Star.
London, England, 1830-05-10 00:00:00

CHEAP LAW.

Great Britain is acknowledged as the most peerless
nation on which the sun ever shone, and amidst the gifts
which have been bequeathed to her by successive gene-
rations there is none for which she ought to be, and is
more fully grateful than the gradual and beneficial accu-
mulations of the law. Is there an individual in the na-
tion, however exalted his station, how humble so ever his
grade, over whom the law has not extended its capacious
stretch, and revered protection ? The peer in his ermine,
and the peasant in his fustian, have felt the omnipotence of
the law. The original wisdom of our legislative forefa-
thers graciously provided for us laws which succeeding
generations have most gloriously added to, until our sta-
tute books have become immeasurably vast, comprising
all the concentrated wisdom of ages, and terminating in
a burden which, like the Mosaic law of old, neither we,
nor our forefathers, have been able to bear. We were
in the early periods of our history essentially a priest-
ridden people; we are now, integrally and vitally, a laws.
ridden people. Law is the blood of the state. It per-
meates its arteries, gives life to the multitude, destroys
by its excess, and still flows on in the body corporate with
increasing and destructive vigour.
The labours of the Home Secretary have been whole-
somely directed to condensing the laws on certain
heads, but many are still imperfect and unsatisfactory.
In cleansing the Augean stable, the purification of one
stall is not perceived, whilst so many more remain yet
to be absterged. The motto of the ancient is much
to the point,
`• Nil amum mputana, at quid supaeseet agendum."

And Mr. Peel will confer a lasting benefit on his country
if he will apply his shoulder to the wheel and aid the weal
of the nation, by extricating the machine from the slough
of the law into which it has so deeply sunk.

The English (pet se) are a nation much attached to
the law. A people decidedly litigious. The poor inva-
riably go to law if they can. Litigation thrives amongst
us, from the encouragement which national inclination
affords it. " Taking- the law of a neighbour" is a delight
to an Englishman. It proves his right to independence.
It is the argument in favour of his " home being his
castle," that makes him litigious, consequential, and
ruined. Show him in a clue of a thousand threads, but
one end that can lead him to safe termination, and he will,
despite of the nine hundred and ninety-nine chances
against him, seise the first; on which he will rely with
full assurance, be mistaken, undone, and yet will argue
on his chances dimming, and adhere to law with never
yielding tenacity. He argues on his right to go to kw
as if that were a ground in his favour. He conceives that
his anxiety for law is indicative of a certainty of success ;
that because he goes to law, law must come to him, and
bring in its train undoubted success. Magna Charts
affirms that law shall be bought by none, be sold to none.',
" And under this idea an Englishman has recourse to
law upon every possible opportunity. Each man coa-
templates his own case through his own medium. He has
been injured ; injuries must be atoned for, and he goes to
law, when, if be be successful, he, in nine wiles out of,
tee, " gains a toes."
No better proof of the Anglo-litiga-mania can be
urged than the state of the Courts of Request—Cootie 01