persons the relief afforded by the County Courts, and which has been over and over again provided in those bills which I have so nearly carried, to complete the measure of 1831, but which the sons of Zeruiah, aided occasionally by the desire of prorogation, have as constantly defeated. I have, however, the most sanguine hopes that this, with the other great defects in our law relating to trusts of all kinds, including the quasi trusts of executors and administrators, will be removed by the important measures which may be expected to proceed from the Government, one of which the Attorney-General announced, touching the conduct of trusts, and the others of which I have reason to believe Sir Fitzroy Kelly is resolved to introduce for the establishment of a new court, with full jurisdiction in all questions of a testamentary nature, and all matters relating to the administration of personal estates of persons deceased. The mention of Next Session and of Sir F. Kelly gives rise to the statement of one or two important particulars.

"Wise by the experience of last year, the Government, as I have reason to know, are resolved to devote their best attention to the great subject of legal improvement ;-to make the next session, as it were, one of law amendment;-to have not only matured but fully prepared during the vacation the bills which they intend shall pass;-to select from the many which may be proposed such a limited number as they may reasonably expect to carry, after ample examination of all their details;-to have them introduced so early and pressed with such vigour as shall make the approach of prorogation no longer the terror of the law reformer, but only the prospect of needful repose after his labours, a repose sweetened by the reflection that those labours have not been in vain. We shall thus be spared the vexation of which the last session was so fruitful a source; and the interested adversaries of the most beneficial measures will no longer have the power of defeating, by the combination of a few individuals for their private ends, improvements upon which the great majority in Parliament, and almost the whole country, had set their affections.

"Of Sir F. Kelly I must say, that in all my experience of professional men, I have known no one who has made so great

sacrifices to what he deems, and most justly deems, a great public duty,—the furthering of well-considered improvements in our jurisprudence. In order that he may have more power of devoting himself to this most important pursuit, he abandons a large portion of his practice; and it is difficult to over-estimate the value of services so rendered by a person of his eminence at the Bar, of his abilities, and his experience. That he belongs not to our party, I regard as rather an additional qualification; for no one can doubt that he commands the confidence of the other, and there cannot be any, the least apprehension of his not securing the support of the Government to all his welladvised plans, just as fully as if he had been, to their great advantage, ranked among their adherents. When I name him as a singular instance of professional sacrifice, I refer to sacrifice of practice merely. Others have encountered great risks, and even sustained serious injury, in their advancement at the Bar, submitting to it voluntarily for their principles. But I distinctly state, that of those with whose history I am acquainted, no one-neither Romilly, nor Scarlett, nor Denman, nor myself—ever lost a brief by their parliamentary, or generally by their public conduct: I say nothing of Percival and others, who have come into office and into Parliament nearly at the same time. We all considered that our Profession was our first duty (as his business is of every labouring man), and we did not find that it interfered with the claims which the country had upon us. But I may add, that had Romilly's deeply lamented death not prevented the execution of the design, he had formed the resolution upon which Sir F. Kelly has now acted, and which could only be possible in the case of men so peculiarly circumstanced.1

"Among the Bills, the loss of which was the most generally lamented last session, must certainly be named that for amending the Law of Divorce. This, perhaps, was the greatest

1 It becomes necessary to keep these things in the mind of professional men, when we see the most absurd attempts made to inculcate the belief that lawyers cannot perform their duties as public men without relinquishing their business. There is no greater delusion, or one more injurious both to the State and the Profession, than the notion of the two functions being incompatible.

of all our disappointments; because the difficulty of carrying it through the Lords was always felt to be considerable; and it had happily passed through the ordeal of a Select Committee before it received the sanction of the House. That it applied a complete remedy to the evils so long and so justly complained of, cannot, indeed, be affirmed; but it was a very considerable step in the right direction, both by vesting the power of divorce in a regular Court, and by giving the wife a remedy in cases of cruelty and desertion, combined with the husband's adultery; whereas, by the present practice in Divorce Bills, it is more. than doubtful if any degree of cruelty will give that remedy, and quite certain that no desertion ever can. A most valuable addition will be made to the information obtained in the Committee of last session, by the result of inquiries made in France by the able and learned secretary of the Matrimonial Law Commission (Mr. Macqueen), during the recess. I have had access to his statements respecting the French law and practice as to separation and divorce, and I trust he may be induced to make them public before the commencement of the next session. On this important subject, of course I am aware that you and I hold somewhat different opinions; but there can be no difference whatever between us upon the still very grievous defects of our law respecting the rights of married women. It would really be a libel upon Parliament to suppose that a much longer time can elapse, before the law shall be freed from the shameful defect now so generally and so justly complained of. If the greatest blot upon our Criminal Law is the impunity which it gives to Breach of Trust, our Civil Law has no more revolting feature than the judicial blindness wherewithal it is stricken to the claims of Married Women. Let us, too, never forget that the consequences of both the one and the other of those grievous defects, fall chiefly upon those members of the community who are in humble circumstances, and lead the life of hard labour.

Another Bill was lost, not by the prorogation only, but by an adverse vote of the Commons, at which no one could either marvel or repine; for although the leaders of all parties in one House had, with a unanimity difficult to explain, joined in

supporting this strange measure, no one seemed ever to entertain any serious expectation of its passing. You will at once perceive that I can only allude to the scheme for relieving the Lords of their judicial duties, under the name of assisting them, by means of peers, some for life, some hereditary, who should receive five or six thousand a year for ten or twelve weeks' work, which several of us had been doing gratuitously for many a long year without a murmur of complaint. The clamour raised against us by certain of our own body, not the best informed upon the subject, by disappointed suitors, by ambitious members of the Profession, and by enemies of the Peerage, may, for anything I can tell, be well grounded on our demerits as a court of justice. As it arose suddenly, without the least previous complaint, it may very possibly subside as suddenly; and I believe those who mainly perform the judicial duties in the House, feel no great apprehension of their proceedings being a few months hence viewed with less confidence than has heretofore ever been reposed in them.

Although the great object of all who desire the Amendment of the Law, as well as of the Legislative Process-the formation of a Department of Justice-has been again denied us, we can hardly complain of the state in which this important subject has been left. For it is undeniable, and it is among the most valuable results of the session, that much progress was made by Mr. Napier in obtaining the assent of the Commons and the support of men possessing great authority with Parliament and the country; and the numberless errors and oversights in the Bills which passed (we need only instance the County Courts Act) worked most powerfully with him in showing the absolute necessity of having a department responsible for the conduct of parliamentary business.

"The further postponement of the bills for consolidating the Statute Law would be matter of great and just regret, were it not certain that at length the right course is taken for securing this most important object; and whoever has read Sir F. Kelly's statement must feel assured that we shall at length have the inestimable benefit of a complete Digest both of the Common and 1 Lord J. Russell at the head of them.

VOL. II. NO. III.

Statute Law. He may be sanguine in his estimate of the time required for passing the portion which has been begun, and is, indeed, in an advanced state of preparation; but I think it now clear that within a reasonable period we shall be in possession of a Code, not only to make the existing laws thoroughly known by those who administer as well as those who are required to obey them, but to afford the best and the safest means of amending and improving them.1

"But if our legislation is hampered and crippled for want of a Digest or Code, it is absolutely paralyzed by the want of accurate and systematic information touching the operation of the laws already in force; and still more, of those changes which we are constantly making in their provisions. This is the only country, under a regular government, which is wholly without a system of Judicial Statistics; and when I brought the subject before the Lords early in last session, I found even well-informed persons unable to perceive the necessity of such information being regularly provided. It is most satisfactory to observe, that in consequence of the question being fully discussed, especially out of doors, the opinion now prevails very generally for supplying, without delay, this great want, and no longer suffering the lawgiver to steer his course, if not in the dark, and without any observation, yet without a compass, and often on an unknown coast. Men perceive that in France and Germany, and even in Italy, the amplest means are furnished of ascertaining with minute particularity the practical effect of every new ordinance of the lawgiver, and the defects in the existing laws; while in England there is no such criterion provided; and we must trust to the mere accident of some motion being made in either House, with a particular view, in order to obtain even the means of guessing at what has been the working of any new law, civil or criminal; how far it may have accomplished its object; and how far this object may by experience have been proved to be as desirable as it was originally deemed. Until

A step by no means unimportant was made towards consolidation during the last session, in the Sleeping Statutes Repeal Act; the credit of which is due to Mr. Locke King, and also the committee of the Law Amendment Society, of which he was chairman. It repeals 118 statutes, ranging from Edward I. to George III.