LAW REFORM.
Two projects of law reform have been announced this week. They emanate from very different men. The one comes from a courtier and no lawyer, the other from a lawyer and no courtier. The one is addressed to the House of Commons, which has at least the power, if it can be persuaded to exercise it, of reforming what has been so long complained of; the other is addressed to suitors in Chancery, who retain something of the same power and freedom that is left to a little, weak, trembling fly, by the meshes and mandibles of a great black bloated spider. The author of the Parliamentary plan is a gentleman whose labours in law reform have hitherto been rather aiming at good than producing it—whose amendments have been framed after the model of Government retrenchments, which issue in the abatement of a few petty evils, leaving the great overgrown nui- sances untouched. The author of the extra-Parliamentary plan is one who, to the liveliest affection for his fellow countrymen, unites the clearest apprehension of the nature and extent of their sufferings, the most fertile imagination to discover, and the soundest judgment to apply its proper remedy to each. The former—the Right Honour- able ROBERT PEEL,—possesses undoubted talent! long exercised in business ; and in his noble stand last session against the enemies of liberal principles, he displayed a comprehensiveness and magnani- mity of intellect with which few even of his friends had supposed him endowed. The latter—JEREMY BENTHAM—who writes no honourable or right honourable before his name, "who holds the patent for his honours, (not from men of deputed power) but, immediately from Al- mighty God" a man of Baconian understanding, and of more than Baconian honesty—the only lawyer, the only politician, who in modern times has brought to the task of particular and general reform the learning and the logic adequate to its due performance. At present we can merely give the heads of these two plans ; and we shall, as bound in courtesy, give the secretary the precedence. In consequence of that marvellous speech of Mr. BROUGHAM'S which stands an unapproached monument of oratorical labour, two Par- liamentary Commissions were appointed,—one to examine into and report on proceedings at Common Law, the other on the Law of Real Property ; a third was appointed by the Crown to examine into Ec- clesiastical Law. The Common Law Commission has already pre- sented one report, which relates principally to the despatch of busi- ness, and to certain technical amendments in the present method of commencing suits. The second report, which we are given to under- stand will be presented in a few days, is more important, and goes more to principles. It recommends, 1st, the granting to Common Law Courts certain summary and equitable powers, with a view to supersede unnecessary appeals to Chancery ; 2d, the verification of written documents before trial ; 3d, the compulsory reference to arbi- trators of all cases of account,—a change, we may remark, which, un- less the arbitrators be more discreetly chosen than they are at present, will be anything rather than an improvement ; 4th, the abridgment and simplification of the forms and language of pleas. The Real Pro- perty Commission has also presented one report, and another is nearly ready. The effect of these, and of the other reports to be made, will be to put Parliament and the country in possession, in an accredited shape, of the state of the law and its administration, as well as of the suggestions of the several Committees for its alteration. The imme- diate object of Mr. PEEL'S present measure is to facilitate, by bill, the future labours of the Commissions, and to lay the groundwork for ameliorations in the law, by regulating the appropriation of fees re- * Burns. ceived by persons holding patent offices. For all our attempts, in this blessed country, to get into the elysium of common justice, must be pre- ceded by a sop to the clamorous and insatiable monster that keeps the gate, and whose treble powers of noise and swallow may sync as a type of legal janitors, patented and unpatented, from the Creation down- ward. Another object of Mr. PEEL'S bill is to provide, that no officer appointed after a certain day—an early one—shall have any claim to compensation on account of alterations in his particular court. Thus the amount of remuneration claimable by persons already appointed will be astertainek and all future claims will be cut off ; so that tins dead weight will be, in reality, what the other dead weight was pro- mised to be, a diminishing tax. The average of the last ten years will be taken as the rule, and, the fees being received ad interim by Commissioners, the remunerations will be paid out of the fund so found. As the annuitants fall off, the fees will be abolished ; or, if it be found expedient, they may be immediately modified or com- muted. Mr. PEEL proposes also the immediate abolition of Welsh local judicatures, and the placing of the counties of the Principality on the same footing as the counties of England. The Welsh Jadges at present.may sit in Parliament ; an anomaly which has long and justly been complained of. The Commission recommend the addi- tion of two or three more Common Law Judges ; and they give as a reason for an addition to, rather than a distribution of the existing numberethat in doubtful cases a less majority than three to foal- would be injurious ! ergo, there must be four judges on one bench, one to judge, and three of them to lie by for doubtful cases ! Mr. PEEL has moreover stated his intention to provide for the limitation of a Judge's salary in future to 5,000/. instead l of 5,500/. ; and to consolidate in the course of the session the laws touching coining and forgery. In Scotland he proposes to incorporate the Jury Court with the Court of Session, to abolish the separate jurisdiction of the Admiralty Courts, and to reduce the number of the Barons of Exchequer to two. He is not sure if the number of Lords of Ses- sion can be reduced ; indeed, by adding Lord Chief Commissioner ADAM to the Court, it will be increased. Why Scotland, with a population of two millions, should require eighteen judges, and England; with a population of twelve millions, should require only twelve judges, we do not pretend to determine. Such are the heads of Mr. PEEL'S intended law reforms ; which he announced in a speech distinguished, as all his business speeches are, by sound sense, straightforwardness, and admirable moderation.
Now for Mr. BENTHAM. The plan of the philosopher is by no means so multifarious as that of the secretary. His proposal is to erect for a limited number of years, and with a view to a fair trial of its practicability, an Equity Court, in which a summary process, as con- tradisting,uished from the dilatory one named the regular, shall be eniployed, for the adjudication of cases now pending in one or other of the Equity Courts. His plan is addressed to honest and afflicted Chancery suitors, in gaol and at large; and it is not his wish that its benefits should extend except to those who feel their afflictions and honestly desire relief. Mr. Beerrisasi offers—gratuitously, we need scarcely add.'—his talents in drawing the bill, and his influence in getting it passed, to all of the class which he addresses that may think proper to signify the acceptance of his services. He has pre- pared the form of a petition to his Majesty, setting forth in general terms the nature of the Court, which will be given to all such suitors as are Unable to purchase it,. and eels' to those who are. Into the particulars of the "Equity Despatch Court" it Would be impossible for us to enter, unless we had space to tell over in our weaker lan- guage what Mr. BENTHAM has already told in his "Proposal," and more at large in his "Justice and Codification Petitions," in his own peculiar and nervous style. We may, to the general reader, however, present some tolerable idea of it, by stating it to be a Court of Arbitration, in which the judge is chosen by a majority of the parties in a number of suits, instead of being nominated by the parties in one suit ; the principal difference being in the enlarged powers of the arbitrator judge in his progress towards determination, and the definitive character of his judgments. To enable him to ascertain the nature of the suits brought before him, he will have the description of his case by each petitioner engrossed in the petition, and he will be entitled to examine the solicitors on both sides for additional lights. The hearing of a cause will be determined by priority of application, or, in case of simultaneous applications, by lot. The process will commence by an examination of all the parties, in each other's presence. In an amicable suit, such an exami- teflon will generally put an end to the plea ; where the suit is not amicable, this plan will at least abridge in a wonderful degree the delay and difficulty of obtaining answers to interrogatories. All notices will be given by post, and the only proof of notice neces- sary will be the putting of the letter into the office. Parties and witnesses will be compelled to give their addresses, in order to enable the Court and others to comply with this simple and efficient mode of doing business. The first examination, we have said, will be oral ;. but the ulterior examinations necessary in the suit may be oral or epistolary as suits best with the convenience of the parties and the witnesses. In the Despatch Court, the expense of evidence will of course be borne by the parties, but it will be made exceedingly small by the expedients we have just noticed ; the expense of the court will be defrayed by the public. All those powers by which the Judge can compel the attendance of persons and the keeping or pro- duction of things during the process, will be vested in him for the purpose of giving effect to his final judgment in the way of execution. Such are a few, and but a few of the features of a plan, of which we almost feel inclined to say, that it is so simple, so practical, so. cal- culated to produce direct good, and a great deal of it without expense, without delay, without mystery, that it will not be acted on. For not only is it sure to be opposed by the countless host of le-al plunderers, with all the zeal which keen-scented self-interest in.: spires, but we fear even to many of the plundered sufferers it will 'lack recommendation by the very absence of that prestige and cll'..ackery in which human nature seems to delight.Meanwhile, Mr. ri0 ,,,,'...ONNELL 11RS, we Ob- serve, given notice of his intention to ir.00t the question in Parlia- ment, and sincerely shall we rejoice 7:"( his success shall falsify our fears. Much will necessarily depe'ad on the numbers and earnest- ness of those who petition for 'lief. If they cry loud enough and long enough, they may depenc1.. on getting it ; if they fold their hands and say nothing, they will 7.1either get it nor deserve it.
"By sympathy for your -aufferings," concludes Mr. Bentham's proposal to the honest and aillictei
IA suitors in Chancery, "have been produced the labours, of which the 'system you see before you is the fruit. Will you be any longer an objec4, of sympathy, if, by silence instead of answer to this ad- dress, after so r-
.,uch has been clone for you by others, you grudge to perform
soilLifling a 1:4.bour for yourself ? "a gr.eater the number in which you and your partners in affliction raise your cry. for this relief, the greater will be the probability of your !obtaining it. T:ms- truth being alike obvious and incontestible, not less so will be the iser.eice that may be done by you to your own and the common cause, by ardoking out for them and calling for their co-operation. "And you, whom, as yet unvisited by this scourge, these pages have chanced to reach,—sympathy,----if any such feeling belongs to you, and no particular interest restrains,—will elicit from your hands, according to your means and opportunities, all assistant services. 6 Cry then aloud, and spare :not!' "
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