SUPERINTENDENCE OF LAW LEGISLATION.
IF no small 'Dart of the duties belonging tp the Legislature are eieentive, the Executive has also duties of legislation to perform. Lptithe machinery of Parliament be improved to the Utmost, and 'iv U 'Could have -neither prompt, regular, nor offiCial legislation, wittout an iniproycnient of the Executive. Haif. of. the failures tlffit: impede the useful measures demanded by common consent rritey be traced to the bad arrangement or bad organization of the Ektetitive departments. We are net speaking in censure of nadir, viclutile, but "pointing out the mischievous working of the perma- nefiteystera: We are not speaking upon abStrac?cases, but upon fa&teenly toe .much accumulated. -During the session just oilseed, many measures were hindered, injured, perhaps postponed' hide& nitely; in part or altogether through the want of adequate care and superintendence during the propets of -legislation. Take, for example, as one cif ihe freshest instances, the case to which Lord Brougham indignantly referred last week. The Bills of Exam* Bill may be said to have Originated with the mercan- tile-world itself; embodying,snggestions which came from all the centres of conitaeice, in this country, anximia to assimilate the law of England to that of Scotland and other •cOuntries, by intro- ducing the system of summary process on ,bills of. exchange. Latti Brougham took it in hand; it passed the House of Lords, anti Went down to the House of Commons on the 2d of June; -there it remained for a long While comparatively unno- ticed, but at last it was to come before the House in Committee on the 4th of August. Aleauwhile,: the resolution._ of the. House of Lords not to receive any bills from the Commons after the 25th of July had caused- some -Umbrage in the Lower Rouse; and there was:a-disposition, not concealed, • in the ease of this Bills of Ex- change Bill to revenge the sternness of the Lords by throwing out their tills in the Commons. The value of the tnessure had been recognized by Government, and certain private Members had set down notices of some sixty amendments; but net one of the Law- offiOere Of the Crown was i . n attendance to assist in perfecting and ca&Ying an important measure Which the Government patron-:
;The Attorney-General was spirited away from town by a spettial retainer; the Solicitor-General also was absent on some private business.. So, unsupported by official countenance, the bill, without a division, fell a sacrifice to prejudice, misrepresenta- tion and spite - - .
It was almostby a miracle that a -still more important. measure escaped the same fate. The Common-Law Procedure Bill had ad- vanced to its third reading in the House of Commons on one of the last days of the session, when everyhour had its appointed work and- an opportunity lest would be fatal. The Attorney-General was still absent on his money-making tour ; the .Solicitor-General was out of the way. The bill was believed to be in imminent peril. At last Sir Richard Bethell was in his place—just in time to assent to a compromise, by which an important part of the bill was lopped off; though the larger part was allowed to pass the Lower House, and ultimately to receive the Royal assent. Now this bill was one of which it is difficult to measure the importance by an- ticipation; its value, we believe, will be fully understood only by the actual working. It was in fact not only one but three import- ant measures combined. In twelve or fourteen of its sections, it took in nearly the whole of the Arbitration Bill of the lad two sessions removing many of the difficulties that have deprived that mode of justice of effective results. In about as Many more sec- tions it gives nearly the whole of the Evidence and Procedure Bill of last session. The whole had been the result of very great pains- taking, including the labours of a Royal Commission. The three bills were referred to a Select Committee of the Lords ; and partly in that Committee, partly in the Commons, the most important parts of each were incorporated in the Common-Law Procedure Bill of last week; and thus it became in fact a triple measure, each one of its great branches being of the utmost value. That bill is now an act of Parliament. As it stands finally, the law of evidence is im- proved, and the mode of examining witnesses reformed. Never again will such a scandal occur as that which we recently wit- nessed on the Western Circuit, where a respectable woman was sent to prison because her conscience forbade her to take an oath ; and thus, while she was subjected to punishment for conscience' sake, the parties to the case were deprived of her evidence. Among those provisions of the act which will be most valued by lawyers, and will secure most benefit to their clients, may be mentioned the extension of remedies by mandamus and injunc- tion; permission for two judges instead of one to hold sittings for the trial of causes in London and Westminster; permission for judges, by consent of parties, to dispense with juries in trying questions of fact; extension and facility of appeals ; power for courts to direct specific delivery of chattels ; ;power for judges to carry out the purpose's of this act in new rules and forms. The act sanctions the great principle o1. fusion by giving- equitable jurisdiction to courts of c9141:40,14 l*W.',., - The Pikrt. Whieh. in the haste of its handling in the Hour,o(Co mons it was, found necessary , to Sacrifice, was that which enab ed juries to :give their verdict Without absolute unanimity; ,,and, consequently, when the bill returned to the House of Lords,,the.nrovieuns au- thorizing juries to be discharged after keepingi them for twelve hours in consultation if they could not thenuagsiseto a verdict, was struck out ; the Whole subject of juries beseg,postpened till , next session. The bill, therefore, did not escispa entixe.through the trial to which it was put by the absences," theigrciwn lawyers; but sufficient did eacape to secure a largerimenennsiethsw:.reforna /
than ever before passed. Parliainelst at once.,„ t ii
Now there Must be sonip'ship!to',4at eFfSAIWW.Pegleet ef. duty :
j..../...q.,./ .01111.: •)■,,: i.
through which Such ivaproveraento Is we havehese„describing are , delayed, obstructed, and imperilled. . In stating„tim.,faot, we do- not make any personal charge against the occulantsi of the offices in question for pursuing their own interests, , Atircpt prevision is made for securing the exclUsiie dev,otaeA FiFicIPP104140us .atten- tion of the Law-officers to the. public. siervires,ffl Pe Attorney- General has, we believe, only _a; nominal, ,salmg i„his. refauttera- tion, like that -of the Solicitor-General, la, loaraea,, Both the Attorney and•Solicitor-General ire ineinhefgapA.,ithe political , party to which the Ministry of the dayili'ekongss,Jeth resign .. their plae,es on a. change of Ministry. Thetegunsia tprecalrkkua; , and if the remuneration by fees on patent; and, other,iperquisites,i is ample while it continues, it is lerhaps _noti,mece,,Ahan,,a,, very successful advocate can earn by nideppre;lea,t.,metieft.,, But. , surely, taking all the contingencies into gepplint.tAh; .teexii, ; neration is sufficient to justify even the most conscientious money- getter in relinquishing special retainers to pero uiti,e,a:TqFch he
,
i; morally undertakes by accepting office. The'.. . ite-se and a
lame one it is, is precedent. But if conscien ii • ' Cient to ,
keep the Law-officers Of • the Crown -kit their 'Peg' :i1 would be better to compensate them for :the 1200/. OtbtOltiliie they may - possibly make in the year by itiecial retaiiiki,., 'it .condition 'that --, they shall neverkaVe tONVii t1.-, the . Msitieff o rllanitent. It .' is not to the vigilance of the' Thir-offidera that e-',litifi'ilie passing ". of the Common-Law Procedure Bill, but tot l ' YiOnki who had • undertaken no duties in the iiiitter, and *IV* la.clOstted only by zeal for the'work of reform. " It will never be better," ex- ; claimed a Secretary of the Treasury to one of these law=refermers who saw the jeopardy in which the greatTneasnre was piasied,--" it will never be better until we have a Minister of Jtistice.' It cer- tainly will be no better' until theIaw Ministere,'WhateVer desig- nation they may bear, feel and fulfil the responsibilities of office when they accept the title and the fees.
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