The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-27 00:00:00

financial state of the army.
THE MERCANTILE LAWS.
The LORD CHANCELLOR rose to call the atten-
tion of the house to the second report of the Commis-
trieuera for inquiring into the mercantile laws of the dif-
fereut ports of the United Kingdom. The noble and
learned lord said that great complaints had been made
by the people of Glasgow, Liverpool, and many other
plaees in the tjuited I(ingilons, as to the operation of
the mercantile law, which they stated imposed very
serious grievances upon the country. The subject had
been considered by some of the most eminent legal au-
thorities of the country, and various recernrnendations
had been made with the view of remedying the griev-
ances complained of. In conformity wits these recom-
mendations he had prepared some bills, which, he hoped,
he would soon be able to lay on the table. He would
propose that those bills be read a first and second time
with as much speed as possible, and then refer the whole
of the bills to a select committee of the house, after the
termination of the circuits. The great object to be at-
tained by these hills was to assimilate the mercantile
laws of every part of the 'United Kingdom.
The noble lord then proceeded to insteuce the case
of bills of exchange or promissory notes, in which there
was a very great and inconvenient difference between
the laws of England and Scotland. There was one
other very important subject to which he would refer,
via., contracts for the purchase of goods. In England if
a man contracted to buy so many bales of cotton or
bushels of wheat, and the seller did not deliver them, he
might bring an action to recover damages for the breach
of contract ; but in Scotland ho might have a decree for
the recovery of the specific chattel, or for delivery of the
goods. The commissioner strongly recommended that
this law should be extended to England. In Scotland a
carrier, although responsible for loss by accident, was
not responsible for loss by fire. The commission recom-
mended the exception should be done away with. The
next point was in reference to ships. When a ship
was in a foreign port, the master, by implication of law,
had authority from the owner to order repairs at his ex-
pense, not so in a home port. That was reasonable
enough, but by the old law the distinction between home
and foreign ports was sometimes absurd. Fer instance,
Newcastle was a foreign port to Leith. The com-
mission recommended that for this purpose all ports
in the United Kingdom should be considered to be home
ports. The commission had made another recommenda-
tion which he was at first disposed to adopt, but which
on further consideration he thought of deubtrul advan-
tage. The greater number of their lordships were perhaps
aware that by the statute of frauds, as it was called,
passed in the reign of Charles 11., no contract for the
sale of goods was valid unless made by note in writing,
or unless there was part performance or money paid on ac-
count. The law of Scotland was different in this respect,
and great inconvenience arose from the difference of law
on the borders of the two countries. The commission
had recommended this section 'if the statate of frauds
should be repealed ; and they were influenced in coming
to this conclusion by the statement of the Manchester
Chamber of Commerce, that the law was practically dis-
regarded, for that not one contract in a hundred was
made in writing. He (the Lord Chancellor) had, however,
recently received a communication from an eminent soli-
citor in London, stating that all contracts in London
were male in writing, and that any change would have
a very bad effect. It would be a matter for considera-
tion whether the recommendation of the commissioners
ought to be adopted ; if nut, the clause could be struck
out. Thera were one or two other points on which he
could not go along with the commissioners, but if it was
proposed to insert clauses in committee to carry them
out he would again consider the subject. In Scotland
any person over 14 years might enter into contracts in
trade to any amount. That might answer in Scotland,
but he was not prepared to extend the law to England.
There were some other of their recommendations which
would not be found in the bill. One was with regard to
the law of prescription in Scotland with respect to mer-
cantile contracts ; the law in that r katct was in a most
unsatisfactory state. The commissioners recommended
that the English rule of six years should be adopted, but
the Lord Advocate, on consideration, thought it would
not be advisable to make any alteration in
the law of prescription in this particular only,
her', he intended to introduce a general mea-
sure to regulate the law of prescription in
Scotland in all cases. There were also some peculiarities
in the Scotch law of evidence. Certain facts could be
proved only in a particular way ; but the Lord Advocate
thought this matter had better be omitted from these
bills. and he would deal with it in a general measure on
the law of evidence in Scotland. He would not further
detain their lordships with a detail of the various changes
proposed, but would move for leave to bring in the two
bills ; one was entitied, "Au Act to Amend the Laws
of England and Ireland relating to Trade and Corn-
ice-Tr," and the other, "An Act to Amend the Law of
Scotland relating to Trade and Commerce." He would
take the second reading in about ten days, and he would
then nievo to refer the hills to a select committee, in
which he hoped to have the assistance of such of their
lord ships :se took au interest in the subject.
Lord BROUGHAM entirely approved of the course
taken by his noble and learned friend in making a state-
ment on tbo introduction of these bills, because with re-
gard to the mercantile law especially it was desirable
that the attention of parties interested should be called
to the subject. With respect to the recommendations of
the commission, which formed the basis of the present
hills, some were fit to he adopted now, and all-were fit
to be well considered. In some respects the Scotch law
was better than the law of England, and in other re-
seects the law of England was superior to the law of
Scotland. He was sure that the assimilation of the mer-
centile law of the three countries would be a great relief
to the suloject.
Lord CAMPBELL expressed his strong disapproval
of the state of the kw of marriage in Scotland. The law
of England as regarded minors could not be assimilated
to that of Scotland, nor yet that regarding contracts by
married women, without the greatest possible inconveni-
ence. But he must say that Vie law regarding the trans-
fer of property in Scotland was noire simple and econo
mica' than that of England. But he repeated it was
especially desirable that the law of marriage in Scotland
should be altered. No man knew whether he was mar-
ried or not. No children knew whether they were
legitimate or not. Gretna Green was the place of uni-
versal resort. This state of things ought not to be suf-
fared to continue.
The hill was then read a first time and laid upon the
tebls