The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-13 00:00:00

IVoperly framed except by some person who was acquainted._
with the whole state of the law with regard to its subject
matter ; but, under the present system, private members
brought in MILS with some *Willer object, and without any
. knowledge of the general state of the law on the subject to
which they referred. The thevernment were afraid to oppose
their introduction lost they should be defeated ; and the pas-
sing of the bills thus introduced became ultimately a sort of
scramble among those who supported them. He believed that
' if his proposal were carried out it would be found a remedy
• for this state of things. As one instance of the anomalous
state in which the statute-book was at the present time, he
would call the attention of the hOuse to one Or two Irish statutes.
The statute 7 and 8 Vic., c. 76, was passed to facilitate the
transfer of land—a very important object, but one requiring
that the law upon it should be clearly intelligible to all. The very
next session it was found necessary to amend it, and an act was
passed for that purpose. The third section of this latter act was
intended to meet a peculiarity- of the Irish' law with regard
to leases and surrenders, but by one of those blunders which
bad driven him to trouble the house on the present occasion,
the word "release" was substituted for " lease,".and thus a
fruitful source of litigation was opened. So, again, in the
year 1849 a statute (the 26th chapter of the session) was en-
acted, and in the very same year, by cap. 110, the former act
• was suspended. Another instance occurred in the case of the
' Common Law Procedure Act. When the bill was going through
• that house, by its 101st section it extended certain sections
having relation to the important subject of evidence to
courts of justice in the United Kingdom. When the measure
went up to the other house varionstalterations were made,
which had
,the effect of throwing out the original numbering
of the sections. No proper alteration, however, was thereupon
made in the 101st section, and hence, as it happened, Eng-
land was deprived, as to the inferior courts, of one very im-
portant provision, while upon Ireland there was conferred
by another section, which was in the manner he had just
described extended to all courts, powers which were quite
unnecessary, inasmuch as they had already been possessed
by the judicature of that country, for a long series of years.
• Such wretched mistakes ae these could never occur if there
. were a proper department duly charged with the preparation
of the statutes. No doubt there would be some little extra
expense incurred by such a plan, but that ought not to be the
consideration in a matter of such vital necessity. The coun-
try had a right to the best talent
.and.the best ability that
,
could he procured. ;Wherever that ability and these talents
were to be had, the 'country ought to possess the benefit of
them. (Hear.) In truth he believed that no increase of ex-
penseewould be incurred by such a plan, for it would obviate
the necessity for their perpetually recurring to acts to amend
and acts to explain acts which ought never to have required
amendment. Another fruitful cause of mischief and doubt
was this, that acts on kindred subjects, or on subjects touch-
ing in some of their parts upon the same points, were prepared
by different commissioners. Thus, not very long back, there
were two bills brought in, the one founded upon the report
of a common law and the other of a real property. commis-
' Siort:l in one of these bills the 'Hesitations of actions with
respect to certain claims in connection with real estate was
fixed at sliyeare, while in the other 20 years was theiimit
• Both bills became acts ; and there were upon the statute-book
two equally binding, but yet directly conflicting laws. An-
other sample of the inconsistency which the present system led
to occurred in the year 1.848. In that year he had introduced
a bankrupt act for Ireland,. and in that act lie inserted a
clause which he too7a from a proposed measure of Lord
Bronghanfs. The bill, with the clause, p ssed through that
house without objection. Meanwhile a hill canto down from
the House of Loals with a clause in it similar to the one
to which he had already averte 1. This identical clause,
4- although it had belt a short time previously passed the house
without a word, excited opposition upon its second appear-
ance to mich an extent that it was in the end withdrawn.
• Another evil arose from the practice of pass:rig acts for
England, and thou, in the following session, passing others
for Ireland, sometimes with slight verbal alterations. An
• example of this kind occurred in the ease of the act to
amend the Fines and Recoveries Act, which was passed in a
late session of Parliament. Another claSs of acts to w: ich be
must refer were the Board of Works Acts. These were
brought in about the middle of July, when it was extremely
difficult to get the attention of hon. members to arty subject.
At the hitter end of lest year a bill of thit class was brought
in, which was most objectionable in some of its details. He
(Mr. Napier) attended in the house from day to day, morning
and evening (for it was when day sittings were being held), in
order to prevent the measure being hurried through without
opposition or comment. Ultimately,. finding that every day it
made its appearance and wag passed over, and fearing that an
ouportueity would occur when it might be get through, lie
we'd to the Secretary for Ireland to canoetulate upon the sub.
ject, but was toll that it was not in his department ;• thence
: ho went to the Irish Solicitor-General, and got the same' re-
s.,: ply,; in the end he "caught uo" the bill in the Treasury De-
partment, and it was only by using the strcmgCst expostu-
lations that hes succeeded in his Object. Now, this was
a not a emuTe to which a private member of the' house anxious
to do his duty ought to be subjected. Had there been a pro-
per responsible hoard of officers entrusted with the supervi-
sion and care of bills, to them he shohld hate gone and stated
• his objections. The project which he brought before the
house was not a new one, nor was there wanting to it many
distingifehed advocates.
.• Some years since Lord Brottigham
had stated his views upon the subject, and urged the neeqs-
', sity that existed for the organisation of a board to soperintend
- the drafting of the statutes, and at the header this board his
• lordship was of opinion that the Minister of Justice ought to
be placed.. " Without some such system," said Lord
Brougham, " it jsimpoasible to work out any plan of safe and
efficient law reform." So also at a much more recent period
the subject had aszain been brought Under consideration by
Lord_ Lyndhur d , who pointed out how necessary it was that
the. present system should be amended. His lordship referred
• to a mite in which a court of law had been for' many days
engaged .in endeavouring to put a meaning upon the word
mat!' in an act of Parliament, with respect to which' they
- ultimately came to a conclusion diametrically opposed to that
. at which another court had arrived. Upon that occasion the
LordiCharteellor admitted that the _evil calledlondly for re-
medy. The fact was -that in the framing of statutes the re.
• sponsibility was too much divided. (Hear.) lion. members'
• came into that house perhaps for half an hour only when the
house .was in committee and proposed off-hand important al-
terailos disturbing the eutira scope of a Rightly and
properly to draw- up the written laws of a country like this
- was £,great, a gigantic task. (Hear.) That was all the more
reason that it should be attended to by men whose duty it
should be to give their whole attention to it. At present it was
. everybody's, and therefore nob Ody's-business. (Hear.) As the
snetter stood, statutes came before courts of justice, they were
there laughed at - the judges were in the habit 60 stating that
• they wore unable to say what was the intention of the Legisle.
tune. On the other hand, the Legislatnrcswere sometimes in
the habit of charging courts of justice with passing over and
orgetting the spirit of the law in the mere verbal criticisms.
neh a course was not of a character to raise in dignity our
conception of the law or of those who. administered it. The
plan which he advocated would put an end to all this, and
would have the further advantage of leaving the House of
-7orentons free for the discussion of broad questions of prin-
ciple instead of its being engrossed, as was at present too
often the case, with mere petty questions of detail. Nor
would this be all—the statutes would be uniform, would be
classified, and, at least, would not carry upon the face of
them actual contradictions. Let an honourable member take
up a volume of the statutes, they would be found anng
together as if bound into the cover with a pitchfork.
(Hear, 'hear.) _There would also be a body who could re-
ceive the suggestions of practical men throughout the
country, who could also take into consideration the reports
of committees and commissioners. None of the existing
means of information would bo passed over, but a depart-
ment could be found able to take that information into con-
sideration, and turn it to practical use. There were depart-
meats for war, for trade, for the navy; •why should not jus-
tice-sof ail things the most essential to the internal well-being
of a country—have a department also ? hoped that. the
house now that it had got the subject fairly before it, would
give him its opinion upon the proposition.: He had proposed
it at the end of last session, and every hour's reflection which
he had since given to the subject had confirmed him in his
determination to persevere in the matter. (Hear, hear.)
He called upon tho house to unite in rescuing the law and
the administration of justice from its present defective state.
Much remained to be done., The house hail still to settle
the jurisdiction. of our different courts, to amend their pro-
cedure, and to. lessen as much as possible the difference
between England and Ireland. if they persevered in such

n .course, voices from. the noble dead would honour them

the recollection of the noble,miuded and manly wisdom of
Romilly would be with them, they would. have the good
wishes of one who yet iemained, whose eye was not
dimmed, and whose natural faro was not yet,decayed—he
allotted to Henry Lard Brougham. (Hear.) He (Mr. Napier)
did hope •that the house would join in giving effect to those
propositions which ho should submit. He hoped by these
means that our laws might be rendered consistent, rational,
clear, and intelligible—worthy to be deposited in the sacred
ark of the respect and affection of our country. (Hear.) •
Mr. COLLIER roan to second the motion of the right hon.
gentleman. He, thought it almost bnpossible to overrate the
importance of the question before the house. .• It was notrone
which appealed: to public excitement; or which called up
party feeling ; .but it was of far greater importance than
many matters which comprised both those characteristics.
It was, is to speak, a question which concerned the general
health of the body politic. Nations, like individuals, al-
though they were anxious enough when any sharp or sudden
malady. Intervened, were apt to be .careless of their general
health.

That which his :right honourable friend at prc

sent brought ,under the consideration of Alt) house was a
chronic malady, and such a disease one was apt to consider

Inevitable. fact was, that the laws of the country were

very far behind tits present condition. Thera existed at this
entitribinalo and forms of procedure as out of place at
the present time as a galley of Elizabeth's time would be in a
Meet: ofeetearn,ships—some courts whose procedure was so un-
jn,t, thateother courts were . obliged to interfere' to restrain
the'm ; not content with law and equity, we had a-third set of
tribunals in the ecclesiastical courts. There was no need to call
to thee recollection of the house the difference between real
and personal estate, nor the, numerous abortive attempts
which had been made to simplify the transfer of landed pro-
perty. Nor was there any need to advert to the defective state
of legal education, through.. .which, although we had many
able practitioners,
haktfew men capable of comprehend-
ing in one view the law of England in its relation to the
teneral principles of jerisprodence as a science. He needed
not to call attention ti the state of the statute book after
what had been said by the right lion: gentleman—it was
•
• indeed 'a collection without a form, and void and darkness
• 'at on-the face of it, and one who had heretofore defeated
• every attempt to set it right. •The worst thing about the
matter.vvas this, that it was an evil perpetually increasing
No doubt there were some who despaired of ending a remedy.
ceause the evil was gigantic. Should it be said that the Re-
' man law, after- aving accumulated for ten centuries without
any attempt to digest it, was yet reduced to order in three.
years—that Napoleon Was ablein a few years, notwithstand.
log the difficulties of an excited political state, to codify the
law of France—that America had a codified set of laws for
the state of New York—that almost every state of Europe
posiessed a code, and yet England had not been able—ic
would not say codify—to reduce her. laws to anything like
system.
If they had done their best and bad failed, then, in-
deed, there might be a scarcely even taken a step
cause for despondency ; brit they had
not done their best,
orindeed had
in the right direction. The true secret of the failures was that
hitherto the reform of the law had been, nobody's business.
(Hear, hear.) The
law officers of the Crown were *made-
plate to the task, simply because they had no time to attend
to it. The Lord Chancellor, with his combined judicial and
political functions, was ecoady preoacnpied, an.l indeed, until
very lately, law reform had been consilered it to be his duty
his business. Lord Eldon never consd. ored.t) form no part ofu
to reform,
made from another
but, on the contrary, gave the most strenuouvor.
position to any attempt that might
.he
General, what
quarter. As for the Attorney and Solecitor
ce _
be-
tween their official business and their private Prunti
ny
assistance from them was entirely out of the questio mat,
P. otirse
then, had been the amount of extraneous aid given? e-"
had been had from time to time to commissions ; but as a ge-
neral rule they had not been attended with any eritiefactory
results. No doubt the Conanam Law Commission had, in So'far
as it went, done some geed, but unfortunately all these com-
missions seemed to have been nominated on the principle of
balancing conflicting opinions, and the result was that novr, in
' so far as any definite conclusion was concerned, the nnimbees
were at a deal lock, or the rasults were useless. (Heir hear.)
Take, for example, the Commission on the Law of Partdership,
whiaroported that the lane was in a satisfactory stele, such
1 report brine ornSequently negatived by the almost inianituous
'decision if the bottle.. (Rear,) nett there was the Eecle-