LORD BRATUGHAki'S LEGISLA.TIVE LABOURS.* SER. JOHN E. EARDLEY WFLMOT has
done good service to the cause of progress by collecting into one large volume all the bills introduced into Parliament by Lord Brougham since his entry into the House of Commons in 1810. Many of these bills have become law; others, though not yet passed, have called attention to many important subjects, and the valuable suggestions they contain will be appreciated and result in much practical good, long after their illustrious author shall have passed. away. Prefixed to the work is an analytical review of the various lets and bills, which traces very graphically Lord Brougham's career as a Legislator. It dwells at some length on his labours for the abolition of the slave-trade, his efforts to amend the laws relat- ing to libel and slander, to promote education, and suppress the abuses connected with charity property ; and it goes very fully into the details of his various measures for reforming the dif- ferent branches of the law.
The Acts and bills are grouped under various heads, and each head is preceded by a summary of the documents, and an expla- natory statement of the results of Lord Brougham's labours in that department. Take the first section, the Slave-trade. Lord Brougham's first step was to move in 1811, an address to the Crown on the subject. The Act of 1807, imposing pecuniary penalties, had been found ineffectual to cheek the traffic. He brought in and carried an Act declaring it felony for any British subject to carry on or be engaged in the slave-trade ; offenders against this Act were rendered liable to fourteen years' trans- portation. Two other Acts for suppressing the Slave-trade, and a bill for terminating Negro Apprenticeships, are also given. His efforts to amend the law of Libel form the subject of the second chapter. These were unsuccessful till 1843, but then the Legislature in some measure recognized the value of his sugges- tions, and at the instance of Lord Campbell, two Acts were passed embodying to some extent Lord Brougham's views, but not going so far as he proposed in 1816 and 1830. The bill and the Acts are given in full.
The third chapter shows us the services rendered by Lord Brougham to the cause of Education, and gives the various Acts relating to Charities. The results of these valuable measures are so well known that we refrain from doing more than refer our readers to the volume itself for full details.
We pass on to the reform of the Criminal Law. In the pre- liminary review, the learned editor sketches the steps by which Lord Brougham laboured to procure for prisoners the benefit of counsel. It was not till twelve years after this subject was first mooted by him in the House of Commons, that the Act 6 and 7 William IV., cap. 114, was passed. The learned editor says-
" The history of the Prisoners' Counsel Bill is the history of many of the measures introduced by Lord Brougham. Designated at first as ill-suited and uncongenial to our system, they roused the vehement opposition of * Lord Brougham's Acts 0714 Bills from 1811 to the Present Thee. Published by Longman and Co,
minds impressed with the idea that a departure from established practice could not consist with improvement, and forgetful that experience is value less unless it furnishes us with the power of perfecting the future by a eon- templation of the imperfections of the past."
This humane measure, so long opposed, has now been many years in practice, and the only feeling it hasrprodueed is one of surprise that any opposition should ever have been made to it.
The Act establishing the Central Criminal-Court and various other Acts relating to criminal law are given in full. The other chapters contain the Acts for amending the Bankrupt Laws, the Court of Chainsery, and the law of Real Proper, bills for establishing Local- Courts; the County Court Acts, bills for effecting further improvements in those tribunals, and for facilitating arbitrations Acts and bills for amending the Law of Evidence and the Procedure in the Superior Courts of Common Law. There are also a number of bills and Acts relating to mis- cellaneous subjects, and some valuable judicial statistics. We have endeavoured rather to show what the book contains than to discuss the subjects to which the contents relate, though many of them are still open questions—such as the further ex- tension of the County Courts, the Consolidation of the Criminal Law, the appointment of a Minister of Justice and a Public Pro- secutor.
Speaking of Lord Brougham's career, the editor says— "We write in a period when the progress of civilization is rapid, and law amendment is moving with accelerated pace. Lord Brougham entered upon the path when no political capital was to be found in it, when the journey was rugged, distasteful, and unpopular ; when colleagues and opponents alike passed by topics which seemed only to impede professional advance- ment; when an Eldon and an Ellenborough both felt and expressed a re- ligious horror at imputations thrown upon the Court of Chancery, and at the audacity which could impugn the justice or policy of sentencing the most trivial offenders to the punishment of death."
After contrasting the state of things at the present day, the editor thus concludes-
" In what way can administrative genius and the wisdom of statesmen be more nobly exercised and displayed than in perfecting the symmetry of our jurisprudence, or in diffusing those blessings of education which will render men better Christians and better subjects ? How can our character as a nation be better elevated and sustained than by showing to the world that our freedom rests solely on justice as its foundation, and that our Sovereign has no prouder or higher employment than when she promul- gates laws framed by the strong for the benefit and protection of the weak ? Let Lord Brougham, then, go on and prosper. He has the cordial wishes of the community for his continued health and vigour. He can add little to his reputation, but he has told us he cannot even now, at his advanced age, live without labour ; and we may say in our turn, without flattery, that that labour cannot be unproductive of public advantage. May his Acts and bills recorded in this volume be far from being the last !"
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