The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-10 00:00:00

bation of the profession. The law for the registration
of shippinc, had been likewise consolidated, as bad also
the acts relating to the Post-office, and great advantage
had resultel from the measure. If this system of con-
:olidation were generally extended and perfected when
any amend'nents of the law came afterwards to be pro-
,)osed, the whole s....atate law relating to a particular
>ubject would be brought under one view and could be
(len at a glance, instead of their being obliged to hunt
through the statute book for perhaps twenty or thirty
even more different acts —an inconvenience which
placed others at very great disadvantage in considering
the propriety of making alterations in any law. He had
entered into these details on account of the great im-
portance of the subject, and be hoped his noble and
_earned friend would now inform their lordships what
course he intended to pursue with regard to it.
The LORD CHANCELLOR was sure that their lord-
ships and the country would feel very deeply indebted
to his noble and learned friend for having put that ques-
tion to him ; and if any individual more than another
could feel pleased at such a question being put, he could
assure his noble and learned friend that he (the Lord

Chancellor) was himself that individual. When first he
was entrusted with the great seal, it occurred to him

that there was no subject of law reform which was more

ikely to be practically useful than that to which his
toble and learned friend had so ably called their lord-

Ships' attention. After the statement of his noble and
learned friend it would be quite idle and itnpreper for

aim again to enumerate the various attempts which had
been made from the earliest times on this subject. When
'le came to consider this subject, he felt it his duty to
regard it in very much the same light as that in which
his noble and learned friend appeared to view it, the
great object being to arrive at some practical beneficial
r,Ault. There had been references made from the days

)f Lord Bacon down to the present age to learned per-
4ons to inquire how this great object might be accom-
plished, and it had struck him (the Lord Chancellor)
that the only practical measure that could be resorted

with any chance of success was to get, as he had done
f')r a limited time, three or four gentlemen to devote
heir attention to the subject, and to do to a limited
':xtent what he had no doubt they would do—something
is a specimen of that which ought to be done more per-
fectly, without speculating to any great extent on the
~übject. His noble and learned friend had alluded to

die commission issued in 1831 on the subject of the con-
- olidation of the whole of the criminal law, and which
afterwards reported likewise, in 1835, on the expediency
if consolidating, the whole of the statute law. Mr. Bel-
enden Ker was one of the commissioners who pointed
.ut the three modes of proceeding to which his noble

end learned friend had now adverted. The commis-
loners proceeded to consolidate the whole of the crimi-
nal law, but nothing was done to consolidate the statute
law in general. This was the state of things when he
(the Lord Chancellor) was entrusted with the great

seal. It struck him that the best course to adopt was
to apply, in March last, to Mr. Bellenden Ker, who
was familiar to a certain extent with this subject, having
been embarked in it, and to get him, in conjunction with
three or four other gentlemen, to proceed for one year
to the actual consolidation of certain portions of the
statute law, in the manner which should seem to them
most likely to be of practical utility. He had engaged
„hese gentlemen for the year expressly for this object,
and what he wished them to do was, not to enter into
:►ny inquiry as to the expediency of this measure, but at
,rice to proceed, as far as practicable, with the revision
of the statute law, as to make an enumeration of what
statutes were actually in force and remaining to be con-
solidAted, what statutes had been repealed or abolished,
or had become obsolete, and then to proceed to consoli-
date such of these laws as it would be most easy and
convenient to begin with. Two of these gentlemen
accordingly went through the whole of the statutes,
statute by statute, to see which of them were actually
the law, the result of their inquiry being that they found
the number of general public acts to be between 16,000
and 17,000, and the proportion of them which remained
as really living statutes was only about 2,500. With
these 2,500 statutes, therefore, they had then to occupy
themselves. One of the other gentlemen proceeded

more immediately, in connection with Mr. Kir, to con-
solidate the law on a particular subject upon the three
different plans suggested by the former commission.
The task of one was merely to consolidate existing sta-
tutes, keeping,!as nearly as possible to the form in which
they now stand ; another took the same course with
amendments, and partially introducing the common law
where it was necessary, and another consolidated the

whole of the law, cotnru-On as well as statute, relating

to his subject. These learned gentlemen devoted great
attention to the subject. They began in the first week
in April, and at the end of July they made a report,

. _
which mkas laid on their lordships' table, in which Mr.
Bellenden Ker stated that he had called on each of his