The Sun.
London, England, 1834-07-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, JULY 21, 1834.

country may take our assurance, that the best way
to maintain peace is to be in no dread of war.

Among the many reforms in the legislative, judicial,
ecclesiastical, and municipal branches of the govern-
ment of this country, which have been recommended to
the adoption of the present Parliament, we know of few
more important, and from the neglect of which greater
evil arises, than the present form of carrying on the
affairs of the nation in the House of Commons. Day
after day have we: beheld with astonishment the votes of
proceedings of filo t assembly ; and week after week have
we waited in vain for the announcement of some plan
of conducting public business worthy of a British
Senate in the :nineteenth century. Under the old
Tory regime the midnight sittings—the whippings-in--
the passing of Acts to explain Acts—the whole
mystery of local. legislation—including of course, the
system of road-making, bridge-building, draining, and
improving private estates at the expense of the coun-
ties in which they were situated—were altogether of a
piece—entirely consistent with the principles of the
Government. But now that the country has exploded
these principles, how does it happen that the House
has not yet purified itself from any of the outward
signs by which they were wont to be known ?
Do the sages of Great Britain, like those of Greece in
the days of A.AIPHYCTYON, imagine that the inspira-
tions of MI Nt!avA are strongest at midnight.? Or
do they think that the work of Legislation differs from
all others, in being best performed with leaden eyelids ?
We should be sorry to speak disrespectfully of the
House of Commons, but with all due deference to that
branch of the L egislature, we ask the Members them-
selves, have they not witnessed exhibitions in their
Legislative capacity, in which wine had assumed the
reins of reason in the room of wisdom ? Even while
sitting in St. Stephen's Chapel, have they not some-
times blushed for aberrations of mind, which showed
plainly enough that a Tory's cellar is a no less potent.
perverter of the judgment than a Tory's argument ?
And if we reflect on the former habits of these gentlemen
_if we come to :inquire the way in which the majority of
the Members of the House of Commons lived previous
to their being elected Legislators—if we consider that
many of them are men of great wealth, and large here-
ditary possessions, who rode hard in the morning, and
it may be, drank hard at night—we cannot wonder
that midnight should find them inquiring how a second
mace came to be laid on the table, and whence the
SPEAKER procured a duplicate of his senatorial head-
dress.

But leaving the question of midnight sittings, till
we come again to treat of the subject in detail, we beg
to call the attention of the House of Commons to the
absurd practice of multiplying Acts of Parliament,
according to the custom that has prevailed in Eng-
land since the accession of the House of Brunswick.
Already do the statutes of the realm exceed 200 large
volumes ! and yet the number is not great, when we
consider that upwards of 11,000 Acts of Parliament
have been passed within the last thirty-three years !
Now, great, and various, and complicated as are, and
have been, the affairs of this country, is there any per-
son who will deny that they might not have been as
well, if not better managed, had one-tenth of this
number of Acts never appeared on the order-book ?
Why is the preposterous custom of passing Acts to ex-
plain and amend Acts still continued? If an Act of
Parliament is found to be so framed as to require
legislative explanation or amendment, let it be repealed
in toto, and its name erased, so that the country may
not be misguided by it, and let whatever is good in it,
with the required amendment, be embodied in a statute
which shall have no reference to any other. As the
law at present stands, there is no turning either to the
right hand or the left, without being caught in the
meshes of some obsolete statute, for the explanation
and amendment of which, hundreds of Acts have been
passed, but which the Legislature never had the good
sense to repeal.

If the reconstruction of the Cabinet be, as we trust
it is, the dawn of a brighter era in the annals of this
country, we would intreat the House of Commons to
hail it by doing something to reform the mode of con-
ducting the public proceedings of their own assembly.
Let them begin,—not by resolutions ending in smoke,—
but by the appointing of a commission to guide them
in repealing all obsolete statutes, and in consolidating
all amended and amending Acts of the Legis-
lature, of whatever date. Let them not be
deterred by the arduousness of this task. It is
their duty to inform the country what are the
laws, in order that the people may not transgress
them. At present, such is the confusion in this de-
partment, that men, whose lives are spent in the study
of law, find themselves little better off than the seekers
for the philosopher's stone. Counsel opposes counsel,
and Court annuls the verdict of Court, on the plainest
questions--and all in a full conviction of acting ac-
cording to law. Now, we put it to any man who un-
derstands the science of Government, is not the conti-
nuance of such a state of things disgraceful ? Is it
just, is it wise, is it politic, is it humane, is it com-
monly honest—that a great and enlightened nation
should be thus beset with legislative spring-guns and
man-traps, to escape which knowledge is no guide,
and innocence no protection ?
We shall take another occasion to speak of the
means which ought to be adopted to introduce Bills
into Parliament. Nothing can be more absurd than
their introduction, before the House is convinced
of their necessity, and the nature of their pro-
visions.

There is more time wasted in dis-
cussing the merits of Bills which are lost, than in
arguing the benefits of those which become law.
This ought to be otherwise ; and some preliminary
steps are necessary to be taken to ascertain the feelings
of the House regarding every measure, before its time
is taken up with its formal reception.

These hints are all we can find space for at present:
and as far as they go they embody the opinions of the
most intelligent persons we ever held communion with
onthe subject of legislative Reform in the House of
Commons.

TILE ROYAL VISIT TO DUBLIN.—One Of our
contemporaries, we perceive, expresses a doubt as to the au-
thenticity of a statement in this journal concerning the visit of
the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Victoria to Dublin,
principally, as the paper states, because the matter is not men-
tioned In the London papers. Notwithstanding the silence of
the British press on this subject, our statement is, nevertheless,
perfectly correct. Their Royal Highnesses have, undoubtedly,
expressed their intention to visit Dublin towards the latter end
of next month. More we need not say at present.—Dublin
Evening Post

LORD RANELAGH.—Considerable doubts are en-
tertained as to the correctness of the statement which described
the death of this young nobleman. No official account of his
death has been received by his friends in England, and it is
known that he was alive and in good health at Milan on the
Ist instant.--Morning Paper.

Keswick continues crowded with strangers,
delightful scenery in that vicinity is now most magnificent.—
Kendal Mercury. and the