242 



TiMEHRl. 



powers may be compared, there are printed in an appen- 

 dix to this paper two se6lions from the Statute Laws 

 (Revised Edition) Ordinance, 1887, of St. Lucia — the 

 Ordinance under which the new and revised edition of 

 the laws of that Colony, which has been already mentioned, 

 was completed. The former of the two se6tions, it will 

 be seen, gives the compiler, or the Commissioner as he 

 was called in that Ordinance, extensive powers of dealing 

 with the form and method of the laws, while the latter 

 restrains him from making, of his own motion, any altera- 

 tion or amendment in their matter or substance. At the 

 same time this se6lion indicated a way in which such 

 alterations or amendments might be effe6led. It is, of 

 course, obvious that the powers specified in the two 

 seftions are independent of one another, and that the 

 power of formal revision and consolidation might, 

 if it was thought desirable, be conferred without 

 reference to any power of substantial alteration or 

 amendment. 



A new edition, of either of the kinds above-men- 

 tioned, need not, I think, occupy more than three or four 

 volumes, of no undue bulk. To these might conve- 

 niently be added a separate volume containing existing 

 rules, regulations and bye-laws — a form of legislation 

 on matters of detail which is much affefted in this 

 Colony. 



It may be said by those whose temperament inclines 

 them stare super vias antiquas that if all this is done 

 and we are placed in possession of a new and revised 

 edition of our statute laws, we shall no sooner have it than 

 we shall begin to deface it by the introdu6lion of altera- 

 tions and amendments. But the answer to this must be 



