77i 



STATI'.MIV. 



STATUTE. 



r a* to give the fullest mean* of analysis and inference ; Imt hi* 

 i are greatest when he doe* not labour in support of a theory. 



It thus become! the duty of a government to apply all the means in 

 it* power in aid of statistics, not only for the administration <<f the 

 affair* of state, but also for the furtherance of political science, and for 

 general information. Abundance and accuracy must be the object of 

 a government in collecting statistical fact*. 



We would lay much stress upon the collection of facts by the 

 highest authority of the state, because the classes of facts moat 

 important in political inquiries can scarcely ever be searched out by 

 other persons, who have not access to the offices of government, 

 and who are without authority to demand information ; while the 

 government has ample mean* at its disposal, and can, without 

 difficulty, and in the ordinary course of executive business, obtain 

 statistical information of the highest value. In this and many other 

 countries the respective governments are applying themselves 

 earnestly to statistical investigations. In England a statistical depart- 

 ment has been established at the Board of Trade to collect and 

 arrange all the documents of a statistical nature that can be obtained 

 through any department or agency of government. The admirably 

 organised departments of the French government have abundance of 

 statistical materials systematically collected, which they never fail to 

 arrange in a very lucid manner, and to analyse with much ability. 

 Great credit is due to the Belgian government for the diligence 

 with which its several departments have engaged in statistics under 

 the superintendence of a central statistical commission. Austria, 

 Prussia, and other European governments, have also more or less 

 complete and comprehensive statistical departments. 



But while governments arc thus engaged, there is ample room for 

 the labours of individuals. Local statistics of all kinds are open to 

 thfin. The books and records of puMic institutions, facts relating to 

 particular trades, to the moral and social state of different classes of 

 society, and other matters apparently of local interest only, often pre- 

 sent results as important as those derived from inquiries on a more 

 extended scale. Good sen-ice also may often be done by a judicious 

 selection and comparison of matters not brought together in official 

 statement*, with a view to the illustration of principles of science or 

 experiments in legislation, and by suggestions and criticism, which 

 may direct the attention of government to }>articular branches of 

 inquiry, to improvements in the mode of carrying them on, or in the 

 form in which they are published. 



It would be useless to attempt an enumeration of tlie various 

 matters that are included in the province of statistics, but for the 

 more convenient consideration of the subject we may indicate its 

 division into 1, Historical statistics, or facts illustrative of the former 

 condition of a state ; 2, Statistics of population ; 3, of revenue; 4, of 

 trade, commerce, and navigation ; 5, of the moral, social, and physical 

 condition of the people. 



The article CENSUS will serve as an example of the use to which 

 such materials may be applied, and the parliamentary returns of the 

 Board of Trade and the criminal and legal statistics now published 

 annually furnish other examples. 



STATUAHY, STATUE. [SCULPTURE.] 



STATUTE. Bills hich have passed through the houses of Lords 

 and Commons and received the royal assent become acts of parliament, 

 and are sometimes spoken of collectively as forming the body of 

 " statutes of the realm." In a more restricted application of the word, 

 private acts are excluded, and even public acts, when their purpose is 

 temporary. The meaning of the word is even more restricted when 

 the measures of the early parliaments are in question, for many acts 

 received the royal assent, and are found on the Rolls of Parliament, 

 which are not accounted statutes. 



The Statutes of the realm, properly so called, were at a very remote 

 period written in books apart from the other constitutions and charters 

 of the monarchy, and received by the courts as of equal authority with 

 the ancient customs of the realm. 



Three volumes, in the custody of the Master of the Rolls, contain 

 the body of those enactments which are called " statutes." One con- 

 tains those passed before the beginning of the reign of Edward III.; 

 and the other two, those from 1 Edward III. to 7 Henry VIII., all 

 very fairly written. These books are not considered in the light of 

 authorised enrolments of the statutes. For the authentic and authori- 

 tative copies, if any question arise, recourse must be had (1) to what 

 are called the Statute Rolls, which are six rolls containing the statutes 

 from 6 Edward I. to 8 Edward IV., except from 8 to 25 Henry VI. ; 

 (2) to the enrolments of acts of parliaments which are preserved in the 

 Rolls chapel from 1 Richard III.; (3) to exemplifications and tran- 

 scripts with writ* annexed, signifying that they were ti 

 authority to certain courts or other parties, who were required to bike 

 notice of them ; (4) in those since 12 Henry VII., to the original acts 

 in the parliament office ; (5) the rolls and journals of parliament; ((i) 

 the close, patent, fine, and charter rolls ; on which statutes are some- 

 times found. 



With the parliament of the reign of Richard III. began the practice 

 i.l printing, and in that manner publishing, the acts passed in << li 

 session. This followed very soon on the introduction of printing into 

 England. Before that time it had been a frequent practice to transmit 

 copies of the act* as passed to the sheriffs of the different shrievalties 



to- be by them promulgated. The practice of printing the statutes has 

 continued to the present time. 



Before the first of Hit-hard III., the aid of the press had been colled 

 in to give extended circulation to the older statutes. Before 1481 it is 

 believed that an abridgment of the statutes was printed by 1., (t.m ami 

 Machlinia, which contains none later than 33 Henry VI., I'l .":.. To th>- 

 next year is assigned a collection, not abridged, from 1 Kdw.n.l III. to 

 J-J Edward IV. Next to these in point of antiquity is t,> lie p 

 collection printed by Pynson about 14K7, who also, in 1508, printed 

 what he entitled ' Antiqua Statuta,' containing Mogna Ch.-irt.-i, Cbarta 

 de Foresta, the Statutes of Merton, Marlbridge, and West minster 

 primum and secundum. This was the first publication of t!i 

 early statutes. 



In the reign of Henry VIII. the first English abridgment of the 

 statutes was printed by Rastall ; and during that reign and in the suc- 

 ceeding half century there were numerous impressions published of 

 the old and recent statutes in the original iMin and French, or in 

 : i translations. Barker, about 1587, first used the title ' Statutes 

 at Large.' 



In 1618 two large collections of statutes ending in 7 James I., were 

 published, called Rastall's and Pulton's. Pulton's collection was several 

 times reprinted with additions. 



In the 18th century an addition, in six folio volumes, was published 

 by Mr. Serjeant Hawkins in 1 735, containing the statutes to 7 < 

 II. Cay's edition, in 1758, in the same number of volumes, contains 

 the statutes to 30 George II. Continuations of these works 

 published as fresh statutes were passed ; and another work in I 

 the same kind, was begun in 1762, well known by the designation of 

 Until lead's 'Statutes at Large.' Pickering's edition is in 8vo., and 

 ends with 1 George III. 



None of these collections, however, had ever been published by 

 authority of the state. This led a committee of the House of Com- 

 mons, who, in 1800, were appointed to inquire into the state of the 

 Public Records, to recommend, among other things, that " a complete 

 ami authoritative edition of all the statutes should be published." And 

 finally, between the years 1810 and 1824. the Record Commissioners 

 appointed, in pursuance of this recommendation, produced a c 

 edition of the statutes (including the early public charters), ending 

 with the close of the reign of Queen Anne. This is the OK,' 

 edition of the statutes. It is supplied witt a valuable index, and 

 f, Mm ; ten folio volumes. In the introduction to that work there is a 

 more particular account of the former editions of the statutes and ,,i 

 the means for making such a work as this complete. 



The statutes parsed in the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain 

 are now printed by the queen's printers, and sold at fixed prices. 



These " Statutes of the Realm " are generally divided into two classes 

 Public and Private ; but they may more conveniently be distributed 

 into three classes Public General, Public Local, and Private. The 

 two former only come within the term " laws," in the proper ac 

 ticn of the term. The private acts embody special privileges conferred 

 on individuals, or the sanction of the legislature to private arrange- 

 ments regarding property ; and before they can be enforced, they must 

 In pleaded before the courts of law, like contracts, or the t. 

 estates. The public local statutes, though published separately , and 

 though the standing orders of the Houses of Parliament re, mire that , 

 on account of the private interests which they are often likely to affect, 

 certain preliminary notices and other proceedings should take place 

 before they arc passed through their stages, are yet, in contemplation 

 of law, in the same position as the public general statutes. 



Ki irmcrly all the public statutes, local and general, were published 

 together and numbered consecutively; but from the year 1798 down- 

 wards, the local acts have been separately enumerated. From the 

 number of railway and other joint-stock schemes, this branch of legis- 

 lation increased so rapidly a few years ago, that it became necessary to 

 simplify and abbreviate it. Steps were taken to accomplish this end 

 by passing what are known as Consolidation Acts, such as th< 

 chm-rs Consolidation Act, the Railway Clauses Consolidation Act, 

 &c., &c., a distinct series being passed applicable to Scotland; but 

 i -i yet room for further legislation in the same direction. 



STATUTE (ScuTi.AXD). It would be difficult to explain the 

 character of the older legislation of Scotland, the method in which 

 it was sanctioned, or the constitution of the bodies by which it was 

 passed. All the light that probably is to be obtained on the early 

 history of the statute law has lately been embodied by Mr. limes, in 

 his preface to the edition of the 'Scottish Statutes and Old Laws,' 

 published by the Record Commission. " Whatever," he says, " may 

 be the case in other countries, it is not easy in Scotland to distinguish 

 the ancient legislative court or council of the sovereign from that 

 which discharged the duty of counselling the king in judicial pro- 

 ceeding*. The early lawgivers, indeed, enacted statutes by tin 

 of the ' bishops, earls, thanes, and whole community,' or ' through the 

 common counsel of the Kynryk;' but during the reigns previous t.n 

 Alexander III. we find the king also deciding causes in a similir 

 assembly of magnates; while laws of the greatest importance, and 

 affecting the interest of whole classes of the community, bear to be 

 enacted by the king and ' his judges.' " It is probable that the practice 

 of the assembly, legislative or judicial, of the principal barons, though 

 irregular, was in general an imitation of the parliament of England. 



