[ 594 ] [June, 



new plan of codification. 



In spite of the panegyrics which have been so often pronounced upon our 

 laws, and their administration, no person who is practically acquainted with our 

 English system of jurisprudence, and who will speak of it ingenuously, can 

 deny that it is attended with great and numerous mischiefs, which are every day 

 becoming more intolerable. The difficulties, the expense, the tedious length 

 of litigations, the uncertainty of their issue, and, in many cases, the lamentable 

 delay of decision, are but too well known to the great number to whom all 

 this is a source of profit, and to the far greater number on whom it brings down 

 calamity and ruin — the major part of which grievances maj', we think, be 

 traced to the obscurity and uncertainty of the common law, and to the con- 

 fused, contradictory, and unintelligible state of the statute books. That the 

 statute law of this country is in this condition did not escape the vigilance of our 

 ancestors, and has been heretofore fully and frequently acknowledged by Par- 

 liament. No steps, however, have until very recently been taken, for the 

 purpose of providing a remedy for this now almost insupportable evil. The 

 reverse indeed has been the case : for as population has increased, and 

 commerce become more extended, — as prosperity has resulted from these, 

 and vice and depravity have followed, — so have the municipal laws of regulation 

 and protection been multiplied. Laws have been enacted without reference to 

 those already extant on the subject of the enactment, and framed in the same 

 obscure, verbose, and tautological style, which was the origin of that grievance 

 arising from our statute law, so often acknowledged, and for the removal of 

 which, now, for the first time some attempts have been made. 



An act was passed for the purpose of consolidating and amending the laws 

 relating to Bankrupts, which being found defective, was in the very same 

 session of Parliament, introduced for amendment. The jury law, the second 

 consolidation act, is also about to undergo an emendation. 



That the work of amendment has commenced we do most sincerely rejoice ; 

 but that joy is overshadowed when we perceive that these noble and beneficial 

 purposes are inadequately attempted. A partial consolidation has been attempted, 

 from the specimens of which it is very apparent that a consolidation of particular 

 parts without reference to the whole body of our laws can never thoroughly 

 succeed. The attempt at improvement has also been made, retaining the 

 same mysterious style of language, and involved sentences of our old acts of 

 Parliament. Until attention shall be paid to this, until a total alteration shall 

 be made in the wording of our statutes, we are convinced that no general and 

 substantial improvement can take place. To have the desired effi;ct, the statute 

 law must be attacked in the aggregate; all the scattered laws on each subject 

 collected, and codified under its own individual title, in language simple and clear. 



And thus much, with regard to the statute law, is generally allowed ; but if 

 perfection be the end desired, the improvement must not rest here. The evils 

 arising from the state of the common law are more hidden and less understood, 

 and therefore more fatal in their effects. They can be appreciated by those only 

 on whom they have fallen. 



While the Legislature at St. Stephen's is annually casting forth into the world 

 a cumbrous collection of new statutes, a different kind of legislation is pro- 

 ceeding in Westminster-Hall. The law which is every term discovered and 

 brought to light by the judges, seems to vie in extent with that which is made 

 by the Parliament. The lex nan scripta, or common law, is collected, not from 

 the plain text of a comprehensive ordinance, which is open to all men to consult, 

 but from the decisions of courts of justice, pronounced in a great variety of 

 cases, and which have disclosed small portions of it from time to time, as the 

 miscellaneous transactions of the people may have chanced to require. Of a 

 statute law we know with some certainty its extent, and we can discover what 

 it has as well as what it has not provided; but under the common law no case 

 is unprovided for, though there be many of which it is extremely difficult, and, 

 indeed, impossible, to say beforehand what the provision is. 



In cases which are under the control of no statute, and on which no 

 decision has yet been pronounced, an unknown law exists, which must be 



