The Sun.
London, England, 1859-06-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVE G, JUNE 21, 1859,

THE NEW MINISTRY.

(From the korning Post.)
Although we believe that during the compara-
tively short interval which is likely to elapse be-
tween the present time and the prorogation of
Parliament, her Majesty's Ministers will have
little or no opportunity of introducing many of
those measures of domestic reform which they hold
to be necessary for the public benefit, still we think
the public will be perfectly justified in expecting
from their hands some performance of the promises
which the events of the last sixteen months neces-
sarily left them no chance of fulfilling. Whether
or not Parliament is to be prorogued in August—a
matter which will no doubt mainly depend upon
voting the supplies—the new Government must be
assumed to take office subject to all its former lia-
bilities and obligations. It is said that the internal
legislation of the country cannot satisfactorily pro-
gress during a time of European war. We trust
that her Majesty's Ministers will have the courage
and. the public spirit to give an emphatic and prac-
tical denial to this assertion. We will, in the first
place, deal with measures which are at the present
moment before Parliament. No one disputes the
urgent necessity of some measure on the subject of
bankruptcy reform. The measure of Lord John
Russell of last session has not been reintroduced,
but the rival bill of Lord Chelmsford has passed the
third reading in the House of Lords; and materials
undoubtedly exist for safe and satisfactory legisla-
tion on the subject. Will her Majesty's Ministers
ignore the matter altogether, or will they bring
forward the bill the general outlines and provisions
of which had been prepared at the time when Sir
Richard Bethell left office in February, 1858 ?
Next, there are the consolidation measures relating
to vaeious portions of the commercial law which
Lord Cranworth, Sir Fitzroy Kelly, and Mr. White-
side have severally introduced. One of these mea-
sures, in fact, comprises the very change respecting
the offence of conspiracy for murder which led to the
downfall of the Palmerston Administration. We
may add'the bill carefully drawn by Mr. H. Thriug
on the subject of joint-stock companies, which has
passed the second reading in the Lords. Her Ma-
jesty's Ministers, we say, would be guilty of a gross
neglect of duty if they did not proceed with this
mass of useful and practical legislation during the
present session. Butif we judge the new Government
by its former liabilities and obligations we find that
they are pledged to constitute a separate and inde-
pendent Ministry of Justice—the sine qua non of all
law reform—to convert the Inns of Court into a great
legal university, and to supply the many deficiencies
which the working of the Divorce Act during the
past year has made disgracefully apparent. They
have further to reduce to something like order and
simplicity the confusion worse confounded of our
statute and judge-made law. Measures on all these
subjects may be introduced, if not passed, during
the present session. An admirable plan for the con-
stitution of a Ministry of Justice was submitted to
the Cabinet by Sir R. Bethell early in 1857—a plan
the outlines of which the late Lord Chancellor of
Ireland explained at the last mectiug of the Social
Congress at Birmingham without acknowledgment
to its learned and acconiplished author. The con-
stitution of the Inns of Court as a great legal uni-
versity is a question which has been fully considered
by a Royal Commission. The Universities of Oxford
and Cambridge, by precisely the -same means, have
been subjected to the hand of temperate and mode-
rate reform, and materials exist for the improve-
ment of the Inns of Court which the new Adminis-
tration can easily manipulate. The inconveniences,
not to say the. scandals, which the law of divorce
has produced are fully appreciated by Lord Camp-
bell, who, with the self-reliance of a great judge,
has practically overruled the decisions of his brethren
on the bench, and sought to defeat fraud and collu-
sion by compelling the petitioner to give evidence
for the public. But the full Court of Divorce, over-
whelmed from its establishment by a mest formida-
ble and constantly increasing arrear, does' not pos-
sess a sufficient number of judges. The remedy is
obvious, andhas also the merit of being inexpensive.
Parliament has only to imitate the precedent set by
the act establishing the Judicial Committee of the
Privy Council, and to give an additional £l,OOO a
year to two ex-judges already possessing pensions,
to confer ample judicial strength and ability upon
the full Court. We do not say that any Govern-
ment, in two or three months, could hope to carry-
all these Measures to a successful issue. The coun-
try expects something in the way of domestic legis-
lation to be done, and we are persuaded that the
Government cannot make a better beginning than
by dealing with matters of law reform, in which
every member of the community has or may have a
direct and common interest. But if the cause of
law reform is to progress; the public will naturally
make some inquiry as to the competency of the
agents who are to be entrusted with the task, one
which happily soars far above the atmosphere of
party politics. The new Lord Chancellor, during
a long and distinguished career, has on many occa-
sions proved his efficiency as a law reformer. He
was one of the original Real Property, Commis-
sioners—he was a Criminal Law Commissioner—he
carried the act abolishing deodends, and the act
for the repression of obscene publications —he
cordially supported the measure which destroyed
the expensive but cumbrous machinery of special
pleading—we mean, of course, the Common Law
Procedure Act ;—and he has ever been the consis-
tent and enlightened advocate of a general system
of registration of title. We confidently believe
that his great experience and vast abilities will be
devoted with greater energy and effect than ever,
to the improvement of that law which, both as an
author and as a judge, he has with equal success
illustrated and administered. Sir. Richard Bethell,
the admitted head of the English bar, has given
too many proofs not only of his capacity but of his
zeal as a law reformer to require commendation at
our hands. We can only express our hope that
matters of the kind which we have mentioned will
engage the early attention of her Majesty's Mini-
sters, and that the legal authorities of the country
will act together, whether the session be 'short or
long, in introducing those domestic reforms which
the exigencies of the country require.
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CAPTURE OF EACI---:Er
Last week Mr. D. Rose,
gamekeeper to the Duke of Portland on his estate at Lang-
the rocks this season,
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keeper younagudgolsdealniev.aegaluesd,
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hE Ensign.
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notific Won regarding the Suez Canal. It conslisti
cir-
cular addressed by Scheriff Pasha, the Egyptian i
Mm. Bter
for Foreign Affairs, to all the Consuls-General, recapitu-
lating that it was expressly stipulated by the EgyptianGovernment that the cutting of the canal should not be
commenced without the authorisation of the Porte and
announcing that although the Viceroy has manifested great
interest in the enterprise, he has resolved not to tolerate its
progress under any pretext until that authorisation shall
have been obtained. The works actually going forward
are considered to be in violation of that understanding, and
the foreign consuls are therefore requested respectively to
warn such of their countrymen as may be engaged upon
them to desist forthwith, and not to force the Egyptian
Government to resort to direct measures of interference.