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on this question has undergone any change, but it certainly was adverse to that here advocated. In his speech on Local Courts in 1830, after saying that he would have a jury to decide all cases of conflicting testimony, he added, but I would not have that verdict the verdict of the majority, for, paradoxical as it may seem, I would have a forced unanimity among the jury. 'Were it otherwise, there would never be that patient investigation which is necessary to come at the truth. There would be cries of "Question" such as are sometimes heard in larger ' and less judicial assemblies.' There is also the important question of our Bankruptcy Law, the present state of which excites such deep dissatisfaction in the mercantile and trading community; and no wonder when we consider the large proportion of every insolvent estate which is swallowed up in costs and percentages, not to mention the untenable distinction that exists between traders and non-traders as to the operation of the law. And a late notorious trial has furnished a strong argument in favour of those who insist that there ought to be a criminal Court of Appeal on questions of fact, which we incline to think might be safely established, if due care were taken to prevent the abuse of an absolute right of appeal, the effect of which would be that every capital case would be tried twice over. But we are free to confess that we see great difficulties in the way of such a measure, which we may, perhaps, take another opportunity of fully discussing. It is to be hoped also, that next session will see Bills brought in to regulate the transfer of land, and for quieting of titles, for the purpose of putting an end to the costly and cumbrous machinery of conveyancing as it now exists, and of making land a more marketable commodity. On one of the ancient bricks discovered at Nineveh, the cuneiform inscription is believed to be an Assyrian form of conveyance, and although we can hardly hope to reduce our forms to such narrow dimensions, we may beyond doubt effect a wonderful improvement in them both as regards simplicity and brevity. Then again, the important question of the mode of preparing Aots of Parliament must be dealt with; for it is a scandal and a disgrace that the following description of the process given by Lord Brougham in his speech on Law Reform in 1848, should still be the language not of satire but truth.

No system whatever, nothing approaching to systematic, is to be seen; all is random, all haphazard, all blind chance, all acting in the dark, without rule or guide, or compass or concert. The bills propounded have a twofold origin; they come from Boards or departments of the State, or they come from private individuals, whom, without any disrespect, I may term amateurs in legislation. But the Boards,

independent and separate, act without any concert or any communication whatever, are entirely ignorant of what the other is doing; each proceeding upon principles of its own, if principle any of them ever think of; each taking its own views of the same subject matter on which the other is composing law; each employing a phraseology of its own; all generally in collision, and often in conflict. . . The result of this habitual carelessness and want of system in the preparation of our laws might easily be foreseen. A mass has been engendered, in which the obscurity of darkness alternates with the glare of cross light, meagre explanation with inexcusable prolixity, repetition with omission, repugnancy with truism, a mass which, if it be not termed nonsense and contradiction, only escapes those epithets from the respect due to the venerable name of a Statutory Record.'

We could amuse our readers with many proofs of this, and with instances where even the venerable name of a Statutory 'Record' has not deterred judges on the Bench from declaring provisions of Acts, which they were bound to interpret, nonsensical and contradictory. But we have not space to spare, and we must pass on to the remedy, which, we are inclined to agree with Lord Brougham in thinking, can only be found in the establishment of a Board formed of skilful professional men,- not to super'sede, but to aid both Houses of Parliament in the preparation 'of Public Bills.' At all events it would be impossible to controvert the canons he lays down as essential to be observed in the framing of statutes. 1. A statute should never be made without a careful regard to former statutes, in pari materiâ. 2. One part of a statute should ever have regard to all its other parts. 3. Alterations made in passing a Bill should carefully be made, having reference to the parts that are left unchanged. And, in respect of the language in which they should be conveyed, it would be difficult to discover rules more apt and useful than the following, which will be found in the same speech, and some of which ought to be kept in view in every species of composition.

1. Always use the least equivocal and the plainest terms.

2. Never use a word which has two senses, without defining in which it is used.

'3. Never use the same word in two senses.

'4. Never use different words in the same sense.

5. Never assume as known what has not been expounded. '6 Never, if possible, enact by reference to another statute.

'7. If, to avoid greater prolixity, you must import another statute, regard carefully the text of the Act referred to.'

Closely connected with this subject are the questions of a Consolidation of the Statutes and a Code. With regard to the

necessity of the first there really can hardly be any difference of opinion. It is a work urgently required, and ought not to be any longer delayed. Our Statute Book is a tangled forest of legislation, in which, according to the old proverb, one cannot see the trees for the wood. None but the most experienced pioneer can hope to thread his way through the intricate labyrinth; and even he will be often lost in the brushwood of contradictory clauses, inconsistent provisions, and redundant and superfluous matter. What is wanted is a condensation of all statutes relating to the same subject into one or, if necessary, two Acts, framed upon the principles and in the language indicated by Lord Brougham, and a repeal of the previous legislation relating to it. This will be the starting point, and future alterations or additions can easily be made in separate Acts, until they become sufficiently numerous to justify a second total repeal, and the enactment of a fresh statute, framed upon the model of the former one. As to a Code, we doubt both its practicability and its expediency, for reasons which are generally lost sight of by those who advocate its adoption in this country. They forget that the English Courts never venture beyond the letter of an enactment. They expound the law, but never (at least in theory) extend it. We are not now speaking of the principles of the common law, which are elastic enough to admit of expansion without drawing upon the judges what they would consider the reproach of making law instead of declaring it, but of statute law: and no one at all conversant with the administration of justice in England, can fail to be struck with the jealous care with which our Courts confine themselves within the limits of written law. Their maxim is, jus dicere et non jus dare, and they do not stir a hairbreadth beyond what the legis lature has enacted. If, then, we had a Code,-that is, a written statutory record of the whole law, we should find the Courts trammelled by definitions and directions to which they would adhere with the most rigid exactness, but which would lead to many absurdities, and in not a few cases to a miscarriage of justice.

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But supposing the difficulty to which we have alluded not to exist, there are other objections which we think deserve considerable weight. A Code must at all events be interpreted and applied to the facts of each case as it arises; and the English law abounds in the nicest and most subtle distinctions, some of them so shadowy that it is almost impossible to abstract them from the special circumstances which gave rise to them, and embody them in a general rule. Hence occurs the necessity of voluminous reports of cases, in order that the practising

lawyer may see whether or not they can be distinguished from, or whether they have the authority of precedents for, the particular case on which he is called upon to advise. There must, therefore, necessarily spring up as an excrescence from the Code a body of commentaries and reports without which the Code itself would be sure to mislead, but with which the public would be no better off than they are at present. And, besides all this, the active work of legislation would be constantly going on, adding to, and altering or modifying the provisions of the Code, so that in a few years it would be impossible to rely upon it as an exposition of the existing law. We might multiply objections further, but we cannot at present pursue this interesting subject, and we shall conclude by quoting a passage from Lord Brougham's speech on law reform in 1848, in which he said, on referring to the convulsions which in that year were shaking other states to their foundations

'I have the most entire and undoubting confidence in the powers of our Constitution, and the loyalty, the virtue, and the courage of my fellow-subjects to sustain it. But the better the law is under which they live, the cheaper its administration to them, the closer its remedies are brought to their own doors, the plainer it is written for them to read, and the simpler to comprehend as digested, the more secure property becomes in the enjoyment, the easier to exchange and transfer, making it, as Blackstone says, answer more perfectly the purposes of civil life,-removing, as Locke hath it, the shoals and quicksands which beset the course of those who deal with it,-the better will our system deserve the people's love, with the more fervent loyalty will it be by them upheld, the more firmly nerved in its defence will be their gallant arms, the more inaccessible their honest hearts to the arts of all its enemies.'

These are eloquent words, but not more eloquent than true; and the effect of the legal reforms which have been accomplished within the memory of the present generation, has unquestionably been to perfect the noblest institutions of this country, and to strengthen the attachment of the people to the laws by which they are governed.

ART. VIII.-Souvenirs et Correspondance de Madame Récamier. Par Madame LENORMANT. 2 vols. Paris: 1859.

TH HE character and the life portrayed in these volumes are, in the strictest sense of the word, singular. When we regard the gifts, patent to all, with which Madame Récamier was endowed; the more subtle, and, we may say, unexplained, charm by which she won all hearts, as surely as her beauty attracted all eyes; her strange and unaccountable marriage, and the perils to which it exposed the object of so much passionate adoration; the strength and permanence of her friendships, or the influence which, without the smallest taste for, or (as far as we can see) attempt at, political intrigue, she exercised over the society of Paris, at a time when Paris was the willing slave of a tyrant, and that tyrant her avowed and relentless enemy,we come to the conclusion that she was singular in her nature, in her fortunes, and in the impression she made and left on those who approached her.

The book now presented to the world is due to the filial piety of Madame Récamier's adopted daughter (a niece of M. Récamier), Madame Lenormant, to whom she bequeathed her papers, and the charge of protecting her memory from the im pertinent intrusion of public curiosity and the rapacity of literary adventurers. We have not the smallest doubt that Mme. Lenormant has executed her delicate task with as much discretion and sincerity as it is possible to employ when dealing with the reputation of one so justly dear to her, and whose charming qualities have left their spell upon all who came under their influence. We cannot expect that the child of her love should enlarge upon her weaknesses. And, indeed, there are few people, except those actuated by a love of depreciation, who would not feel repugnance to handle roughly so delicate a creature, or to lay bare the faults of one who never was severe on the faults of others. It may be urged that no honest biography can be written under the influence of such feelings as these. This is true, and, accordingly, no honest biography is written, until the hearts that were interested in the subject of it are cold, until the affections cease to throw their veil or their halo round all that is doubtful and defective, or to bring into the fullest light all that is clear and admirable. And when that time comes, what is biography? Either it is cold and lifeless, or, if the biographer has been warmed by his subject, the enthusiasm of the author becomes as misleading as the love of the friend.

We are,

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