The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-14 00:00:00

LAW AMENDMENT SOCIETY.

( From the Tinzes.)
The House of COmmons has been engaged, we
fear without any definite or practical result, in in-
vestigating a plan for the amendment of our legis-
lation and the consolidation of our statute law. In
the meanwhile a body of far humbler pretensions,
but, as repeated experience has demonstrated, of a
very useful and practical turn of 'mind, has ad-
dressed itself to the same subject, and, as far as we
are able to observe, not -without a very considerable
portion of success. A Committee of the Law
Amendment Society, appointed to consider the
statute law, has reported a fulness, a vigour, and
a perspicuity cm the weighty subject intrusted to
it, which makes us wish that some of those who
prepared this document had • a more authoritative
voice in carrying out the reforms they advocate.,
The report consists of two portions ; the first, a
review of the steps which have already been taken
with the view of consolidating our statute law, and
the second, the propositions of the committee
themselves on this subject. The plans of the pre-
sent Lord Chancellor fos, obtaining this object are
commented en with some justice and much aspe-
rity. • A rapid summary of events may not be
uninstructive. On the 17th of March, 1853, the
Chancellor announced his plan for reforming our
statutes: First, he was to expunge obselete or
expired acts ; secondly, to classify those which re-
mained according to their subjects ; thirdly, to
consolidate these classes into single acts ; and,
fourthly, to provide a corrective for the errors of
future legislation. For this purpose a Commis-
sioner and four Sub-Commissioners were provided.
The Sub-Commissioners were set to nibble at a vast
number of subjects, the result of which was tbat
they seem to have brought none to maturity. The
arrangement of du tieswas utterly unmethodical, and
a great deal of time seems to have been absorbed
in composing three enormously voluminous reports,
containing no less then 634 pages, no slight deduc-
tion from the very small amount of force embarked
in this gigantic undertaking. These and many
other mistakes, enumerated by the Committee
with painful exactness, satisfy them, and may serve
to satisfy us, that the Commissioners did not set
about the work intrusted to them with any clearly
defined ideas, and that, they did not folio ;v out
their labours to any very definite results. These
Commissioners, however, were in August, 1854,
reinforced by a RoyarOommission, issued to ex=
Chancellors, Judges, Attorney and Solicitor Gene-
rals, and other grave and learned persons, but their
avocations do not seem to have permitted them to
give any great attention to the object fer the sake
of which they were instituted. They too have re-
ported, but they also, as far as we can learn, have
clone little or nothing, and are now engaged in an
investigation from which we may eipect, if we are
sanguine enough, some profitable result as to the
propriety of establishing a Minister of Justice, who
shall he able to do that which the Lord Chancellor
and all his coadjutors have hitherto so signally
failed to accomplish.
We now come to consider the recommendations
of the Law Amendment Society. Setting out by
proposing the appointment of a Minister of Justice,
or, if efforts to obtain the creation of such a func-
tionary be unsuccessful, then.of three commissioners
to execute the work of consolidating the statutes,
they lay down the cones° to be pursued so clearly
and methodically that it is worth while to give it;
were it only as a specimen of the very advanced
stage to which opinion on the subject has arrived,
and the necessity whin/Cries- upen Government to
bestir itself, if it would overtake in action the
views already prevalent among the best informed
members of the community over which it pre-
sides. Their first step towards a consolidation of
the statute law would he the publication of a revised
and authorised edition of the public acts, exclud-
ing all private, local, and personal acts, and all
acts or parts of acts which have become obsolete,
expired, or been repealed ; to omit the enacting
part from the preamble of every act and from
every section ; to refer in the margin of every act
to any later act by which it has been modified'; to
divide the acts in the contemplated edition into
four parts—first, those relating to England, Eng-
land and Ireland, England and Scotland, or the
United Kingdom ; second, those 'relating to Scot-
land ; third, those relating to Ireland ; fourth,
those relating to India, the colonies, or the other-
dependencies of the Crown. It is then proposed
that three drauglitsmen should perform each the.
whole of the work ; beginning from the last volume
of the statutes and working backwards, and that
the work of these three draughtsmen should be
compared together by way of correction. lists,
must be made by them of obsolete laws, of laws
th• repeal of which is doubtful, and laws respect-
in,:t the revival of whi©h doubts may be entertained.
Parliament should then be invited to pass an act
resolving these doubts,' and declaring that, except
the acts contained in this edition, none other shall
have any force or effect, and saving all things done
under the acts which may be repealed. Such
authorised ediFon of the statutes would, itis com-.
pitted, cost 101. or ;12/. if left in the hands_of
bookseller, or about 50s. if printed like other Par-
liamentary pipers its bulk would be diminished-
:from 40 quartwto 12 octavo volumes, and it would
be, from the perfection of its arrangement, and the
comparaiive brevity of its contents, easy of refer-
ence and perfectly accessible.
Now, we ask those from whom we have a right
to expect the accomNishment of great works
of public • utility, whether there be anything in
what is here proposed which is not perfectly
practicable if set about in an earnest spirit
and with a thorough resolution to conquer all dif-
ficulties? The labour is -by no means so great as
hundreds of men are daily encountering for the
sake of the most insignificant private interests,
while the result in this case would be to the public
interests incalculably beneficial.. For the first
time WO should know what the statute law of Eng-
land really is ; for the first time we should be able
to grasp it, and contemplate it as a whole, free
from the rubbish of accumulated ages by which it
is buried and overwhelmed but the utility of the
measure would not stop. here—we should have
gained a vantage ground, frem which we should
be able to carry system and order, as yet unknown,
into- the, anarchy and confusion Of our legislation.
Once possessed of a book which contained neither
more nor less than the existing law of England,
we .could analyse its contents, divide those con-
tents into groups, consolidate the law relating to
each group, and digest it' into a code. Such is the
plan of the Law Amendment Society, which seems
to lead us on, step by step, from our present mi-
serable state of darkness and confusion to the most
perfect order, method, and,symmetry. All that is
'wanted is the selection of men competent to the
task, a liberal remuneration: of their exertions, and
a clear view of the end to which these exertions
are to be directed. Never was so easy an oppor-
tunity offered to a Government of obtaining
boundless popularity at the present moment, and
undying reputation in the times to come, as by
appointing a Minister or commission to complete
the work thus ably and clearly sketched Out.

EXPENS3 OF COLLECTING THE

LEVENUE.

(Prom the Times of this day.)
' The country has hitherto been content to pay
its taxes without inquiring very minutely into
the -cost of collection. our fits of economy we
have narrowly scrutinised every item of expendi-
.ture ; there has been higgling over shillings and
pence; pensions have been denied, the army has
been reduced to the lowest limit, the artillery was
so neglected that it bad almost to be created ; the
navy, too, had fallen so low that at the commence-
ment of the war we had to !eau it hastily with raw,
clads and rheumatic coastguardsmen, and bad fallen
so far behind the exigencies of the time that not
until this year are we provided with the vessels best
adapted for our purpose. But, while grumbling
over our disbursements, we paid little attention to
the expenses of collecting our enormous revenues.
The returns presented to Parliainent gave simply'
the net reedits after all the charges of collection
had been defrayed. These charges amounted .to
millions of the public 'money; but the. Treasury
had the most absolute control over all the salaries
and charges ; Parliament never heard of the .gross
receipts, and took no account of the percentage
expended in realizing the public income: The esti-
mates for the Revenue departments, which are j
now published for the first time, have therefore an
unusual interest. We are about' to know for the
first time the true amount of our taxation. In the
estimate for the'Customs, for the Inland Revenue,
and for the Post-office, we find.that the service
the ensuing year requires more than 5,000,0001. ;
the net revenue of these departments, according
to the last returns, was 38,500,0004 ; and the
gross product of these taxes may easily be ascer-
tained by adding together those figures. The esti-
mates are very minute, and give the most interest-
ing details regarding4o,ooo persons engaged in the
civil service of the country—from the chairman
who gets 2,5001. a-year to the charwoman who gets
25/.'; from the Postmaster-General; who receives
501. a-week, to the letterearrier at York who getS
his 2s. 6d. ; from the London Post-office, that
coats 355,0001. a-year, to the post-office at
Cloghrati that costs 51. it is true that these esti-,
mates do not giie all the expenses. About three-.
quarters of a million, for examnle, are required for
the packet service of the Post-office, but that sum
is charged in the estimates
Prepared by the Naval
Department. On the otlyer band, the 5,000,000/.
Which We havemontioned is not all spent 14 sob,'