TOPICS OF THE DAY.
LAW REFORM: LOCAL COURTS.
Lone Corrmaissi has presented to the House of Lords a measure for the institution of Local Courts, embodied in three bills. The first is a bill to establish courts of local jurisdiction in all the districts throughout the country, so that every town might have at short intervals a court of sufficient jurisdiction to decide questions of property to a certain amount ; the second takes advantage of this jurisdiction to better the administration of the Bankrupt and Insolvent Acts ; the third employs the same juris- diction in executing those duties connected with the Court of Chancery now executed by special commissioners, and not well executed, at a great expense. Lord Chancellor LYNDHURST has consented to the introduction of these bills ; intimating at the same time his intention to introduce a local jurisdiction bill with the sanction of Government ; and the intention is to discuss both the proposed measures at the same time. If these intimations be actively followed up, they will be pro- ductive of this advantage—while the House of Commons is busy with its financial and commercial measures, the House of Lords will be busy with its measures of law reform ; and when each House has matured its own proposals, they may be submitted to the other for its sanction or criticism. Time at least will be gained by this : the two Houses of the Legislature, if they are in the slightest degree in earnest in their professions of a desire to im- prove the legislation of the country, will thus have it in their power to put out of hand two tolerably complete enactments in the course of a session. This will of itself be an improvement upon the plan of talking about the same subjects in both Houses at the same time, and ending with doing nothing, or huddling up the business in any unworkumnlike manner. The choice of depart- ments of exertion, too, is in the present case what it ought to be : there are some who understand the law in the House of Lords, and the rest will allow them to discuss their respective proposals delibe- rately and decorously—which is more than can be predicated of the House of Commons : on the other hand, there is in the House of Commons an amount of practical knowledge of the economical re- sources of the country, upon which alone sound, commercial, and financial legislation can be based—which few of the Peers have had an opportunity of obtaining. It would be extravagant, however, to expect much more from the steps alluded to than a beginning on the part of both Houses to try to do something. No very sanguine anticipations seem to be entertained in any quarter that the economical discussions of the Lower House will be productive of a. measure adequate to afford permanent relief to the country. To expect a measure of law reform sufficiently comprehensive and correct in its details to im- prove materially the very defective existing system, would be wild dreaming. All that the most sanguine are entitled to anticipate from the facts alluded to is, that at some future period the amount of the doings of the two bodies of the Legislature may be brought to present a less startling discrepancy with the amount of their talking. Of Lord CO'TTENHAM'S bills we know nothing but what he has himself told us. His sketch, however, of what they contemplate, has the double recommendation of being easily effected at present, and of being adapted to dovetail into more comprehensive reforms should they be found necessary. The appointment of a competent Judge in every county, (or perhaps two or more of the smaller and thinly-peopled counties might with advantage be merged into one jurisdiction, and the larger and populous parcelled out into several,) to hold courts, at brief intervals, in towns centrically situated in subdivisions of moderate extent, would be a great boon, even though he should, as Lord COTTENHAM proposes, be restricted " to decide in questions of property to a limited amount." The devolving upon such a Judge the discharge of the duties now performed by Local Commissioners of Bankruptcy, would go far to insure the services of a person really acquainted with law in the initiatory steps of bankrupt and in- solvent proceedings, and would avert the risk of that part of our legal system becoming an excrescence to the rest, regulated by different principles or by no principles at all. And lastly, the substitution of permanent officials for " special commissioners " to discharge the delegated functions of Chancery, would insure an immense gain both in respect to efficiency and economy. Lord COTTENHAM'S bills, if found in their details to correspond with their general conception, will be calculated not merely to render justice more accessible, but to become an important engine for removing many of the discrepancies and much of the prolixity that the slovenly procedure of centuries has introduced into the law of England. The measure might, had the public possessed sufficient knowledge and interest in the question to support it, have been made more ex- tensive and efficient without being made more startling. The country Judge might have been made to supersede the Court of Quarter-Sessions in its judicial functions. By this means, the county (or judicial district) would have obtained a good court both in penal and civil matters, in lieu of one of the worst that can be conceived. The jurisdiction of the county Judge might have been extended to questions of property of any amount. The difficulty of a law question does not depend upon the value of the property at stake. The doubt affecting a contract regarding thousands may be easy of solution in comparison with that which relates to a con- tract about a hundred pounds ; and the claimant of a hundred pounds
in humble life may sustain more sensible injury from a wrong de. cision than the rich man from a similar cause in a dispute about, thousands. Local courts with limited jurisdiction mean not oaly cheap but coarse justice for the poor. If to each of the country, courts contemplated by Lord Col-realm:A were allotted an ade-. quately extensive district, with jurisdiction to any amount, with the power of receiving the necessary evidence—and if to the Courts at Westminster were reserved merely a right of appeal on the law of the questions decided, or on the allegation of informal procedure— much would be gained in respect to economy and despatch, and sufficient precaution taken to insure good law. Such a measure would, however, have had no chance of success- The mere professional lawyers, incapable of conceiving any system but that which they have been bred up in, would have been hor- rified; and the public at large is (not without cause) too diffident of its own knowledge to have supported any proposal which elicited their unanimous reprobation. A class combining the knowledge of the lawyer with non-professional freedom from prejudice does not exist. The great recommendation of Lord COTT/HM/04'S proposal is, that being good as far as it goes, it is an experi- mental step towards a more comprehensive reform. If there were but a reasonable prospect of getting it! Lord CorreNes.ar spoke of the measure contemplated by Government as "to a certain extent referring to the same subject"; ; and the Lord Chancellor said nothing to remove the impression thus created that he contemplates a shorter measure of reform. If he does, either the majority in Parliament will support the bill of their own partisan, or, if this be too glaring, allow both measures to fall through.
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