The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-13 00:00:00

LEGAL REFORM.

Mr. NAPIER rose to move, " That an humble ad-
dress be presented to her Majesty, pray ing that she will
be graciously pleased to take into consideration, as an
urgent measure of administrative reform, the formation
of a separate and responsible department for the affairs
of public justice." But the noise occasioned by mem-
bers leaving the house, and the buzz of conversation
which prevailed for some time after the exciting seene of
personalities above reported, rendered it impossible to
gather even the purport of the right hon. and learned
gentleman's observations. Ho was understood to de-
plore the confusion, the inconvenience, and the inefficient
administration of justice, arising from the want of an
efficient central supervision of all matters relating to
judicial procedure, by some person armed with autho-
rity who should be in constant communication with the
judges and those who administered the law, to ascertain
what difficulties they experienced, and to suggest reme-
die3, and to devise and superintend the framing of acts
of Parliament, and the expurgation, classification, and
consolidation of statutes. The right hon. gentleman
proceeded to urge, that if we bad one department of the
State for taking charge of the details of legislation and
of the administration of the law, and it was properly or-
ganised, all that he had spoken of as defective in our
system would be remedied, and, just as you had a de-
partment of finance, of trade, of war, of the colonies, you
shoull have one of justice. Lord Bacon suggested that
there should be commissioners of both houses whose
business it should be to keep their eyes on the law. His
(Mr. Napier's) object was only to get something done, to
get an efficient remedy for the existing state of things, and
he was confirmed in the course proposed by the opinions
of many eminent men. The right hon. gentleman then
read I x racts from aspeech of Lord Langdale in 1836, and
also from the last speech the same noble and learned lurd
made in the House of Peers, in which he advocated the
appointment of a Minister of Justice; and especially
in alluding to the extension of local jurisdictions
by the establishment of the county courts, he said that
that that circuwstsnce had rendered more necessary both
the appointment of a Minister of Justice and the simpli-
fication of the law. Fortified by these opinions, and
also by that of the noble lord the member for London,
he (Mr. Napier) had thought it desirable to bring this
subject again before the house. The law of this country
was now in a transition state; and he believed that the
law had declined in public opinion. He therefore urged
the necessity of legal education ; the reform of existing
law and a better mode of law-making for the future, alt
carried out on the most enlightened principles. This he
believed could best be done by Parliament giving to the
country a separate department for the affairs of justice,
and he was sure that it would tend to give the law and
the administration of the law a better position iu the eye
boop
,eitjenheuemsi
ttpiacuwdebeall
eitcowa.
asked
NeeeNdi
wi
principleitfeh wgr
oeegi
nwagredrteoto
of his
hghtaohiivsenegomabnotj
oteoicof
thtniaiesiwaawi
tmhthhi cieaoh
ifiehtraesdrt
f
law, he would say that, •
con-
tinental name ? He did not care about the name—he
wanted the thing ; although, as ;regarded continental
hCe()111h munications he had had
with continental jurists,
learning,
like, let there be a department (for B".
andadthf?und that they were
Then another objection was on the s
with the best principles ilef; law knowledgee affair
ff a ir
of
justice.imbued
tehuenrttecaolfl
eixt
pwenhaset. you
e
any expense for the establishment of a really isiJoub.l grudge
hwaansceslaloidr ;t:batittyt i eta
fhswtcient de-
partmentdid not think, however, that the country
ohuel d in-
terfere
wi
with
bf
the
r justice.rights
tAgain, e itc
mat
ter now stood, it was admitted that the Chancellor
without such an organisation of a body of assistants as to
was
e nalsle him to perform the functions of a Minister ofJustice;
and, indeed, the Chancellor could not do everything. As
to interfering with theliQ)32o Secretary, si department of