1831.] C 1(59 ] . 



LAW REFORMS THE NEW RULES OF COMMON LAW PRACTICE. 



The torpid patience with which the people of England suffer de- 

 tected abuses to prevail, and to interfere with their comforts and con- 

 venience, is most surprising. It is not enough that the whole commu- 

 nity has been over and over again convinced that glaring injustice is 

 done to them in points of dear import ; that they have the power, and 

 know the means, by which such nuisances might be abated, by the 

 mere exertion of their voices ; that, whoever may be interested in the 

 perpetuation of such abuses, there is hardly any man profligate and au- 

 dacious enough to raise his head any where in vindication of them. 

 Knowing and feeling aU this, most sensibly, they permit the evils to 

 exist ; their complaints assume no other shape than unheeded grumbling, 

 or sarcasms, which become pointless from repetition ; and matters go 

 on at least as bacUy, in many respects much worse, than under our 

 great-great-grandfathers. In no branch of our domestic arrangements 

 more abundantly, or more absurdly, has this been permitted, than in 

 the administration of the laws. Although in this commercial country 

 no man can reasonably expect to pass any one year — some men cannot 

 even pass weeks — of their lives, without being either immediately or 

 remotely affected by the delays, and inconvenience, and expense of the 

 stupid and costly system that has been permitted to grow up about us, 

 the mischief has remained almost wholly unchecked. No doubt there 

 has been abundance of talk about it. The evils of expensive and pro- 

 tracted litigation have been complained of for centuries ; but from the 

 time of Edward the Third to the present day, how little has been done 

 in the way of remedy ! 



In the administi-ation of criminal justice, indeed, a great improvement 

 has been effected, and of late years. But although it is a favourable 

 " sign of the times," that there are men among us, enlightened and 

 energetic enough to take upon themselves the burthensome task of re- 

 ducing the unformed mass of contradiction, and of abolishing the 

 wretched expedients which had been from time to time resorted to by 

 judges who, not having the power to make laws, did their best to prevent 

 those laws from becoming scourges and snares to the least guilty and 

 the unwary, yet, in truth, the amendments were less urgently called for 

 in the criminal than in the civil judicature of the country. The cri- 

 minal law, as it was written, was undoubtedly so severe, that if it had 

 been applied, to the letter, it would have been a disgrace to any civilised 

 nation ; but it never was so applied. Its inartificial and unsystematic 

 form prevented its sanguinary provisions from being carried into full 

 effect; and the ingenuity of judges, and the humanity of juries, were 

 exerted, rather to save the miserable culprits with whom they had to 

 deal, from the doom denounced by the law, than their true and honest 

 judgments exercised in the performance of those impartial duties which 

 their several oaths enjoined. The way has, however, been opened to 

 improvement in this part of our domestic policy; but although we 

 rejoice unfeignedly at the progress which has been made, and are ever 

 eager to ascribe to those persons who are entitled to it, the high credit 

 of having conferred a lasting benefit on the country, we cannot help 

 seeing that the course is only entered upon ; and that the greatest praise 

 wliich can he conferred on those who have been the means of ame- 

 horating our criminal jurisprudence, is, that they have set a laudable 



