The Sun.
London, England, 1851-06-17 00:00:00

REPEAL BILL.

Mr. J. STUART moved the third reading of the
above Bill. I. was itnesssible, he contended, to keep
tee Act which it wss intended to repeal on the statute
book. That it had signally failed even the Acts passed
during the present session bad proved. By the 4th see-
tion of the Act, it was provided, that all words import-
ing the masculine gender should also be taken to include
females—(Laughter)—and all words of the singular
number should also mean the plural. Now that section
had excited the greatest alarm, and might be produc-
tive of the greatest inconvenience. It included all Acts
past as well as future. How would that section operate
with respect to the Reform Bill far inst fnce? On re-
ferring to it he found that every male person paying rent
and occupying a house of a certain value, should be en-
titled to a vote. According to the Act, however, which
he was then asking the House to repeal, that clause
should mean every female person also.—(Laughter.)
It also destroyed all distinctions between private and
public Acts of Parliament, which was a very mischievous
thing. How many Acts of Parliament had there been
passed in favour of the issue male, with the. express in-
tention of excluding the female line?—(Hear.) They
had already passed prison discipline Acts with specific
regulations for the different sexes, and how would
the Act be applied there ? Even this very
session;one of the last Acts which had received theßoyal
assent—he meant the Income-tax Act—would be
very materially and seriously affected if the singular
word " one" year was to be taken to mean many years.
—(llear and laughter.) The Chancellor of the Exche-
quer seemed to he pleased with that interpretation.—
(Laughter.) Although the Act professed to be one to
shorten the language of Acts of Parliament, ho did not
find it to have that effect, for the wording of Acts during
the present session was as lung as on any former occa-
sion. There were sections in the Act which did not
teens to him calculated to shorten the wording of Acts
of Parliament. On consulting his Hon. and Learned
Friend the Master of the Rolls on that subject, the latter
had admitted that the Act might be objectionable; but
as he had not time himself to consider its repeal, he had
referred him (Mr. Stuart) to a Learned Friend, with
whom he had carefully gone over the Act, and that gen-
tleman had also been sensible of the absurdity and in-
convenience of most of the clauses of the Alen He would
not detain the House at that late hour (past one o'clock)
by going further into details.—(Hear.) He was con-
vinced of the good intentions of those who introduced
the Ace, but he should say it was framed without care,
and not even in a manner to carry out their views. In
fact no man could hereafter decide upon the construction
of an Act of Parliament unless he had the Act by heart,
or at least a copy of it in his pocket. He received com-
plaints from many respectable legal friends of the diffi-
culty which the Act caused them. Even if the principle
of the Act were to be carried out hereafter, lotit be so, and
let it he done carefully and advisedly; but for the present
he would ask them to repeal the Act by agreeing to the
third reading of the Bill then before them.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL would oppose the
third reading of that Bill, which he believed to be one of
a most mischievous tendency. The Act referred to had
not emanated from the Government, but had been ori-
ginated in the other House of Parliament, where it had
had the sanction of the highest legal authority. The
Act appeared to him a most useful one as tending to
abridge the verbosity of Acts of Parliament generally.
His Honourable Friend had referred to the Master of
the Rolls ; but so far as they could form an idea of his
opinion, it would seem to be tolerably plain, for he had
a notice on the paper that the present Bill should be
read a third time this day six months whenever his
Honourable Friend's motion should be brought on.—
(Hear, hear.) Oa referring to the first four clauses of
the Act, he found that they were of a highly useful
character. his Honourable and Learned Friend had
alluded to the Reform Bill and the right it gave to
males to vote ; now it never could occur for
a moment to a lawyer tnat that could have a
retrospective effect of the nature referred to. Then
there was a provision that when an Act repealing other
Acts was itself repealed. it should not ipso facto revive
those repealed Acts. This section prevents d a manifest
inconvenience. The next was a provision relating to the
same mutter. Then it was provided that every Art
should be deemed a public Act, unless the contrary should
be expressly enacted. This was always inserted in all
Acts, and the objetit of the Act was to prevent the ne-
"'a:4V of perpetually inserting that provision. His Hon.
and Learned Friend apprehended that this would tend
to destroy the distinction between public and private
Acts; but it would always be easy, when it was not in-
tended to be a public Act, to insert a provision to that
effect. This was also intended to prevent the necessity
of perpetually repeating the usual clause in all Acts of
Parliament. In short, he regarded the Act which his