent
uesigns of individuals or the combined action of
relief committees. We also took exception to the
statement that the public improvements carried out
tinder the proyimicwo the act would mot the

operatives in getting over the hardships of winter,
believing that if they were unfitted for emigration
they were equally unfitted for out-of-door labour
in cold weather. This opinion has also been
confirmed. Mr. Farne..l Laving on Monday
last stated that even in the towns where public
works have been commenced not a single able-
bodied man will be found at work upon them
should it turn out, as is generally anticipated,
hard winter. Looked. at, then, in all its bearings,
the Government labour scheme, up to the present
time, has been useless. During the passage of the
bill throughout Parliament the calculations of the
Home Secretary that it would yield employment to
between 70,000 and 80,000 meu, were cut down by
Mr. Farnall to 30,000. Now it is shown that if
the winter prove severe it will do no good whatever
until the spring, and finally, though both Lords
and Commons hurried on the bill, so that no time
should be lost, redtepeism has stepped in, and has
erected so many barriers that vexatious delays vir-
tually nullify the little benefit it was calculated
would be derived from the measure, The local au-
thorities of the various towns have eagerly applied
for loans, and are ready to commence operations;
and at Ashton works are already in progress,
having been undertaken on the faith of Government
promises, but the money is not forthcoming. There
is on the part of officials a more than common dile:
toriness, and it appears that such a multiplicity et
mortgages has to be given—a separate deed being
required for each instalment of loan—that the feel-
ing is gaining ground in Lancashire that it is ne"
cessary to think twice before adopting the act.
Indeed, Mr. Hugh Mason states that in Ashton the
corporation had always borrowed money at 4 per
cent., but on account of the delay in receiving in;
stalments of the loan applied for they are obliged
to obtain money to carry out the works undertaken,
for which bankers charge at the rate of 5 per cent.;
so that by placing themselves under the Public
Works Act the authorities are decided losers. Net
for a moment do we advocate the affairs of the
country being managed upon the slap-dash prin.
ciple which ultra-Radicals consider so admirable;
but in the case of relieving the burdens of the Lan-
cashire operatives forms might have been simple'
fled, and the needless circumlocution of dividing
the business between the Poor-law Board and the
loan commissioners done away with. Had the
latter been empowered to hand over the sumo
required to the former much unnecessary delaf
would have been avoided. Fortunately the
Central Committee at Manchester exists, and
at the last meeting the grievance wee
ventilated and the wise suggestion of Lord Derbf
adopted—namely, that the circumstances of the csee
should be at once brought to the notice of the Home
Secretary. But even though this be done, and
henceforward less delay occur, it will not alter the
opinion of the public as to the failure of the Govern'
merit plan to ameliorate the condition of the cotton
hands. The report of Mr. Farnall for the week
ending the 21st ult. shows an increase of pauperism
amounting in the twenty-seven unions to 861
persons. The total number now is 129,444, or 6.;
per cent. of the population, against 259,385, or 13.;
per cent., in the corresponding week of 1862, and
53,206, or 3.7, at the same period in 1361. nu?:►
then, there is a diminution upon the year of 129,93;
persons, but an increase upon 1861 of 76,238, and
if to these be added the number supported by relio,
committees it wilt be seen how very far Lancashire,
is from its normal condition. In fact, the reper'
from Manchester is gloomy in the extreme, but as
we have never been of those who believed the crisis
would pass away with the winter, the condition 0.,
the operatives is not worse than we anticipated
would be. In several districts factories are being
altogether closed ; in others, in consequence of the,
present state of the cotton market, the days °'
labour have been curtailed ; so that even with the
calculated supply of the staple next year we shall,
we fear, find Lancashire still unable to employ all
the mill hands. We have no wish to see cotton
manufactures wiped out from the list of British
articles of home production, but we must say We
should gladly find the monopoly of the trade broken
up. There is now no real advantage gained in con-
centrating it in one district, while its distribution
over several parts of England would carry wealth to
other counties, and effectually prevent the recur-
rence of a disaster like that under whioh Lancashire,
with all its energy, now lies prostrate.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

-(1

LYNN-T UES DAY.

At to-day's market there was'a fair Supply of wheat'
with a steady sale, and for fine samples the prices of loft
week advanced is per quarter; other sorts as before.
Malting barley fully supported late rates ; grinding rather
cheaper. Oats and Leans were fully dearer.

White 45s to 46s I Barley 37s to 395
RQd .. ..408 to 41s I Grinding ..33s to 34s
Beans .43s to 44s I Oats .22s to 26s
New 388 to 40s I Peas —s to