The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-18 00:00:00

THE -IRMY.

Major-General Peel, Secretary of State for War,
is expected to visit the camp at Colchester in the
course of the present week.
Orders were issued on Saturday for alternate
companies of the different regiments of Guards to
proceed monthly to the eamp at Aldershot for rifle
practice.
On Saturday orders were issued for further rein-
forcements of draughts of regiments serving in
India, to the number of 1,200, to be held ready to
embark the first week in November. All these
troops will proceed to India via the Cape of Good
Hope.
Detachments left the camp at Colchester last week
to the extent of seven officers and 356 rank and file
for service in India. The destination of the d3tach-
ments is Calcutta. The draughts were drawn from
the following regiments :—Two officers and 40 rank
and file, sth ; one officer and 23 rank and file, 6th ;
one officer and 60 rank and file, 34th ; 25 rank and
file, 37th ; 20 rank and file, 38th ; two officers and
60 rank and file, 54th ; one officer and 50 rank and
file, 56th ; 38 rank and file, 88th ; and 40 rank and
file, 97th.
The entire battalion of the Chatham division of
Royal Marine Light Infantry were on Friday
marched to the square at the rear of the barracks,
agreeably to garrison orders for the purpose of wit-
nessing the infliction of corporal punishment on
Private Samuel Smith, attached to the 25th com-
pany, who had been tried by, district court-martial
and found guilty of the serious offence of having
assaulted a non-commissioned officer of the battalion
by striking him a violent blow in the face with his
clenched fist; and afterwards breaking out of
Melville Hospital, in which he was a prisoner
patient awaiting his trial by court-martial. The '
Court found the prisoner guilty, and, in considera-
tion of his general character having been bad since
he has been in the division, sentenced him to re-
ceive 50 lashes, and also to be imprisoned in the
military prison at Fort Clarence for 84 days. The
battalion having been formed into a square, the sen-
tence passed on the prisoner was read to the troops
by Adjutant Elliot, when the prisoner was imme-
diately fastened to the halberds and the punishment
inflicted in the usual manner. Tne prisoner was
afterwards removed to Melville Hospital, and in a
few days will be sent to Fort Clarence to undergo
the remainder of his sentence. The infliction of
corporal punishment is of very rare occurrence in
the Chatham division of Royal Marines.
On Saturday morning a telegraphic message from
the Admiralty was -received at the head-quarters
of the Chatham division of the Royal Marine Light
Infantry, directing the immediate embarkation of
the detachment of officers and men ordered the pre-
vious day to be held in readiness to proceed to
Sheerness. Within an hour after the receipt of the
order the required number of officers and men
marched to the dockyard, preceded by the divisional
band, and embarked on board two steamers that had
arrived from Sheerness for their conveyance. The
number of Marines that left head-quarters were
8 sergeants, 2 buglers, and 190 rank and file, to-
gether with the following officers, viz.:—Lieut.-
Col. W. H. March, Captains G. B. Heasby and J.
H. Parry, and Lieatenants W. Taylor, A. C. J.
M‘Meekan, J. R. Mascall, and J. Cairncross.
The sum, realised by the grand military bazaar
which was held at Chatham garrison on Thursday
and Friday, in aid of the funds of the Association
for Improving the Condition of the Wives and
Families of. Soldiers and Sailors,' exceeds £3BO,
which amount, after deducting the expenses in-
curred, will be handed over to the committee of the
association.

Since the hop-picking and harvest operations
have been brough. t to a close recruiting. is proceed-
ifig very briskly in the several recruiting districts,
the number of men enlisting being at the rate of
about 1,500 per week, which number is steadily in-
creasing. During the past week nearly 300
*emits have been received at Chatham alone
chiefly from the London, Bristol, and Liverpool dis-
tricts, the whole of whom have been draughted into
the East India depots attached to the three batta-
lions of infantry at that garrison. The recruits are
for the most part a finer body of men than have
been enlisted for some time past, and will make
excellent troops for India.

The Lancashire Militia MILITIA
Artillery, stationed at
"osPort, is under orders to proceed to Dover on
Monday next.
The Hampshire Militia Artillery, stationed at
Gosport, will proceed to Plymouth on Monday next,
and will be replaced by the Waterford Militia
ArtillerY.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE
PROMOTION OF SOCIAL SCIENCE.

LIVERPOOL, OCT. 16
This morning, the concluding meeting of the con-
gress was held in the Concert Theatre—Lord J.
RUSSELL presiding.
The noble lord announced that the Lord Chan-
cellor of Ireland had not been able to obtain the
Government document necessary to his leaving Ire-
land in time to attend the meeting, but he had sent
his paper, which he (Lord John) would now read.
The paper was read as follows :
THE IRISH LORD CHANCELLOR'S ADDRESS.
In proceeding to open the section of jurispru-
dence, I have gratefully to acknowledge the honour
conferred upon me by the committee in selecting
me to be president of this, the first department of
social science. The place which has been assigned
to jurisprudence cannot but magnify mine office; it
assuredly furnishes a conclusive and crowning tes-
timony in favour of a separate and responsible de-
partment of administration for the affairs of public
justice. You are aware of the address to her Ma-
jesty the Queen, which, by the judicious and effi-
cient support I received from the noble lord, the
president of this association, was caried in 1857, by
a unanimous resolution of the House of Commons,
and to which a very favourable reply was promptly
returned to the house—a reply most gracious and
truly responsive, but there the movement ceased.
Lord Bacon has wisely observed that " propositions
have wings, but operation and execution have
leaden feet." We must melt them, if they will not
move. The same great authority has said that " the
establishing of good laws makes a whole nation to
be a well-ordered college or foundation." It is there-
fore a matter of great public consequence that our
laws should be kept in harmony with the progres-
sive spirit of this free nation ; they ought to bear
the impress of the age in which we live, and be
truly worthy of the public justice of a wise and un-
derstanding people. The progress of a people in
the great onward movement of humanity might be
supposed to lead to the reduction rather than to the
increase of their laws ; it might be expected that
men would be constrained by laws written in their
minds and hearts, so as to dispense with many po-
sitive commands and prohibitions. This is relatively
true. But, on the other hand, the conventional ar-
rangements of a growing civilisation call for the
frequent interference of authority, and in meeting
the demands of new combinations of society, and in
adapting the ancient laws to the growing wants of
an inventive age, a great work is to be done in the
department of jurisprudence, a work worthy of being
well and wisely done ; not to be done at any time
under sudden pressure or impulse, for then it may
be ill-considered and improvident ; nor ever to be
done in the niggard spirit of a stingy concession,
for then it may rather minister to discontent than
to social improvement. It must be done generously,
efficiently, and responsibly. The present chaotic
condition of our laws, I must, at the outset, say is
a grave reproach to so great a nation. In saying
this I do not mean to suggest that we have not
good laws ; on the contrary, I am satisfied that we
have many which are not unworthy of their cornice-
tion with that universal law so beautifully described
by Hooker—" Her seat is in the bosom of God, her
voice the,harmony of the world." And let me say
further, and I say it with a thankful and hopeful
spirit, that in the last 30 years much, very much,
has been done in the great work of law amendment;
in the repeal of obsolete and apocryphal enactments ;
the improvement of judicial procedure, both by in-
creasing the speed and reducing the cost of obtain-
ing justice; in the establishment of local courts, and
the awakening public attention to the gradual im-
provement of our entire system of jurisprudence.
Much of this has been brought about by the energy
of those master spirits (I speak both of the living
and dead), not ministers, but high-priests of justice;
men who, in the good providence of God, have been
raised up from time to time, and have imparted liv-
ing power and loftier views, and clearer intelligence
to public opinion ; to that which, in the end, must
test and discriminate, and separate the true from
the false, reject what is unsuited for immediate use,
but absorb what is in keeping with the Sensus Com-
munis—that nourishes the real life and accords with
the inherent laws which govern the progressive de-
velopment' of society. Of these master-spirits one
is here amongst us Henry, Lord Brougham ; and if
I say of him in this place what I have said of him
in the House of Commons, it is because this is
stereotyped in the deep conviction of my heart. He
has sped his eagle flight against the dazzling blaze
of science with an eye that never winks, a wing
that never tires, an eye not dim, nor his natural
force abated ; with all the honours of his long and
useful life, in which he has won so many battles in
the cause of jurisprudence, we have him now, with
the unabated energy of youth and the natural expe-
rience of age, helping forward the work of this
great National Association,
Proesentes tibi viventi, largimur honores.
The business of this section is directly connected with
the improvement of our laws—their amendment,
their administration, under our judicial system ;
and as there are certain subjects of great practical
importance which have obtained, as I may say, a
right of pre-audience, I think I may properly and
with advantage proceed to direct your thoughtful
attention to one or two of these that are peculiarly
interesting to us at the present time. In the last
session an act was passed for constituting in Ireland
the new court, to be called the Landed Estates Court.
In the year 1849, under the auspices of our noble pre-
sident, the Encumbered Estates Court was estab-
lished. In 1852, the present Lord Justice of Appeal,
whose practical wisdom and sound sense may well
be classed with a high order of genius, came to the
conclusion that it was not only anomalous but un-
just to withhold from a decretal title in the case
of a sale of land under the order of the Court of
Chancery, the conclusive character which has been
given to a sale under the order of the Encumbered
Estates Court. A bill was subsequently introduced
by the present Attorney-General for Ireland and
myself to give effect to this opinion, which has
had to go through the stages and seasons of seed
time, growth, ripening, and reaping—but at last,
the recent act of the Attorney-General for Ireland
—" monumentum are perennius"—has:provided "a
local habitation and a name" for a court in which
every owner of land in Ireland may have his title
certified and made indefeasible. An admirable
code of procedure for the working of this court has
already been *pared, and I believe it will furnish
a satisfactory solution of the difficult question which
has for some time attracted public attention, viz.,
how to simplify the transfer of land, with complete
security of title, and without disturbing the settled
foundations of property. This is a subject upon
which we can now happily bring together the
teaching of knowledge and the testimony of expe-
rience. We have thoroughly tested the working
of the system now stereotyped in Ireland, and we
have the valuable and elaborate report of the recent
commission for England, which was presided over
by my esteemed friend and colleague, Mr. Walpole,
under whose watchful superintendence and by
whose assiduity the report was completed. In deal-
ing with the laws of property in a country whose
social system is consecrated to order and freedom,
we must proceed with cautious circumspection. It
is, doubtless, an easy matter to talk vaguely on
making land a commercial commodity, and dealing
with broad acres as with bales of merchandise. The

practical solution is quite another matter. The
question was put to Lord St. Leonards when he at-
tended as a witness before a committee of the House
of Commons, of which I was the chairman. He was
asked by a very zealous reformer, " Why can't you.
deal with land as with railway shares ?" " So you
may," replied his lordship, " if you choose to ignore
all the uses of land in our social system, but if these
are to be preserved, the difference and the difficulty
exist in the distinctive nature and use of the things
compared." In truth, the common course of society
furnishes the most intelligible explanation. When
industry or providence has accumulated capital, an
investment in land is generally sought, not for
commercial gain, but for social repose—for
the' position and the privileges which belong
to fixed property. Land has its local limits ; it is
not capable of extension. Commerce is co-extensive
with the wide world. Land has its system of tenan-
cies, its various easements, its subordinate estates
and interests, its incumbrances and charges, its local
duties which accompany its acquired rights. Its
code of laws is more or less incorporated with the
delicate arrangements of family life. Is there any
subject which ought to be touched with a more
cautious hand ? Can we then preserve the settled
uses of property, and yet provide liberally, in the
present exigencies of society, for the wants which
arise out of the changes which naturally, if not ne-
cessarily, result from the increase of commerce and
the growth of manufacturing industry. ? Can this
be done safely and satisfactorily ? The legislature
has already conceded to railway companies the right
to purchase land, and render their title indefeasible
by lodging the purchase money in a court of equity.
The notoriety of the transaction and the supervi-
sion of the court were supposed to be a sufficient
security for the rights of persons not privy to the
sale. Public convenience thus required, and the
Legislature thus conceded, what has become a Par-
liamentary title. Again, in Ireland it became a mat-
ter of great public policy to have encumbered estates
purchased by solvent proprietors, who might be ex-
pected to discharge the duties correlative with the
rights of property, and therefore it was of great con-
se luence in each case of a sale to clear the title and
free the property from its charges. This led to the
gradual formation of a suitable procedure, by means
of which titles were subjected to a sufficient scrutiny,
to enable the final conveyance to be made with an in-
defeasible title, and this has been found to be as safe
iri practice as it was desirable in theory. The con-

veyance is simple in its form and conclusive in its
essence. The actual working of the system was the
subject of special inquiry before a very competent
commission of learned men of both countries, and
afterwards before the select committee of the House
of Commons in 1856, by both of which it was re-
commended that the principle and the procedure
should be extended to the sale of unencumbered
estates. One further step was needed, namely, to
include the case of persons not seeking a present
sale but to whom it might be a benefit to obtain a
judicial declaration of good title, which might be
registered, and so made indefeasible. This step has
at last been taken by the recent act. This class of
titles will be subjected to the same process of in-
quiry and to the same publicity as in the case of a
sale ; and although this was. considered by some as
a bold advance, yet, when it is remembered how
the former act was evaded in order to bring unen-
cumbered properties within its operation, in order
to obtain a benefit which adds about 4 years' pur-
chase to the marketable price ; when it must be ad-
mitted to be essentially unjust, and therefore im-
politic, to depreciate to this extent property not
actually in the market, but the owners of which
may at any time have occasion to sell or to wort-
' gage, when the delay in obtaining an indefeasible
title might not only be inconvenient but injurious ;
and as evasions by colourable sales to trustees with
secret trusts would be resorted to to bring cases
within the letter of the act, it may be now conceded
that the plain, straightforward course was the best,
to include all within. the plain provisions of the
new law. By the imposition of a very moderate
duty, regulated according to a graduated scale, a
fund will be realised, which, together with the in-
vestment of other moneys that would otherwise be
unproductive, will render this court not only a per-
manent boon to the landed interest, but a benefit
instead of a burden to the consolidated fund. This
has grown out of a kind of bankruptcy code for
landed estates, and. this naturally, leads to the
subject which has specially occupied the atten-
tion of this section, I allude to the proposed
amendment of the English bankruptcy law. It
does seem to be most desirable to attain to the
utmost practicable uniformity in the laws of com-
merce, and to begin with the attempt to assimi-
late the commercial law of the United Kingdom. It
may be that this must await the formation of a
department for the affairs of justice ; and for the
present we must make the most of the materials at
our disposal. In bankruptcy we, have a sepa•
rate code in each of the three countries. I am happy
to say that the new code recently constructed for
Ireland works satisfactorily. In the last report of
the Chamber of Commerce of the City of Dublin it
is stated that the new law, " under the able and
judicious administration of the court, has proved of
the most important advantage to the public. Under
its operation the expenses of bankruptcy have been
considerably lessened, the proceedings of the court
have been expedited, the power of the selfish cre-
ditor has been curtailed:;" and the report adds that
just provision has been made both for relieving the
unfortunate and punishing the dishonest and reck-
less trader. There are still difficulties to be over-
come in checkmating fraud and contrivance, and
calling in aid the intervention of official duty where
private interest cannot be brought into efficient'ac•
tion. But as we must proceed upon the facts of your
own actual requirements in England, and as I am
rather disposed to be a listener than a lecturer on
the English code, with which I am not familiar, I
will reserve for the discussion to-morrow such hints
as have been supplied by the very competent and
esteemed judge of the Irish Bankruptcy Court,
whose administration of the bankrupt law for so
many years has so much contributed to its efficient
working. I come now to a subject in which
I have for some time felt a great interest—the
consolidation and amendment of our criminal laws.
Commission after commission has reported, select
committees have inquired, a code has been digested,
bills have beenproposed—a succession of dissolving
views before Parliament and the country. But lam
bound in common justice to say that much has thus
been done in preparing and providing, in separat-
ing and classifying most valuable and available
materials, which are now ready for the builder's
use. A great work had been done by the late Sir R.
Peel in reducing to order and system the chaos of
criminal law. His acts for England were followed
up by corresponding acts for Ireland, with fewer
variations ; and the criminal statutes of a later
period are generally imperial. It is of the very
highest policy to assimilate the law of England and
Ireland to the utmost practicable extent ; and as
the legal scavenger and the rubbish cart must be
freely employed in cleansing and clearingthe statute
hook, for Ireland as for England, it is not too, much
to expect that any plan of consolidation and
amendment which Parliament may adopt and
the country may sanction will remove all the'
rubbish, and make use of the best mate-
rials -which can be selected from the statutes of
either country, in order to construct an imperial
code for the common benefit of both. In thus deal-
ing at this time with the construction of the code
of criminal law, we may test the practicability of
further assimilation. It may become a question
for Parliament to decide, by resolution or otherwise
authoritavely, in which form the work should be
done to render it finally acceptable. Some earnestly
contend for repeating in the new law the very
words of the old enactments, with all the jargon of
the Old Bailey. Others more rationally suggest
that a new code should be framed, in the most
exact but plain language ; what was doubtful
should be made clear, what was defective should be
supplied ; and, for this purpose, we should turn to
account authentic judicial decisions ; in a word,
that we should avail ourselves of all the light and
all the information within our power to command,
and use our best efforts to make the law consistent
with the present state of opinion, and to have ex-
pressed with grammatical accuracy, and as a model
for the consolidation and amendment of the
entire of our statute law. I must say, I am
entirely of this opinion, and am prepared to
defend and to enforce it whenever called upon to do
so. It is high time to be delivered from the bond-
age of such mischievous, because unjust, classifica-
tion of crime as felony and misdemeanour, and all
the kindred verbiages. Why should we have the
most important differences in the procedure for the
trial of a felony, which is in substance a misde-
meanour, and of a misdemeanour, which is in sub-
stance a felony, if by these terms we designate the
essence- of the crime? And if we do not, why is
the obsolete and unjust distinction to be perpetuated ?
Instead of these let us have a sound and rational
classification of punishments ; and here we are re-
quired to make up our minds upon a very solemn
question, which now awaits decision—whether we
are to retain on the statute book, as a punishment
of any crime under the degree of treason, by which
human life is not murderously taken away—whe-
ther we are to continue in this class of cases the
punishment of death ? I cannot touch upon this
topic without a feeling of deep, thankful-
ness to God that so much of our law that was
once written in blood is in the course of being
gradually replaced by a humane reformatory
system. There is, perhaps, no point of comparison
between the past and the present more interesting
to those who mark with gladness the progress of
society, than the change in the Moral sense—the
public conscience in reference to the punishment of
death. The sacredness of human. life is of the es-
sence of religious truth. The unnecessary retention
of the punishment of death in any one class of crime
is not only a foul stain upon the statute book, it is
constructively, at least, a capital offence in the Le-
gislature itself. There may be-7I believe there is a
voice within—which in the case of a clear convic-
tion for wilful murder ratifies the sentence of the
law, and recognises expiation in the capital punish-
ment. But where life has not been taken—where
the intent has been frustrated by providential inter-
ference—it is an intimation to us that human
justice is to be so far moderated by an overruling
Providence, and we should follow the merciful sug-
gestion. I believe that such a view, if adoptedin our
land, would be consistent with the profound convic-
tions of the wisest and best of our people, conducive
to public morality, and expressive of the attainment
of another stage in the march of civilisation. If,
then, this question of classifying punishment were
decided, and the appropriate, class allocated to each
specified crime—and if the work of consolidation
and amendment would embody the conclusions of
Parliament on the classification of crime and punish-
ment, and the new law be framed after the manner
I have already suggested—l do not believe that the
apprehension would be realised which some enter-
tam, that the controversy on the new phraseology
would in effect defeat the project. I think this is a
libel on the Legislature, and I would add that if
this limited project could not be thus completed, I
would altogether despair of any general assimilation
of the law of England and Ireland, and of any
amendment of the statute law of either country that
would satisfy public expectation, or be in any sense
worthy of the occasion. But lam not disposed to
take a desponding view of a work which has become
national. We have had of late years a great im-
provement, wisely though tardily effected, in the
procedure of the superior courts of law and equity.
It is, doubtless, easier and safer to remodel the
remedies which a system of law admits, than to in-
terfere with the rights which it confers. This species
of reform comes into speedy and general operation
without disturbance or confusion. It is about 15
years ago, when I was engaged in. arguing a case
at the bar of the House of Lords, and in speaking
of a decision of the very eminent lawyer then Lord
Chancellor of Ireland, I said it was made in the
hurry of the Court of Chancery. Lord Brougham
replied, "We never talk of the speed of a broad-
wheeled waggon." At present how great is the
change which has been wrought. Properties which,