The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-07 00:00:00

JUNE 7 5 1847.

LAW AMENDMENT SOCIETY.

The anniversary meeting of the society for promot-
ing the amendment of the law was held on Saturday
at the rooms of the society, 21, Regent-street, and
was numerously attended by the noblemen and gen.
tle.nen, members of the society, and by the general
public, all of them seemingly much interested in the
proceedings. Among the rest we observed Lord
Brougham, the Duke of Richmond, the Duke of
Cleveland, the Earl of Devon, the Earl of Radnor,
Lord Ashburton, Lord Ebrington, Mr. Hume, M.P. ;
Mr. Ewart, M.P. ; Mr. Sergeant D'Oyly, Mr. Com-
missioner Pane, Mr. Commissioner Fonblanque, Mr.
Commissioner Phillips, Mr. James Stewart, Mr.
Vizard, &c.. .
1..0rd BROUGHAM, at three o'clock, took the chair,
and expressed the pleasure with which he met the
members on another anniversary of the society, ex-
pecting-that it would have the effect produced by the
last occasion of the kind, of making their association,
and their real object, better known, and of rebutting
a groundless charge , which had been made against
them ; for nothing was more without foundation than
this charge upon their proceedings, that the members
of the society were rash and fond of innovation. On
the contrary, their ()fleet, the amendment of the laws,
was sought with caution ; and if, upon trial, in any
case, there was a failure, their course was to re-con-
sider the amendment, and safely, at least safely, to
proceed with the amendment of the laws of the coun-
try. The Noble Lord then adverted to two cases
that encouraged them in the course which they
had already pursued. The Act for the simpli-
fication of conveyances in the transfer of real
property, remedied not only the evil of a system bad
in itself, but also the evil of an insecure title*. Per-
sons in the purchase of property might adopt in the
conveyances what formula they pleased ; that was
matter for their own choice • but the Bill offered
them, besides the advantage of a simple formula, the
immense boon, a secure, a good title. Hitherto the
expense attending the transfer of property had been
heavy, unequal, and very unnecessary. For, besides
the ad valorem stamp duty, the deeds were long and
complicated, so that the expense on the purchase of a
small farm came to be almost as great as on a pur-
chase-money of the amount of 50,0001. or 100,0001.
Yet, after all, the intention of the parties might be
defeated by an error of the copyist, and as the proba-
bility of error was always in the ratio of complication
in the proceedings, simplification became an object of
the very highest importance. The Noble Lord in
detail referred to a case which was heard on appeal
in the House of Lords, where the eldest son, though
evidently the next heir by the intention of the testa-
tor, was deprived of all interest in the property by
the omission of a single line by the mere copyist, and
he and his heirs would have been debarred for ever,
but that the House of Lords affirmed the decision of
the Common Pleas against the Queen's Bench, aid de-
cided that he could rank after the sixth and seventh sons
under the words " among the other sons." Error did not
merely attend upon omissions; it often crept in by a
line or a word, sanctioned by no legislative authority,
but merely foisted in by some country schoolmaster
who had been accustomed to draw conveyances for the
village, and his optional additions would occupy the
courts of law for days and weeks together, in the en-
deavour to understand and construe them. The Noble
Lord, for another illustration of the Society's pro-
ceedings referred to the extinction of what was called
" satisfied terms," of the absurdity of which he said
no one not conversant with the operation of this
troublesome fiction could now form any adequate
conception. It used to be attended with great
trouble, great anxiety, and great expense. But an
Act for the extinction of these " satisfied terms" was
brought in and passed; and he could mention an in-
stance—(The Duke of Cleveland entered the room at
this moment)—he was glad to see the Noble Duke
present to confirm what he was about to state, that
so much as 4,0001. or 5,0001. had been saved to his
Grace by the passing of this Act. And although
that was upon an estate of some value, perhaps
of 60,0001. or 70,0001. annual income, nearly
an equal amount of expense would have
been incurred under the old system on an estate of
very much less value. But while he mentioned these
instances, he had said, and he would say it again,
that the one ground on which they expected the
confidence of the Legislature and the public was
caution. He might point them, for instance, to the
abolition of imprisonment for debt. That was a
great change in the law and the commerce of the
country; it was a hardship to the creditor as it was
formerly to the debtor. Many representations had
been made against the Act. The Noble Lord
(Ashburton) on his right had presented a petition
from the merchants and traders of London praying
the Legislature to revert to arrest, and mesne pro-
oess.- Now, what he said was this—he was ready to
reconsider the whole question, and if upon every view
of it they found they were mistaken they were pre-
pared to retrace their steps. But at that moment be
remained after all that had been said of the same
mind that he had been of, convinced that they were
not wrong, and that no change in the present law
was necessary. His Noble Friend (Lord Lynd-
hurst) was at one time an opponent to the change
that had been made; but three sessions ago a single
case occurred while he was Lord Chancellor,
so irresistible in the demonstration which it
opened up of the evil of the old system, that he at
once acceded to the necessity of a change. Twenty-
five people had been confined in a place twenty feet
square for ten days together, without so much as
the comfort of straw to rest themselves upon. The
Act, as it was passed at first, was found to operate
mischief against the small traders. He recollected
that an ironmonger had come to him, and showed
him five thousand and odd debts in his books, and of
of the 5,000 there were 4,900 under 201. Now, he
said to him, no man has more to think of with re-
gard to his tailor and his butcher, than just to see
that his debt do not exceed 191. 10s., for under 201.
he cannot be reached. This was a great evil, an evil
that was remedied by putting the debtors under 201.
on the same footing with the debtors above 20/. ; but
it was an evil which would likely have been avoided
if the Act had previously been submitted to the con-
sideration of a society like this. But one grand
object with the society, and one which they had
submitted to Sir Robert Peel and Lord Lyndhurst,
as of vital necessity to the improvement of the
Legislations of this country, was the appointment of
a board of professional' and skilful men for the
preparation of Acts of Parliament. Till that was
done forty judges, instead of four sitting in every
Court in Westminster Hall, would not be able to
construe them. As yet the work was too much that
of the scissors, and the consequence was absurdities
of a very ridiculous kind, some clause towards the
close of the Act perhaps referring to something
" aforesaid," which something " aforesaid" did not
appear except in the Act from which the clause had
been transferred. Another primary object which
they advocated was the separation of the private and
local from the public business of Parliament, and the
reference of the private business to a board where the
parties should be heard by counsel, and which should
not exclude, but only assist the Houses. He (Lord
Brougham) had last session given notice of resolutions
to that effect, and it was still his intention to per-
severe with them. He did not mean anything against
the purity of Parliament, but there always would be
a suspicion where five men were appointed to con-
sider a case already existing. They were a Court
appointed for the case, an evil which led to the abo•
lition of the Court of Delegates. The Noble Lord
concluded his address with advising caution and per-
severance in the pursuits of the society.
The Earl of DEVON then moved, and the Earl of
RADNOR seconded a resolution, to the effect that
great advantages were likely to arise from the un-
prejudiced and dispassionate consideration of the laws
of the country with a view to their amendment.
Lord EBRINGTON moved that as the expense and
insecurity inseparable from the present method of in-
quiring into real property, deeds, and the present
form of conveyancing, greatly diminished the value of
land, the meeting had pleasure in knowing that her
Majesty's Government had, appointed a commission,
from which the subject would likely receive a search-
ing investigation, in order to amendment and im-
provement. The Noble Lord complained that not-
withstanding the Act referred to by the Noble
Chairman, the expenses attending the purchase and
sale of land were such as to be a serious bar to any
such transaction and to diminish its value in the
market. He said, taking the annual value of land
in England at 60,000,000/.; thirty years' purchase
upon that would be 1,800,000,000/. ; whereas, in
other countries the purchase was for 45 years,and, there-
fore, the purchase value 2,700,000,0001. S
total loss upon the land in England was 900'° that the
:000 000/
Mr. JAMES STEWART seconded the resolution, 4hich
was agreed to.
Mr. HUME moved, and Mr. EWA.RT seconded, are-
solution, advising the appointment of a revising
board, for the preparation of Acts of Parliament.
Both the Hon. Members took occasion to speak of the
improvement which had been effected of late years in
the proceedings of the House of Commons, especially
on private Bills, where the change from public to se-
lect Committees was a beneficial advance upon the old
system.
The Duke of RICHMOND moved a resolution, .ap.
proving of the labours of the Committee of the House
of Lords in the criminal law, who had endeavoured

PRICB SD.

to establish as the principal object of the law the im.
provement and reformation of the criminal. _ _

- Lord ASHBURTON moved that the petition of the
merchants and traders of the city of London relating
to the law of debtor and creditor, was deserving cf
attention, and that the society, with the benefit of
their representations, do reconsider the subject of the
bankrupt laws.
Mr. Wm. HAwEs, in a speech, urged the import-
ance of the subject, and the evils of the late Act. lie
assured the meeting that the fraudulent abstraction of
property yearly,. amounted to something more than
the revenue of the State—to upwards of 50,000,0001.
As this was received with marki of incredulity, he
said the amount of dividends paid under cognisance of
the London Court of Bankruptcy last year was
1,245,0001.; the average per centage was under 3s.
per pound; and as not one-tenth of the cases of bank-
ruptcy occurring were brought into Court, he thought
he was entitled to say that the amount of property so
abstracted annually was about 60,000,000/. That was a
loss which fell upon the consumers, the gentry and
the poor artisan. Hence the general public interest
in the reconsideration of this Act.
Mr. BETHEL moved to the effect that the misappli-
cation of charities, and especially small charities, was
shielded by the mode of procedure in the Court of
Chancery, and the method of conducting business
before the masters. The Learned Gentleman, in the
course of his speech, gave several instances illustrative
of the resolution occurring under his own notice.
Mr. Commissioner FANG, in seconding it, said the
resolution might apply as well to cases of bankruptcy.
He knew one case where the bankrupt had entered
the Court of Chancery forty years ago with- as much
prospect and no more of a decision now as in the year
1807 ; and another case which had lasted for twenty
years, with the same want of result. The Learned
Commissioner then reed an extract the letter of an
eminent solicitor, stating that he had searched, and
had been unable to find one litigated case in partner-
ship account which had gone into the Master's office
and had ever come out again.
The resolutions were severally agreed to, and the
meeting broke up.