UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 1
 
 
 '.■'v." vis ■^■.■7 
 
 THE FURTHEll 
 
 DIVISION OF LABOUR 
 
 IN CIVIL LIFE 
 
 p^y»X I.— Price Five Shillings and Sixpence
 
 \ T • 
 
 / 
 
 \1 
 
 <.
 
 J.OWE AND HAK^FV, fKIMEKJi, PL A VIIOISE -Y ARD BLACKFRIARS.
 
 AN 
 
 ARGUMENT 
 
 FOR MORE OF THE 
 
 DIVISION OF LABOUR 
 
 IN CIVIL LIFE 
 
 IN THIS COUNTRY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 IN WHICH THE ARGUMENT IS APPLIED TO PARLIAMENT. 
 
 By WILLIAM WICKENS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET. 
 MDCCCXXIX.
 
 
 00 
 
 AN ARGUMENT 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 FURTHER DIVISION OF LABOUR, 
 
 Sfc. Sfc. 8fc. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 The two following facts will, we apprehend, 
 x> be denied by no one. The first is, that with all 
 - the excellence which many are so forward to as- 
 J cribe to the system of internal Pohty estabhshed in 
 ^ this Country, various parts of it teem with Imper- 
 "^ fection, and indeed Evil. The second is, that to 
 this Imperfection or Evil, the great body of the 
 nation are becoming every day increasingly sen- 
 sitive. 
 
 But these facts are not to be regarded as mere 
 jejune truisms — leading to no inferences, or threat- 
 ening to bring in their train no consequences, of 
 ?c magnitude. They are, on the other hand, preg- 
 sE nant with importance; and precisely in proportion 
 
 B 
 
 301052
 
 lo that iin|)()rt;m('r imisl In- llir claiius to notice ol' 
 any. or ol" all Propositions, that an' IVanu'd (ad- 
 visedly IVanu'd, we. ol' eourse, mean), and sul)niit- 
 ted. specially to nu'et circnnistances of so <rrave a 
 character. 
 
 For ourselves, we profess to have no Measure to 
 sugt!;est, no mode of Proceeding to urge, that is of 
 a nature to correct all the Wrong which in the 
 working of our Social system discovers itself; but 
 we entertain, and have long entertained, a most 
 decided conviction, that in looking about for the 
 sources of much of this Wrong, not one tithe of 
 the weight is attached, that ought to be attached, to 
 the very scanty degree of Organization, to the very 
 little of Development — so to term it, which many 
 of the Institutions or Arrangements of Civil life 
 with us, have as yet attained to, or anived at. 
 
 It is an attention to this particular, accordingly, 
 that we wish to bespeak. It is some Amelioration 
 — we woiUd rather say, some Advance or forward 
 Movement in this respect, that we are most anxious 
 to have accomplished. And conceiving that prior 
 to all positive progi'ession here, if not as to a very 
 considerable extent identical with it, there is no- 
 thing so indispensably requisite to be resorted to, 
 as more of the grand principle of the Division 
 OF Labour — it is a larger use, application, or en- 
 forcement, of that })rinciple, that we propose most 
 expressly or immediately to contend for.
 
 OUR LEGISLATIVE ARRANGEMENTS 
 
 offering not the slightest exception to the pecuhar 
 Defectiveness, to the Crudity, as it may be called, 
 which we are alleging; furnishing us, on the con- 
 trary, with one of the most striking exemplifications 
 of it, it is with them we shall begin our Argument. 
 
 The author of the " Wealth of Nations," tells us, 
 there is a period in the progress of states, when the 
 Artificer in any given material is the Workman 
 upon all the occasions on which that material hap- 
 pens to be concerned : — when, for instance, the ar- 
 tificer in Wood, besides being a Carpenter, is also 
 a Joiner, a Cabinet-maker, a Carver in Wood, a 
 Wheelwright, a Plough, Cart, and Waggon Maker, 
 and we know not what more ; thus engrossing in 
 his own person offices or occupations the most 
 multifarious and dissimilar.* If by any possibility 
 this statement could be regarded in the light of an 
 Allegory, we should say that it depicts, with no 
 ordinary fidehty, the present actual position or 
 predicament of our Legislature. Only so far, how- 
 ever, as we thus cite the passage, does it suggest to 
 us ideas of analogy or parallelism to the case of 
 Parhament ; the entire context being to the effect 
 that " as Society advances in numbers and in im- 
 
 * Wealth of Nations, book i. chap. 3 
 
 b2
 
 MLNT 
 
 provt'iiuMit. the inanifold mvocmIious oltlii' Artificer 
 c'onu' to I)c j)arc'cll('(l out jmioiiu; se])arat(.' sets of 
 liaiids. and to constitute in reality, totally distinct 
 hramlus of industry :" nothing, as we all know, in 
 tin- slif^litest di-^ree approxiinatinii; to which, docs 
 our Lej^islature, in its whole history, present us with. 
 Infinity In Unfolding aiul Aindicatiiiiif our Views of the 
 
 or Mat- • i> • /« • • i • i • » 
 
 Tins sin- iiiiperlection ot our existni*^ l^'gishitive Arranjije- 
 i' u<ViA-^" nients, and of the absolute necessity in their in- 
 stance, of recuiTing to more of the principle of the 
 Division of Labour, the first point to which w-e 
 shall solicit attention, is, the Infinity of Matters 
 that are now submitted to Parliament, as often as 
 it assembles, to be cUscussed, legislated upon, or in 
 one way or another disposed of. 
 
 If very summary or general proof only were 
 needed of the great Aggregate of these Matters, we 
 should have it, at once and most conclusively, in 
 the declaration made by Mr. Secretary Peel, in the 
 House of Commons, April 13, 1826, that " Par- 
 liament WAS OVERWHELMED WITH BUSINESS." We 
 
 should have it further in the open avowal of 
 the Speaker of the House of Commons himself, 
 May 4th, of the preceding Session, that " the in- 
 crease of business in Parliament had come to be 
 such, that it was impossible to say what matter 
 would be brought on upon any appointed day, and 
 what would not ; a state of things," he remarked, 
 " from which the greatest inconvenience resulted, 
 both to Members and to the public."
 
 But for realizing all that wc contemplate, 
 mere general allegations will not suffice ; and we 
 must trouble the reader therefore with some de- 
 tails. 
 
 At different times during the last few Sessions, 
 it has been announced by the public journals, that 
 on certain days, which they specify, such a variety 
 of Committees sat upon Bills, that the House of 
 Commons, with all its accommodations, could not 
 contain them. We ourselves can give dates within 
 the period we speak of, when not fewer than five- 
 and-twenty Committees of the House have sat on 
 tlie same day ; and when also not less than eighty 
 and even twelve separate Committees on perfectly 
 distinct Bills, many of them, of course, with their 
 accompaniments of Clerks, professional Attendants, 
 Witnesses, &c. have actually met in the same room, 
 the room being one too of most limited dimensions. 
 All this, however, falls short — very far short, of 
 what has been known to occur. We have lying 
 before us the Report of the Committee of the 
 House of Commons, appointed in the Session of 
 1825, to consider, among other things, of means 
 for providing additional accommodation for the 
 meeting of Committees. We there read as follows: 
 " During the present Session, the Members' Wait- 
 ing-rooms, the long Gallery, the House of Com- 
 mons itself, and even the Court of Exchequer, have 
 been occupied by Committees. Two hundred and 
 seventy-six sittings have been held, of pubhc Com-
 
 (> 
 
 inittiHs. I'\>ur ol ihc i>iil)li(' ('()iumitl(.'i's. and 
 thirty ( nminittrrs on prixatc hnsimss, lia\c met 
 on a sinnK' day, iimctccit of I lie lattir li<iriii>^ been 
 fid'i'd to iiu'ct ill one room." 
 
 Wv shall pvc oni- Statement more, particnlarly 
 as it siu)\\s an imi)()rtant eonsequence ol" this pres- 
 sme ol" business, affecting both Members and the 
 |)ublie, which is not of a nature at first sij^ht to 
 arrest attention. " There were down on their Or- 
 der Book," said the honourable Member for Aber- 
 deen in tlu' House of Commons, May 11, 1827, "a 
 list for that day of no less than thirty-two Connnit- 
 tees. Of these as many as five respected Scotland; 
 upon cdch of rcliicli liis sense of duty zcould have 
 led ii'nn to attend, had it been possible for him to 
 have done so." 
 
 It would be indulging our own feelings if we 
 sto})j)ed to connnent here, on the bustle and confu- 
 sion, as a mere scene, that is thus brought undei- 
 our \iew, and the like to which is certainly not to 
 be met with in the workshops of the commonest 
 handicraftsmen. 
 
 But the Quantity of our modern Laws is the 
 - consideration uppermost in our minds, and which 
 it more immediately behoves us at present to speak 
 to: and touching this single but most weighty 
 item, what is the issue of the toil and hurly-burly 
 that has been described ? Why, that a Mass of 
 Acts is added to the Statute Book every Session, to
 
 peruse, we might almost say, but unquestionably 
 to digest which, the ordinary term of human life 
 would hardly suffice for ! 
 
 Accidental circumstances have induced us, in the 
 main, to limit our Strictures regarding Parliament 
 to the period that intervened between 1822 and 
 1828, both years inclusive ; and which embraces, 
 it will be observed, by no means the whole of 
 the present reign, to say nothing of the Regency. 
 During that period, however, comprising seven 
 short Sessions only, the benefits, in the shape of 
 Acts of Parliament, conferred upon the Country, 
 have been to the enormous amount of two thou- 
 sand, one hundred, and upwards ! 
 
 In performing the part allotted to it in the work 
 of Law-making, the compendious way in which the 
 Crown, in these times, proceeds, is deserving, we 
 think, of some mention. The Houses of Lords and 
 Commons, it is well known, notwithstanding the 
 numbers and urgency of the Matters that crowd 
 upon them, always entertain every Measure sub- 
 mitted to them, separately. It is equally well 
 known, that every Measure must there advance 
 by stages, and that for each stage, a different day is 
 appointed. His Majesty, however, as at present 
 advised, sanctions and sends into the world these 
 Measures, in bevies of eighty, and even a hundred 
 at a time ; thus reducing himself, in the perform- • 
 ance of one of the most exalted of his functions, to
 
 llu- livi'l (tl" a null' puppet or iiuclianical A^cnl ; 
 and ri'iulnin^ (piitr lariiial tlu- doitiiiu', which in 
 our IJooks at K-ast is to hi- louud, however it may 
 now hf ahroi^ati'd in ])ractic(.', ol" an additional se- 
 curity l)eini,Mleri\ccl to the nation, in tlie passing ol" 
 its hiws. hy thi' exercise, in turn, of the royal Wis- 
 dom or Discretion witli regard to them.* 
 
 I>ut from wliat lias preceded, no estimate, un- 
 less it tall far short of the truth, can be formed 
 of the sum total of Business that annually de- 
 volves upon Parliament. Passing by the various 
 (juestions of a ])urely political character, that never 
 fail to arise, and to be at considerable length dis- 
 cussed in the course of each Session, the Upper 
 House, it is to be remembered, combines with its 
 legislative Cares, the duties of a su})reme Court 
 of Judicature: in which latter capacity the claims 
 upon it are to such an extent, as to have called, for 
 several Sessions past, for labours from the House, 
 beneath which it has fairly groaned : and notwitli- 
 standing which, a Mass of Cases in arrear exists 
 there at this moment, with no prospect of being 
 adjudicated upon, for years to come. 
 I'etitioiis. As it respects Parliament collectively, but par- 
 
 • Wc have spoken in this paragraph quite within compass, for on May 
 .I, 182(5, the royal assi-nt was given to cifjJifi/-,ii.r Bills; and on the 2()tli 
 nf the same month, the <eremony was repeated to the tune of oiip Inin- 
 drcd and tuclvc.
 
 9 
 
 ticiilarly as it respects the House of Commons, 
 its freedom of access to Petitioners of all descrip- 
 tions, is, it will be recollected, what is much 
 vaunted of it. And how numerous do the public 
 suppose the Calls upon the time and attention of 
 the lower House to be, arising exclusively out of 
 this feature in its character? We think our readers 
 will be somewhat startled at learning that those 
 of the " public" Petitions addressed to the House 
 of Commons, and distinguished above others, by 
 being ordered to be printed, that these alone have 
 of late years averaged nearly one thousand four 
 hundred per Session!* But of the *' public" Peti- 
 tions, those that are printed, do not constitute, 
 it appears, one half of the number actually pre- 
 sented. Mr. Whittam, a Clerk of the House of 
 Commons, upon giving some evidence in a Cause 
 in the Court of Common Pleas, June 23, 1825, 
 was questioned as to a Petition he had to pro- 
 duce, dated May 31, of the preceding Session. 
 It was marked, he said, 3,184; which denoted 
 that Petitions to that extent had in the course of 
 that single Session been presented to the House! 
 Of the whole of the petitions of which we are 
 now speaking, it must not be overlooked that 
 
 ♦Between 1823 (prior to which our information on tins point fails 
 us), and 1828 inchisivc, the higliost numher of printed ])iihlic petitions 
 during any one Session, has been 1950, the lowest 882.
 
 10 
 
 tlifir j)urj)()rt or hcarini^ is as various, and tlu'ir 
 suhjcct-mattiT oltiMi as iin])ortaul, as ari' tlic wants, 
 tlu- iiitciists, tlu" wishes, or the grievances, of the 
 nmnerous classes ol" inthvichials, that in both liemi- 
 spheres make u]) the ])()])ulati{)n olour vast eni})ire. 
 Alter tliis cliaracter of tliem especially, no one 
 surely will be so irrational as to insinuate of 
 these petitions, that they receive from the Legis- 
 lature any other than the most devoted and even 
 anxious consideration. Outraging however all pro- 
 bability, and evincing the very excess of hardi- 
 hood would it be, w^ere any one (we put the case 
 quite hypothetically) to venture to assert, that the 
 time bestowed by Parliament upon petitions was 
 nominal, and the attention none — not so much 
 even as the titles of them when these were read, 
 and though this was all that was read, being lis- 
 tened to! In the event indeed, through the per- 
 verseness, not to say the fatuity, of any indivi- 
 dual, of a charge altogether so incredible being 
 preferred, we should certainly leave to Parliament 
 itself the triumph of repelling this heinous asper- 
 sion. The post of Champion on the occasion we 
 should decline the more readily, it being for our 
 j)ur]Dose quite enough to be able to affirm — and the 
 fact will instantly be verified in the recollection 
 of many — that formal and loud complaints are not 
 unfrcquentl}' made, particularly on the part of 
 his Majesty's Ministers, of the very inconvenient
 
 11 
 
 degree to which petitions encroach on what is 
 termed — the more grave or serious business of 
 Parhament. We might indeed add further, that 
 the cases are far from being rare in which peti- 
 tions to the House of Commons give rise to, not 
 merely very protracted, but even to adjourned 
 debates. This has held true of some of the later 
 ones that have been presented regarding West 
 India Matters; and though the circumstances have 
 been somewhat peculiar, we are fairly entitled to 
 remind the reader, that it is mainly in an atten- 
 tion to Petitions, that the Parliamentary Ses- 
 sion which is at this moment in progress has 
 passed away. 
 
 In proof of the " overwhelming" claims there at Printed 
 
 Papers, 
 
 present are upon the time and thoughts of our consisting 
 Legislators, we must beg to call the reader's at- paiHa-" ' 
 tention further, to those piles upon piles of Re- J^pJ^J^j^^ 
 ports — that is. Reports of Commissioners of In-^^- 
 quiry, out of the House, and Reports of Com- 
 mittees of the House, or rather of the two 
 Houses; of financial and other Accounts; of Mi- 
 nutes of Evidence; of Papers affecting in almost 
 every possible way our Foreign Relations; and of 
 parliamentary Returns of all orders and descrip- 
 tions; — which are every Session laid before both 
 Houses and printed for the information of Mem- 
 bers; and which it will be acknowledged ought in 
 a pre-eminent degree to constitute the Charts for
 
 12 
 
 Patlianu'iit lo stfcr its coiirst — uc had almost said 
 — to ivj^ulati' its whole i)rof('i'{lin^s i)y. 
 
 But as to stiulyiii^' tiu'sc (Miarts, as to Mem- 
 bers <,n'iu'rally, amidst all tlu'ir other Cares, ac- 
 (juaiutin^ tlu'mselves with these Doeumeuts, the 
 tliinir is not only not done, l)ut it is impossible 
 tor it to l)c> done. Of the Ilejxjrts alone that are 
 made to ParHament, many sinujk' ones consist of 
 such immense masses of matter, that the very 
 idea of penisintr them, is, l)y Members, and lead- 
 ing Members too, openly scoffed at. Of the ex- 
 tent to which these bulky productions are fur- 
 nished to Parliament — for its illumination and gui- 
 dance, as most would have the simplicity to sup- 
 j)Ose — some opinion may be formed from the fcict, 
 that single boards of Commissioners specially no- 
 minated by the Legislature, have in repeated in- 
 stances presented as many as twelve, fifteen, and 
 seventeen Reports upon the one individual sub- 
 ject they were appointed to investigate. A list of 
 thirty-eight Connnissions of Inquiry, ordered by 
 the House of Commons to be printed. May 2, 
 1827, shews that nine only of that number have 
 issued in the progress of their labours no fewer 
 than one hundred and thirty-four Ileports! Some 
 lurther notion may be foiTned by the general rea- 
 der of the voluminous character of the various 
 other Documents, Returns, &c. furnished to Parlia- 
 ment, from the declaration of Mr. Wilmot Jlorton^
 
 13 
 
 June 3, 1825, tluit by his Department alone (the 
 Colonial), there had been laid on the table of the 
 House of Commons, in the com'se of the then 
 Session, Papers amounting to nearly five thou- 
 sand pages. 
 
 Well certainly might Mr. Peel observe, as he 
 did a few days after this, referring more imme- 
 diately to a most formidable production, with its 
 bulky appendixes, then forthcoming from another 
 quarter — the Report of the Chancery Commis- 
 sioners — that Documents like many of those sub- 
 mitted to Parliament, could not be weighed and 
 digested by Members in a moment ! 
 
 We admit that the Reports, Papers, &c. pre- 
 sented to either House, are not all of them dis- 
 tributed during the Session, or while Parliament 
 is actually sitting. The printing arrangements of 
 Parliament, extensive as they have become, would 
 be utterly unequal to this. Indeed with all the 
 dispatch that is used, a new Session generally 
 commences, or is on the eve of commencing, be- 
 fore the Papers of the preceding one are well out 
 of the printer's hands. An extra obstacle here 
 however arises in the way of these important 
 documents being duly "weighed and digested;" the 
 delivery of them from the Press thus taking place, 
 when by far the greater part of the Members 
 are attending to their private affairs in remote 
 quarters of the kingdom, and when no inconsi-
 
 tlrr;il)lc' |)i)rtit)ii »)!' tlic n-inaiiuliT, arc suit lo he 
 out of the fouutiN altonc'tluT. 
 
 It is ouh cotuiuou justice to the ])vvHcn{ ])nrt 
 ol' our case to uoticc, tluit tlic jirintcd Papers of 
 uiiic'li wc arc s])cakiui;, and whicli arc entirely 
 exclusive ol' the " Bills" printed, the " Votes" of the 
 two Houses, tlu* " .lournals," Sec. may at a very mo- 
 derate calculation he com])uted to exceed trcciilij- 
 Jirc lull sized and closely printed fo/io Vol times 
 per Session. 
 
 The rate at which these Pajiers have, increased 
 since the Union, is as follows: For the first ten 
 years they averaged twelve Volumes per Session; 
 for the second ten years they averaged sixteen 
 \ olumes; and since 1820, while the number has 
 never we believe been less than nineteen, they 
 have amomited to as many as thirty Volumes per 
 Session.* 
 
 This account, together with all that had pre- 
 ceded it, borne in mind, the reader cannot be 
 suiprised that the great bulk of these Papers re- 
 main a mere dead letter. Their own niunbers 
 and weight, indeed, fairly overlay them. How- 
 ever laudable may be the motives that lead to 
 their production, the result is, that soon after 
 
 • The averages of the two lirst ten 3ears we obtain from tlie Second 
 Report of the Coniniittce of the House of Commons of 182.'), on (oni- 
 mittee Rooms and Printed Papers,
 
 15 
 
 they are produced, they are silently deposited 
 among the archives of Parliament; and though 
 containing information the most important, and 
 teeming with facts, calculations, suggestions, and 
 recommendations, bearing intimately on every In- 
 terest in the Empire, neglect, if not entire obli- 
 vion, is, with little exception, their fate. 
 
 Before we drop the subject of these Papers, or 
 at least of such of them as emanate from Parlia- 
 mentary Committees, we would just observe, that 
 we wonder the very term Committee, in that par- 
 ticular connexion, has not long ere this become 
 odious to the nation. We ourselves have lived to 
 witness so much time, thought, and labour, often 
 expended, not only by some of the parties form- 
 ing these Committees, but likewise by the nume- 
 rous individuals attending upon them; and then, 
 after all, so many hopes frustrated — the recom- 
 mendations in which this time and these efforts 
 end, being so soon laid aside and forgotten — that 
 we acknowledge we recoil ,at the very mention of 
 a " Parliamentary Committee". We look upon the 
 phrase as little else than a synonym for anxieties 
 or solicitude — superfluously awakened ; for toil — 
 fruitlessly incurred ; for expectations — rwe are al- 
 most tempted to say — wantonly blasted. 
 
 Very certain we are, that a more unequivocal 
 proof of its alleged Wisdom, Parliament could 
 lot give, than by instantly suspending all calls
 
 MOST OF 
 THK Hi SI 
 NKSS OF 
 1 * A n L I \- 
 MKNT IS 
 DISl'ATCH 
 
 IG 
 
 [ov lu'w lulmns. I)\ loriliwitli tinning a deal' ear 
 to all propositions loi' additional Iiiijiiiries ; vc- 
 solvinn, rt'solutt'lv rcsohinu, hcfori' it ciicmiibers 
 itsi'ir Nvitli fiirtlu'V Papers, to at(iiiaiiit itself witli, 
 and convert to sonie really beneficial pur})ose, the 
 Ijordes upon hordes of those it already })ossesses. 
 
 fIaste Thus nuich then for the sinjijle point of the 
 
 WITH • 1 » #■ 1 T» » 1 
 
 w,i,(„ numerical Amount ol the Matters that are every 
 Session hrouijjht before Parliament. The Preci- 
 pitancy or Haste with which the Lej^islaturc dis- 
 patches a i^reat portion of the Business which it 
 
 ED. actually takes in hand, or professes to do, is what 
 
 we next propose a little to insist upon. Precipi- 
 tancy or Hurry in what it does, is indeed nothing 
 more than any one would have augured, as of 
 necessity resulting from the state of things that 
 has been described. Still this feature as it per- 
 tains to Parliament, is by far too specific as well 
 as prominent, not to claim and to receive, in a 
 discussion like the present, express notice. 
 
 Unquestionably the operation of legislating, is 
 not quite so summary a process in the two Houses 
 of Parhament, as it proves to be in the hands of 
 his Majesty — who, as we have already seen, hesi- 
 tates not to call into play, as many as a hundred 
 new Acts, at one dash of his pen. At the l)est 
 however, the parliamentary Session from first to 
 last, is but a contimied legislative race. One sole
 
 17 
 
 object seems to govern the active part of the 
 Members; and that is, the getting their respec- 
 tive Bills through the House, be the means by 
 which this can be accomplished (so long of course 
 as the forms of the House are complied with) 
 what they may. For achieving their purpose, 
 that is, for advancing their Bills through the re- 
 quisite stages, no hour of the day is thought too 
 early, no hour too late. At one time it is com- 
 plained that Bills have been read or passed, be- 
 fore the Members most interested in them had 
 got down to the House ; at another time it is 
 alleged that this has been done after all such 
 Members had left the House. The private Bills 
 struggle for the precedency with the public; 
 Scotch Bills contest the same point with Eng- 
 lish; English with Irish; and the Irish with 
 both. It is often only the lighter or more frivo- 
 lous matters that get legislated upon at all ; and 
 even then temporary Bills are brought in, be- 
 cause there is not time to frame permanent ones. 
 Parts of measures are entertained separately 
 from their whole ; and frequently, very fre- 
 quently, discussion, so far from being what is 
 sought for or desired, is the thing of all others 
 which is deprecated; as tending to bring to light 
 more unsoundness or disease — more at least that 
 is wrong and calls for correction, than circum- 
 stances, at the period, will admit of giving atten- 
 
 c
 
 18 
 
 turn to. " Seldom," says a distinj^uislu'd ])ubli- 
 latioM. wliicli r(jM)rts. wc may 1k' assured, to no 
 such effect, hut ulien evils are fhiji^rant iudeod, — 
 *' Seldom are Hills hrought into Parliament until 
 they can be no louijjer post])oned or avoided, and 
 then they are passed so hastily, that sufficient 
 time for the examination of them is not afforded 
 to the lee^islator. If it is asked why any parti- 
 cular enactment has not already been proposed, 
 the reply usually is, that it will be early enough 
 to legislate when the occasion calls for it ; and 
 when the occasion, at last, does call for it, the 
 excuse for preci])itation is, that imless immedi- 
 ately passed, the ])ublic service will suffer."* 
 
 So truly does this charge of precipitation ap- 
 ply, that in many instances Bills go to the upper 
 House with Clauses stuck in, or rather on, (as 
 Riders), which are the thought of the moment ; 
 or, at least, which suggest themselves so late, 
 that not so much as an attempt can be made at 
 incoq:>orating them in the body of the Bill. On 
 the other hand. Clauses which had from the first 
 been contemplated and even inserted in the Bills, 
 are, from the helter-skelter way in which the 
 Bills are passed, altogether left out.f Again, 
 
 • Tlie Quarterly ReWew, April, 1819. 
 
 f See a statement made by the Speaker in the House of Com- 
 mons, July 5, 1825 ; and another by Lord Lauderdale in the House 
 of Lord.s, May 22, 1826.
 
 19 
 
 some Bills, and these ''public" and important 
 ones, not only go through all their stages in tlie 
 two Houses, but actually receive the royal As- 
 sent, of which the leading Ministers of the 
 Crown soon after declare, they were utterly ig- 
 norant any such Bills had ever existed:* whilst, 
 forming the exact reverse of this, and as if no- 
 thing were to be wanting to perfect our case, to 
 other Bills, expressly concocted and carried 
 through Parhament, by these very same Minis- 
 ters, the royal Assent — such is the pell-mell state 
 of things — is forgotten to be procured at all.f 
 
 Sickening — literally heart-sickening, to us, are 
 the facts we here recount ; and not less painful 
 the peinisal of them, we are persuaded, will be, 
 to every one who has been taught to value the 
 Institutions of his Country ; and who, as to the 
 deeply responsible act of legislating, more espe- 
 cially, knows what, upon the very commonest 
 shewing even of safety as well as of justice, is 
 due therein to the interests that are concerned. 
 
 Indeed, with the bare possibility of occur- 
 rences such as we here detail, taking place at 
 the fountain-head of all Law and Order, the 
 
 * We refer the reader here to the Debate in the House of Lords, 
 July 4, 1825, on the subject of the Law respecting Combinations, 
 which had passed in the preceding Session. 
 
 t This occurred in the instance of the Bill of the Attorney-Gene- 
 ral for renewing the old Law relative to arrests on Bills of Exchange, 
 which passed both Houses in the Session of 1825. 
 
 c2
 
 L>0 
 
 uondtr is. tluit tic tliis all Law and OnliT 
 anioni!; us havf not coiiu- to he set at dt'liance ; 
 or that, at the least, tlu" ("ommunity lias not 
 la])si'd into a state oC total disorj^anization. 
 How loni;, till the system be altered, one or the 
 otlur ol' tlu'se erises may he delayed, we ])re- 
 sunie not to he able to say. Much, very much, 
 it is evident, we nuist be indebted at this mo- 
 ment, tor what continues to us of quiet and se- 
 curity, to the influence of prescription on the 
 minds of the public, or to the force of habit ; 
 little, very little, to the vigilant oversight, to the 
 tutelary care, of our rulers. 
 
 Quality But we liave still matter, and most important 
 matter too, to urge in su})port of that innova- 
 tion in the economy of Parliament of w^hich we 
 are the proposers. In short, taking leave of the 
 Haste with which the business of Parliament is 
 dispatched, together with its Quantity, we shall 
 proceed to say something of the Quality of what 
 is thus done or transacted. We shall go on, in 
 fact, to contend, that the expediency, nay, that 
 the necessity of a further Division of Labom*, is 
 in the highest degree indicated in the case of 
 Parliament, by the very unworkman-like— in 
 other words, by the grossly defective character, 
 of what at present issues from it; — that is, of 
 those numerous Provisions or Enactments which 
 
 OF WHAT IS 
 DONK BY 
 
 Paklia- 
 
 MENT.
 
 21 
 
 are the products of its deliberative wisdom — of 
 its legislative skill. 
 
 And here so wide a field opens before us, that 
 we scarcely know upon what part of it first to 
 enter. It may be well, however, briefly to enu- 
 merate certain leading properties, or features, 
 which common sense tells us all Laws ought to 
 possess; and this done, the task will be a toler- 
 ably straightforward one, of ascertaining how 
 far these properties, or features, do or do not 
 pertain to the Acts of our Parliament. 
 
 Prior to all positive legislation, some prelimi- 
 nary points manifestly claim, in every case, to be 
 attended to. Regard is to be had, for instance, 
 to the fitness or propriety of the subject itself, 
 proposed to be legislated upon. Also to the 
 state of the existing Laws thereon, if any there 
 be ; and to the suitableness of the time at which 
 the new Law is called for. It will further be 
 specially borne in mind, that the contemplated 
 Enactment is what the Judges of the Land will, 
 under a weighty and anxious responsibility, have 
 to propound; what the Authorities of the Coun- 
 try will be required to enforce; and what, so 
 long as the Act is of a pubHc nature, it will be 
 imperative upon the people, one and all of them, 
 to obey. The course thus far prepared, as it 
 most assuredly will be, by all parties really merit- 
 ing the name of Legislators, the Law that wil
 
 ivsiilt. will lu' liricl". or as hrii-i' as \\\v cast' will 
 possil)ly adjiiit ol'; perspicuous; and consistent. 
 It uill i)c sini|)lc or unconipouudcd ; llial is, not 
 cmhracini;' topics utterly irrelevant in their na- 
 ture, or havini; no aflinity to each otiier. Its 
 provisions will he jmicticahle; and not only prac- 
 ticahle, hut adapted to their end. Added to 
 which, the wliole will he framed with such scru- 
 pulous care, at once as to its mechanical struc- 
 ture or technical vvordhig, and to all the circum- 
 stances in reference to which it is enacted, as to 
 ensure for it, as far as human ability can do this, 
 iixedness or durability. 
 
 But barely to mention some of these items in 
 connexion with our Acts of Parliament — what is it 
 but to bring together, or to suggest to the 
 thoughts, things in the strongest possible man- 
 ner contrasting — things of the very utmost dis- 
 crepancy? Acts *'foohsh;" "futile;" "trumpery:" 
 " ambiguous ;" Acts " so voluminous that any in- 
 dividual might be defied to find out from them, 
 Avhat was Law and what was not Law;" Acts 
 " heaped, and even fagoted together in piles of 
 the most heterogeneous mass ;" " full of com- 
 plexity ;" " extremely unintelligible ;" " di'awn 
 up with the greatest and most culpable negli- 
 gence ;" " discovering almost every description 
 of absurdity and inaccuracy;" "so abounding in 
 errors of granmiar even, and of construction.
 
 2B 
 
 that the very Printer, to save his own reputation, 
 puts sic in the margin of them ;" Acts " evincing 
 the meddhng follies of their authors ;" " raising 
 questions without end for solution;" "so little 
 considered in their bearings, as to tend greatly 
 to embarrass the interests of the Country ;" Acts 
 '' passed in one Session, which, from their inju- 
 rious effects, it was found necessary promptly to 
 repeal in the next;" Acts " causing the most cry- 
 ing complaints and grievances in all parts of the 
 Country ;" Acts, " the defects of which could 
 hardly be conceived;" — this is the summing up— 
 this the estimate of the merits of divers of our 
 Statutes, furnished by the very framers of our 
 Laws themselves : by Members too, (for we 
 pass by a crowd of inferior deponents among 
 them, testifying to a Hke purport,) of the great- 
 est name, and some of them holding at the time 
 the most distinguished official appointments.* 
 
 * The authors of the statements given by us with inverted com- 
 mas, are as follow — the order in which the names appear answering 
 to that of the quotations: — Marquis of Lansdown, July 4, 182o. 
 Ibid. April 2, 1828. Mr. Baring, March 23, 1826. Lord Melville, 
 Feb. 16, 1821. Dr. Lushington, May 18, 1826. Mr. Buxton, 
 May 23, 1821. . The Attorney-General, Feb. 24, 1826. Lord Gode- 
 rich, April 6, 1824. Mr. Irving, Feb. 2, 1821. Mr. Brougham, 
 May 26, 1825. Mr. Denman, April 30, 1821. Mr. Sec. Peel, Feb. 
 22, 1827. Mr. Leslie Foster, Feb. 19, 1828. Lord Lauderdale, 
 June 21, 1819. Mr. Littleton, June 14, 1820. Lord Liverpool 
 (the latej, July 4, 1825. Mr. Huskisson, March 23, 1826. 
 
 The Acts alluded to, we only abstain from particularizing on 
 account of the intolerable length to whicli tliis note, in that case, 
 must have extended.
 
 '21 
 
 Ot all j)arlii'.s, tliosr of coiirsi- will be back- 
 ward to spi'ak tlis))araii;injj,l\ of t>ur l.aws — whose 
 business it is to administer them. And yet, 
 wliat ail' the terms in whieh I'ven onr .ludges, at 
 times, are luanl to ^ive vint to their techngs, as 
 it rejxards the (jnality of our Statutes? Acts 
 ** inade(juate to tluir j)in'|)ose ;" "ill penned" 
 Aets; Acts "ol'(|uestionable meaning;" "couch- 
 ed in tirms of doubtful import;" " hard to be 
 interpreted, for their obscurity and difficulty ;" 
 " extremely difficult to construe, from the uncer- 
 tain wording and the com])le\ity of their provi- 
 sions ;" " so loosely worded that no proceedings 
 could be instituted upon them ;" " passed in ig- 
 norance of the ])ractice they respected;" *' work- 
 ing great injustice between individuals:" — this is 
 language — these are representations all — extorted 
 from the highest Law Authorities in the Coun- 
 try; and extorted by the harassing predicaments 
 which the several Enactments thus spoken of, 
 involved them in.* 
 
 * The Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, House of Lords, June 
 27, 1825. Dictum of the Judges, quoted in Ehnes' Tretitise on Ar- 
 chitectural Jurisprudence, lately published. The Vice-Chancellor, 
 April 2, 1827. Lord Chief Justice of tlie King's Bench, July 4, 
 1827. Sir Christopher Robinson, April 28, 1826. Lord Chief Jus- 
 tice of the Kings Hcnch, May 1, 1823. Dictum of the Judges, 
 cpiotid in the Quarterly Review, Jan. 1828. The Lord Chief 
 Raron, Nov. 1(5, 1827. Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Dec. 
 13, 1828. — Other functionaries than those of our own Country, it is
 
 25 
 
 The Voice of the pubHc Press, ranking next 
 in value or weight after that of the leading men 
 in the Government and Legislature, and of our 
 Judges, comes, if possible, still more explicitly in 
 aid of our Argument. " The language and com- 
 position of our legal Instruments," say the Edin- 
 burgh Reviewers, " including our Acts of Par- 
 liament, are a disgrace to the intelligence and 
 information of the Country."* — " Such is the 
 hasty concoction," say the writers in the Quar- 
 terly Review, such the *' slovenly composition" 
 of our Laws, and *' so uncertain and conftised 
 are they, that Magistrates and Officers of Justice 
 are perpetually perplexed and endangered in 
 the enforcement and execution of them. Even 
 Judges of the brightest learning and industry, 
 have occasionally erred in determining upon im- 
 portant rights of individuals, from overlooking 
 
 to be observed from the following extracts, are fretted and perplexed 
 by the obscurities, errors, &c. of our Statutes. " The intricacy of the 
 several Acts of Parliament affecting the intercourse of America with 
 the British Colonies, and the difficulty of understanding their pre- 
 cise meaning, might, it seems to me, have been considered by the 
 British Government a sufficient reason why that of the United States 
 should hesitate," &c. — Mr. Gallatin s correspondence with Mr. Clay, 
 Oct. 1826. The President's Message to Congress, of the following 
 December, speaking on the same subject, says, " In the mean time 
 another Act of Parliament passed, so doubtful and ambiguous in its 
 import, as to be inexplicable, even by the British authorities, in this 
 hemisphere, tlicmselves." 
 
 * The Edinburgh Review, published March, 1827.
 
 26 
 
 sonu' sliort but essential clause or Act, buried iu 
 sunoundinuf vi'rbia«^(.S Ibrcif^n to the subject be- 
 fore tbeui.* * * * As to the uulearued })ul)lic, 
 anv attempt ou their part to uuderstand tlie 
 Statutes, must be somethiug hke au eiuU'avour to 
 interpret a Uuuic inscription, or the hierogly- 
 phics on a Herculaneum j)ai)yrus."* 
 
 After tlie host of Authorities we here cite, 
 of Autliorities of such higli rank too, we do 
 not ask wliether one word more, corroborative 
 of what these parties have thus said, is need- 
 ed; but whether one word more answering to 
 that description will be tolerated? We hope 
 it will. We trust, in short, we shall be borne 
 with, wliile we enter a little into detail, where 
 others have been so very general; that is to 
 say, while we indulge in some amplification 
 upon one or two at least of those features in 
 our Laws, which others have only in the most 
 incidental and passing manner glanced at. 
 
 Trumpery And first of all, as to the " tnnnpery" cha- 
 
 Parfia- racter of certain of our Laws. 
 
 It appears to us then, that Parliament errs, 
 errs most egregiously, at the very outset of 
 much of its Legislation: that, not to speak at 
 this moment of the structure or framing of its 
 Enactments, that these Enactments are in num- 
 
 • Tlie Quarterly Review, published Jan. 1828. 
 
 raent.
 
 27 
 
 berless instances, in the most emphatic sense 
 of the word, bad, as relating to affairs, or en- 
 deavouring to compass objects, of a pettifog- 
 ging, and indeed contemptible minuteness. This 
 utter want of discrimination on the part of Par- 
 liament, as to what is really fitting to be enter- 
 tained by it, we are warranted, we appre- 
 hend, in ascribing, without any hesitation, to 
 the multiplicity of its business, and to the lit- 
 tle time thus allowed to it, for any thing like 
 circumspection. Upon what other shewing can 
 it be accounted for, that our Legislature should 
 suffer itself to be put in motion, that it should 
 permit its ponderous Machinery to be agitated, 
 about such matters as Buttons, Butter, Bread, 
 Ounce Thread, Tailors' Wages, Apprentices' 
 food. Muffin plates. Twigs for hoops, News- 
 mens' horns, and we know not what more, that 
 is in the lowest degree pitiful and peddling?* 
 
 There may be no precedent for doing so, but 
 for our own parts, we are quite decided as to 
 the propriety of classing under the head of 
 
 * The subjects we specify, have all of them been formally discussed 
 or legislated upon by Parliament in modern times. Upon the ques- 
 tion of blowing Horns in the public streets, the House of Commons 
 divided, June 22, 1821. Forty-three of our Statesmen, Philosophers, 
 Juris-Consults, &c. decided against the expediency of continuing 
 the practice, while as many as l^ght turned out in favour of leaving 
 the Horn-blowers in tlie undisturbed possession of Ihcir privilege!
 
 '2S 
 
 '* truniperv" lA'gislatiDii, a vast portion of what 
 is tcniu'il the })r'irutc Business, that is every 
 Session transacted by l\ulianient. Tlie very 
 cognomen eni])h)yed to ck'signate this l)nsiness, 
 we hold to l)e a justification ol" tlie convic- 
 tion u])on tills ))oint, which we have long since 
 come to. How any occupation to whicli the 
 epithet " private" could apply, ever came to 
 fall to the lot of Parliament, we shall not sto]) 
 to enquire; but we ])ut it to the reader, Whe- 
 ther it is not calculated to stagger every con- 
 siderate mind, whether the thing is not of a 
 nature to revolt all our notions of seemliness 
 and congruity, to find the supreme legislative 
 Council of the empire, the congregated Wisdom 
 of the nation — busying itself, for instance, about 
 widening Pill Lane ; about improving the ave- 
 nues to Piffs Elms; about the difficulties felt 
 by Chelsea in disposing of its Dust and Ashes; 
 and by Dubhn in pro^dding itself with Straw? 
 
 The S]>eaker of the House of Commons, it 
 is well known, w^hen the opportunity is afforded 
 him at the close of a Session, triumphantly re- 
 counts to his Majesty, the feats that have dis- 
 tinguished it. On these occasions, and while 
 matters remain as they now are, this eminent 
 individual will certainly never do common jus- 
 tice to his theme, till he appends to his ha- 
 rangue, some such recital as the following :
 
 29 
 
 ** Our anxious attention has been given to the 
 state of the river Ribble, and the Roads about 
 Paddle Brook we have directed to be repaired. 
 The communications with Cow Down, Pot 
 Hook's End, and Bally-hooly, have not escaped 
 our vigilant regards ; and, agreeably to a unani- 
 mous decision of your faithful Commons, there 
 will henceforth be a Rail-way leading to Bullo Pill. 
 Urgent representations having been made to 
 us, of the objectionableness of the present site 
 of the Hospital at Sheffield, we have consent- 
 ed to its being changed. The Work-house too 
 at Norwich, will, by our authority, speedily be 
 taken down. To the townships of Skipton and 
 Sharpies, a further supply of Water has been 
 awarded; and fit spots have been indicated by 
 Us, for the Plymouth Hackney Coach Stands. 
 Nothing deterred by the difficulties and entan- 
 glements attendant thereon, we have plunged 
 into all the minutiae of the two great ques- 
 tions — the having a tram road between Man- 
 chester and Liverpool, and the lighting Edin- 
 burgh with Oil Gas. ' Delivered,' as we ulti- 
 mately were, and ' in a way suited to the wis- 
 dom of Parliament,' of these momentous topics, 
 we proceeded to vest Pedlar's Acre in Trustees, 
 and to remove doubts, which, we flatter our- 
 selves, we have for ever done, as to the lega- 
 lity of the erection of the portico of St. Mary-
 
 M) 
 
 l(-l)oiU' parisli (hmcli. Ii'iirtlu-rmorc we luivi' 
 passed Hills, to whicli we supplicate vour Hoyul 
 assent, authorizing Kitty Jenkyn l\ieke to hear 
 the amis of Headiuu": and naturalizing- Henry 
 ^'an Wart!"* 
 
 After this outline es])ecially, of that whole 
 and very extensive (Mass of the husiness of 
 Parliament we now s])eak of, who of our rea- 
 ders will not go along with us in exclaiming, 
 Oil, the august suhjects to which the time and 
 the talents of our Senators are consecrated! 
 Oh, the colossal matters with which, foot to 
 foot, and hand to hand, they so manfully gi*ap- 
 ple; and the suqiassing conquests they, as the 
 result of so much legislative chivalry, achieve! 
 
 Seriously, however, notwithstanding the con- 
 stant bustle or turmoil in which they are kept, 
 we do wonder that our Members of Parliament 
 are not more alive to the perfect burlesque upon 
 the office of legislating, which they are every 
 day chargeable with: that they do not some- 
 times indeed start fi*om their scats with indig- 
 nation, at the downright puerilities, at the 
 absolute nothingnesses, about which they find 
 themselves assembled in solemn divan, and to 
 
 * These, and a crowd of equally dignified enactments, are to be 
 seen by any one who will run his cyo over the tables of the Statutes 
 of the last few Sessions.
 
 31 
 
 take their due part in the grave dehberations 
 respecting which, they have come traveUing, 
 many of them, with breathless haste, from the 
 remotest quarters of the kingdom. 
 
 But further, we wish to observe, or to " am- Jumbling, 
 pHfy" a httle, upon that feature in many of our podgeActs 
 Acts of ParHament, agreeably to which they 
 consist of Enactments jumbled or *' fagoted" 
 together, touching matters the most opposite 
 or dissimilar; touching matters between which 
 there exists not one particle of affinity or re- 
 lation. The reader will understand that we 
 speak of the same Act, as containing these 
 heterogeneous, these totally irrelevant Enact- 
 ments. A character is thus given to much of 
 our Legislation, which is perfectly grotesque; 
 but this is the smallest part of the evil ; for our 
 Statutes, already objectionable enough on the 
 ground of their great number and unvsdeldiness, 
 are, in consequence of the peculiarity we now 
 speak of, with little exception, rendered one 
 Mass of maziness, or intricacy. Not more ca- 
 pricious is the course of vessels, abandoned to 
 the mercy of the winds and waves, than are 
 our Acts of Parliament, as to the items which 
 in their progress they will enlist, and the 
 enactments they will comprehend. 
 
 Sir M. W. Ridley announced, we should say 
 benevolently announced, not long since, in the
 
 :V2 
 
 House of ('ouiinons. that any one wisliiii^- to 
 acquaint liiinsi'll' witli tlic ivgulations regarding 
 the nuxli' ol" lorwarding Petitions to Members 
 of Parliament, must search for tluni (could the 
 reader, in his most sportive mood, have ima- 
 gined it .') in an Act for laying an additional 
 duty upon Tea and Coffee ! Of the Statute 
 under which various of the public Theatres, 
 Vauxhall, and other places of Entertainment, 
 are at this day annually licensed, the commen- 
 cing Clause is as follows : " Whereas the ad- 
 vertizing a Reward, \nth no Questions asked, 
 for the return of Things lost or stolen, is one 
 great cause and encouragement of Ptobberies, be 
 it enacted," &c. Src. Sec. Many may in all proba- 
 bility recollect, that on introducing to Parliament 
 his Bill for Amending the Laws relating to Theft, 
 (House of Commons, March 9, 1826,) Mr. Se- 
 cretary Peel cited the title of one single Act, 
 which embraced no fewer than the following 
 variety of subjects: the continuing several Laws 
 therein mentioned; the carrpng of Sugars in 
 British built Vessels; the encouraging the im- 
 portation of Naval Stores; preventing frauds 
 in the admeasurement of Coals in the City 
 of Westminster; and preventing the Stealing 
 or Destroying of Madder Roots. Another Act 
 which he, on the same occasion, referred to, 
 fonns a still more striking olio, a still more pe-
 
 33 
 
 ciiliar piece of patch-work : it was this — An Act 
 for better securing the duties of Customs on 
 certain Goods removed to London; for regula- 
 ting the fees of Officers in his Majesty's Cus- 
 toms in the province of Segambia, in Africa; 
 for allowing the Receiver-general of fees, in 
 Scotland, proper compensation; for the better 
 preservation of Hollies, Thorns, and Quicksets, 
 in private gi'ounds, and Trees and Underwoods; 
 and authorizing the Exportation of a limited 
 quantity of Barley from the port of KirkgroW. 
 But these, perhaps, it will be remarked, are, 
 each of them, specimens of the Legislation of 
 a by-gone period — of a period wherein know- 
 ledge and civihzation were, comparatively, at a 
 low ebb; when, in short, the "march of intel- 
 lect" among Statesmen, as well as People, was 
 by no means so palpable, so strongly marked, 
 as it happily is at present. According to the 
 public papers, this was manifestly the precise 
 feeling that pervaded the House of Commons 
 itself, on Mr. Peel's reciting there the titles of 
 the two Acts we have last mentioned. We will 
 turn then to such sources of information as are 
 within our reach, with regard to the Legisla- 
 tion of more recent times; with regard to the 
 Legislation, in short, of the enlightened epoch 
 in which it is the reader's privilege, and our 
 own, to live. Every thing else around us, 
 
 I)
 
 34 
 
 )iavin«jf, jis it is alk'i:;i'{|, woiulevruUy progressed 
 diiriuf^ tlu' last thirty or forty years, we will 
 see how far, in tlie article ol' iuu'iitaiii!;le(l, well 
 assorted, conseeutive lejj^islation. Parliament has 
 kept pace with the general advance.—" A most 
 pernicious regulation," said a Witness, before 
 the Committee of the House of Commons, 
 which sat in 1826, on the Irish butter Trade, 
 a most i^ernicious regulation, which has all 
 but ruined the Butter trade at Cork, was in- 
 troduced into a Bill, which passed through Par- 
 liament in the Session of 1822." What was 
 the particular Bill you refer to ? enquired the 
 Committee. " It was entitled," replied the wit- 
 ness, * An Act for better paving and lighting 
 the Streets, and for other purposes;' under 
 which designation, no one soul concerned in 
 the Butter trade, dreaming that his peculiar 
 interests were at all at stake, the destructive 
 regulation in question took effect."*—" He pro- 
 tested," said a proprietor of East India Stock, 
 at a general Court of Proprietors, held June 
 22, 1825, " he protested against the junction 
 in one and the same Bill, of subjects so utterly 
 ahen to each other, as Regulations for provi- 
 ding for the Judges of his Majesty's Courts in 
 India, and for transporting Offenders from the 
 
 • See the Evidence of Mr. Fitzgibbon in the printed Report.
 
 35 
 
 Island of St. Helena." " But the honourable 
 proprietor," exclaimed another voice at the meet- 
 ing, " has stopped short in specifying the con- 
 tents of the Bill then before Parhament, and 
 which they were assembled to discuss; for to- 
 wards its close, and totally unconnected with the 
 preceding parts of the Bill, were to be found 
 Provisions for more effectually administering 
 Justice in Singapore, and Malacca!" We our- 
 selves must take leave to add, that even with 
 this supplementary intelligence, the Bill was 
 most inadequately described ; for as it stands in 
 the Statute Book, it is thus headed — An Act for 
 further regulating the payment of the Salaries 
 and Pensions to the Judges of his Majesty's 
 Courts in India, cmd the Bishop of Calcutta; for 
 authorizing the transportation of Offenders from 
 the Island of St. Helena; and for more effectu- 
 ally providing for the administration of Justice 
 in Singapore and Malacca, and certain Colonies 
 on the Coast of Coromandel. 
 
 The titles of some other Acts we shall here- 
 with subjoin, as substantiating, beyond the pos- 
 sibility of contradiction, the fact, that the "■ om- 
 nium gatherum," oUa podrida, or pot pouri 
 mode of legislating, so far from being the exclu- 
 sive characteristic of past times, is still in full 
 activity : 
 
 Cap. 49, 7th Geo. IV. [1826] is thus headed: 
 
 D 2
 
 no 
 
 "An Art to anu-iul scM-ral laws ol" l^xcisc rcla- 
 tin«jj to Bonds on Mxciso Licciisis in licland. 
 Tiles and Hricks for draininji^, Oatlis on Export- 
 ation of (ioods, IVrniits for the removal of Tea 
 in Ireland, size of Casks in which S])irits may be 
 warehoused in Scotland and Ireland, the allow- 
 ance of Duty on Starch and Soap used in cer- 
 tain manufactures, and the repayment of money 
 advanced by Collectors of Excise for public 
 \\'orks in Ireland." 
 
 ^^'hat, we cannot help obser\ing, might not 
 follow, or be superadded, to such a farrago as 
 this ? We request the reader to notice too, the 
 order, the perfectly fortuitous order, as it would 
 seem, in which the various items occur. This, 
 also, we think deserving some attention in one 
 or two of the instances that subsequently occur. 
 
 Cap. 71, 4th Geo. IV. [1823]. " An Act for 
 defraying the charge of Retiring Pay, Pensions, 
 and other Expences of that nature, of his Ma- 
 jesty's forces servdng in India; for establishing 
 the Pensions of the Bishop, Archdeacons, and 
 Judges ; for regulating ordinations ; and for es- 
 tablishing a Court of Judicature at Bombay." 
 
 Cap. 75, 5th Geo. IV. [1824]. "An Act to 
 decrease the Duty on Cocoa Nuts imported; to 
 exempt certain Goods from payment of Auction 
 Duties; to provide that the parish of St. Pancras 
 shall be under the inspection of the Head Office
 
 37 
 
 of Excise ; and to amend certain Laws of Excise 
 relating to Maltsters in Ireland; to the Draw- 
 back on Beer exported from Great Britain ; and 
 to the Duty on Draining Tiles." 
 
 Cap. 7, 7 & 8, Geo. IV. [1827]. " An Act for 
 continuing to his Majesty for one year certain 
 Duties on Personal Estates, Offices, and Pen- 
 sions in England; and also for granting certain 
 Duties on Sugar imported." 
 
 Cap. 56, 6th Geo. IV. [1825]. "An Act to 
 amend two acts for removing difficulties in the 
 Conviction of offenders steahng Property in 
 Mines, and from Corporate Bodies." 
 
 Can there be imagined, we ask, a more whim- 
 sical, a more truly bizarre association of things, 
 than is instanced in the two last cases? We 
 shall add the titles of but one or two Acts more, 
 from amongst a variety of similar ones which 
 offer themselves to us: 
 
 Cap. 43, 5th Geo. IV. [1824]. " An Act to 
 alter the Duties on the Importation of certain 
 Articles, and also the Duties on Coals brought 
 to London; to repeal the Bounties on linens 
 exported, and to amend the Acts relating to the 
 Customs." 
 
 Cap. 107, 5th Geo. IV. [1824]. " An Act to 
 prevent the illegal pawning of Clothes and Stores 
 belonging to Chelsea Hospital; to give further 
 powers to the Treasurer and Deputy Treasurer 
 
 IK^1>
 
 38 
 
 of Clu'lsta and (ocrnwicli Hospitals; to punisli 
 Prrsons tVaiuhiK'Mtly n-crivinj;" Prizc-inoiU'y or 
 PtMisions: and to cnal)le tlu' Comiiiissioners of 
 Clulsca Hospital to iiold i-aiids j)urcluiSL'd un- 
 dvv tlic Will ofColoiR'l Drowly." 
 
 We have adverted to tlie feeling that evidently 
 prevailed in the House of Commons, on Mr. Peel's 
 reciting to Members the titles of the two Acts, 
 whicli, after him, we have quoted a page or two 
 back. Indeed, the Newspapers of the day stated, 
 that these titles, as they were read, convulsed the 
 House with laughter. Now, really, where the 
 warranty existed for this profound merriment on 
 the part of the House of Commons of our times 
 — on what possible gi'ound Members of Parlia- 
 ment of the present day could arrogate to them- 
 selves, with respect to Jumbhng Legislation, that 
 superiority over their predecessors which they 
 thus palpably laid claim to, — or, in truth, any 
 superiority at all — we acknowledge ourselves un- 
 able, in the faintest degree, to discern. One thing, 
 we admit we see, or think we see, very distinctly ; 
 namely, that in the ridicule or jeering in which, 
 u})on the occasion in question, honourable Mem- 
 bers so lavishly indulged, they, with great accu- 
 racy, anticipated the verdict which posterity will 
 pronounce on many of their own Acts; and that 
 they affixed, innocently enough affixed, to these
 
 39 
 
 acts of their own, that brand of reproach, that mark 
 of opprobrium, which alone is their precise due. 
 We shall content ourselves here with the sin- 
 gle further remark, that any thing more truly 
 barbarous in Legislation, than the peculiarity we 
 are speaking of; — any thing more indicative of the 
 age in which Legislation is in its veriest infancy, 
 we may defy the nicest casuist, the most subtle 
 disputant, to point out. 
 
 Again, we have a few words to say regarding Fluctua- 
 that utter want of Fixedness, or Stability, which j4"c?er of 
 may so justly be charged upon our Laws, almost ''^''^®- 
 universally. We have in view here, as the rea- 
 der will doubtless suppose, those everlasting Al- 
 terations, or soi-disant Amendments, which our 
 Acts of Parliament are undergoing; and which a 
 highly respectable Member of the House of 
 Commons, Mr. Littleton, must, in part at least, 
 have had reference to, when he complained so 
 loudly of " many Acts being passed in one Ses- 
 sion only to be repealed in the next."* 
 
 Conspicuous as may be those other traits we 
 have noticed, in what comes from the hands of 
 our Legislature, it is certainly the ever-changing, 
 the cameleon-like character of its Acts, which 
 
 * Sec page 2o.
 
 to 
 
 (listiiij^iiislu's tluMM |)R'-('miiU'iitly. To '* alter," 
 to " anuMul. " and to ** (.'.\])laiM," aiv tcnus of 
 Muli systi'inatic, ol siicli lu'vcr-ccasini^ reciir- 
 rtiu'i' in parliamentary phniscoloi^^y, that occii- 
 |mtion ol" that i)articiilar nature, might very fairly 
 be assumed to be what, par cicel/ence, our Le- 
 i^islators deliirhted in. Upon a cursory inspec- 
 tion of oiu" Statute Book, indeed, almost might 
 it l)e imagined, that these three words consti- 
 tuted tlu' wliole vocabulary of Parliament. To 
 such an intolerable pass has this system arrived, 
 of explaining and re-explaining, of ameuding and 
 re-amending, of altciing and re-altering, that fear- 
 ing our allegations, as to its extent, might be dis- 
 credited, we acknowledge we at one time had con- 
 templated enumerating the Acts that had been 
 passed within a given period, and which were 
 headed or introduced with one, or another, or 
 all of the terms we mention. Had we persisted 
 in this intention, not only would it have ap- 
 peared, in corroboration of Mr. Littleton's state- 
 ment, that vast numbers of these emendatory or 
 explanatory Acts, respected what had passed no 
 further back than in the Session immediately 
 preceding— but that no despicable number of 
 them related to Acts, passed in the very Session 
 then existing! However, we soon discovered — 
 besides the enormous length to which our in- 
 tended catalogue would have run, — that the list
 
 41 
 
 would still have left entirely unnoticed a throng 
 of other Acts essentially of the same description ; 
 of Acts, for instance, for "removing Doubts;" 
 Acts for "rectifying Mistakes;" Acts for "reliev- 
 ing from the Provisions;" — for "deferring the 
 Commencement" — for " facilitating the execu- 
 tion" — for " making further Provision and further 
 regulating and extending the Powers" of Acts, &c. 
 — to say nothing of Acts of total Repeal; and we in 
 consequence relinquished, reluctantly, we con- 
 fess, relinquished this part of our design. For po- 
 sitive demonstration, therefore, should it be re- 
 quired, of what we are now alleging, we must re- 
 fer the reader to the Statute Book itself. In the 
 immense mass he will there see, of adscititious or 
 subsidiary Enactments, such as we have just de- 
 scribed, he will at once learn the most damning 
 of all the facts connected with our Legislation. 
 Here he will find proclaimed, far more eloquently 
 than we can do it, the native inherent defectiveness 
 — we could almost say deformity and even decre- 
 pitude — of most of our Statute Law. Here he 
 will presently become acquainted with those in- 
 terminable patchings-up, and bolsterings,by which 
 alone a partial efficiency, and a precarious exist- 
 ence, can be secured to this Law. 
 
 Into a detail of all the evils caused by this perpe- 
 tually fluctuating, this self-condemned state of our 
 Law, we shall not attempt to enter. What feel-
 
 V2 
 
 ini(s of (listrusl and insi'curity it cannot I'ail to 
 L>eg(»t ; wliat flnijrant \vron«^s it nuist ol" necessity 
 |)er])etrate; liow embarrassing it nnist render tlie 
 situation ol" tlie nunuTons individuals whose busi- 
 ness it is to jj^ive effect to the hiw; and in what 
 low estimation it leads those, our Law-makers, to 
 be held, oi whom it is essential to the pro])er tone, 
 and the general well-being of the comnumity, 
 that they should inspire us, if not with reverence, 
 with respect : — all this, and much more, what 
 intelligent reader is there who will not instantly 
 perceive .' what considerate mind is there that 
 will not mifeignedly de})lore ? 
 
 Nor let it be supposed that these Evils, form- 
 idable as they are, and under the combined ope- 
 ration of which the Country is suffering, are at 
 all in a way at present to be substantially dimi- 
 nished. We make this remark the more early, 
 as well as the more pointedly, because of an im- 
 pression, which some, there is reason to think, 
 are entertaining, to the effect, that however un- 
 stable, however shifting, our Statutes may have 
 been, in times that to a certain extent are gone 
 by— that latterly, a more circumspect, and altoge- 
 ther an improved mode of legislating, particu- 
 larly of law-framing, has come to obtain in Par- 
 liament. We mean, has come to obtain there 
 systematically or generally ; nothing, of course, 
 short of which, would constitute any solid gi'ound
 
 43 
 
 tor increased hope or satisfaction on the part of 
 the pubhc. 
 
 We repeat, that from different circumstances, 
 there is reason to suppose the impression we 
 speak of, is abroad; and attaching to it, as we 
 do, the very last importance, owing to the false 
 security, and therefore aggravated mischief, it 
 appears to us likely to beget —it is to the expo- 
 sure and refutation of this apprehension, wher- 
 ever it may be existing, that, in what will further 
 follow under the present head of our subject, we 
 shall exclusively confine ourselves. 
 
 And as sufficient for the purpose we thus pro- 
 pose, we could almost be satisfied, simply to ask 
 of the reader, whether any such Understanding is 
 in the least likely to be bottomed in truth, see- 
 ing, as we are sure our own pages have rendered 
 clearly evident, that there have been for many 
 Sessions past, and that there still continues to 
 be, the greatest press and surplusage of business 
 in Parliament ; together with the utmost haste or 
 dispatch, amounting often to flagrant indecency, 
 in nearly all that it does ? Seeing, too, that no 
 change whatever has taken place in the economy 
 of Parliament :— as also that its Members have, 
 as far as the Nation is aware, been endowed with 
 no new gifts or faculties ? 
 
 Not however to occupy time about the pro- 
 babilities of the case, we will venture to assert.
 
 aiul \vt' will l)t)ltlly assert, tliat a grosser error, a 
 more complete delusion, the ])ul)lic cannot aban- 
 don themselves to, than the su])position — that 
 our parliamentary Enactnunts, collectively taken, 
 are detennined upon with more prenieditation, or 
 are concocted with more care, now, than here- 
 tofore. It may with the most strict truth he 
 affirmed, with regard both to the origination, and 
 construction of our Acts of Parliament, that 
 what was, still is; and that as alterations and 
 re-alterations, explanations and re-explanations, 
 amendments and re-amendments, in their in- 
 stance, have been of old the order of the day, so 
 does this continue to he the regular routine of 
 things, down to the moment of our writing. 
 
 Though we have bestowed considerable atten- 
 tion upon the point, w^e })rotest we are unable to 
 specify even one single subject, that, as a matter 
 for legislation, is altogether of modem date — 
 which, like nearly all its predecessors, has proved 
 any thing else than the parent stock of a host 
 of subsidiary Statutes ; which has failed, in short, 
 to contribute its full contingent, in the shape of 
 supplementary Enactments, to the monstrously 
 bloated and unwieldy state at which our Statute 
 Acts vela- Book has notoriously arrived. — Every reader 
 /."biic must be aware of the sufferings that nearly all 
 \\<>rk<^. ciaj^j^eo^ of the labouring Poor in this country 
 have latterly undergone, and of the willingness
 
 , 45 
 
 expressed by the Government and the Legisla- 
 ture at the outset to alleviate this suffering, as 
 far as possible, by encouraging the carrying on 
 of public works. Most readers, too, will doubt- 
 less perceive, that rehef in this form being pro- 
 posed, and being assented to by Parliament, 
 there were to be decided upon — what should 
 come under the denomination of public Works; 
 to what extent pecuniary assistance should be 
 afforded to each Undertaking; and what descrip- 
 tion of security should be required, for the sums 
 to be temporarily granted? Nevertheless, with a 
 question so simple, so utterly free from compli- 
 cation as this, in coping with it, no fewer than 
 eight Acts of Parliament have been called for, 
 and passed!* In repeated instances, two acts 
 have been passed upon the subject in the same 
 Session, and from the very recent date of the 
 majority of these various acts, the presumption 
 is, that in adjusting this mighty matter. Parlia- 
 ment has as yet advanced, scarcely half way 
 through its difficulties. — Owing, in a great mea- Emigra- 
 sure, to the same circumstances of severe suffer- *^""" 
 ing among the poorer orders. Emigration has of 
 late been forced in such a way upon the notice 
 
 * Viz. 3d Geo. IV. cap. 86 and 112. 5th Geo. IV. c. 36 and 77. 
 6th Geo. IV. c. 35. 7th Geo. IV. c. 30. 7th and 8th Geo. IV. c. 
 12 and 47.
 
 4() 
 
 of ParlianuMit. as to rciuU'v it, or at least some 
 ot" tlie (Iclails connected with it, one of those 
 subjects or occasions ol" Lepshitinu;, wliicli we 
 s])eeially distin<:;nish as modern ones. Dating 
 hack to, and inclusive of the year iH'2'.i, nearly 
 every Session that has arrived, lias brought with 
 it, its Act regidating Eniigi'ation ; and the leading 
 feature, it is worth observing, of each one of 
 these successive Acts has been, that it totally 
 abjured and nullified the particular Enactment 
 which had innnediately preceded: our law-ma- 
 kers thus, in the shortest possible period, pre- 
 senting us with a spectacle of vacillation or ter- 
 giversation, the like to which, we presume to 
 think, it would be impossible to find in the pro- 
 Siiperan- cecdiugs of auy other sane assembly.* While 
 speaking of the vacillating, as well as cumulative 
 character, of the legislation of our own times, we 
 may mention that which has taken place regard- 
 ing the Superannuation allowances of the Civil 
 Servants of the Crown. This question was 
 " solemnly" investigated, and settled, as the 
 Country was given to understand, upon a lasting 
 footing, in the Session of 1822. In that of 
 1824, the proceedings of 1822, solemn as they 
 had been, and stable as it was fancied they 
 
 ♦ We refer the reader here to 4th Geo. IV. c. 84. Gth (ieo. IV. 
 c. 116. 7th and 8tli Geo. IV. c. 19. 9th Geo. IV. c. 21. 
 
 nuatiuiial 
 lowances.
 
 47 
 
 would prove, were altogether thrown overboard 
 by an Act of Repeal. During the Session of 
 Parliament now last expired, (that of 1828), no- 
 tice was given by the Chancellor of the Exche- 
 quer, that the Act of 1824 would in its turn be 
 cancelled, or that the repeahng Bill of that Ses- 
 sion would itself be repealed, to the end that all 
 parties concerned, might go back to the position 
 in which they were placed in 1822 ! 
 
 The Acts which have passed relative to what i^ead 
 
 . Weight. 
 
 IS termed the " Dead Weight," are precisely of a 
 piece with those respecting the Superannuation 
 Allowances. 
 
 The question of Sa\ing Banks, the reader will Savings 
 immediately recognize as one of those that have 
 altogether spinmg up in, and are peculiar to, mo- 
 dern times. Upon these Establishments the 
 Collective Wisdom of the Nation, in the Session 
 of 1828 brought its faculties (of course in fiill 
 focus), to bear for the sixth time. 
 
 Five Acts already exist touching the Building New 
 of additional Churches in populous parishes. 
 The sixth, which had a narrow escape from 
 passing last Session, remains suspended over our 
 heads. 
 
 We could give further cases, but (especially 
 with what we still have before us), we think it 
 would be presuming too much on the reader's 
 patience to do so. After what we have adduced,
 
 48 
 
 can it. wi" (U'lnand to know, he inaiutainccl for 
 an instant, tlial the k'j^islation ])t'c-nliar to tlie 
 pivsrnt ("IxhIi is one wliit moir (l('lil)c'iate — 
 tliat it is at all better di<:fc'stc'(l, than that of pe- 
 riods that are passed ? ^^'ill it be pretended lor 
 a nionunt, that the Acts of Parliament which 
 are solely of the present day, can lay claim to 
 the smallest modicum of reputation, as bein«;" 
 less desultory, less chan<i^n^, and fra<;ile — if 
 we may use the term, than those of former 
 times ? 
 
 Of more wisdom and circumspection in our 
 law-makin<if— of a remedial course going to the 
 root of the evil in our legislation, where were 
 we so much entitled, nay, where were we so 
 much called upon, to look for the indications, 
 as in the description of Enactments we have 
 just specified — that is. Enactments at once the 
 most recent and most original; and where, con- 
 sequently, all the scope that ever can present 
 itself, offered, for the display or exercise of any 
 spirit of Improvement — supposing it really to 
 exist ! 
 
 How far the prospect of a change, not only 
 most desirable, but most indispensable to the 
 general well-being, is here afforded to the Coun- 
 try, the reader, we trust, whatever may have 
 been the previous bias of his mind, is now ena- 
 bled pretty accurately to determine.
 
 49 
 
 But some, in all probability, will be ready to General 
 exclaim, that Whatever of the ancient leaven of [ng|o"con- 
 instability and defectiveness may be admitted to ^^Jl^l"*'"^ 
 pertain to our Enactments which are altogether 
 of modern concoction— still that latterly a decided 
 disposition has been evinced by Parliament, to 
 revise, to simphfy, or, as it is at times called, to 
 consolidate, certain of our old Laws: — to take a 
 comprehensive survey, in other words, of the en- 
 tire subject these Laws relate to; and in lieu of 
 the many Enactments which had before existed 
 thereon, to produce one single Law, which 
 should be as perfect as possible, and which 
 should so far prove final! 
 
 Than in the fact we here mention, we cer- 
 tainly know of nothing in which the character 
 of our Parliament can take even momentary re- 
 fuge. We are ignorant of any thing constitu- 
 ting so much as a presumptive saving clause in 
 its whole conduct, except this. And, truly, the 
 value of such efforts, provided they be com- 
 menced, carried on, and completed, with the 
 requisite caution and ability, what rational man 
 in the Country will for a moment dispute? Who 
 of the public will not be forward, rather, to tes- 
 tify his gratitude for so great a boon as would 
 thus be held out to the Community ? Enter- 
 taining, as we do to its fullest extent, the feeling 
 we here express, all our prepossessions, all our 
 
 E
 
 50 
 
 lirst im^)lt's^i(ms. al li-ast. must \)v in liiNour ol 
 that li-atuit' ill our parlianu'Utaiy proceedings 
 wliicli we now toiicli u])on. And vet it is the 
 uj)slu>t oltlu' very eHbrts in question, that forces 
 itself u])on us, as containinp^ proof, ])erhaps more 
 striking or conclusive, than any other that we 
 have offered, of the inveterate, the — as it might 
 almost be imagined— inse])arable v\ce or infinnity, 
 of what issues from Parhament. We use the 
 strong terms we do here, because the redoubted 
 proceedings we speak of, can liave arisen out of 
 nothing but the very excess of the Evil suffered 
 from; because they can have been prompted by 
 nothing but a vivid perception— a consciousness 
 no longer to be appeased — of the pecuharly crying 
 mischiefs resulting from Laws, such as we have 
 been describing ours to be ; that is. Laws innu- 
 merable, yet indeterminate and ever-shifting. 
 
 If then, though thus powerfully instigated to 
 action — though under such paramount induce- 
 ments to put forth its strength — to screw its wis- 
 dom to the sticking place ; — if here too, as on the 
 most ordinar}' occasions, the Genius of Parlia- 
 ment has faltered, or sunk mider the task it had 
 imposed on itself, proving impotent to realize its 
 own clear, explicit intentions, — why then, safely 
 enough, we think we may, as we have just 
 done, represent our case as reaching its acme — 
 as arriving at something like a climax.
 
 51 
 
 Minor objects mi<3fht undoubtedly be at the 
 same time contemplated, but om' Statutes hav- 
 ing already, almost ad infinitum, undergone 
 changes and alleged " Amendments," manifestly 
 the grand end—the devoutly wished-for consum- 
 mation — aimed at, in these reputed Revisals or 
 Digests of our Laws, must have been, t\\ejixmg 
 at length, or the settling of the Law, touching 
 the particular subject taken in hand— and the 
 accomplishing this in one individual Enactment. 
 We cannot compress into fewer words what 
 the public wants required, and that to which the 
 endeavours we are alluding to, must have been 
 in the main directed. How far objects, the 
 attainment of which was felt to be thus urgent ; 
 how far these grand desiderata have been, at 
 least in the gi*eat majority of instances, by these 
 vaunted endeavours realized; — the character of 
 Parliament being thereby exalted, and the exi- 
 gencies of the people met and provided for, we 
 shall proceed as briefly as possible to shew.* 
 
 * The terms in which we here express ourselves will admit of Mr. 
 Peel's consolidating Bills remaining open for separate consideration. 
 Those Bills, about which much has been said and written, though no 
 one has formally proposed altering them, are either good or bad. If 
 they are the latter, they need not constitute an exception to our rule ; 
 if they are the former, they demonstrate what may be done in the 
 way of effectual Consolidation, when the task is imdertaken by par- 
 ties really having the qualifications requisite, and being firmly re- 
 
 E 2
 
 52 
 
 r.rDcrni AthM" as uumv as tour separate acts, in addi- 
 
 Amoml- • ' 
 
 imnt. ..V tioii to the ])re-o\istiiii;' ones on tlu' subject ol" 
 
 tonsiilidn- » , . i • i • i t 
 
 lion of Marriage, ])assc(l witlnn a very short ])rece(ling 
 
 Marriage • i i i . i r r \ • \ 
 
 Acts. period, and hv the provisions ol some ol which, 
 the countrv. as will he renieinl)ered, had 
 been tlirown into a universal ternient — a Bill, 
 of the nature of a Hevisal or Digest of the whole 
 of the Marriage Laws, was prepared, brought 
 into Parliament, and passed in the Session of 
 1823. This Bill was avowedly founded on the 
 Report of a Committee of the House of Lords 
 " on the state of the Marriage Laws generally;" 
 and it came forth with a corresj)ondingly com- 
 pendious title. The prime Minister of the coun- 
 try. Lord Liverpool, as early as in the Session of 
 1820, had declared that the Marriage Laws re- 
 quired alteration.* The interval had been occu- 
 pied, as we set out with intimating, with what 
 may be called probationary attempts at improve- 
 ment ; and the crowning effort of the whole was 
 the act we have just described, viz. 4th Geo. IV. 
 
 solved to bring these qualifications to bear on the business they en- 
 gage in. These qualifications and this resolution, Mr. Peel, it is 
 certain, in the case of his bills, did not look for within the Walls of 
 Parliament. And there was this further peculiarity, and we should 
 say — excellence, in the Right Hon. CJentlcinan's mode of proceed • 
 ing, — namely, tliat instead of entrusting the work of Consolidation 
 to a single individual, however gifted, he required, on each occasion, 
 the co-operative talents or services of many. 
 
 • See the debates in the House of Lords, July 17 of that year.
 
 53 
 
 cap. 76. — It soon proved, however, that the 
 tliree years of prehminary practice had been in- 
 sufficient for the desired purpose, and in the very 
 next Session a supplementary Bill was called for 
 and passed, viz. 5th Geo. IV. cap. 32, entitled, 
 ** An Act to amend an Act of the last Session of 
 Parliament, entitled ' An Act for amending the 
 Laws respecting the Solemnization of Marriages 
 in England.'" 
 
 In the next ensuing Session, a new supplemen- 
 tary Bill was found to be necessary, and the 6th 
 of Geo. IV. cap. 92, was enacted accordingly. 
 
 In tliis state, the Law fespecting the " most 
 solemn and fundamental of human Compacts" 
 has since remained ; and perfectly natural would 
 it be to suppose, that though the revisers of this 
 law had failed to achieve one of their objects — 
 namely, the having a single act only on the sub- 
 ject of Marriage — still that they had succeeded 
 in accomplishing the other ; viz. the settlement 
 or fixing of the Law : that is, succeeded in pro- 
 ducing Enactments so far clear, comprehensive, 
 equitable, and befitting the circumstances of the 
 Country, as happily to preclude for a long pe- 
 riod to come, further incertitude, change, or agi- 
 tation in the matter Of these very Acts it is, 
 
 however, that the learned Judge of the Consis- 
 tory Court, soon after their passing, openly af- 
 firmed, that they imposed upon him the greatest
 
 51 
 
 (lifliiultit's. stuli was llir obscurilN that liiing 
 about tlu'in!* Tlu'si- arc \\\v Acts, ut" wliicli it 
 is ()1)mmvc(1, that witliDUt goinjj; into the (iiU'stioii 
 of tlu'ir })ractical o])eration, tlicre is the strongest 
 presinn])tiv(' cvidciu'c against their wisdom, in 
 tliat tlu'V are at once at variance witli wliat the 
 law of iMigland regarding Marriage originally 
 was — and with wliat tlie law of Marriage every 
 where else is.-j- These are the Acts, of which a 
 Jonrnal of high repnte has very recently re- 
 marked, that in tolerating Scotch Marriages of 
 I'.nglish people, they tolerate that, which nullifies 
 their own most specific and positive enactments 
 u])()n the most important of all subjects : tole- 
 rate that, where the diversity is entire and ex- 
 treme ; where the secmities are none ; where 
 the transition is from great, elaborate, even exces- 
 sive care and precaution, to a total absence of all 
 care, and every precaution: — thus causing a state 
 of things to exist, pre-eminently pregnant with in- 
 convenience and mischief. J These are the Acts, 
 we beg further to remind the reader, under which 
 cases of such atrocious wrong occur, that not- 
 
 • Sec the proceedings in that Court, April 28th, 1820, in the 
 Suit for a Nullity of Marriage. — King v. Sampson. 
 
 f Speech of Lord Laiulerdalc in the F louse of Lords, .huie 
 7th, 1827. 
 
 I The Edinburgh Review, published January, 1828.
 
 55 
 
 withstanding the multiphcity of its other cares, 
 ParHament itself is compelled to interfere, and 
 by a special, or what may be called interlocutory 
 Act, to mete out justice for the particular occa- 
 sion.* These laws too, let it not be forgotten, 
 are open to the additional imputation of allowing 
 to some who differ from the established religion, 
 the right of celebrating marriage according to 
 their own forms, and of arbitrarily withhokhng 
 this right from others ; of permitt}?fg to the rich 
 the privilege of Divorce, and denying it to the 
 poor: — while so peculiar is their operation with 
 regard to that large class of his Majesty's sub- 
 jects, the Irish Catholics, that, according to the 
 decisions of our Police Magistrates, these parties, 
 however firmly united in wedlock in their own 
 country, may, on arriving in this, set the conju- 
 gal tie at defiance, and enjoy, if they so please, 
 an entire immunity from its obligations. 
 
 Under these various circumstances, to speak 
 for a moment of our having obtained any thing 
 which by possibility can be called a Settlement, 
 
 * As most will probably imagine, we have in view here the case 
 of Miss Turner, dm-ing the discussions upon which in the House of 
 Lords, the grievances incidental to our present Marriage Law, were 
 felt to be so great, that several Peers, amongst whom was the Mar- 
 quis of Lansdowne, peremptorily called upon tlie Government for 
 an alteration of the Law. Mr. Sec. Peel upon the same occasion, in 
 tlie House of Commons, declared the existing state of the Marriage 
 Law was such as to demand immediate attention.
 
 5() 
 
 Diufost, or l''i\inu. of our Law rosix-ctiu}; Mar- 
 riaijc. would Uv a wastr of the reader's time 
 wliieli wt' do not iutcnd to he eliargeable with. 
 (.fiuii.i Ai:;aiii, liow staud tlic I'aets in another re- 
 
 \|1UM\(1- ' . . 
 
 mint, or uoubted ease — we mean tliat ol (hi^estmi^, as 
 tiun oV "^^'''^ ])r()lessed, simphtying, and re(kiein<^ into 
 iJaiikmpt- ^j,^^. |j,^.jj i.^nactment, the laws concernin'-: Bank- 
 
 ly Laws.. '^ 
 
 ru])tey .' 
 
 After a previous Hill, passed only a few weeks 
 before, renulatin<;- the proceedings in Bankrui)t- 
 cies under joint Connnissions, an Act was in the 
 tiiird Session of (ieorge 1\'. [18221, brought into 
 and passed through Parliament, under a simi- 
 larly e()m})rehensive title to that of tlie 4th Geo. 
 I\'. already noticed by us relating to Marriage. 
 The Act in question, od (ieo. I\ . cap. 81, is in- 
 dexed in the Statute Book as " an Act to amend 
 the Laws relating to Bankrupts generally." — This 
 reputed emendation, however, of these Laws 
 *' generally," speedily turning out to be a perfect 
 nullity — totally inadequate, in short, to the pub- 
 lic exigencies ; and a strong feeling prevailing, 
 of the })ositive necessity, in a Country so highly 
 connnercial, of having an explicit and perspicu- 
 ous, as well as stable or fixed law, regarding 
 Bankruptcy — a grand effort — a sort of long pull 
 and strong pull, was resolved upon by Parlia- 
 ment ; and as the result of the parturitive pro- 
 cess, forthwith there presented itself to the na-
 
 57 
 
 tion, 5th Geo. IV. cap. 98, entitled " An Act to 
 consolidate and amend the Bankrupt Laws ;" 
 and having the following for its preamble, — 
 " Whereas it is expetUent to amend the Laws 
 relating to Bankrupts, and to simplify the lan- 
 guage thereof, and to consolidate the same, so 
 amended and simplified, in one Act, and to 
 make other provisions respecting Bankrupts, be 
 it therefore enacted," &c. &c. 
 
 Here then, after many hopes, much agitation, 
 and long protracted labours, a new and cheering 
 prospect unfolded itself. " Here," said the nu- 
 merous parties more immediately interested in 
 the subject, " here, at length, terminate our 
 doubts, our ever-recurring perplexities, and dis- 
 putations, with regard to what is Bankrupt Law, 
 and what is not ! Here a solid resting-place, 
 something really tangible and abiding, presents it- 
 self, after the obscure, the tortuous, the every 
 way questionable path we have hitherto had to 
 tread !" And under the circumstances, and see- 
 ing, too, that the Consolidating Act, comprised no 
 fewer than One Hundred and Thirty-three Sec- 
 tions, nothing certainly was more warrantable 
 than to reckon, that besides being worded with 
 sufficient study, this Act met and duly provided 
 for, as far as human skill could do this, every 
 possible contingency. — What then will be tlie 
 surprise of tlie general reader, when we state.
 
 68 
 
 tliat alUr tliis wvy elaborate j)i(Kluction, one 
 sinpfle year did not revolve, before tlic .lounuils of 
 !*arlianieiit — as if absolutely notbint;- wbatever 
 bad been done in tbe business, presented us 
 witb precisely tbe old routine notice, of " a Bill 
 to amend tbe Laws relating to 13ankruj)ts !" — 
 Well, but this finther Bill, it will be said, was 
 only to correct some little oversight — perhaps a 
 clerical irior ; or it respected some individual 
 case of no great moment, which from its very di- 
 minntiveness had esca])ed attention. Happy 
 indeed for the re))utation of our Legislature 
 woidd it be, did this charitable suiTnise corres- 
 pond with the reality. On the contrary, how- 
 ever, the new law, 6th Geo. IV. c. 16, occupy- 
 ing forty-two pages, and containing one himdred 
 and thirty-six clauses or sections, was a complete 
 abrogation — an entire and unqualified repeal of 
 the preceding or consolidating act. — And thus, in 
 one short twelvemonth, were shivered to atoms 
 the sanguine hopes, the fond calculations, we 
 have just described; and which it was almost im- 
 avoidable for the parties we have spoken of, and 
 indeed for the whole nation, to indulge in. 
 
 Still, as every one will foresee, because it is 
 agi-eeable to one of the first principles of our 
 nature, these atoms of hope would after a time 
 again congregate. 
 
 In short, by what was now ultimately enacted.
 
 59 
 
 a fresh and improved consolidation of our Bank- 
 rupt laws being professedly effected, the public, 
 notwithstanding the previous shipwreck of their 
 just expectations, would involuntarily suffer their 
 confidence gradually to revive, and anew would 
 it gravitate towards — ilnew would it attach itself 
 to, and settle around, that, which Parliament had 
 been pleased " solemnly" to pronounce Law. 
 We can even fancy that some would go so far — 
 and we hold such simplicity to be every way ve- 
 nial, as to look upon what had before occurred, 
 in the light of a guarantee, of a proof— and a 
 clinching of the proof, that what was now pro- 
 duced, would be Consolidation, and indeed Le- 
 gislation, in its very perfection ! 
 
 Have then these pleasing anticipations been 
 realized? Is the country at last in the posses- 
 sion of that to which all this amendment, conso- 
 lidation, and re-consolidation, so plainly pointed 
 — namely, a well-digested, wise, adequate — and, 
 in this, a fixed or settled Law regarding Bank- 
 ruptcy :— and which, though 'twere only in requi- 
 tal for its past disappointments, the nation most 
 richly merited ? Oh, no ! must be the painful 
 reply of every one at all competent to answer 
 the question. 
 
 We ourselves deem it a sufficient ground for 
 condemning the re-consolidated Act, that it 
 leaves utterly unredressed, nay, that it aggra-
 
 ()0 
 
 Niitt-'s. the I'vils long siistaiiK'd tVoin tlic e.\- 
 istiii*^ systi'iu of" worL'inir Hankniptcii's;* a system 
 whicli tho CouMtiy has hccii tau<j;lit, on \\v^\\ 
 aiitliority, to pray for tlit' ilcstriictioii of. Hut, 
 totally apart troni tliis objection, tho New Act, 
 as the wiiole ])iil)lic can vouch for, lias given 
 rise to demurs and diificulties in our Courts — 
 almost unprecedented lor their number and 
 magnitude. It appears to have posed, and, in 
 truth, set at defiance, tlie acumen of our law- 
 yers of all grades, more than any other legis- 
 lative Enactment or Enactments of modern 
 times. ** This Act," said the Nice-Chancellor, 
 April, 3d, 1827, " must be amended, and it will 
 be of the utmost benefit to the public when the 
 amended Bill is brought in " " The amend- 
 ed BUI — " exclaimed Mr. Montague, " three or 
 four Bills, must be brought in, before justice 
 in Bankruptcy Cases can now possibly be ad- 
 ministered !" This has been more or less the 
 testimony of nearly every Counsel, Judge, and, 
 indeed. Tribunal, in the Kingdom. 
 
 • We refer the reader here to a very important Statement of 
 Mr. Abercromby's in the House of Commons (Feb. 16, 1826), in 
 his capacity of a Commissioner of Bankrupts ; wliercin he de- 
 liberately attirmed for himself and his brother Commissioners, that 
 the Act of the 6th of Geo. IV. imposed Duties upon them, which, 
 from their liabits of life, and their means of information, they were 
 quite incajiable of performing.
 
 61 
 
 The immediate framers of the Act, alive, at 
 length, to its palpable defectiveness — to what 
 the Quarterly Reviewers admit to be its " in- 
 accm'acies of execution*" — have, in two sepa- 
 rate Sessions of Parliament, taken it in hand 
 again to " improve" the Bankruptcy Law : or, 
 in other words, to correct the ricketiness of 
 their progeny ; but on each occasion have they 
 abandoned their attempt— to all appearance from 
 very hopelessness of doing, so far as their facul- 
 ties would assist them, any good in the matter. 
 
 We cannot help making formal mention 
 here, of the alarmingly desultory way in 
 which Parhament proceeds, even when its far- 
 famed Acts of Simplification, Digest, or Con- 
 solidation, are directly concerned ; and of the 
 poor earnest that has been afforded us, in the 
 case of the Bankruptcy Law particularly, of the 
 real value of any further Legislation that may 
 take place on the subject. The second of the 
 two attempts we have just spoken of, for the 
 Amendment of the Act of the 6th Geo. IV, 
 
 • See the Quarterly Review, published January, 1828. It is in 
 all probability, the re-consolidated Bankrupt Act which is alluded to 
 in the same article of that Journal, where it states, " We our- 
 selves could name a single section of a modern and not undis- 
 tinguished Act, which besides occasioning divers law-suits from its 
 ambiguous phraseology, has drawn as many as sixty learned 
 opinions on Cases affected by it, from one Lawyer."
 
 liad proct'cdc'd st) liir in the lloust' of Conimons, 
 
 (May -i.Sd. I8-2S) that the Hill ior this piiipose 
 
 was, on that day. read a third tinu'. After it 
 
 had Ih'ch rend (i third time, and cons('(|ucMitlv, 
 
 wJR'n t'ViTy one wonld sn])])()se the Bill had luid 
 
 all the benefit of the inllest conflict of o])inions, 
 
 so as to he every way matured— after this, not 
 
 only was an additional clause })roposed and 
 
 added to the Bill, but a Motion was made to 
 
 , leave out the words from i)r. 1, line 14, to 
 
 pr. 2, line l.'J ; being, in fact, the whole of the 
 
 first clause of the Bill : whereu])on, the passing 
 
 of the Bill was adjourned for a fortnight, or 
 
 till after the Whitsun holidays. — It was in the 
 
 House of Lords that this Bill was subsequently 
 
 abandoned. 
 
 (Jencrai Again, we beg to direct attention for a few 
 
 m^^t"or "foments, to the boasted Amendment, Digest, 
 
 Consohda- qj. Consolidation, of om* Laws relating to the 
 
 tion of the ' ^ 
 
 Customs" Customs. 
 
 Laws. 
 
 This signal operation was effected in the 
 Session of 1825. We have different statements 
 before us as to the number of Acts of Parha- 
 ment then revised. Suffice it to say, it was 
 very great ; but with a \iew to so important an 
 object as the Simplification of our Customs and 
 Na\igation Law, and by dint, as was alleged by 
 Mr. Huskisson, of *' an immense deal of labour," 
 these numerous Statutes were assorted, and in
 
 63 
 
 the end condensed into Ten Separate iVcts ; — 
 each one of them embracing, and, happily, con- 
 fining itself to, a distinct branch of the large 
 and, heretofore, most intricate subject of our 
 Foreign Trade and Customs. The New Acts, 
 indeed, respected, severally, the Management 
 of the Customs ; the general regulation of the 
 Customs ; the prevention of Smuggling ; the 
 encouragement of British Shipping and Naviga- 
 tion ; the registering of British Vessels ; the 
 granting Duties of Customs ; the Warehousing 
 of Goods ; the granting certain Bounties and 
 Allowances of Customs ; the regulating the 
 trade of the British Possessions abroad ; and 
 the Regulating the Trade of the Isle of Man. 
 Independently of these, a sort of prefatory 
 Bill had been passed, repealing those particular 
 Acts which were considered to be superfluous, 
 or that were now, in a different form, re- 
 enacted. 
 
 As in the case of the Banknipt Law Amend- 
 ment or Consolidation, with joy was this great 
 change in our fiscal Laws witnessed by a very 
 large portion of the Community; while the 
 foreign Trader, and our various Revenue func- 
 tionaries more especially, anticipated for them- 
 selves, as compared with the past, halcyon days. 
 
 But, let us hear the Statement uttered in 
 Parhament, only one Session after. " An al-
 
 64 
 
 teration in tin- (Dnsolidattd ('iistoins' Laws is 
 necessary!" — *' An addt'iulmu Id tlic lU'w Laws 
 respecting tlie Customs is recjuired !'* Ominous 
 words truly, and lamentably were they borne 
 out in the sccjut'l : — lor ere the newly arrived 
 Session — that ol' LS2G, expired, came the 
 threatened "addendum," 7th (Jeo. IV. e. 48; 
 and with it, Chaos came a<^ain into the entire 
 system of our Custom House law or regulations. 
 A\'ith the addendum came, secuudum arteui, the 
 undoing — we had well nigh said — of all that 
 had just before been done :— with it, however, 
 at the very least, came the Alteration, without 
 a single exception, of every one of the ten Acts 
 of 1 825 ; with it came the formal restoration 
 to their place in the Statute Book of divers of 
 the Statutes, which, by the recent Enactments, 
 had been, rashly it would seem, expunged from 
 it ; with it came Saving Clauses and Exceptions 
 almost out of number; and, to crown the 
 whole, these very compendious— these widely 
 dissimilar measures, were all wrapped up — all 
 " fagoted" (for we care very little about the 
 marginal references that were at the time in- 
 sisted upon) — all fagoted together, in one and 
 the same Act ! 
 
 Not to detain the reader unnecessarily, the 
 
 • Speeches of Messrs. I terries and Hiiskisson.
 
 65 
 
 Voice — the same ill-boding Voice we have 
 spoken of— has, in utter despite of all the pro- 
 mises made to us of SimpHfication or Conso- 
 lidation in the case, been heard in Parhament 
 ever?/ Session since : — the result in each instance, 
 being a lengthy and again jumbling Enactment, 
 viz. 7th and 8th Geo. IV. c. 56, headed, " An 
 Act to amend the Laws relating to the Cus- 
 toms ;" and 9th Geo. IV. c. 76, bearing pre- 
 cisely the same title. 
 
 It was said, somewhat triumphantly, by Mr. 
 Huskisson, not long after the introduction into 
 Parliament of the Customs' Consolidation Laws, 
 that under the old, complex, oppressive, and 
 vexatious Regulations, the most astute and ex- 
 perienced merchant always required to have 
 his lawyer at his elbow, for fear of contra- 
 vening them ; and that, even with that assist- 
 ance, he could not get on, without feeing the 
 Custom House Officer, to preserve himself from 
 those difficulties and embarrassments, into which 
 he was every moment in danger of being un- 
 wittingly entrapped. How the astute and ex- 
 perienced merchant finds himself circumstanced 
 under the New Law, with its now numerous sup- 
 plementary Enactments, we pretend not to be 
 accurately informed ; but so multifarious, so 
 intricate, and involved, appear to us to be their 
 provisions, that, as often as we have looked 
 
 F
 
 66 
 
 at them, we li.i\r instiiutivcly rxchiinu'd, — 
 HcaNcn hli'ss and \\r\\) llu- Winlits whose bu- 
 siness ii is to luulcrstand and eonforni to them ! 
 And the niti-rated atteni])ts we ha\e enume- 
 rated ol" I'arlianient, " more pirs))ieuously to 
 exhibit"* its intentions in tlie matter, are an 
 ample eonfirmation to ns, and will be, we think, 
 to others, of the humanity of tliis our invo- 
 cation. 
 
 Passing- l)y the general amendments or con- 
 solidations of our Vagrant Laws — of our Acts 
 for the regulation of Gaols — of our Malt Duties' 
 Acts — of the Acts for the Abolition of the Slave 
 Trade — of the Acts regulating the licensing of 
 Public Houses — of the Acts affecting Lunatics 
 of different classes :— each of which constitutes 
 to a greater or less extent a case in point here. 
 General and offers materials for gi'ave comment— we 
 ment, or shall adducc, in conclusion, the Digest, Revisal, 
 tion^of ^' Consolidation, or whatever else it may be called, 
 Wliaws ^^^* ^'^^ latterly been effected of our Turnpike 
 Road Laws. 
 
 If ever our Law Revisers, or Consolidators, 
 advanced to their task under circumstances pe- 
 culiarly auspicious — promising, indeed, a pre- 
 eminently successful issue to their endeavours — 
 it was in the instance we now particularize. 
 
 •See the Act of 1826.
 
 67 
 
 The Committee of the House of Commons, 
 upon the subject of the Acts in force regarding 
 Turnpike Roads, reported, July 10th, 1821, 
 that " they would have proceeded further in 
 the course they had adopted, of calling before 
 them persons competent to assist them in the 
 objects of their enquiry ; but, that they found it 
 needless — the House being already in possession 
 of a great mass of matter bearing upon the 
 subject, [In how many other cases would not 
 the same statement apply !] successively re- 
 ported to the House, from a Committee ap- 
 pointed to consider of the Acts relating to 
 Roads, &c. in 1808, and in succeeding years. 
 A very valuable Digest of the voluminous 
 matter contained in these Reports," the Com- 
 mittee went on to say, " was afterwards pub- 
 lished by the late Mr. Edgeworth, to which 
 also they had referred." The Report, of what 
 was in effect the same Committee, dated June 
 25th, 1819, had presented the House with the 
 following sketch of the duties which the Com- 
 mittee were prescribing to themselves : — " the 
 reduction of the various proposed improvements 
 of our Road Laws into proper form— the digest- 
 ing the various provisions of former Acts — the 
 expunging what was useless or injurious therein 
 — the reconciling what was contradictory — and 
 the re-modelling and arranging what was sound 
 
 f2
 
 G8 
 
 ;m(i iisrt'ul.' And tlu' st'coiul lU'port nvc lu'iv 
 (■\\v tVom (tlioiiuii till' cMilicsl in date), con- 
 tained riMlluT. a distinct pledge on tlic ])art of 
 tlu^ C'onimitti't', tliat tlu-y would " luUy mature 
 tlu' rccjuisite plan for anicudinij: the Laws re- 
 lating to the Turnpike Roads." 
 
 The first result of these long protracted— 
 these seemingly profomul labours, was, what 
 the Report of the Committee of 1821 desig- 
 nated " a Bill for the amendment and conso- 
 lidation of the general Turn])ike Acts ;" — a Bill, 
 however, which this identical C'onnnittee sub- 
 sequently thought proper entirely to " re-model." 
 The re-modelled Bill even then stood over till 
 the next Session, when it was formally pre- 
 sented to, and passed through Parliament. 
 This Act (3d Geo. IV. c. 126), entitled " An 
 Act to amend the general Laws now in being 
 for regulating Turnpike Roads, in that part of 
 Great Britain called England," repealed every 
 existing Act on the subject of these roads ; and 
 as to bulk — and adequacy so far, to the public 
 wants in the case, it contained one hundred and 
 fifty-three Sections, besides eleven pages of 
 Tables, Schedules, &c. and filled out eighty- 
 three folio pages. 
 
 Of the antici])ations of good, and of the feel- 
 ings of placid content, we might almost say of 
 repose, with regard to the Turnpike Road Law
 
 69 
 
 for the future, which this Bill gave rise to, a 
 tolerable idea may be formed from the language 
 of a gentleman of the long-robe, [J. Bateman, 
 Esq. of Lincoln's Inn] who, in editing the Act 
 soon after it passed, thus expressed himself :— "Of 
 an Act framed with so much care, passed so 
 slowly and deliberately through both Houses of 
 Parhament, treated in all its stages with the 
 most unbiassed and praiseworthy attention, and 
 which in its progress has undergone various 
 alterations and amendments, it is confidently 
 expected that it will be the means of ren- 
 dering the most essential ser\ice to every 
 class of his Majesty's subjects ; and will thus 
 reflect credit both on the gentleman who framed 
 and introduced it, and the Parliament by which 
 it has been passed." — This was the language 
 of hope — of rational expectation. Now for that 
 of experience; — now for the chronicler, after 
 two brief years only had elapsed, of actual 
 events. " The State of the Law," [we quote 
 from the Law of Turnpikes, published by Mr. 
 W. Cobbett, Student of Lincoln's Inn, soon 
 after the close of the Parliamentary Session of 
 1824,] " the state of the Law regarding Turn- 
 pike Roads is at the present time such, as to be 
 calculated to do nothing but bewilder the 
 reader, and lead him into error. Including 
 the Act of 1822, which consohdated the whole
 
 ul \\\f old laws, till re liaxi- IxiMi passtd up to 
 tins (latf, altoiiCtluT ///v .Ids on the subject ot" 
 iiur 'rurii])ikf lloads. 'l\vo ol' these Acts, viz. 
 'Mi («i(). I\. c. \'Hi, or the eonsohchited Act, 
 and 1-th (*eo. IV. c. 1)5, an- of «;Teat lenj^tii ; 
 and ///(' last of them repeals nearli/ one half of 
 the Clauses that ruere contained in the first J" 
 
 W hat ! we tliink we hear every inteUigeiit 
 readier crvin*^- out to hhnself — " a Consohdatmg 
 Act which it took years to concoct ; — its trainers, 
 too, liavinj; all the benefit of a valuable digest 
 of the Materials they were to proceed upon — 
 this Act carefully modelled, as alleged, and re- 
 modelled — then, according to the earhest Com- 
 mentator upon it, Mr. Bateman, passed through 
 Parliament with the greatest sloAvness and de- 
 liberation, with the most unbiassed and praise- 
 worthy attention ; — subsequently, too, stayed up 
 by several collateral or tributary Enactments : 
 — all this, and more than this, and yet, within 
 two Sessions of its first passing, one moiety of 
 the Act proving so incorrigibly defective as to 
 require cancelment — no, no, no ! the account is 
 incredible ! the allegation is so monstrous as to 
 carry on the face of it, its own refutation !" 
 Incredible, monstrous, or impossible, ;how'ever, 
 as the thing may appear, the facts^ are precisely 
 as here recorded : and furthermore Ave beg to 
 apprise the reader, that should Mr. W. Cobbett,
 
 71 
 
 Mr. Bateman, or any other learned gentleman, 
 be hardy enough to print the Law of Turnpikes 
 as it exists at the period at which we write,* 
 he will have to say, that the general Laws now 
 in being regarding Turnpike Roads, commencing 
 with the grand one of 1822, are in all seven!! 
 two Bills of considerable length having been 
 passed since the date of Mr. W. Cobbett's pub- 
 hcation, viz. 7th and 8th Geo. IV. c. 24; and 
 9th Geo. IV. c. 77 ; each entitled, " An Act 
 to amend the Acts for regulating Turnpike 
 Roads ;" and each presenting us with further 
 Repeals, fresh Explanations, new Enactments, 
 and additional Amendments, of the Road Law. 
 But, bad as this state of things is, the most 
 aggravating feature, as we deem it, in the case, 
 yet remains behind. We aUude to the fact, 
 that only two years after the Consolidating 
 Bill had passed— that Bill, preceded by fourteen 
 years' note of preparation— and which came at- 
 tended with so much pomp and circumstance ; 
 
 * We use the phrase " hardy enough," because we think the 
 disposition a bold one in Lawyers, to undertake laborious Analyses, 
 and elaborately illustrated Editions of Laws, of so ephemeral, or at 
 any rate of so protean-like a character as ours are. With I'espect 
 to these Analyses, Commentaries, &c. our personal sympathies are 
 in either alternative excited. That is, if these works (dear ones 
 all the world knows them to be !) don't sell, we feel for those who 
 write them : if tlicy do, we unfeignedly condole with those who buy 
 them.
 
 72 
 
 Duly two Sessions alUr this Hill hail passed, 
 tlu' Act itst'lt" had no nioif j)lac(.' in the con- 
 sidi'iation of Mi'inhiTs. than the hy-j^one visions 
 of a divani. And how is this to he })roved ? 
 the readi r will in all prohahihty say to himsell'. 
 We answer, Thns : 
 
 On tile twenty-fifth of March, 1824,* Mr. 
 Cripps rose in the House of Commons, and 
 moved, pursuant to notice, for leave to bring 
 in a Bill to amend the several Acts passed in 
 the 3d and 4th of Geo. IV. relating to Turn- 
 pike Roads. After a few words from Mr. 
 Frankland Lewis, and Sir M. W. Ridley, the 
 latter of whom recommended a postponement 
 of the matter — Mr. Secretary Peel expressed 
 his concurrence in the wish, that his honourable 
 friend would withdraw his motion for the pre- 
 sent. " Let the House, and the Country" said 
 the right honourable Secretary, " await a year 
 or two of further experience, and then come 
 practically to the consideration of a permanent 
 measure !" — Again, but after an interval of two 
 more Sessions had elapsed, and, as if it were 
 determined evidence should not be wanting of 
 the entire oblivion into which the Consolidating 
 proceedings of 1822 had passed, the public 
 
 * See the debates in the House of Commons of that date.
 
 73 
 
 Journals contained as follows :* " Sir Thomas 
 Lethbridge moved that the House should resolve 
 itself into a Committee on the Turnpike Acts' 
 Bill. Mr. Baring observed, that if the honour- 
 able Baronet would consent to withdraw the 
 present Bill, and leave the matter as it stood, 
 till the Turnpike Laws could be consolidated, he 
 would, in his opinion, act judiciously. Mr. 
 Cripps argued that it was desirable to withdraw 
 the present Bill zmth a view to the Consolidation 
 of the Road Law. Mr. Frankland Lewis then 
 rose, and stated, that the Consolidation of the 
 Turnpike Laws zcas a task which he had pro- 
 posed to himself, and which he was perfectly 
 zvilling to undertake. The question was a most 
 important one, and certainly the difficulty attend- 
 ing the proposed Measure would be great, owing 
 to the complexity of the subject and the variety 
 of connexions which it had. But he was ready 
 to commence preparations for the purpose .'" 
 
 For ourselves, we protest we are dizzy with 
 Emotion, as we extract and write what we here 
 do. Our state is one of literal bewilderment at 
 the scene we have before us ! 
 
 In the latest publication of a popular, and, 
 what is more, a Tory writer, of the present day. 
 
 Reports of the debates of March 27th, 1827.
 
 74 
 
 wt' liavc read of " the Majesty of Britisli Lcii^is- 
 lation ;" and of tliis same *' Majesty" as proving, 
 in an instance wliicli tlie writer refers to, the 
 ** scorn and lani!;lnn<^ stock" of the people. In 
 the Honse of Connnons itself too, not very 
 lonp; since, it was o])eidy predicted by an emi- 
 nent Member, " that the time would come, 
 when certain of the labours of that House, 
 would be looked upon by the Country, with the 
 greatest astonishment — if not with the utmost 
 contempt."* This language of these gentlemen 
 was called forth in each case, as our statement 
 implies, by an individual Operation or Act of 
 the Legislature, to which their earnest attention 
 at the time happened to be drawn. What then 
 may not our feelings be supposed to be, at the 
 close of such a recital as has immediately pre- 
 ceded ! Or, as we throw back but a glance, upon 
 the vista of flagitious Legislation, through which 
 we have been led ! These feelings, we can as- 
 sure the reader, arc most strong ones. The 
 only loose, however, we will give to them, is by 
 asking, by frankly asking — In the event of Par- 
 liament persisting in its present career — of our 
 Legislature either haughtily or unwittingly deci- 
 
 • See respectively Dr. Philpott's " Letter to a Layman," pub- 
 lished 1828, and the Speech of Mr. Spring Rice in the House of 
 rommong, May 26, 182.3
 
 75 
 
 ding upon no change in its arrangements — upon 
 no alteration in its courses — what can prevent, 
 what, in that case, can avert the crisis, of the 
 " Scorn," of the *' Contempt" of the nation, 
 coming to attach— not to one or two only of its 
 Acts, but to its proceedings universally ? 
 
 If we desist here from the directly inculpatory 
 part of the present pages, it is from any thing 
 but a want of further materials. Passing on 
 indeed, from that which is undertaken, and, in 
 one way or another, done, by Parliament, we 
 might, we conceive, derive a most solid addi- 
 tional ground for our main " Argument," in that 
 which is left by Parliament, undone. And this, it 
 is highly probable, we should in no small num- 
 ber of instances make to consist of that, which 
 after all, most imperatively requires doing. 
 
 We are quite sure, however, that there is 
 gTavamen enough in our case, as it at present 
 stands.
 
 76 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 The idea ajipears to be a very prevalent one, 
 that whoever puts himself forward to unfold or 
 denounce Vices in our Social System, is bound 
 at the same time, to come prepared with an ade- 
 quate remedy for what he denounces. We, in 
 a great degree, deny that this obligation exists ; 
 being firmly persuaded that a faithful exposition 
 of Wrong of any sort, is of itself a benefit con- 
 ferred on the Community, though the Author of 
 the exposition (we are supposing him to be a 
 private and irresponsible individual), is the pro- 
 pounder of nothing else. 
 
 In the present instance, however, we have made 
 it no secret, that what will prove, to a great ex- 
 tent, corrective or remedial in its operation, is, 
 as we think, within reach. Nor have we dis- 
 guised from the reader, what the nature, gene- 
 rally, of the cure, or at least the palliative, con- 
 templated by us, is. 
 
 In proceeding further to develop the Views we
 
 77 
 
 entertain, we hope not to lay ourselves open to 
 any charges of overweening confidence in what 
 we may prescribe — of anything approaching to 
 dogmatism in the suggestions we shall offer. 
 If we act up to our wishes in this respect, more 
 credit will be due to us than may at first sight 
 be imagined. For we write, not till after long 
 and attentive consideration bestowed upon our 
 subject. Our temperament, moreover, is of the 
 sanguine order — of which it is some proof, that, 
 where important desiderata are in question, the 
 mere mention of " Difficulties" has ever with us 
 been an incitement — not, as seems to be too 
 often the case with others, to supineness — but 
 only to closer cogitation, to more concentrated 
 thought upon the matter. Added to which, as 
 it regards the devising and enforcing of regida- 
 tions or arrangements, having for their object 
 our -social well-being, the buoyancy of our hopes 
 is such, that provided it be to men of abihty and 
 integrity combined, that the task is assigned, by 
 them, as we firmly believe — Every thing will be 
 found to be practicable. 
 
 To the magnitude of what we have taken it in 
 hand to treat of, we certainly, however, are not 
 blind; and we can with strict veracity affirm, 
 that we shall esteem our own exertions to be 
 in no mean degree rewarded, though their effect 
 should be but of the inceptive kind : — ^though
 
 «>K THE J I 
 KISDir- 
 TION OF 
 
 Parlia- 
 
 78 
 
 tlu'y act l)Ut likf Itiivtii to tlic public- iniiul — 
 settiuu to work llu' liu-ultics of abler parties 
 tluin ourselves, and securinji: ultimately those 
 measures, he they what they may, wliich the 
 liii^rant state of thiui^s it has fallen to our lot 
 to lay hefore the reader, calls ior. 
 Matters It may hc proper at once to observe, that the 
 MOVED oiT further Division of the Labour of Parhament 
 which we have in view — and to which our own 
 decided im})ression most assuredly is, that the 
 MEVT. Country must eventually come — is not a more 
 equal or uniform division of this Labour as 
 among Members tliemselves ; — very perfection 
 in that respect, or somethinpj very hke perfec- 
 tion, being already professedly attained by the 
 standing orders or interior regulations of Parha- 
 ment. No ; the further di\ision of the Labour 
 of Parliament which we are the advocates of, is 
 as between Parliament, and other Individuals of 
 the State. At least it goes to the relie\ing the 
 Legislature — to the distinctly taking away from 
 
 it of part of its present Duties. And unless it 
 
 can be shewn that these Duties do not need 
 discharging at all, manifestly, upon withdrawing 
 them from their old jurisdiction, they must be 
 allotted to some new, or different one. 
 
 Matters of The first of the Cases, then, which we would 
 
 mereForm ... i -i • /» i • « i i /• 
 
 positively prohibit irom being brought before 
 Parliament, are those in which the interfer-
 
 79 
 
 ENCE OR OPERATION OF THE LEGISLATURE IS NOTO- 
 RIOUSLY AND ALLOWEDLY A MATTER OF MERE FoRM. 
 
 We give the priority here to this portion 
 of the Business of ParKament, not because we 
 deem its removal to be most pressing, but be- 
 cause we think the change with regard to it, will 
 call forth fewest objections, and so far, if on no 
 other grounds, may be effected with most faci- 
 lity. 
 
 In all civihzed Countries, a variety of Acts, 
 which are Deviations from the ordinary course 
 of things, are perfectly allowable, provided they 
 previously receive the Visa, as it were, of cer- 
 tain Authorities of the state. Merits, the cases 
 have none ; or at least no disputed merits. A. 
 technical statement of the circumstances, duly 
 attested, is indeed necessary ; and this furnished, 
 the process of awarding the desired sanction — 
 of conceding the requisite warranty — results, we 
 believe we may say, inevitably. The agency of 
 the Umpires, if they may be so called, in the 
 affair, is in no degree deliberative ; it is, on the 
 contrary, purely ministerial — next, in reality, to 
 what is involuntary and mechanical. Is it 
 asked. To what part of the proceedings of our 
 Parliament these observations are meant to have 
 reference ? We answer, without a moment's 
 hesitation, that they have reference to — all Bills 
 brought before the Legislature, authorizing Indi-
 
 80 
 
 viduals to thanicc their Names, or empowering 
 tliem to inaki' some alteration in their Armorial 
 Bearings; — to Natnralization Bills; — and to what 
 are termed Estate Bills. 
 
 or eonrsi', alter what has just heen said, it 
 is not on the score of one jot of mental labour 
 or soUcitude caused by these liills within the 
 walls of Parliament, that we object to their 
 he'uv^ entertained there. It is the outlay, the 
 e\})enditure of the Time of the two Houses, 
 which the Bills in question occasion, that our 
 opposition, as it concerns them, all hinges upon. 
 — What validity there is in this ground of objec- 
 tion, will instantly be evident from the follow- 
 ing details, which hold true of all Private Bills. 
 Nothing, we apprehend, can prove more de- 
 cisively the ponderousness, as we have already 
 called it, of the Machinery of Parliament; as 
 well as that the working of this Machinery is 
 any thing but a trifling operation, though its 
 mere physical movements be all that is re- 
 garded. 
 
 A Bill of the kind under consideration being 
 to be brought into Parliament, a Petition nmst 
 be presented by a Member, setting forth the 
 object contemplated, or what is sought to be 
 obtained. This petition is referred to a Com- 
 mittee, and they subsequently make a report 
 thereon to the House, upon which, leave is
 
 81 
 
 f^iven to bring in the Ijill. The Members di- 
 rected to do this, present the Bill in a compe- 
 tent time to the House, duly drawn out, with 
 proper blanks for dates, Sic. or where anything 
 dubious occurs. This is read a first time, and, 
 at a convenient distance, a second time; and 
 after each reading, the Speaker opens to the 
 House the substance of the Bill, and puts the 
 question, — Whether it shall proceed any fur- 
 ther? After the second reading, it is commit- 
 ted — that is, referred to a Committee selected 
 by the House. After it has gone through the 
 Committee, the Chairman reports it to the 
 House. The bill is then ordered to be en- 
 gi'ossed. When this has been finished, it is 
 read a third time. The Speaker then again 
 opens the Contents, and, holding it up in his 
 hands, puts the question, that the bill do pass? 
 This being assented to, the title is settled, and 
 one of the Members is directed to carry the 
 bill to the Lords. Attended by several more, 
 he carries it to the bar of the House of Peers, 
 where he delivers it to their Speaker, who 
 comes down from his wool-sack to receive it. 
 And here, the engrossing excepted, the bill 
 passes through precisely the same forms as in 
 the other House.* 
 
 • We copy these particulars, nearly verbatim, from Blackstone, 
 
 G
 
 vS-2 
 
 \N r led the fiillrsl i-oiilidi'Uci' that tin- reader 
 will eoiu'ur witli us, when uc say, that ciinun- 
 staiui'd as Parliament is, tliis nuked narrative 
 ouglit to sullice to ensure the deatli warrant, of 
 tlie w liole of tliat class of its husiness, which wc 
 have set out \\ith proscribinjj;. 
 
 That the Legislature — to the necessary re- 
 tardment of those vitally im])ortant Questions 
 which are constantly awaiting its scrutiny or 
 adjudication— should be called upon to undergo 
 the train of operations, the tissue of formali- 
 ties, just specified, in cases so totally arbitra- 
 ry, so entirely ceremonial, as — tliat Kitty Jenkyn 
 Packe have power to take the Arms of her 
 uncle Reading— that Phoebe Boode be entitled 
 to the rights of Citizenship -that Dorothy 
 Clowes have authority to grant Leases — Let- 
 tice and Ann Unett to exchange Estates, &c. 
 
 &c. &c that such a liabihty merely should 
 
 exist — that it should barely be possible for the 
 Legislature to be required, for such purposes 
 to consume any portion of its valuable time, — 
 ought, we contend, to lead to the ouster, to 
 the ejectment, at once and for ever, from out 
 of its Cognizance, of the entire class of Matters 
 we are particularizing. 
 
 And let it not be supposed that it is only a 
 bare liabihty thus that there is cause to com- 
 plain of; that, in short, the Acts of which we 
 
 i
 
 83 
 
 are speaking, are few, and consequently unde- 
 serving, in an argument like the present, of 
 serious notice. As it regards those, authorizing 
 changes of Names, or Armorial Bearings, it is 
 certainly true, that since the Session of 1822, 
 the only one passed, besides that which we 
 have already twice adverted to [Kitty Packe's], 
 is the following: — 6th Geo. IV. "An Act to 
 enable James Wakeman Newport, Esq. and 
 his first and other Sons, and their Issue Male, 
 and his and their respective Children, to assiune 
 and use the name and bear the arms of Char- 
 lett, pursuant to the will of Arthur Charlett, 
 Esq. deceased." 
 
 The number of Naturalization Bills, however, 
 which Parliament has been required to pass, 
 commencing from the date we have just given, 
 is more considerable. It has been in all Th'irty- 
 txvo. — But the Estate Bills of the same period 
 have been perfectly formidable — amounting in 
 the whole to One Hundred and Ninety-seven. 
 In neither of the Sessions that have intervened, 
 has the number passed of these latter Bills been 
 fewer than twenty ; while in others, it has been 
 as high as thirty-seven, and forty-three ; which 
 is an aggregate of Legislation, equal, at one 
 period of our parliamentary history, to the en- 
 tire labours of the Session. 
 
 We scarcely imagine it will be objected to the 
 
 G 2
 
 St 
 
 fliangi' Wf arc suiiiicstinii. tliat in tlusf Matters 
 1)1' uwrv I'onn. as wi- (cnn tlu'iii, sonu' vital 
 Constitutional })rinc-i])k' is mixed u]). Adniittinij; 
 it to l)t' so. acts in which principles c(|ually vital 
 arc concerned, are done in the country almost 
 every day, the faculty of legalizing which, exists 
 hy Deputation. We presimie it will be allowed, 
 that the Property, and that the Lives of Men, 
 are of as much moment to them as their Names 
 or Armorial bearings : but in how many in- 
 stances is the disposal of these both, vested in 
 parties— not the primary sources, the original 
 depositaries, of all power; — but parties to whom, 
 as we have just intimated, power is deputed! 
 Again, the Outlawing, if not the sending to Bo- 
 tany Bay, our own Citizens, together with the 
 processes by which Entails are cut off, women 
 barred of their Dower, Partitions of Estates ef- 
 fected, and the like — are Cases, we humbly con- 
 ceive, involving principles to the full as vital or 
 fundamental, as those which are implicated 
 where the question is one— of conferring the pri- 
 \ileges of fraternity on the Citizens of other 
 Countries ; — or of gi^^ng increased powers to 
 Proprietors or Trustees — which is what is for 
 the most part done by Estate Bills. 
 
 But a word or two, as to the reality of a fun- 
 damentally important principle being involved in 
 the Acts or Measures we are considering — so as to
 
 85 
 
 render indispensable therein a resort to the foun- 
 tain-head of all authority — the supreme legisla- 
 tive body of the Country. If then it be actually 
 the fact, that in such matters the Constitution 
 is, as it were, touched in the apple of its eye; 
 or that one of its very bases is in danger of 
 being subverted — how comes it to pass, that the 
 self-same residt, the identical end sought to be 
 brought about by the proceeding in Parliament, 
 may be attained by the decree of an Authority 
 decidedly subordinate to the entire Legislature ? 
 Or, may accrue by a mere fortuitous train of 
 circumstances; — nay, even by literal chance-med- 
 ley? 
 
 in the case of parties desiring, for themselves 
 or others, to exchange, or in some way alienate, 
 to effect a partition of, or to lease out, particular 
 Properties, (one or the other of which objects is 
 generally that of Estate Bills), we beheve it is, 
 in the great majority of instances, entirely op- 
 tional, whether recourse shall be had to Parlia- 
 ment, or to the Court of Chancery : the juris- 
 diction of this latter Court, over property, and 
 almost over persons, being notoriously all but 
 absolute : — and where too, it is worth ob- 
 serving, Justice, on the occasions we are speak- 
 ing of, is quite as much secured, as by going to 
 Parliament ; it being a condition, according to 
 Blackstone, that not one of the objects contem-
 
 plated l»y l-lstalc Hills, shall Itc capable of heint;- 
 I'lieeti'd, aiul not even tiu' aj)plic-ati()ii itself en- 
 tertained, "without tlie consent, e.\])ressly given, 
 ot" all parties in heinu-, and ca|)al)le ol" consent, 
 that have the remotest interest in the nuitter."* 
 
 A«;ain, we will take the case ot" a clian<i:e of 
 Names, or Armorial hearings. Of the ample suffi- 
 ciency here of the bare fiat of the Sovereign — of 
 the simple Sign Manual — the reader will instantly 
 be reminded by the following notice, which 
 meets our eye in the London Gazette, almost at 
 the moment of our penning the present page : — 
 " The King has been pleased to give and grant 
 unto Henry Alington, of Louth, in the county of 
 Lincoln, Esq. second son of the Reverend Mar- 
 maduke Alington, of Swinhop-house, in the 
 same county. Clerk, his Royal licence and au- 
 thority, that he and his issue may take and from 
 henceforth use the surname of Pye only, and 
 also bear the arms of Pye, pursuant to the last 
 will and testament of Sarah Rowe, late of Mal- 
 pas, in the county of Chester, spinster, deceased; 
 
 » Commentaries, book ii. chap. 21.— This single condition evi- 
 dently supersedes the necessity of almost any other legal proceeding 
 being required for accomplishing the purposes of Estate Bills, than 
 the official " Enrolment among the public records of the nation, to 
 be preserved as a perpetual testimony," of the act that th\is, by the 
 agreement and desire of all the parties concerned, is arranged to 
 take place.
 
 87 
 
 such arms being first duly exemplified according 
 to the laws of arms, and recorded in the Herald's 
 Office, otherwise his Majesty's said licence and 
 permission to be void and of none effect." 
 
 Further — as to the Naturalization of Foreign- 
 ers ; —we thus read in the same distinguished Au- 
 thor we have recently quoted: " Every foreign 
 seaman who in time of war serves two years on 
 board an EngHsh ship, by virtue of the King's 
 proclamation, is 'qiso facto naturalized. Like- 
 wdse all foreign Protestants, and Jews, upon 
 their residing seven years in any of the Ame- 
 rican Colonies, without being absent above two 
 months at a time, and all foreign Protestants, 
 serving two years in a military capacity there, 
 or being three years employed in the whale 
 fishery, without afterwards absenting them- 
 selves from the King's dominions for more 
 than one year, shall, upon taking the Oaths, 
 or making Affirmation, of, &c. be naturahzed 
 to all intents and purposes, as if they had 
 been born in this Kingdom."* 
 
 To this statement we beg to add, as a thing 
 within our own recollection, that seven or eight 
 years ago it was affirmed, and not for a mo- 
 ment denied, in Parliament— that any Ahen, on 
 happening to buy, or become a holder of Edin- 
 
 * Blackstonc, book i. chap. 10.
 
 ss 
 
 l)uiiili r>;mk Stofk, was lluTrhy, "to all intents 
 and purpoM's." iciuKri'd a Naturali/cd l>iitisli 
 Snl)iict; inlitlcd to, and tliciicclortli enjoying, 
 precisely tlie same j)rivilegi's, as tliough the Le- 
 gislature itsi'li" had heen a])])lied to on his behalf. 
 Away then with all pretence, that in the 
 Cases here adduced, a principle ol' the Consti- 
 tiition so integral and primary is involved, as 
 imperatively to demand the ])rivity thereto, and 
 the solemn accpiiescence therein, of the three 
 Estates of the Realm ! 
 
 Matters of A sccond class of Matters which, in our \ie\v, 
 
 character, tlo Hiost plainly indicate themselves as proper to 
 
 be withdrawn from out of the jurisdiction of 
 
 Parliament, are aj.i. mattkrs kxprp:sslv oi' a 
 
 SciEXTiFjr Charactpir. 
 
 The propriety of the change we are contend- 
 ing for, we shall not pretend, in the case of 
 Scientific Matters, to rest solely on the Ease- 
 ment which it is necessary to effect for Par- 
 liament; although the relief which their with- 
 drawal would operate, would, be great indeed. 
 — Separately from the clogged state of Parlia- 
 ment, as a general position, it is our fate to 
 think, that a variety of Questions are now^ from 
 time to time, brought under Consideration, and 
 often with much pertinacity debated there, which 
 are only fit to be entertained by a purely profes-
 
 89 
 
 sional Tribunal; — which are only fit to be enter- 
 tained, we mean, by Engineers ; by Medical or 
 Surgical Professors ; by Architects ; or by other 
 individuals eminent for their practical knowledge 
 in the particular Art or Science that happens to 
 be concerned. 
 
 At once to enter upon our Evidence here : — 
 During the last few years we have seen Parlia- 
 ment plunging into all the mysteries of the doc- 
 trine of Contagion : — immediately prior to this, 
 it had been busying itself about, and pronoun- 
 cing upon, the most proper mode of treating 
 Ophthalmia :— and before that, or at about the 
 same period, the Country was edified with ac- 
 counts of honourable Members formally taking 
 boat, and, with all gravity, proceeding down the 
 river Thames, to explore the sub-soil, and deter- 
 mine upon other recondite particulars touching 
 the proposed site of the new London Bridge ! 
 
 Now, we confidently ask, whether any thing 
 can equal the preposterousness of submitting 
 Subjects like these to the consideration, or of 
 suffering them to abide by the award, of a Le- 
 gislative Assembly ? — unless, indeed, the com- 
 munity where this occurs, openly acknowledges 
 itself to be but in a half-organized — that is to 
 say, in a semi-barbarous state.* 
 
 * The simile may, pevluips, hv objected to by some, but Kngland, 
 as reflected in the proceedings of its Legislature, distinctly reminds
 
 l>ul lurtluT. Parlianicut is tlu' i;ii-iil Canal, 
 Dock. Pier, llarhoiir, Koad, and llail-way Ma- 
 kor— tlu> Drainer and iMnhanker, too, oi" tlie 
 I'nited Kingdom. It is to ihc two Houses, that 
 every sinu:le inidertakin*^, fallini"; under either of 
 these heads, is recjuired to be brought : — here it 
 is that tlie practicabihty and expediency of 
 what is proposed, are j)rofessedly demonstrated : — 
 liere it is tliat Plans are presented — Arguments, 
 pro and con, canvassed — and from tliis tribunal 
 it is, that the decree, ultimately approving or 
 disapproving, every such project, issues. — Over 
 most cases involving questions in the fine Arts, 
 (that of the Elgin Marbles is a memorable in- 
 stance) Parliament claims to possess Sway ; and 
 in an especial degree is it— Conservator of all 
 our Public Buildings. 
 
 There doubtless may be something flattering to 
 the pride of Parliament in having, in addition to 
 the nudtiphcity of its other duties. Cares of the 
 kind we cWc now specifying, imposed upon it. 
 To enjoy the reputation, which they thus ;;/v'///r/ 
 fane at least do, of being conversant with the 
 whole circle of the Arts and Sciences — of 
 
 us of that order of beings which are born into the world with but 
 one bowel : — bv the instrumentality of which, so low is their place in 
 the scale of animated natiue, all the offices of life have to be sus- 
 tained.
 
 91 
 
 being living Encyclojicedias of Knowledge — 
 must luiquestionably be soothing to the self- 
 love of ^lembers. The sounding language also, 
 in which, among other exaggerations, Parlia- 
 ment is not unfrequently described as of power 
 Omnipotent— may, perchance, have engendered 
 the impression in some Members' minds that 
 with the attribute of Omnipotence there has 
 devolved upon them — what it is but fair should 
 accompany it — that likewise of Omniscience. 
 — The difficulties in the .way of what we are 
 now more particularly proposing, may hence 
 be unluckily augmented ; but we shall not on 
 that account argue the less strenuously in its 
 behalf. 
 
 An objection of a most formidable kind, to 
 the entertainment by Parliament of Questions 
 of a distinctly Professional or Scientific nature, 
 presents itself, as it appears to us, at the very 
 outset— in the Party character of most of the 
 Members of this Tribunal. We are well aware 
 that by dint of high principle, and resolute self- 
 government, the effect upon the mind of the 
 habitually hostile disposition and array that ex- 
 ist there, may be overcome ; but between what 
 it is just within the reach of human ability to 
 compass, and what is most ordinarily done, the 
 difference, we ail know, to l)e most wide. In 
 the state of things we speak of, when a })ro-
 
 f)-2 
 
 position is inadc, tluTc is. at li-ast the i;reatest 
 danjiiT. that tin- siiciiss or dt'tcat of an in- 
 tlividnal. ol" a cotcrit' ol" individuals, or of that 
 sidi' of the House from \\hieh the ])ro])osition 
 omanates, may \vei*i^h witli Menihers, more tlian 
 the merits of wliat has been submitted to the 
 .House. 
 
 In the few instances in which we can suppose 
 it to be a point of honour — to say as httle as 
 possible of Conscience, scrupulously to inves- 
 tigate, and faithfully to pronounce, according to 
 these Merits, how difficult will it often be, to 
 guard against an undetected bias or inclination 
 of the mind, caused solely by the Quarter 
 whence what is submitted happens to come! 
 And the baleful-^the, it may be, withering 
 effects of political prejudice, of party-feeling, 
 where it is purely a matter of the useful Arts, 
 or a question of Science, that is concerned— -all 
 thinking people must admit to be a most spe- 
 cial grievance. 
 
 That we are not conjuring up here a mere 
 phantom of the imagination ; that the public in 
 reality have not that guarantee which they 
 ought to have, and which they might have, 
 of a calm consideration — a temperately con- 
 ducted and chspassionately arrived at award — in 
 the cases we refer to, can be no secret to 
 those who are watchful observers of Parliament.
 
 93 
 
 When it was proposed in the House of 
 Commons not long since, to make some re- 
 muneration to Mr. M*Adam, for his activity and 
 zeal, in endeavouring to introduce throughout 
 the Country, a more scientific mode of Road- 
 making— than which no topic, one would have 
 thought, was less likely to engender irascible 
 feelings, — it was openly stated (we think by Mr, 
 Fyshe Palmer), that Disputes ran so high in 
 the Committee to which the subject had been 
 referred, as to render it all but a forlorn hope 
 that any result whatever would attend the 
 appointment of the Committee. 
 
 Who, too, can have forgotten the bitterness 
 and acrimony that marked the debates— kept 
 up, if we mistake not, through several Sessions,* 
 upon what we call the Ophthalmic question ; and 
 where the points that were most ravenously 
 disputed, resolved themselves into the simple, 
 and, as might have been imagined, very unex- 
 citing one, of— whether Sir William Adams was, 
 or was not, the pink of Oculists ? 
 
 Who, again, but must remember the circum- 
 stance, which was in every body's mouth at the 
 time, of one of the countless Committees of 
 the House of Commons upon the London 
 Bridge now erecting, in which two of the po- 
 
 * The Session of 1821, particularly, was thus distinguished.
 
 ;)4 
 
 ti'Mt, l)iit ci rt;iinl\ not vor\ i;ra\t' Sii;iu)rs, who 
 well" sitliiiL!, in jii(li!,iiu'nt iij)()ii the matter, hc- 
 raiiu' woikt'd up to siicli a pitch of ra<i;c, that 
 they laiily (hishod tlie iiik-staiuls of tlie (.'oni- 
 niittee-tahlc at eacli other's lieads ! 
 
 Passins; on, however, i'roin tlie j)arty elia- 
 racter, and tlie consecjuently contentious hahits 
 of ParHanient ; assuming also, for the present, 
 that the attainments of Memhers are sucli as 
 fully to qualify them for the oifice of Arhiter in 
 the cases we are considering — still w'e object — 
 and the objection we conceive to be a most 
 solid one, that, while our Legislators are thus 
 disporting themselves in the fields of physical 
 Science, their own proper province, that which 
 it must be pre-eminently their duty to cidtivate, 
 in every possible way to acquaint themselves 
 with, and to master — namely, political Science, 
 remains a barren Waste; — scarcely any thing 
 else indeed than a teiTa mcognita. — Though we 
 w'ere to regard Law-making in its hiunblest light 
 — that is, as a mere Art only, it is evident, from 
 the contents of the preceding Section of our 
 Work, that our Law^-makers are any thing but 
 adepts in their Art. But when we look upon 
 Legislation in a more exalted point of view; — 
 when we contemplate it as the means of rightly 
 governing a State; as implying the study and 
 adoption of all that the order of, the Community,
 
 95 
 
 that its security, its well-being, and enjoyment, 
 respectively call for— then into what littleness, 
 into what a very point, do not the pretensions 
 of our Legislators dwindle ! 
 
 Not to deal in insinuations only,— What, we 
 ask, for a long time past, and while the Diver- 
 sions we speak of (for we shall persist in treat- 
 ing them as nothing else) of Parliament, have 
 been proceeding — what has not been the baneful, 
 the almost hideous influence all through the 
 Country, of various of our Laws, or Govern- 
 ment Regulations? What has not been the per- 
 version that has been hoiuly going on, or, which 
 is as bad, the frittering away, of some of the no- 
 blest principles of our Constitution ? What has not 
 been the corruption, or in any case, the abuse, 
 of many of om' most valued Institutions? Du- 
 ring the same period too, what have not been 
 the distresses, the " awful" distresses,* of nearly 
 all the leading Interests in the Country?— dis- 
 tresses now confessedly, in some measure, miti- 
 gated; — but how, we beg to enquire, have they 
 become thus mitigated? by the expedients or 
 resources of legislative Sagacity, of political 
 Wisdom? No; by the ravages of the Suffering 
 
 * Tlie epithet awful was thus used by Lord Goderich at a 
 public Meeting, held May 6th, 1826, at which time he was Clian- 
 cellor of tlie Exchequer.
 
 90 
 
 wliicli at first diiIv tliicati'iird — that is, by 
 tlu* stilliiii:, rllrit which l)i'\astation itselt' lias 
 uruuuht !* — And wliat too, all this while, luis 
 not bt'i'ii — what, iiuk't'd is not at the moment 
 at which we write— the wide s})rea(l of Demo- 
 ralization; the j^roNvini;- debasement ol" the Poor; 
 and the appallinji; increase of Crime amongst us ! 
 Subjects of this stamj), it nuist be felt on all 
 hands, are far more i^ermane to tlie ])roper 
 business of Legislators, then aifairs of Roads, 
 of Bridges, of Docks, and Canals ; than ques- 
 tions relating to ancient Sculpture, hypotheses 
 about Oplithalmy, Contagion, and the hke. 
 Their import, it cannot but be seen, is of the 
 very highest order. Tliey manifestly involve, 
 the very holding together with us, of the frame 
 of Society. And yet it is undeniable, that 
 whenever these topics, or others of a similarly 
 momentous cast, are brought under the notice 
 of Parliament, little else is elicited there in re- 
 ply, nor does any more practical result ensue, 
 than protestations of " the intricacy of the 
 matter," of " the complex relations of the 
 
 • To shew what vahd ground there is for what we are alleging, 
 we refer to the speech of the present Premier, in the House of 
 Lords, July 3d, 1828, wherein he acknowledged, that, in the 
 single year of 1 825, one fifth of the Country Bankers of England 
 came to the groimd. We, it is to be remembered, besides that 
 the observation in our text respects a period of eight or ten years 
 past, are speaking not of one Interest only, but of all.
 
 97 
 
 question," of *' the artificial circumstances in 
 which the whole Country is subsisting" — and so 
 forth : pleas all, which, if they be founded in 
 truth, do but bespeak tlie greater magnitude 
 and imminence of the Evil that is to be over- 
 come ; and ought, therefore, to serve as provo- 
 catives to redoubled exertion, instead of con- 
 stituting, as they now do, pretexts for submis- 
 siveness and inactivity. 
 
 But, though we were altogether to waive the 
 two grounds of objection we have thus far 
 urged, to the arbitration of Parliament, where 
 the physical Sciences, or the fine Arts were 
 concerned — the general view we are taking, 
 might, we conceive, be successfiilly advocated on 
 this score ; — that facts every now and then flash 
 upon us, or gradually transpire, which go in the 
 most direct way to impeach the Competency of 
 honourable Members, to discharge duties of the 
 description in question. This point of Com- 
 petency, has reference, of course, to the know- 
 ledge or attainments of Members; and it is a 
 point which, the reader will recollect, we, in a 
 previous page, for the moment passed by, or 
 took as a thing for granted. 
 
 We can ourselves interpret — only in the light 
 of a positive, though perhaps inadvertent, ad- 
 mission, of the unfitness or inadequacy we allude 
 to — the conduct of the highly respectable Mem-
 
 98 
 
 l)t>r for Mitlhurst. Mr. .lolni Smitli. who. Avlicn the 
 llousr of ('ominous was iloundcring about, in 
 tht* case of the ('onta«,non (juostion, fairly sup- 
 plicated that a Coniniissioii niiulu issue, com- 
 posed chiefly of professional (ientlenien, who 
 should institute a faithful eiKpiiry into the diffe- 
 rent positions and circ\imstances pleaded, and 
 who niiuht, hy the weight of their authority, 
 either conlirni the theory respectiuf^ Contagion, 
 ta wliich our (jovernmcnt inclined, or dis- 
 prove it.* 
 
 The skill or competency e\inced by Parlia- 
 ment in its almost innumerable iMiactments 
 regarding Carriage Wheels, is thus pithily, and 
 for our puqoose, pertinently, summed up, in the 
 report of the Committee of the House of 
 Commons of 1821 on Turnpike Roads : '' The 
 Legislature began," says the Report, " by hold- 
 ing out a premium for Wheels, which it was im- 
 possible to bring into beneficial use ; and it 
 ended, by giving the premium to Wheels of such 
 a constniction, as it was not desirable to have 
 used at all." 
 
 The whole Country knows how incessantly 
 the question has recurred in Parliament, and 
 what a perfectly abortive expenditure of dis- 
 
 • See the speech of Mr. John Smith on the proposed alteration 
 of the Quaraijtine Laws, House of Commons, May 13th, 1825.
 
 99 
 
 cussion and of legislation there has been there, 
 as to the most effectual and proper mode of 
 supplying the Metropolis with Water ; and this 
 waste of reasoning and of legislating, has taken 
 place, and continues to occur, although a Com- 
 mittee of Members of the House of Commons, 
 expressly appointed to investigate the entire 
 matter, in the Session of 1821, found them- 
 selves driven to the acknowledgment, that they 
 were utterly unable to give a clear and decided 
 opinion on the subject. 
 
 While we are touching upon one exclusively 
 Metropolitan matter — requiring high scientific 
 attainments duly to settle it, we will glance at 
 another. We will ask, at least, if our Legis- 
 lators feel themselves at all in a condition to 
 vaunt with regard to the new London Bridge ; 
 which, from its first projection, has been so 
 esjiecially a thing of their own dandling, and in 
 arranging the different details concerning which, 
 these eminent judges proceeded, as has already 
 been seen, with such singidar self-possession and 
 calmness ? Although this structure is as yet 
 barely peeping above the Water, the fourth Act 
 of Parliament relating to it, is at this moment in 
 progress, — and yet the point remains altogether 
 to be ascertained — in what way, when the Bridge 
 is completed, access to it can possibly be ob- 
 tained : unless it be by a sacrifice of property 
 
 H 2
 
 100 
 
 literally triiiuiulous. ;iu(l imii then in the teeth 
 of the very interests which first and I'oremost in 
 the Undertaking, it was proposed should he 
 served hy it. 
 
 In this particular eoiuiexion we may state,* 
 that we apprehend the reputation of our Le- 
 gislature in nothing rests upon a more frail 
 basis, than in Bridge matters generally ; always 
 excepting, however, the case of Canals. In 
 both these ways, the monuments of its failure, m 
 truth, are lamentably numerous ; and till it 
 shall be proved— which we challenge any one to 
 do— that good on the whole, ensues from these, 
 in so many instances unrequired, improvident, 
 and bankrupt Concerns, we shall, for our own 
 parts, not cease to charge upon Parliament, an 
 aggregate of folly committed, and of wrong 
 done, too weighty, if we mistake not, to be 
 easily shifted off its shoulders. 
 
 In the Debates that have taken place in the 
 House of Commons, relative to the Exportation 
 of Machinery, it has been most clearly evinced, 
 that an acquaintance with Mechanics, or a 
 degree of knowledge, or genius, with regard to 
 that branch of physical Science, far superior to 
 what any Members of the House could lay 
 claim to, w^as indispensable to the right settle- 
 ment of the question.* 
 
 • We refer the reader particularly to the debate of June 14, 1825.
 
 101 
 
 As furnishing us with another instance of 
 the description of parhamentary Incompetency, 
 which is under consideration, we shall take 
 leave to extract a passage from a publication 
 which we always delight to appeal to, on ac- 
 count of its notoriously strong bias in favour of 
 *' things as they are," and of the flagrant wrong 
 therefore (as we have in another place observed) 
 which must exist, when its Writers are induced 
 to breathe a syllable of discontent. We allude, 
 as will probably be supposed, to the Quarterly 
 Review; in the Number of which, published 
 March, 1828, we thus read :— " The present 
 absurd and unequal Enactments of our Statute 
 Book, regarding the Salmon Fisheries, have 
 been ordained in various periods, and generally 
 in the absence of a scientific acquaintance with the 
 subject. For the due entertainment of this 
 question, there is requisite a knowledge of the 
 Science of Zoology ; instruction in which, forms 
 no part of our estabhshed systems of Educa- 
 tion : and yet, this notwithstanding, the Com- 
 mittee of the House of Commons, which has 
 now been occupied in a protracted investigation 
 of nearly four years into these Fisheries, has 
 called before it one single Naturalist only, for 
 the benefit of his opinion."* 
 
 * Wc do not foroet the terms of regret -of reprobation, indeed, 
 in which we have elsewhere expressed ourselves, as to the numbers
 
 10-2 
 
 OiH' iii.staiUT \uo\i' is all v\i' shall at j)r('r.c'iil 
 adduc-c : hut it may he proiJcr to ai)|)nze the 
 ri'acKr. that wt- shall not pass it over (luitc so 
 cursorily, as we have those that have preceded. 
 — This concluding; instance is, the case oi' our 
 })ublic Buildini^s — of which, as we have in a 
 former page intimated, Parliament assumes to it- 
 self the office of Supreme Conservator. 
 
 The duties of this Office have unquestionably 
 never been very onerous till of late years. It 
 was observed by Lord Goderich, when Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer, that the anxiety 
 which was manifested by Parliament respecting 
 
 of Reports of Parliamentary Committees, which, by being syste- 
 matically laid aside and forgotten, soon after they have been pre- 
 sented, appear framed only to trifle with the expectations of all 
 concerned. W'e, however, are by no means ambitious of being 
 ranked among tlic thick-and-thin admirers of the System, accord- 
 ing to which parliamentary Committees are nominated, and pro- 
 ceed in prosecuting their respective tasks. It needs no great 
 subtlety to perceive that there is downright finesse or cliicanery in 
 the appointment of some of these Committees. In tlie case of 
 others, the evident picking, or culling, tlvere is, of Witnesses, is re- 
 markable. Again, the leading questions that are put to Witnesses, 
 and the singular harmony that prevails among these individuals — 
 singular, notwithstanding, what we have just alleged — further con- 
 cur in attaching to too many of these parliamentary Inquisitions, 
 a character of something worse than ridiculousness. 
 
 Wo remombor Mr. Brougham's having, on a particular occasion, 
 talked of the horvs-pocus of X\\o Couit of Chancery. Wc appre- 
 hend we arc here \-erging ujion part of fhf hocus pocus of Par- 
 liament.
 
 lO.'J 
 
 our public buildings, and generally, for the de- 
 coration or improvement of the Metropolis, was 
 entirely of modern growth : a remark which it 
 answers our purpose to cite here the more, as 
 it is at once a distinct recognition of that active 
 agency of Parliament, in the case of our public 
 buildings, which we are ascribing to it. Al- 
 though, however, nothing more coidd be es- 
 tablished, than a decided privity of the Legis- 
 lature to what takes place in these matters, the 
 paramount rank of Parliament in the State, 
 would draw upon it the main responsibility 
 with regard to them. Even its bare tolerance 
 of a system, against which valid objections lie, 
 is, as the reader is aware, a ground (and how 
 justly so, if the '' Omnipotence" we have spoken 
 of, really belongs to Parliament) — even this ne- 
 gative feature in the conduct of the Legislature, 
 is a ground, at any time, for the gravest accusa- 
 tions against it. But, with the arrangements 
 according to which our public buildings appear 
 and disappear, and the Metropolis is, as it is 
 called ** decorated," Parliament is much more 
 intimately mixed up, than mere privity to those 
 arrangements, or simple sufferance of them, 
 goes. The Legislature, indeed, barely escapes 
 the charge of literally itself dabbling in bricks 
 and mortar. How nearly did the Committee of 
 the House of Commons, mentioned by us in
 
 104 
 
 paijc ') ol' the pirsciit Work. aj)])r()ach to this, 
 wlun tluy (U'lil)iiatcly indulged in the Ibl- 
 lowinji, anionic otlur, details ! " Tlie ])r()per 
 site lor the new BiiiUhngs will he the Court 
 l)ounded hy the Thames, the Lon^ (ialleiy, 
 ivc. and the House of Commons. The works 
 should he executed in the most solid and dura- 
 ))le manner : in all respects the buildings 
 should be rendered suitable to the purposes 
 for which they are intended. The new apart- 
 ments must be made, as far as is practicable, 
 fire-proof, and the staircases should be of stone." 
 — Again, upon Sir Joseph Yorke's complaining 
 (House of Commons, March 21, 1828), of the 
 i^ranite columns introduced into the new library 
 at the British Museum, Mr. Bankes replied, that 
 he had protested against them, but that the 
 details of the management of the building going 
 on there, the House of Commons, in its wisdom, 
 had been pleased to take out of the hands of 
 the Trustees. — A motion made and carried in 
 the House of Commons, March 23, 1824, was 
 precisely to this effect— to appoint a Committee 
 of the House, to consider of the propriety of 
 stopping the fiui:her progress of the new Law 
 Courts adjoining Westminster Hall ; — which 
 Courts, as the reader may remember, were then 
 very [near their completion. It was of these 
 Courts, too, that Sir James Scarlett, in a subse-
 
 105 
 
 quent Session, said, He regretted the suggestion 
 had not been acted upon, of appointing a Com- 
 mittee of the House, to manage the alterations 
 directed to be made in them. — The language in 
 which the honourable mover of a Committee 
 appointed in the very last Session, that of 1828, 
 expressed himself as to the purposes of that 
 Committee, is also in point here : " The atten- 
 tion of the Committee would be directed to the 
 propriety and necessity of beginning additional 
 works. It would be for the Committee to con- 
 sider how far certain works had been proper and 
 necessary, and how far it would be right to put 
 a stop to any of the plans now in progress. It 
 was his wish and object, that public buildings 
 should be erected in a manner that would do 
 credit to the country."* 
 
 But besides all this, it is to Parliament, as we 
 need scarcely say, that by far the greater part of 
 the propositions respecting metropolitan Improve- 
 ments, are submitted, before they are underta- 
 ken. Upon these occasions, elaborate disquisi- 
 tions or criticisms are indulged in, dogmas pro- 
 pounded, and judgments passed, touching the 
 whole subject. As it respects the particular 
 Imjirovement or Alteration which happens to be 
 
 * Speech of Mr. Hankcs, House of Commons, March 21th, 
 1828.
 
 10<) 
 
 on till- tapis, tin- li'iins iiuuii' use of to Members 
 are inviiricibly these : " Sliould tlie House be 
 j)leai>ed to sanction what was projected ;" — 
 *' Sliould the Lepslature think ])roper, to ap- 
 prove oi' wlial was contemplated ;"— " In the 
 event of Parliament acceding to what had been 
 described ;" &c. &c. I'hese appeals to its taste 
 and deliberative faculties over, Parliament calls 
 — authoritatively calls, for plans or estimates of 
 the work intended ; and the demands of Mem- 
 bers on this score, being more or less complied 
 with. Grants, in the end, are almost invariably 
 made, or separate Bills are passed, serving, as 
 far as the two Houses are concerned, for the 
 soit fait comme il est desire. 
 
 We are certain we have here advanced enough 
 to prove, that in representing Parliament as the 
 supreme conservator of our public Buildings — as 
 the main supervisor of Metropolitan Improve- 
 ments — we rather under than over state the fact. 
 — And of the notable system with which our Le- 
 gislature, as we thus see, is more than identified, 
 what are the fruits ? Without any very violent 
 hyperbole, we may answer. Ashes in the mouth of 
 the nation ! In plain English— disappointment 
 to us as a people, mortification, and disgrace. 
 — That, in no case, what is done, proves accept- 
 able or creditablt! to the jniblic, is more than wc
 
 107 
 
 mean to assert. But we are fully warranted in 
 affirming, that by the great majority of what is 
 done, the reputation of the Country is worse 
 than tarnished— that our funds are squandered — 
 our feelings outraged — and that the object 
 mainly professed to be accomplished, is at best 
 only half realized. 
 
 As it is very repugnant to our wishes to in- 
 dulge in mere assertions, or general unsupported 
 allegations, Will any one vindicate to us, we ask, 
 the " Decorations" of Old Palace Yard— that is 
 to say, the strange, unmeaning " tawdry" front 
 of the House of Lords, with its pigmy arcade, 
 and toy of a porch, or arch-way, projecting out 
 from one of its angles — and under which porch, 
 or arch-way, whenever an august Personage, by 
 exquisite coachmanship, may chance to have 
 been steered, he must infallibly have had (we 
 crave pardon for saying it), such " a Jack in the 
 Box" like appearance, and so far must have been 
 exhibited under such a ludicrous aspect, as true 
 Monarchy, we should think, scarcely ever con- 
 descended to put on before ! 
 
 Who, again, can except from the reprobation 
 we are expressing, the New Law Courts, sticking, 
 as has been said of them, to Westminster Hall, 
 like a barnacle to a ship's bottom ; but, which is 
 of far more importance, the whole history of the 
 erection of which (not to speak at this moment
 
 108 
 
 of their pivsent stale), has hecn a perfect mock- 
 ery of the people ! 
 
 Wlio, too, will be the apologist of the new 
 Buildinij: at Whitehall, wliich from small begin- 
 nings has crept on to be an edifice of magnitude 
 — whicli has proceeded, indeed, stej) by step, 
 and cpiite contrary to the original design, to be a 
 conglomeration of buildings, instead of a single 
 office of very minor pretensions ; and which now 
 presents itself to the eye of the beholder, — little 
 else than a conglomeration of blunders! This 
 character of the building, given by us, as it is, in 
 1829, does not of course comprise one most dis- 
 tinguished feature that ornamented this struc- 
 ture in 1825, but was soon afterwards with- 
 drawn : — we allude to the expensive and ridicu- 
 lous appendage at the top of it, which a Member 
 of the House of Commons, with considerable 
 feasibleness, compared to the stand on Doncas- 
 ter race ground ; and which came, as Mr. Soane 
 himself has declared, nobody knows how, and 
 went, nobody knows when or where. 
 
 We think it will yet be no mean call on the 
 ingenuity of some one, to defend the range of 
 Buildings now erecting on the north side of St. 
 James's Park. The pretext that we sometimes 
 hear advanced in Parliament for Improvements 
 in the Metropolis, is, a regard to the salubrity 
 of the Town, and the propriety of leaving a
 
 109 
 
 greater number of open, airy, or vacant places, 
 as particularly conducive to this most desirable 
 object. Now, in St. James's Park, the people 
 of London have always had a spot answering 
 distinctly to this description; and more easily 
 within reach than any other. While, however, 
 the " Decorators" of the Metropolis have, set 
 about heightening the attractions of this spot on 
 one hand, on the other— in utter despite of the 
 pretext we have just mentioned, and with true 
 Penelopean assiduity, as it respects the actual 
 improvements effected — they are covering all of 
 the Park, or of its immediate vicinity, which 
 they can possibly lay hands on, with houses ; 
 with houses, too, of a most un-park-like appear- 
 ance — towering like cliffs above the surrounding 
 objects — completely therefore, precluding a free 
 circulation of air around; — and, by the smoke, and 
 other impurities they must bring with them, 
 going of necessity to annihilate the little that 
 was before found, of freshness in the atmosphere 
 of the Park, and of health in the vegetation. 
 
 The transition is easy from the Park, to the 
 far-famed New Palace ; — and who will, who 
 can, set up the shadow of a justification of what 
 has been done in this case ? — Not to detain the 
 reader with comments on the present appear- 
 ance of this structure — for in all probability fur- 
 ther transformations are still in store for it —
 
 110 
 
 partinilarly loi tliat ixution ol' it vvlik'h fronts 
 Piccadilly, ihc iinnuMisc ran^c ol' which front — 
 so little broken as it is, by any ornament, or devi- 
 ation of line, mnst be deemed, we think, by 
 evi'ry one, su})erlative]y ugly : — not to detain 
 the reader, as we have just said, with comments 
 upon what may l)e but of the most e])hemeral 
 duration, we will observe generally, that the 
 j)roceedings with regard to this edifice, have, as 
 in the instance of the Westminster Law Courts, 
 been, from first to last, a continued mockery of 
 — an insult indeed to, the nation.* 
 
 Once more, is there a man living, who will 
 affirm that the public are not disappointed — 
 bitterly chsappointed, that in lieu of the tw^o 
 
 * We may be guilty of indecorum in expressing ourselves as we 
 do, but what we witness relatively to our public buildings, is 
 enough to make the stones speak. Every reader knows the history 
 of the original Wings of the New Palace, with the " three windowed 
 houses" at their extremity. " The consequence of the alterations 
 of these Wings," says the Report of the Committee of the House of 
 Commons, of last Session, on Public Buildings, " will be the ad- 
 dition of twenty-sevi'n new apartments to the present numbers, at 
 an estimated cost of fifty thousand pounds." So here we have 
 seven-and twenty apartments suddenly engrafted on the New 
 Palace — not because they form any part of the first design ; not 
 because one whit more of accommodation is called foi', than was at 
 the outset contemplated ; nor because any, the smallest use can be 
 made of the rooms when they are finished — but solely because an 
 unexpected external defonnity of appearance in the building, needed 
 correction !
 
 Ill 
 
 Minor Arches now placed opposite each other 
 at Hyde Park Corner, one grand Arch has not 
 been erected in the centre ? We are quite con- 
 fident, that, excepting the actual planners of this 
 particular Improvement, or " Decoration," two 
 opinions do not exist in the Country, as to the 
 propriety, or rather impropriety, of what now 
 presents itself here. To erect ornamental Arches 
 which have to be approached sideways, must in 
 itself be a solecism. It certainly may be said, 
 that those at Hyde Park Corner, are entrances 
 to private domains. This, however, would be 
 at once to do away with the ideas which in the 
 minds of so many are associated with these Edi- 
 fices, as being national or commemorative ones : 
 added to which, there is a pretence about these 
 Structures, and an expence has been lavished 
 upon them, which would render them doubly 
 impeachable upon any other hypothesis, than 
 that public Ornament, if not a National object, 
 was mainly in view in designing them. And 
 this being the construction which we have no 
 alternative but to put upon them, they must, 
 on the ground we have just stated, be pro- 
 nounced — a gross failure. 
 
 A triumphal Arch being intended as a memo- 
 rial of some specific epoch, event, or train of 
 events, it ought evidently to be not only strictly 
 detached, or insulated, but, as far as possible, in-
 
 112 
 
 ia})al)li' ot'lxiiisj, lonroiiiuK'd in the eycMvith any 
 otluT ohjctt : tliat is, iiu-a])ablf ol' losing its in- 
 dividuality. Ik'Mco, ill a ])c'culiar dejijree, arose 
 till' o\i)cdiency of erecting an Arch — meant to 
 l)e at all eonnneniorative — which we douht not is 
 tlu' Tact ot" one, il" not of botli those we have — 
 across, insteatl of parallel, to the road at Hyde 
 Park Cin-ner ; various other buildings ranging in 
 this latter line. Hut, besides what a})pears to 
 liave been altogether overlooked, exj)ress pains 
 liad to be taken to spoil this fine site for what 
 alone befitted it, in rendering it tolerably suit- 
 able for anything else. We allude here to the 
 costly operation that was effected, of lowering 
 the whole of the adjoining pait of Piccadilly ; 
 the very height or elevation of this imposing 
 entrance into London, constituting one of the 
 singular advantages which the spot before pos- 
 sessed. And to the cost of that operation — 
 arising solely out of what was so perversely (as 
 we shall ever contend) decided upon, there has 
 to be added the outlay, let it be remembered, 
 which yet remains to be incurred, of removing 
 — for removed it must be— and refixing, the 
 Achilles Statue. 
 
 Having clearly traced the paternity of all 
 these Measures, or demonstrated who are every 
 way the Sponsors for them ; and the present
 
 11.'} 
 
 juncture as it respects such Measures being a 
 most prolific one — we hope it will not be 
 deemed altogether impertinent in us, if, for a 
 short space, we delay resuming our general Ar- 
 gument, that we may still more closely, in this 
 connexion, hold the Mirror up to Parhament, 
 of its defects or misdeeds. Some good may 
 thence result, though we should contribute 
 thereby but to vindicate that grievous dissatis- 
 faction which in various, but disjointed, and 
 therefore ineffectual modes, the public are con- 
 tinually expressing on this subject. 
 
 Manifestly then, due thought or consideration 
 is not bestowed upon the site of proposed pubhc 
 Buildings. 
 
 Due care is not evinced, in erecting new 
 Buildings, that they should harmonize— we mean 
 architecturally harmonize, with such other struc- 
 tures as are contiguous. 
 
 Not even tolerable attention is paid to the 
 Hue which the New Buildings, or the Im- 
 provement, as the case may be, will describe, 
 either in itself, or relatively to the lines of 
 other objects in the neighbourhood. 
 
 And, further. Improvements are not under- 
 taken in the order of their Urgency. 
 
 It was a want of proper attention to the site 
 
 I
 
 1 It 
 
 i»l llir New Law ('c•ll^l^, llial was tin- Driginal, 
 and is still tlic uraiul liround of impi'achment of 
 these Courts. The spot allotted for tlicni to stand 
 upon, did not offor half space enou<^h for the pur- 
 pose. The actual Courts are certainly contained 
 within the prescrihed limits — hut /'// the Courts 
 tlicre is nothing like adequate accommodation for 
 either tlie Counsel, the Juries, the Attomies, the 
 ^^'itnesses, or the Puhlic. As to the accommo- 
 dations out of them — hesides that the passages, 
 from the necessary economy of room, will, some 
 of them, allow of the passing hut of one person 
 at a time, requiring of course for this, on many 
 occasions, the utmost lahour and huffeting — 
 hesides this, those Adjuncts which are as indis- 
 pensable to a Court of Justice as limbs are to 
 animal l)odies— such as Waiting-rooms, places in 
 which Witnesses could attend — where Counsel 
 could confer with Solicitors — Solicitors with their 
 chents, and with each other, &c. &c. these, and 
 other most important conveniences, are totally 
 wanting. 
 
 The razing to its foundations the entire of the 
 northem front of these Courts, immediately 
 after the front had been completed— a measure 
 called for, and carried into effect in the Summer 
 of 1824, was a consequence, and is a flagrant 
 illustration, of that heedlessness about a proper
 
 115 
 
 architectural harmony between buildings placed 
 in juxta-position, which is alleged in the second 
 of our remarks. 
 
 The same want of harmony or accordance 
 with the surrounding buildings, as far, at least, 
 as that most important item — Elevation or Al- 
 titude goes, characterizes the New Council and 
 Board of Trade Offices, at Whitehall. But it is 
 the line which these offices describe, relatively 
 to Whitehall, and Downing-street, that consti- 
 tutes the greatest imputation upon them. How 
 the building could have been suffered to pro- 
 ceed on, in the utter defiance it has done, of the 
 lines of these two streets, is truly marvsllous. 
 Scarcely possible, indeed, would it be to credit 
 what has been done, but that we are all eye- 
 witnesses of it. The result is, that a perfect 
 dilemma exists, as to what step or course is 
 most practicable and expedient, decently to cor- 
 rect appearances here. No mode has hitherto 
 been so much as hinted at for the purpose, but 
 the carrying a corresponding building, up King- 
 street. A plan, of which we beg to say, that 
 if persisted in, and " an alignment," the same as 
 that of the present moiety of the building, be 
 observed — that will then hold true of King- 
 street, which is now the special fault to be cor- 
 rected in Downing-street : we mean, that the 
 new building will advance out, and in an oblicjue 
 
 1 2
 
 liiu' iiili'isfit Kinj^-stit'ct. Or, if to avoid tliis 
 most iiiuoutli illict and iiwaX incoiivcuiciu't', 
 tlio same alimmu'Ut Ix' not observed, and the 
 remaininjx moii'ty l)e returned u])on an an*?le, — 
 then. l)esidt's other and i^raver ol)jections, we 
 sliall have an entrance into Downin^-street, an- 
 swering to the form of a wedge : — wliich will, 
 we incline to think, l)e too unique, something 
 too outre, to suit the taste of even our arbiters 
 cli'trant'iaruui. 
 
 The site of the new palace at Buckingham- 
 gate, is felt by all to be deplorable. That it 
 should have been determined, in such a spot, 
 to erect a building, the cost of which will be, 
 at least, half a million of money, is what we 
 could, for our own parts, almost weep at. Be- 
 sides the lowness, and consequent utter unim- 
 posingness of the site — from whatever quarter it 
 be approached or regarded, there is in the im- 
 mediate vicinity, one of the greatest nuisances a 
 Metropolis can well contain — an immense pubHc 
 Brewery.* 
 
 • The " desperate dirtiness" of the old Buckingham House, com- 
 plained of by Lord Goderich, and pleaded by him as a reason for 
 renovating the building, it is highly probable was owing in a great 
 degree to the ha^-ing such a vile and near neighbour as the Estab- 
 lishment we speak of. Years before the re-building of Buckingham 
 House was thought of, we remember ourselves contemplating with
 
 117 
 
 But, that these circumstances were not suffi- 
 cient to deter Parhament fi'om rebuilding Buck- 
 ingham House, we hold to be almost venial, 
 compared with the position, or rather, with the 
 no-position, in which any Edifice must of ne- 
 cessity stand there, relatively to all the sur- 
 rounding objects. There are, for instance, the 
 Horse Guards, the range of Buildings forming 
 the southern boundary of the park, the Canal, 
 the Malls, the cliff-like Houses we have already 
 spoken of on the northern side ; again, there is 
 the row of Mansions extending up on the east- 
 ern side of the Green Park, also Piccadilly, and 
 the road called Constitution Hill ; —and yet, 
 with the exception of a solitary Mall on the 
 northern side of the park, not a particle of 
 appositeness or relevancy is there, nor could 
 there be, in the New Palace, to a single one of 
 these very numerous objects. 
 
 It is a further and worse feature in the case, 
 that the objects there, were not merely in no 
 general or tolerably harmonious position — the 
 
 surprise, the existence, in such near proximity to each other, of a 
 Royal Palace and a large public Brewery — the latter building at the 
 time emitting torrents of the thickest smoke, and rendering Buck- 
 ingham House, in mid-day, and at a distance of not more than five 
 hundred yards, scarcely visible for the foul veil with wliicli this 
 smoke was enveloping it.
 
 118 
 
 «)IU' as it it'j;arilr(l thr otiur; — hul llial tlu'y 
 Wire all distiiutly askew, iclativi'ly to each 
 otlu'i: — and tlu' n-construetioii of the Fahiee 
 ill the line, as well as at the pririse s])()t in 
 wiiieh it ni)\v a])|)ears, has not only lij;htc il n\) 
 afresh, hut has distinctly ai^jjjravated the way- 
 wardness and ohli((uity, to whicli, hei'ore, the 
 whole region stenu'd consecrated.* 
 
 — I5nt a word or two, as to our Improvements 
 not takini,^ place, or bcins^ resolved upon, in tlie 
 order of their urgency. 
 
 • Some of the reasons that wore advanced for not l>nildinp a new 
 palace on a different site, ought to have been positively, hooted out 
 of Parliament. One of them was, that a royal residence must have 
 a private Garden, and that it would take twenty years before any 
 plantation coidd grow up siifticiently high to make a garden private! 
 Now this reasoning miglit be very valid reasoning for not pulling 
 down or dismantling at one and the same moment, pretty well all 
 the royal residences we had got ; or for not pulling the whole down 
 before a young shrubbery would have began to grow up ; — but 
 when the question respected the erection of a new palace of 
 suitable pretensions, and at a cost of £500,000. — to propose to 
 baulk the nation, as well as our future sovereigns, of an appropriate 
 site for it, because the requisite shnibbcries would be some time 
 arriving at luaturity, was certainly what ought not to have been en- 
 dured for an instant. The truth is, that the little in the way of 
 gardens to his metropolitan residences, which his present Majesty 
 has ever enjoyed — the predilection manifested by him, almost from 
 the time he ascended the throne, for a Country life — and the chances 
 there are, that after his reign we shall have a minority, — united in 
 indicating the present to be, of all others, the epoch, for relinquish- 
 ing the site of Burkinghani House, so long as a belter one was to be 
 had. tipon the shrubbery fan< icrs very own ghrwing.
 
 119 
 
 The safe preservation of public Documents 
 that are of great moment, will be seen to be a 
 matter of far more pressing duty, than any one 
 of the Undertakings we have been particu- 
 larizing. The Records of our Courts of Law, 
 Blackstone describes as Documents " of high 
 and super-eminent authority ;" and yet all 
 London knows that these Documents— of such 
 high and super-eminent authority, have for 
 years past been — next to houseless ;— that ever 
 since the removal of the old Courts— a period 
 now of five or six years, the Records have had 
 no better accommodation than the rude wooden 
 shed which encumbers Westminster Hall : and 
 in which, as was observed by Sir James Scarlett, 
 during the last Session of Parliament, it being 
 necessary to consult them by the light of can- 
 dles, they are in hourly danger of being de- 
 stroyed by fire. 
 
 Almost at the commencement of the career 
 of our Metropolitan Improvements, a statement 
 was made on high authority, averring the con- 
 stant risk of fire, to which the valuable Contents 
 or Archives of the Herald's College, were ex- 
 posed, owing both to the situation and construc- 
 tion of that edifice. 
 
 Inconvenience far exceeding any which Ma- 
 jesty has suffered at St. James's, or Buckingham 
 House— which the functionaries of the Law had
 
 120 
 
 lonncrlv to complain ol" at \\ r^lnun^lcr Hall 
 wliiili till' L()nl>> ol' the ("oiiiuil could ever \)\c- 
 It'iul to have hfcn subjected to, iu their previous 
 C)fiiccs — Inconvenience, indeed, in its very climax, 
 has for a serii's of vears been sustained by the 
 House ol' ("ommons, in nearly the whole ol" its 
 iiUerior nioM'Uients or operations. W e ha\(' de- 
 jiicted in tlu* early part ol" this Work tlu' difii- 
 culties — tlu' exasperating diflicultics, to which 
 the House is exposed by the dearth of Com- 
 mittee-rooms ; and it is reduced to nearly equal 
 straits, as it regards accommodations for its Li- 
 brary, Journals, Reports, and other innumerable 
 Papers, incidental to its multifarious vocations. 
 At present, as many of these Books, Papers, &c. 
 as there is room for, are stowed away in nothing 
 better than Closets, Chambers, Presses, and 
 Passages, about the House ; and those of them 
 that room — even of this miserable nature — is not 
 to be found for, are deposited at private Houses 
 in the neighbourhood, or are kept in store at 
 the Printer's — subject of course to double risks 
 from fire, depredations, and other untoward 
 incidents.* 
 
 Though Commissions of a public and most 
 
 • Sec the Sofond Roporl of tlic Coinmiltce of the House of Com- 
 mons of 182.'). on ;he printed Papers, 8:c. of the House.
 
 121 
 
 important nature are so often appointed at the 
 instance either of Parhament or the Govern- 
 ment, no domicile for them, or convenience of 
 any kind exists :— a fact which was particularly 
 spoken of and lamented by Mr. Secretary Peel, 
 during the last Session. 
 
 Tlie loudest, and there is reason to believe, 
 the most justly founded complaints, have been 
 made of what are called— the Judge's Chambers ; 
 which are, to all intents and purposes, so many 
 Courts of Justice, and which, from the descrip- 
 tions of them that have been given to Parlia- 
 ment, seem to be scarcely superior, in point of 
 space or accommodation, to dog-kennels. 
 
 But, of all Metropohtan Improvements, we, 
 with our old friend, the Quarterly Review, in- 
 cline to think Street Improvements are, in a 
 place so crowded as London is, the most press- 
 ing or imperative. " In the Improvement of 
 London," says that Journal (June 1826), " two 
 distinct objects are to be kept in view. The 
 first, much outweighing the other in importance, 
 is, to provide the most complete and iminter- 
 rupted communication throughout this extensive 
 metropolis. The second is, the increase of its 
 architectural splendour." Without going fur- 
 ther here into the question of precedency, be- 
 tween the two classes of Improvements, we will 
 cite the principle, as admitted by Mr. Arl)ulhn()t
 
 122 
 
 liimsi'ir,* I House of Conmioiis, Marcli 21, 1S2G| 
 Nsllith. when once Street liii|)r()veinents ari' de- 
 cidt'd uj)i)ii, Duuht, witli reijanl to tliein, to be 
 the governiui;' ])riiUMple. And \ve shall cite the 
 nde or axiom, lor the ])iir|)ose of allirniinji; most 
 unqualifiedly, that, in the case of what is under- 
 taken in London, in this wav, bv Parliament, or 
 by our Parliamentary Commissioners, that rule 
 is not the i^overning one. " In determining," 
 said the right honourable gentleman, " upon Im- 
 provements of our Streets or Thoroughfares, the 
 object of paramount consideration was, the pub- 
 lic convenience." — Why, the very occasion on 
 which this dictum was delivered, was a flagrant 
 instance to the contrary of it. The occasion 
 was that of the right hon. gentleman's submit- 
 ting to Parliament, the Strand and Charing- 
 cross Improvement Bill ; and will any one con- 
 tend for a moment, that there was anything ap- 
 proaching to a proportion in the degrees in which 
 the Strand needed improvement between Bed- 
 ford-street and Charing-cross — where Mr. Ar- 
 buthnot proposed his alterations — and at that 
 monstrously incommodious part, Exeter 'Change 
 and the vicinity, where the right hon. gentleman 
 proposed no alteration ? Dissatisfaction had 
 scarcely ever been known to be expressed at the 
 
 • Then chief Commissioner of the Woods and Forests.
 
 123 
 
 state of the Strand at the former spot ; whilst 
 from the constant obstructions experienced, to- 
 gether with the hourly jeopardy in which limbs 
 and lives were placed at the latter, the town has 
 not unfrequently rung with Complaints. — The 
 benefit of that improvement of the Strand, 
 which has so long been felt as one of the first 
 wants of the Metropolis, we rejoice to see, as 
 well as to say, the public will have ; but no 
 thanks will be due for the boon, to that " para- 
 mount consideration of the pubhc convenience" 
 which is laid claim to, by " those who have the 
 direction over matters of this nature." The 
 praise in the case all belongs to Sir M. W. Rid- 
 ley. He it was, who, at the nick of time, happily 
 for us, exclaimed " Public Convenience, and 
 Exeter 'Change !" — Words which appeared to 
 strike like a knell on the ears of the right hon. 
 gentleman. Ah ! seemed Mr. Arbuthnot to say 
 to himself, Exeter 'Change ! Exeter 'Change ! 
 it has not entered for an instant into our 
 thoughts ! it has not had the remotest place in 
 our speculations ! What, under the circum- 
 stances, shall be replied to the Member who has 
 so mahciously mentioned it ? " Exeter 'Change," 
 at length observed Mr. Arbuthnot, "■ is private 
 property ; it belongs chiefly to two noblemen,— 
 the Duke of Bedford and the Marquis of Exeter. 
 Difficulties would in consequence arise in effect-
 
 124 
 
 \\\IX aiiN alterations or iin})ro\ t-nunts tlu'ic." 
 Hut no |)arti(ular r('sj)i'c-t liavini; been meant to 
 he ])ai(l to j)rivate ])ro])erty. in tlu' plan just l)t'- 
 toR- detailed to the House, it was eviilent that 
 tliis excusi' could not be roposed ii])()n, for more 
 than the moment. The dilemma, in fact, was 
 complete ; the (juestion relative to Kxeter 
 'Change— under such circumstances mooted — 
 must, it was found, be entertained. — It is almost 
 su|)erfluous to add, that an application to the 
 noble owners of that spot, and of the property 
 contiguous, was all that was necessary; — that 
 on their being communicated with upon the sub- 
 ject, they immediately expressed their concur- 
 rence in what w as called for ; and even avowed 
 themselves, anxious for the attainment of so desi- 
 rable an object. 
 
 The throng of foot passengers that are to be 
 seen fiom morning to night, strugghng, almost 
 to the use of force, to make their way through 
 the Crevices (for they hardly deserve to be called 
 Courts), which lead from the eastern end of 
 Piccadilly, towards Covent Garden and the City 
 — is itself a demonstration that the rule advanced 
 by Mr. Arbuthnot, is not that which is primarily 
 studied by our Street Improvers. 
 
 The vehicles of all descriptions moving, or 
 endeavouring to move, in a corresponding line.
 
 125 
 
 through Lisle-street, are proportionately numer- 
 ous ; and a more cramped, perverse, and every 
 way perilous route, than that they have to track 
 out, all London, we may safely say, does not 
 contain. The difficulty of making Great New- 
 port-street from Lisle-street, or Lisle-street from 
 Great Newport-street, owing to the peculiarity 
 of the angle to be described, mixed with the 
 concourse there constantly is there of carriages 
 of every sort, must be encountered to be con- 
 ceived of. — If it is with Parliament, that the su- 
 pervision or supreme direction of these matters 
 should still have to remain, we would fairly en- 
 treat its attention to the flagrantly inadequate 
 provision that exists at this part of the town, for 
 the Crowds that have to traverse it. Particu- 
 larly would we ask to have weighed — the Much 
 that has so long been bitterly wanted here, and 
 the Nothing that has been done, against the 
 pains and outlay that have been lavished on 
 the emhelUshment of the neighbourhood of 
 Charing Cross ; the result too, there, as we will 
 not be deterred from observing, on the only side 
 on which the embellishment is completed, (that 
 is, on the Cockspur-street side) being a mere 
 place de coins — a scene where angularity and 
 refraction of every degree, in the lines of the 
 surrounding buildings, and angularity and refrac-
 
 12G 
 
 tion only. Irt ns look wlutji wav wc will, pirsciit 
 tluMiist'lves.* 
 
 Tlu' line of Conummication hotwcon Oxford- 
 stret't and lliii;li llolhorn, has, tor many years 
 past, called most imj>eratively lor im])r()vement, 
 on the score both of safety and convenience. 
 
 The mention of Holborn, though we are aware 
 we get liere witliin City bounds, reminds us that 
 there are two of tlie aveiuies leading out of that 
 great thoroughfare, whicli are so productive of 
 obstruction and dangers, as to liave called down 
 on them — we might almost say — the imprecations, 
 of even our Judges. — Chancery-lane, at particular 
 parts of it, and Fetter-lane, are the streets we 
 allude to.f 
 
 • We are as capable as any one of appreciating the luxury that 
 attends monng about in Regent-street, and we are admirers not 
 only of its ample, but of its uniform width. Here, however, our 
 admiration of the street ends. Its " architectural freaks" displease 
 us, and the curve it describes, is certainly not that of the line of 
 beauty, but rather, that of a crooked billet. This street had, we 
 believe, its rise in two causes — a desire to compliment the Regent, 
 and a wish to increase the value of cei-tain of the Crown Lands. 
 Relatively to other wants of the Metropolis, of this class, the need 
 of the New Street, which has cost one Million Jive hundred and 
 thirty-three thousand pounds, was unquestionably as nothing. 
 
 •f See what was said by the Judges of the Court of King's 
 Bench, November 11th, 1825, on a Motion relative to a recent 
 trial against the Inhabitants of Devonshire, for not widening a 
 Bridge ; and also a Petition, signed by the Master of the Rolls, 
 Justices Park, Burrough, Holroyd, Baron Garrow, and others.
 
 127 
 
 Not to multiply these cases, which would be 
 most easy, we may observe, in the language of 
 the writer we have last quoted, that " as to the 
 avenues of our great Metropolis, the inhabitants 
 are most inadequately provided with accommo- 
 dation;" and that " how the people should, as 
 contentedly as they do, endure the inconvenience 
 they have in this respect to sustain, is amazing." 
 
 It may be proper, on bringing to a conclusion 
 at length, our notice of what we term, the Scien- 
 tific portion of the Business of Parliament, to 
 give the reader an idea of the extent to which 
 this business engrosses the attention of Parlia- 
 ment. In each one of the instances we have 
 mentioned of New Buildings, or Metropolitan 
 Improvements undertaken. Grants of the public 
 Money have been made by Parliament, (com- 
 prised in the general Appropriation Bills of the 
 Session), or separate Bills have been passed, au- 
 thorizing the measure. 
 
 Of Embankment and Draining Bills, there 
 have passed through Parliament, between 
 the Sessions of 1822 and 1828, both inclusive 16 
 
 Of Canal Bills 3(> 
 
 Of Harbour, Dock, Quay, and Pier Bills 41 
 
 presented to the Court of ComTvion Council, CJuildhall, Docem- 
 ber 1 1th, 182().
 
 \'2S 
 
 Of Hj.il-w.iy Hills il 
 
 or Hills rcsprclin^ liri(lo;c's , . .48 
 
 Of Hills rcspi'ctini,^ Hoads . i7J) 
 
 (tlu'so latter aloiu', it will lliiis be seen, av('rai;iiii;' 
 
 upwards of sixtif-cifrht per Session !) 
 
 A few others might he added to the list, but 
 
 they are such as not to admit of classification.* 
 
 A final description of Matters wliich we would 
 fain see Parliament rid of, are a majority of 
 
 THE Bu.LS BROUGHT BEFORE IT, WHICH ARK STRICTLY 
 AND TRULY Lo( AL BiLLS. 
 
 We make the distinction we do here, as to 
 Hills — strictly and truly Local, because in the 
 [Parliamentary use of that term, there is con- 
 siderable vagueness, and often, in consequence, 
 much inaccuracy. We are reduced, indeed, 
 every now and then, to the same dilemma to 
 divine what Parliament means by a Local, as 
 opposed to a General Bill, that we not unfre- 
 ([uently are to know what it intends by a Private, 
 in contradistinction to a Public Bill. The truth 
 appears to be, that the Legislature itself expe- 
 
 * It occurs to us that we have elsewliere mentioned a Rail-way 
 and a Road Bill or two, in connexion with, or rather, as falling 
 under the head of " trumpery" Acts of Parliament. Perhaps we 
 were led to that association for the moment, by something ridiculous 
 in the names of those particular hills ; or by something ridiculous 
 or trumpery in tlie known history of those Bills.
 
 129 
 
 riences no small difficulty in satisfactorily desig- 
 nating, the various measures it is called upon to 
 pass: — a circumstance, which, though it were 
 the only evidence we had, plainly indicates, we 
 should say, that in the miscellaneousness of 
 these measures, as Matters for Legislation, there 
 is something decidedly wrong. 
 
 The official division of our Acts of Parlia- 
 ment is into 
 
 Public General Acts ; 
 
 Local and Personal Acts declared Public, and 
 to be judicially noticed ; 
 
 Private Acts printed by the King's printer, 
 and whereof the printed Copies may be given 
 in evidence ; 
 
 And, Private Acts not printed : 
 nomenclature all this, which we conceive to be 
 in the higliest degi'ee objectionable ; while such 
 is the practice in assigning Acts their place, 
 under this assortment, as to open a wide door 
 to the confusion we have just spoken of. 
 
 Whatever other Bills the term " Local"— in 
 the literal sense in which we interpret it, may 
 comprise (and such other Bills, it may be ol)- 
 served, are not numerous), our remarks at })re- 
 sent will exclusively respect those of these 
 Bills which go to meet the mere physical — that 
 is, the very homeliest wants of individual Towns, 
 or of certain hmited Portions or Districts of the
 
 fouiitiy Oil K)()kiiin at \\\c titles ol" our Acts 
 
 of' l\ulianK'iit, passed IVoni Session to Session, 
 hardly aiiythint;. \vi' think, is more ealeulated 
 to arrest attention, than the perfect shiltlessness 
 of the Cities, Towns, c*v:c. of the United Kingdom. 
 Impotence itself sei'ins to he stamped upon 
 tluin. Their inhahitants, howevei' long, how- 
 ev(>r closely and nmnerously congregated to- 
 gether, however reputed, too, for their wealth 
 or intelligence, are, generally speaking, ut- 
 terly unahle to perform for themselves the 
 commonest offices of social life. This state- 
 ment, we shall, we think, at once suhstantiate, 
 and in a way to render very little additional 
 comment necessary, when we say, that even 
 our largest Towns — that our most populous 
 provincial Districts — cannot Pave, Purge, Drain, 
 Light, Water, or Watch themselves; — cannot 
 cause to be pro\ided for their respective In- 
 hahitants, so much as a Market-place, a Chapel, 
 a Workhouse, or even a Burying Ground — 
 without recourse had to the high Court of 
 Parliament ; without application being made for 
 the obstetric aid of the " Collective Wisdom" of 
 the Nation. The very calls of Nature, in a 
 sense, our local Population, all through the 
 Country, appear incapable of complying with, 
 except the assiduous attentions— the co-operative
 
 131 
 
 services— be afforded on the occasion, of the 
 Supreme Legislative Council of the Empire. 
 
 Any thing more alien, than Cares of the kind 
 here described, from the affairs of the Commu- 
 nity at large — more remote from the interests of 
 the Commonwealth — and, consequently, more 
 wanting in that which ought to be the sole con- 
 dition of legislative interference; — we ourselves 
 are unable for a moment to specify. There h 
 not even the pretext for carrying these Matters 
 before a tribunal of rank or importance, that 
 there is for submitting to such a tribunal, what 
 we have termed Matters of mere Form. In 
 those cases, all the agency of two parties is in- 
 dispensable. What partakes of the character of 
 a boon— a something which is not of the nature 
 of a right — is in question ; and there must be 
 of necessity not only a solicitor, but a grantor 
 of the boon. No progress that Society may 
 make, can divest those cases of that peculiarity. 
 But, upon the inhabitants of a Town, or de- 
 tached District, agreeing among themselves, as 
 to the expediency, at their own cost and charges, 
 of paving, lighting, &c. their streets ; of pro- 
 viding themselves with a Chapel, a Workhouse, 
 and the like; — necessity for the privity to the 
 act, of any other individual, or body of indi- 
 viduals, whatever, there can manifestly be none. 
 
 K 2
 
 ^^ (' nuMu, that natuial or inhcrcMit necessity 
 tluMC can 1)1' none : lor that one of another 
 kind — a I'actitions or conventional necessity ex- 
 ists, tlie reader need not l)e reminded, is in a 
 Sjcixt depve. tlie hnrtlien oi" onr ar<;innent. — 
 And, as to tlie j)o\ver now conferred by Parlia- 
 ment in these instances, partaking, as in the 
 others just mentioned, of the character of a 
 boon — that this holds true, we deny in toto : — 
 the Acts so sought to be done, standing, as far 
 as we can perceive, in precisely the same rela- 
 tion to Social — that sleeping, walkin<]f, eating, 
 and other such requisite functions do — to Animal 
 life — Again, it is of consequence in the case of 
 the " Matters of Form," that what is done, 
 should be peniianently recorded. But it is of 
 no manner of importance to have it registered 
 in our archives, that in 1826, 7, or 8, the in- 
 habitants of Louth, Liverpool, and Haberg- 
 ham Eaves, came before the Parliament of 
 the United Kingdom, and obtained a better 
 supply of Light ;— the people of Binningham, 
 Dmibar, Chester, &c. doing the same thing as 
 to Water. That, then, likewise, the Streets of 
 Stalybridge, Alloa, York, and Norwich, were 
 better paved, — while also Oldham got a Chancel 
 to its Church, Glasgow a di'ive round its public 
 Green, and Bognor a Market for Butcher's 
 Meat, &'c. &c. &c.
 
 133 
 
 We have said that anything more aUen to 
 the proper business of Legislation, than Local 
 Acts of this whole genus, we are totally unable 
 to specify ; and equally out of our power is it, 
 and, equally, we are quite certain, out of the 
 power is it of others, to particularize any de- 
 scription of the Bills that Parliament suffers 
 itself to entertain (the peddling matters men- 
 tioned by us at page 27, not overlooked), 
 which are more truly derogatory to the dignity 
 of the Legislature. If we have at all accu- 
 rately illustrated the character of these Local 
 Bills, in those of our remarks that have imme- 
 diately preceded, the ground there is for this 
 additional observation, will be instantly felt and 
 admitted. In being parties to them in any 
 way. Degradation, in our Legislators, we ac- 
 knowledge it seems to us, can '' no further go :" 
 — unless, indeed, Parliament should come in 
 time to do the analogous offices for single in- 
 dividuals, which we now see it daily stooping 
 to do for collective bodies of them. 
 
 It was exclaimed by one of our principal 
 Journals not long since,* " When will our twp 
 Houses of Parhament cease to think that they 
 can mend shoes better than Cobblers ?" 
 
 This is some token that others regard certain . 
 
 * The Morning Chronicle.
 
 <il' tlic Opi'iatioiis ot' I'iirliimu-nt in \ ny iHiicli 
 tlk' sanu' li^lil thai we do ourselves. — Hut 
 tlu' i\\clainatit)n that thus occurs to us, fur 
 tljcr calls to our mind, that the descri])tion of 
 parliamcntarv husincss ut- arc now insisting 
 upon, is, as in the various cases of I'ar iiigher 
 ini})ort which we have had occasion to cite, 
 most discreditably and imperfectly done. 
 
 Not only does the particular Act often prove 
 to be badly cb'awn uj)— but some wrong is in- 
 flicted— some oversiglit committed — some case 
 left unprovided for— which causes the Measure at 
 once to work ill, and which speedily requires 
 re-inteiference, and fresh Legislation. 
 
 We greatly deceive ourselves, or the Country 
 will not, cannot, much longer desire, if it does 
 so at present, to have its local Business left to 
 parliamentary Management or Direction. The 
 numbers of Members of Parliament, it is true, 
 are considerable ; the superior rank as well as 
 talent, too, of many of them, is not to be dis- 
 })uted ; and an impression may doubtless exist 
 in the public mind, that these circumstances 
 combine to render a resort to that tribunal, de- 
 sirable and advantageous, in the case of even the 
 most trivial local matter. But what becomes 
 of these predilections, in favour of the agency of 
 l*arliament in such matters, by the side of a 
 plain, unvarnished statement, like the following ;
 
 135 
 
 — the author of this statement, at the same time 
 being a gentleman wliose long experience and 
 known intelligence peculiarly qualify him to 
 speak to the point ? " To reckon that the 
 Members of one county, or particular district, 
 would seriously interest themselves about the 
 purely local Affairs of another, was perfectly 
 idle. What, for instance, cared the Members 
 from Cornwall about the private business of 
 Yorkshire ? Who of the Members, again, from 
 either Yorkshire or Cornwall, would attend in 
 earnest to the business of Staffordshire ? — To 
 expect that a change in this respect would ever 
 ensue, was absurd: — a different state of things 
 was impossible !"* 
 
 As strictly bearing out this very ingenuous 
 avowal on the part of the honourable Member 
 for Wareham, we subjoin to it one other re- 
 presentation which we take almost at random 
 from among more, to a similar purport, that 
 are laying before us ; the truth being, that the 
 conduct or history of one private parliamentary 
 Committee, is in a great measure the conduct 
 or history of them generally. What we are 
 now about to quote, is from a petition pre- 
 sented to the House of Commons, June 2nd, 
 1825, by the promoters of a Bill for hghting 
 
 * Speech of Mr. Calcraft, House of Commons, April 1!), 182G.
 
 >\ (•sliiiiiistci \\ itli ()il (i;is. •' Diiriiii^ tlic pro- 
 (•('odini^s." llic petition oljscrxrs, " in the ("oiii- 
 initti'c ol' youi- lioiioiiraWU' I louse, to wliich the 
 l)ill \v;is ittcrrcd. lor manv dnvs toiictlicr, tlu' 
 nunilxT ol' Mi'iiihcTs that Iiunc attciulcd tlic 
 Coinniittoi' has not exceeded three: on a variety 
 <»r occasions, the ChdintKui iiloiie has lieeii pre- 
 sent : and on three (HH'erent (hiys, all the ex- 
 penses of Counsel, Ai^ents, and NVitnesses, were 
 incurred, xcithout its heiiitr prfteticdhle hi/ (iiii/ 
 nicdiis to form a Committee at all ! ! T* 
 
 we have tlu()U«>hout stated, that we use the 
 word Local, in its most strict, or narrow, sense. 
 Were we a little to enlarge the range, or mean- 
 ing, oi" the term, — were we, in short, only to 
 allow it to comj)rise much that the Legislature 
 itself does, there would then most fairly come* 
 within our purview here, a system, in o])eration 
 in Parliament, witli regard to many Bills desig- 
 nated " Local," of which individual members 
 luive ex])ressed themselves in language of such 
 transcendent condenmation, that even we will 
 not take it u})on ourselves to repeat what 
 
 • If it should be said tliat tliis Wcstiniiister Liglitiug Bill was op- 
 f/oseit, Wf answer, that the ease tells so imieh tlio Itetter lor our j»iii- 
 pose ; for if the nioli\es an- not potent enou;,'li to induce the Mein- 
 herH of a Coniniittce (o f;i\c their attendance when several interests 
 are imj)licated, how can they he so, wlien one only is concerned .'
 
 lias escaped them. We may say, however, oi' 
 tile system we allude to, that it has led men, 
 comparatively obscure, but well knowing the 
 ground they were going upon, to declare, that 
 furnished with the names of Members, and with 
 money, they would undertake to carry, or to de- 
 feat, in Parliament, any private Bill whatever! 
 We will also say, that in the course of the well- 
 meant, the amiable endeavours of Mr. Littleton, 
 to check this system ; that valuable member of 
 the House of Commons admitted. Nothing was 
 further from his thoughts, than the hope of de- 
 vising an effectual and decided remedy for all the 
 evils connected with the present system of get- 
 ting private Bills through Parliament :* — an avow- 
 al, which certainly does not weaken our prepos- 
 sessions in favour of what we are arguing for — 
 an entire withdrawal of a portion, at least, of the 
 Local Questions of the Country, from out of the 
 cognizance of Parliament.f 
 
 We have as yet not mentioned, at all to insist 
 
 * Sec Mr. Littleton's Speech in the House of Commons, April 19, 
 182f). 
 
 t As things are in Parliament, no motion there would indicate, 
 we think, a more connnendahle regard for common decency or pro- 
 ])riety, on the part of the Memher making it, than one to the eHecf, 
 tliat the piece of nnnnmery or inockery — for it can l)e nothing else, 
 which Parliament is every day chargeahle with, of conjmencing its 
 hiisiness with — Prai/rrs^ should, without a moment's delay, he aho- 
 lishcd.
 
 I ;J8 
 
 upon it. till' l'!\|)insi\c'iu'ss of goini; to l*arlia- 
 tiu'iit. ill the i-asc ol" iMatU'is that arc j)iiR'ly 
 Loial: — wluToas this consideration is ol" itself 
 suflifii'Mt to found an aii:;unuMit upon, in l)c'lialf 
 of our present proposition. 'Ihere can be no 
 doul)t but tliat the heavy charges attending Bills 
 in Parliament, operate to prevent many a local 
 Improvement from being undertaken, Avhich is 
 in the highest degree expedient or desirable. 
 The Select Committee of the House of Lords 
 on Private Bills, appointed in 1827, thus com- 
 mence their Report : " The Committee have 
 examined into the Grievances complained of, in 
 the Petitions referred to them, as discom*aging 
 and obstructing the progress of public Improve- 
 ments, by the burthen and uncertainty of the 
 expence to which parties are subjected, in their 
 apphcation to Parliament, for powers to carry 
 their Improvements into execution." 
 
 In the appendix to this same Report, Speci- 
 mens are given of the costs attaching to nearly 
 every description of private Bill, within the walls 
 of Parliament ; and among these Specimens, 
 four appear, distinctly falling mider om* designa- 
 tion of— strictly Local Bills ;— the whole four 
 having, at the same time, recently passed, and 
 been entirely unopposed Bills. The average 
 amount of Charges attending each one of these 
 Bills, as it proceeded through the two Houses,
 
 139 
 
 was, upwards of four hundred and thirty pounds ! 
 A demand upon the purses of the apphcants for 
 the Bills, which every one will see to be a fear- 
 ful aggravation of the outlay required for the 
 particular measure upon the spot :— a demand, 
 too, it is to be remembered, that is exclusive of 
 the heavy Charges of the private Solicitor in 
 each instance ; who, at a distance from home, 
 always thinks it proper to wait for the advances 
 — the often casual advances of his Bill, first 
 through one House, and then through the other. 
 — Amply warranted, therefore, we feel we are, in 
 objecting, on the score of its Expensiveness, to 
 the jurisdiction of Parliament in these affairs — 
 which are so pre-eminently of domestic concern- 
 ment only : and with equal confidence may we 
 reiterate our statement, that that Expensiveness 
 must frequently operate, altogether to prevent 
 Local Improvements from being undertaken, 
 that are in themselves every way proper. Of 
 this latter fact, indeed, one direct proof was ad- 
 duced by Lord Hardwicke himself, upon his 
 moving for the Committee, from the Report of 
 wliich we have just quoted. " It was wished," 
 said the noble Lord, " to make an advantageous 
 alteration in the church-yard of the Cathedral at 
 Exeter. For effecting the Improvement, how- 
 ever, an Act of Parhamcnt was necessary. The 
 requisite steps towards prociu'ing the Act \\v\'v
 
 IK) 
 
 laki'ii wlun, all at oiu'i', it was I'ouiul tiiat the 
 IV'i's, \c. ot" tlu' two llousi's, would swallow up 
 more thau the outiiv cxpcuditurc wliicli would 
 ollurwise have to be incurred on the occasion : 
 and that discovery made, away went every idea 
 of persisting in the measure."* 
 
 We >vill conchide the present Section of our 
 Work, by stating tliat the strictly Local Bills 
 ])assed through Parliament, which the foregoing 
 observations have respected, have been in all, 
 between the Sessions of 1822 and 1828, both 
 inclusive, 208; which gives us an average of 
 something more than twenty-nine of these Acts 
 passed per Session. 
 
 " Speech of Lord Hardwicke in the House of Lords, March 30, 
 1827.
 
 141 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Arrived thus far towards the close of the pre- Recapitu- 
 sent part of our Undertaking, we may be allowed 
 shortly to recapitulate what has preceded. 
 
 We have brought under the reader's eye a 
 variety of facts, shewing that the Legislature is 
 perfectly oppressed — hampered indeed almost to 
 distraction, with the Quantity of Business which 
 it is every Session called upon to transact. 
 
 We have proved that the Business which Par- 
 liament actually gets through, is often dis- 
 patched under circumstances of the most impro- 
 per Haste and Confusion. 
 
 And, passing by much of vital importance 
 which is left altogether Undone by Parliament, 
 we have demonstrated that a very large portion 
 of what it does do, is of the most deplorably de- 
 fective Quality. 
 
 We then proceeded to observe, that, accord- 
 ing to the best judgment we were capable of 
 forming upon the Subject, any Remedy to be
 
 14i> 
 
 lU'CuK'dly cllt'i'tiial I'oi- tlu- VaWs \\c \\m\ Ucvu 
 (U'pic'tiiin. tniist 1)1' in tlii' way — ot diininisliiiig 
 tlu' (alls tliiTo at pii'scnt arc upon tlu' liC^isla- 
 turt'— oi" curtailini^; tlie (Questions in which it is 
 now rc(|iiir('(l to ad'puhcatc — ol' hriniiini;" about, 
 in short. ai;ri'cal)ly to tlic (h)ctrinc ('\])rcssc(l in 
 our titlc-paj;i', a l"urthcr " Division of tlic La- 
 bour" ot Parhanicnt. And tlic description of 
 Matters, which, pursuant to this ruling idea in 
 our minds, would, in our view, most readily, or 
 moSt pro})erly, admit of being withdrawn from 
 Parhamentary Direction or ('ontroul, we stated 
 to be — 
 
 Those in which the act of Legislation was 
 essentially and allowedly an act of Mere Form : 
 
 Those in which the subject legislated upon, 
 was distinctly of a Scientific Character : 
 
 And, finally, Those in which the legislative 
 act respected some most homely, some purely 
 ))hysical want, of an individual Town, or limited 
 local District : — 
 
 Which three classes of Measures, it may now 
 be well to intimate, supposing the whole of them 
 to be taken out of the jurisdiction of Parliament, 
 would relieve it to the extent of One half— and, 
 numerous as they may seem to be, of only One 
 half— of its present annual duties or cares. 
 
 Where the transferred Jurisdiction should be
 
 PI(OI>()SED 
 TO BE RE- 
 VED. 
 
 143 
 
 lodged, we have thus far delayed to say— hoping qi,.,rter; 
 by what intervened, to render the necessity 01'^;]!^^'" 
 some Change in our Legislative Economy, (what- ^^^^ '^"'^ 
 ever should be its precise nature), literally in- went mav 
 contestable ;— and willing too, that upon the ed X'ls' 
 point at which we have now arrived, the reader's 
 ingenuity or reflection, as we were step by step ^" 
 advancing, should be exercised in addition to 
 our own.— What is immediately subjoined, we 
 offer, therefore, with all deference to any wiser 
 suggestions, which may chance to have occurred 
 to the minds of others. 
 
 Effectiveness duly regarded, the very smallest 
 alteration in the internal Polity of the Coun- 
 try, will have to be, it appears to us, as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Some increase of Power, or Prerogative, which 
 will easily, however, admit of definiteness, or 
 exact limitation, must be confen^ed on certain 
 of the Executive or Judicial Authorities of the 
 Country. 
 
 Commissions, Councils, or Boards, to be 
 more or less permanent, must be appointed, of 
 men the most eminent for their Attainments, 
 Knowledge, or Skill, in particular Departments 
 of Science and of Art.
 
 1 1 1 
 
 And. Miiiii('ij);il lustitiilions. of an i»n])n)\i'(l 
 cliarac'ttT. must In.- ini|)()st'(l throu^liout tlic 
 C'ountrv: — tluMiMin Municipal lure, Ix'in^ meant 
 to R'sju'i't not onlv Towns, hut Counties, or 
 Districts. 
 
 \\'c dare say, thai tlic haio mention of one, 
 or another, or all o(" tliese Propositions, will 
 awaken hostility in some (puirters. Most fruit- 
 less would it be, to hope to broach Any Thing 
 tliat w ould not be attended with this effect : — 
 and to answer now, by anticipation, all that may 
 be provoked in this way, we certainly in no de- 
 gree propose to ourselves. Part of the opj)o- 
 sition that will, doubtless, be set up, will be 
 prompted by particular political Prejudices that 
 are of an old date ;— but w^hich, happily, as we 
 presume to think, are more upon the wane than 
 the increase. Part of it will arise from no ade- 
 quate estimate being formed, of the monstrous, 
 the portentous Evils, with which the present 
 state of our Legislation is fraught ; and which 
 Evils have throughout been the basis of our 
 argument. Part of it, too, will spring from that 
 blindness of some people, w^hich is all but 
 physical, to the indispensable necessity that 
 exists — if Wrong, Confusion, and Convulsion, 
 are to be avoided— of adapting, from time to
 
 met. 
 
 145 
 
 time, to the growth or progress — the Institutions 
 of Society. 
 
 These general observations being thrown Objections 
 out by us, we will reply, specifically, but 
 briefly, to one or two possible Objections, which 
 are not of a nature, nor are, indeed, intended 
 to be, in those observations, met or over-ruled ; 
 and which, as far as we can perceive, are the 
 only objections likely to be started, at all de- 
 serving formal notice. 
 
 Are You the advocate, then, we think we hear 
 it said, for lodging any where, an arbitrary right 
 of imposing pecuniary Rates, Tolls, Assessments, 
 or Dues of any description, on your fellow sub- 
 jects ? 
 
 Are You the advocate for lodging any where, 
 a like ar})itrary right of dipping into the public- 
 purse ? 
 
 And, Are You the advoca/te for reposing any 
 where, the same arbitrary right of meddling with 
 — what has hitherto been held so sacred in this 
 Country — -private Property? 
 
 We are the advocates, we answer, of no 
 one thing of the sort. 
 
 We answer, further, and in express reply 
 more particularly to the first of these supposed 
 objections, that, there being no necessary, no 
 indissoluble connexion between the Scientific, 
 
 L
 
 146 
 
 ami wiiat iii;iy Ix- (listinjjjuislu'd as. the I'iscal 
 Iraturcs. of the Cases tluTc rcft'nvd to, the 
 Changes we suggest, are e()iii])atihle with a 
 closer exeniplilieation, a more literal practice, of 
 that right of Selt'-'I'axation, which every Eng- 
 lishman lays claim to, than the present practice, 
 in these same Cases, at all illustrates, or ap])r()\i- 
 mates to. 
 
 The second oi)jection, it will he observed, re- 
 spects a description of Measures of a higher 
 order than those alluded to in the first ; so 
 much of a " })ublic general" character pertaining 
 to them, as to furnish at least a pretext for re- 
 ciuTing in their behalf, to the National Purse. 
 And in reply to this objection we have to state, 
 that any great scrupulousness, any excessive 
 fastidiousness, as to a responsible Commission, 
 or Board, ha\ing the right of appropriating a 
 portion of the National Funds, to a purpose 
 distinctly National, would savour a little of the 
 ridiculous— seeing that very considerable funds 
 which now accrue to the Commmiity, are suf- 
 fered, and most quietly suffered, to remain at 
 the disposal of single Individuals, or bodies of 
 Indi\iduals, subject to no check or power of 
 controul on the part of the " Grand Inquest of 
 the Nation." — Not to insist on the Case of 
 Droits of different descriptions, those important
 
 147 
 
 Revenue Depaitmeiits—the Excise, the Customs, 
 and the Post Office, claim, and uninterruptedly 
 exercise, the right of apportioning for public 
 purposes, any Sums whatever, out of the vast 
 funds that come into their possession. Hence, 
 that generally admired Structure — the new 
 Post Office, has been erected, and will be com- 
 pleted, without one Shilhng of Money being- 
 granted towards the expense, by Vote of Par- 
 Hament. Thus, too, that imposing, but at the 
 outset most impeachable Edifice— the New Cus- 
 tom House, did not rise at the bidding, nor 
 in any measure with the privdty, of the Legis- 
 lature, but was the creation solely of the Com- 
 missioners of the Customs (acting, of course, 
 with the approbation of the Lords of the Trea- 
 siu'y) ; and the whole cost of it being defrayed 
 by these Commissioners, out of the public 
 Monies they were in the daily receipt of. 
 
 It was enquired by Mr. Hume, of the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer, in the course of the 
 last Session of Parliament, Whether the very 
 extensive and expensive range of Custom House 
 Buildings, then erecting at Liverpool, was to be 
 paid for by Government — ahas the Commis- 
 sioners of Customs ? "A portion of the ex- 
 pense," was the answer, *^ would be met by the 
 Corporation of that town, and the Government 
 
 L 2
 
 1 IS 
 
 [tlu' DepiirtnuMit of tlu- Customs Ikmiiu' evidently 
 meant I would delVay the remainder." 
 
 The ])reroi!,ative arroi,^ated to themselves by 
 the respect ivi* heads ol" these departments, is 
 e\ideiitlv not limited, as we have alreadv im- 
 plied, indeed, to the case ol' their Huil(linj!;s ; — it 
 having been out oi" tlie National Monies, before 
 the suqilus was ])aid over to the Exchequer, 
 that the Post INIasters-general, not long since, 
 conferred, what they deemed a suitable reward 
 for his public services, on Mr. M'Adam, 
 
 We, howTver, are no admirers of these pre- 
 cedents ; and in further, and, probably, more 
 satisfactory reply to the Question we are sup- 
 posing to be pressed upon us, we have to say, 
 that the Funds of the proposed New Commis- 
 sioners, or Boards of eminent Men, may be 
 made entirely dependent on the will of Parlia- 
 ment ; that the Smu to be allotted them, may 
 be fixed or variable ; and that no power need 
 be relinquished to the Parties, which shall not 
 be easily susceptible of subsequent modification. 
 
 It can scarcely be necessary to remind the 
 reader that various arrangements are already in 
 existence amongst us, which render the institu- 
 tion of New Councils, Commissions, or Boards, 
 co-operative with, but strictly subordinate to 
 Parhament, no real innovation in the economy
 
 149 
 
 of the Country. The modern one of the Com- 
 missioners appohited for promoting the building 
 &c. of Churches and Chapels, here especially 
 occurs to us ; and, as to its dependence for the 
 major part of its funds upon the votes of the Le- 
 gislature, and in, at least, one or two features in 
 the mode, agreeably to which it conducts its 
 operations, it might, we think, be copied after, 
 in the cases we contemplate. 
 
 The last objection we promised formally to 
 notice, was, it will be remembered, this ; 
 
 Do you advocate the reposing any where a 
 power of arbitrarily meddling with That to 
 which hitherto so much sanctity has attached 
 in this Country — Men's private Property; — 
 such as their Lands, Houses, &c. ? 
 
 The answer we have to make to this enquiry, 
 over and above the general one of " No," 
 which we have already given to it, will be 
 comprised almost in as few words as the enquiry, 
 or objection, is itself. It is as follows: — The 
 doctrine of our Constitution upon the point 
 here concerned, is, not that the private Property 
 of Individuals, when the public Interests re- 
 quire it, shall be held inviolable— but, that no 
 such property, when those Interests call for its 
 being rehnquished, shall be trenched upon, taken 
 away, or destroyed, without just compensation
 
 uvddv to tlu' Owiui. litluT hy priviitc Treaty, 
 or hy tlio awartl ot" a Jury : — a readini* tliis, of 
 our Constitution, wliicli may, witli the most 
 perfeet laeihty. consist with tlie new Arrange- 
 ments of whicli we arc tht' proj)o>ers. 
 
 In further vindicaticm of these Arran<j;ements, 
 we consider it desirable to state, that in nothing 
 tliat has fallen from us, have we for one moment 
 so much as compassed in our thoughts— the 
 abandonment, on the part of the Legislature, of 
 its Supremacy, as a tribunal in the last resort. 
 In other words, we have not meant to throw 
 the smallest slight on the doctrine of the Ame- 
 nableness, at the bar of Parliament, of all our 
 Authorities or Institutions — to the full extent to 
 which this amenableness is at present acknow- 
 ledged. 
 
 We also desire to observe, that there is ample 
 warranty for the innovations we suggest, as far 
 as any warranty of the kind can be wished for, 
 in the practice, or positive institutions, of other 
 free Countries : and, that without some such 
 arrangements, nothing of the Connectedness, of 
 the System, and of the real Responsibility — which 
 are so essential in the case of many of the 
 measures that have been adverted to— ever can 
 be secured to us.
 
 151 
 
 We are most anxious, in mercy to the reader, Aixilia- 
 to bring our *' Argument," as it respects Parlia- xok Mea- 
 ment, to a termination ; but we must be suf- ^^'^'^ ^^'^~ 
 
 POSED. 
 
 fered shortly to urge one ultimate Proposition 
 — a Proposition which it is our own earnest 
 wish to see approved of, and acted upon, con- 
 jointly with those we have already advocated. 
 Should it be decided upon, however, that Relief 
 to Parliament, and legislative Help in the pre- 
 sent extremity of things, to the Nation, shall 
 be brought about — if to be brought about at all — 
 by means less direct, or more negative, than 
 those we have been pleading for ; — this we say 
 supposed to be decided upon — then will we con- 
 sent to have the Suggestion we shall now offer, 
 ranked second in value to nothing that can be 
 proposed — let it come from what quarter it may. 
 
 ,That last Suggestion or Proposition is. That 
 Parliament do resolutely and most positively pro- 
 hibit or disqualify all Individuals— the Ministers 
 of the Crown only excepted — from becoming 
 Legislators, so long as they continue actively 
 engaged in other Pursuits or Avocations. 
 
 The Evil we here allude to — that is, the 
 Pluralism, as it may be termed, which liolds 
 true of so many of the Members of our Legis-
 
 hit lire, wi' omM'Kis ii'j^ard as a pcilrct Hydra ; 
 and, ncrc \hv press of l)usin(.'ss in Parliament, a 
 st'iy little less tlian it is, wi- should say, that 
 this l!vil aloui' would almost suHice to account 
 for tile worst features of our Lej^islation. 
 
 It will, we are sure, i;"o far in su])|)ort of the 
 feeliuii', strong as it is, which we thus e\])ress, 
 when we call to the reader's recollection, that a 
 very lar£;-e ])ortion of that branch of the Le<jfis- 
 lature, upon which the business of the Empire 
 most heaA ily falls — of that branch of the Legis- 
 lature, in the ability, and in the activity or ap- 
 plication of which, the Country mainly confides — 
 consists of Judges, of Masters in Chancery, of 
 Commissioners of Bankrupts, of Magistrates, of 
 Practising Barristers, of Military and Naval 
 Characters, of Merchants, Bankers, Brewers, 
 L%c. &c. c'vrc. : — those of these various Individuals 
 who have official duties to perform, being to a 
 very great extent occupied in the discharge of 
 those duties ; and the majority of the remainder 
 being often still more engrossed with the Cares 
 belonging to their professional, or private avoca- 
 tions. These " out of door" pursuits on the 
 })art of so large a number of our Members 
 of Parliament, being borne in mind. Is it, we 
 ask, to be expected, that one half of the real 
 Wants of the Nation, especially in its present 
 encumbered, complex, and artificial position.
 
 153 
 
 sliould be — we will not say — anticipated, but 
 when they become too urgent for some con- 
 sideration of them to be longer staved off— that 
 they should then be with anything approaching 
 to Statesman-like circumspection, and ability, 
 met and provided for ? 
 
 Indeed, as to the steady, effective, discharge 
 of their parliamentary duties, by the bulk of the 
 individuals we describe, what can any pretence 
 of this be, but the veriest affectation or cajolery? 
 seriously for us to listen to which, .would be to 
 reduce ourselves to the level of dolts or im- 
 beciles ! 
 
 The more direct or immediate results of 
 the system, agreeably to which our Legislature 
 consists, to so large a degree, of parties most 
 busily engaged in other Callings, evince them- 
 selves in ways so palpable, that he must be a 
 specially desultory observer of Parliament, who 
 has not, occasionally, at least, remarked them. 
 
 The most simple, the most innocent of these 
 results, is, that all sorts of negociations and con- 
 trivings, have to take place between individual 
 Members— one of them contemplating a Motion 
 or Measure at the introduction of which it is 
 desirable the other, or otliers, should be present 
 — as to the time that will admit of their joint 
 attendance; — their respective EngagemLMits else- 
 where, rendering tliat otherwise so im})robable.
 
 154 
 
 'Vhv lurtlur uorkiiii; of tlu' system, discovers 
 itself in thisii that Dl'teii the eonveiition thus 
 entered into, lias to be broken ; sonietinies, too, 
 at tile ilt'veiitli hour— lo tiie disap])ointnieiit and 
 {i^rave iiu'oiivenieiiee of all parties |)ri\y to the 
 understanding that had been eonie to. On 
 many occasions, these eonijiaets or understand- 
 ings—which are most serious impediments to 
 pubhc business— recpiire to be made, not by one 
 individual Member merely, with another, or with 
 a few others— but between leading Members, and 
 an entire section, as it were, of the House ; — 
 such, for instance, as the })ortion of the House 
 which consists of Magistrates : and again, the 
 portion of the House which consists of practi- 
 sing Barristers. We could mention not a few 
 cases in which, during the last three or four 
 Sessions, the Measures of the Ministers them- 
 selves, have been at a complete stand-still in 
 Parliament, owing to Members running away 
 from their legislative, to discharge, in distant 
 parts of the Country, their magisterial duties. 
 And, over and over again has it occurred, that 
 some of the very weightiest matters affecting the 
 nation, have been stopped, for almost months of 
 the most valuable part of the Session, because, 
 forsooth, the time had arrived for the Barrister- 
 Members to quit town on the circuit! 
 
 But whatever i)ains Members may be at, bur-
 
 155 
 
 tlieiisomely to calculate and poise, among them- 
 selves, each other's official and private Engage- 
 ments, these Engagements will incessantly hap- 
 pen to be such, that Questions have to be 
 brought on, when parties of great name can- 
 not be present ; or when, though the personal 
 attendance of parties whose presence is espe- 
 cially wished, be given, these individuals have 
 been precluded, by their other occupations, from 
 giving any previous attention to the principles — 
 or— which is almost of equal importance — to the 
 details of the matter, by which, on the particu- 
 lar occasion, their conduct ought to be wholly 
 shaped. 
 
 These consequences all, however, set aside ;— 
 or supposing them to be so far waived, at least, 
 as for it to be conceded, of the Members we are 
 speaking of, that without much difficulty— that 
 even as a general thing — they were able to bring 
 to parliamentary discussions, or to the investiga- 
 tion and settlement of public questions, the re- 
 fuse of their time, and the dregs of their abilities 
 — still a most sterling objection to the plural 
 capacity of honourable Members would exist in 
 this ; — that, on proceeding to give their Votes, 
 Members of this stamp, in numerous instances, 
 become involved in all kinds of anomalous, dis- 
 crepant, or flagrantly improper situations, —often 
 voting upon questions in which they ha\e a
 
 ir>() 
 
 (lirt'ct personal interest, and \er\ IVeciiUMitly pla- 
 (•in«; theiuselves hy tlieir voles, in positions com- 
 pletely re])ui;nant to, or subversive of, the other 
 relations in uhich they stand to the Connnunity. 
 — Hatlier, howevi'r, than he reduced to this hist 
 strait more i's])ceially— thout^h the (piestion hi* 
 ever so momentous, and notwithstandin*^ their 
 own minds repjavding it are fully made up— the 
 course, the heinous course, as we tliink it, 
 which Members can reconcile it to themselves 
 to ado])t — is, to give uj)()n the occasion, no Vote 
 at all. 
 
 Some few illustrative details under the present 
 incidental, or, rathei', collateral head of our sub- 
 ject, we cannot resist indulging in. 
 
 That distinguished functionary—the Master of 
 the Rolls, as one of the complex, or at least, 
 bifold, personages we have in ^^ew ;— that is, as 
 one party most frequently, if not in every in- 
 stance, superadding to his heavy official cares 
 and entanglements — the duties of a Legislator : 
 — the Masters in Chancery ; the Welsh Judges ; 
 and the Commissioners of Bankrupts, as other 
 ])arties: — these all we only mention— to pass by. 
 — 01" Magistrates, and, if we may speak of them at 
 the same time— of Bankers, we shall simply ob- 
 serve, that when their engagements in those ca-
 
 157 
 
 pacities, do not preclude their giving their at- 
 tendance in the Legislature, the main objection 
 to them, is, the influence they are able to exer- 
 cise there, by means of their own votes and the 
 hold they have upon others— upon all occasions, 
 specially affecting their particular Vocations or 
 Interests;— an influence which has been most 
 loudly complained of, both in Parliament and 
 out of it. 
 
 The cases of these different parties we reluct- 
 antly abstain from dwelling upon, because Hmits 
 there must be to our illustrations ; and indivi- 
 dual or personal illustrations, we incline to 
 think, will be more effective for our purpose 
 than those that are general. 
 
 We will, in the first place, then, glance at the TheAttor- 
 
 T . T ,.,,.. , . nev, and 
 
 position— relatively to their obligations as iegis- solicitor 
 lators, and to the expectations which in that ca- ^"'^'^"^ ' 
 pacity it is so natural for them to excite, of the 
 Law Officers of the Crown, — the Attorney, and 
 the Solicitor General. Of these individuals, who 
 would suppose, but that the very pretext for at 
 all planting them in Parhament, would be — the 
 power and the opportunity thereby conferred on 
 them, of watching the progress, of diligently re- 
 garding the character, and often of imparting a 
 tone to our whole legislation ? With peculiar 
 reason might it be calculated of these j)erson-
 
 158 
 
 :ii!^t's. tliat with \ir\\s jilti'iiiatch rctrospcctivr 
 and |)n)s]H*ftivi', tlu'ir tli()ii<;lits would l)c turned 
 to sui-li old laws as demanded improvcnicnt, and 
 to the eonsidi-ration and careful ])r(.'|)arati()n oi" 
 any altogether new Knaetments which new 
 times and circumstances plainly indicated to 
 be wanting ; — a portion of their skill and ex- 
 perience being, at the same time, constantly 
 at the service of tlie humblest Member, who, 
 in acting upon his personal conviction of what 
 was defective in our Legislation, might feel 
 himself in need of assistance as to the course 
 he should pursue. 
 
 Than any surmises of this whole kind, how- 
 ever, nothing would betray, on the ])art of those 
 entertaining them, a more amusing innocence — 
 a more truly ludicrous naivete. 
 
 While many of our laws are, by the consent 
 of even our Lawyers themselves, more fit to be 
 burnt by the hands of the common hangman, 
 than to continue on the Statute Book, and to 
 be obligatory on the Community ; while, too, 
 new Laws are being passed through Parliament, 
 which, fi-om their purj^ort or structure, are, as 
 we have already had occasion to shew, a per- 
 fect disgrace to the age ; — while this state of 
 things is existing, the Law Officers of the Crown 
 are plying their faculties to the utmost as Bar- 
 risters in private practice— in that capacity, an-
 
 159 
 
 swering Cases, attending Consnltations, and so 
 long as the claims of the Crown do not directly 
 interfere, pleading for anything, or any body, 
 successively, before all the tribunals of the Me- 
 tropolis But this quite apart, let us hear the 
 
 latest Attorney-General's own account, as to a 
 portion only of the official duties falling to the lot 
 of himself and his colleague —and having, like 
 their private practice, not the remotest relevancy 
 to the cares proper to Legislators. " In the single 
 particular," said Sir C. Wetherell, House of 
 Commons, March 13, 1827, "■ in the single par- 
 ticular of deciding upon, and conducting, in the 
 Court of Exchequer, prosecutions for breaches 
 of the Custom and Excise Laws, the labours of 
 the Law Officers of the Crown, were extremely 
 heavy ; they are such as, there is reason to be- 
 lieve, would scarcely be undertaken by any other 
 gentlemen." — " I am required," the same ho- 
 nourable gentleman said. May 1st, 1828, " to 
 spend days and weeks in the performance of 
 my official duties in the Court of Exchequer." — 
 To this it is to be added, that these same func- 
 tionaries have a variety of Government prosecu- 
 tions to conduct, besides those in which the 
 revenue is concerned ; that they have likewise 
 frequently to attend Meetings of the Pnvy 
 Council, Lords of the Treasury, &c. to solve 
 knotty points, or to advise regarding different
 
 UJO 
 
 |>r()ciH'(lin<;s of ilic I'Acciitix i' : .iiul, besides 
 DtluT ()llici;il claims on them, more nmnerous 
 tlum we lan mention, it is witli tliese Individuals 
 that llie entire eare rests of investigating and 
 adjiidgin*^, in all aj)j)lications lor tlie Kin<i^'s 
 Letters Patent, lor Discoveries or Inventions, 
 — an office tluit must itself be the direct re- 
 verse of a Sinecure. — The reader's attention 
 beinp: called to this variety of facts, he cannot 
 be <i^'eatly startled at Mr. Secretary Peel's re- 
 nouncing, as he publicly has done, all hope of 
 effective assistance being rendered him, in any 
 improvement of the Laws he might desire, by 
 the Law Officers of the Crown, " They," as the 
 right honourable gentleman has distinctly ob- 
 served, '' having no time for the purpose."* 
 — Nor, under the circumstances, can the public be 
 greatly surprised at hearing the Attorney-ge- 
 neral, almost ridicule the idea of his being able 
 to attend upon parliamentary Committees ;f — nor 
 further, at reading, as every one had the op})or- 
 tunity of doing, not very long ago, in a printed 
 letter of Mr. Anthony Hammond's to Mr. Hume, 
 that— as to consulting with the Attorney-general 
 about the important bill then preparing (for the 
 
 • See Mr. Peel's speech in the House of Commons, March 9, 1825. 
 f See a speech of Sir C. Wetherell's in the House of (^onnnons, 
 Feb. 21, 1828, in answer to Mr. Potter Macqucen.
 
 161 
 
 repeal of the Combination Laws)— the nuilti- 
 pHcity of this learned gentleman's engagements ' 
 was such, as not to admit of his bestowing even 
 a look at the bill, till it was before the House, 
 and printed. 
 
 When we bear in mind that every man will lu. Hon. 
 have personal cares to require a portion of his j^^jjlj^'^j, 
 attention— that something must be set down 
 to the account of relative or social claims upon 
 him— as also that occasional relaxations fi'om 
 labour are indispensable to the strongest — when, 
 we say, we bear this in mind— it might be 
 imagined, that the acceding to a high Office, 
 the duties of which were " arduous, and difficult, 
 and complicated," would be pretty well sufficient, 
 not merely for the ability, but even for the am- 
 bition of any reasonable man. — The words we 
 here give with inverted commas, are those, to 
 the very letter, which were employed by Dr. 
 Lushington, towards the close of the last Session 
 of Parhament, [July 17th, 1828] in reference to 
 the post of Judge of the Prerogative Court. 
 By way of strengthening his statement. Dr. 
 Lushington, at the same time, remarked, that "the 
 duties of the Judge of that Court, had, during 
 the last century, increased tenfold." The post 
 itself, the reader is aware, is held, and long has 
 been held, by Sir John Nicholl.— The right ho-
 
 uouraltK' ui'ntlt'JiKin li;is otluT I'unclioiis to pcr- 
 lonu. il" vvt' niistakr not, lonncctod with tlu* 
 lx-c"li'siastic-al Courts. He lias likewise, IVoni 
 tlie first, been one of tlie Coniniissioners for ])r{)- 
 motinii: the i)uil(linu; and re])ainng of CIuiitIics ; 
 and lie is also one of the acting .hidi:;es at that 
 inii)ortant, and often busy, tribunal — the Board 
 of Trade and Plantations. — But, all this not- 
 withstanding—that is, the numerous and evi- 
 dently most heavy manacles to which the right 
 honourable gentleman is thus subject, consti- 
 tuting, in his own estimation no impediment 
 thereto— Sir John Nicholl, further, has the har- 
 dihood to take upon himself the obligations — 
 fearfully responsible as they are known to be, 
 even when the Whole man is brought to their 
 discharge !— the fearfully responsible obligations 
 of a Legislator ! 
 
 ►r. Lush- — But a word or two of Dr. Lushington him- 
 '^°" self, w'hose name we have just incidentally men- 
 tioned. This gentleman was an excellent 
 authority to speak to the arduousness and com- 
 plication of the duties of the Judge of the Pre- 
 rogative Court— he being an Advocate of the 
 first eminence in that Court, and, therefore, 
 most intimately mixed up with, and deeply en- 
 gaged — in, nearly all that occurs there. — The 
 liens there are, however, on Dr. Lushington'j*
 
 163 
 
 time and talents, are, in this reference to them, 
 not half comprised. To conceive of these with 
 any tolerable accuracy, the learned gentleman 
 must be followed further, to his frequent plead- 
 ings—before the House of Lords — before the 
 Lords of the Council—the Admiralty Court— 
 and elsewhere : and especially must he be fol- 
 lowed to the Consistory Court;— where, sud- 
 denly doffing his character of Counsel, he as- 
 sumes that of Judge — and sits as Judge in no 
 fewer or less trifling matters, than the connubial 
 Infelicities, or rather Delinquencies, of the whole 
 Kingdom. — But, as in the case of his Superior, 
 whom we have just noticed, this infinity of 
 claims upon him notwithstanding, Doctor Lush- 
 ington, too, is a Legislator ! 
 
 In an apology made not long since by Lord Mr. 
 Nugent at a public Meeting, for the unexpected "^ ' "^ 
 absence of Mr. Brougham, the Noble Lord as- 
 sured the company that " that gentleman's time, 
 in the discharge of his various and important 
 duties, was measured out by grahis." We put 
 implicit faith in the statement; and our precise 
 case, at least at this moment, against Mr. 
 Brougham, is, that so few grains of his 
 time fall to the lot of his parliamentary 
 duties. Did we not know this to be true, we 
 should say, the fact must be so upon Lord 
 
 M 2
 
 1()4 
 
 Nup^ent's own sho\vin«r _liis very nu-taplior ini- 
 j)lyini2:. that oacli oftlu' many niatttrs whicli call 
 for tlu' attention of Mr. Hron<jjhani, receive their 
 dividend or pittance, tlieir inch — we heiij jiardon, 
 — their ** sj^rain," of his time or consideration. 
 Besides iiis long ahsence every Session on the 
 Circuit, the learned gentleman's so often mioc- 
 cupied place in the House of Commons— attests 
 the accuracy of this re})resentation generally ; 
 and shews also, that in the business of gra- 
 duating his time, of parcelling out his attention, 
 Mr. Brougham acts with rigid impartiality — in 
 no degree suffering the parliamentary, to take 
 any undue precedence of the professional claims 
 there may be u})on him. 
 
 By the '' unoccupied place" in Parliament of 
 the honourable Member, we mean of course, his 
 public place there. We advert not to the pains- 
 taking, the scrutiny, and toil, which some may 
 think the learned gentleman, in common justice to 
 his Colleagues and to the Nation, ought to under- 
 go in the Committee-rooms of the House. That, 
 indeed, is a part of the subject, upon which Mr. 
 Brougham may be heard for himself: — " I am 
 not," said he. House of Commons, February 15th, 
 1828, " without desire to advance the objects of 
 the Committee [the celebrated Fhiance Com- 
 mittee, which had previously, and has since 
 given rise to so much—we should say, futile ex-
 
 165 
 
 pectation]; but I am under the necessity of de- 
 clining to be one of its Members. To be pre- 
 sent at its Sittings would interfere zvith my pro- 
 fessional avocations — the weight of which is such, 
 that, especially at this season of the year, I 
 never could hope to be able to give my attend- 
 ance." 
 
 And do any of our readers here, in their in- 
 nocence about many of these matters, demand. 
 Where then, is the grand field of the learned 
 Member's labours ? The Circuit that has been 
 spoken of, supposed not to have begun, or to be 
 got over, to what quarter goes the great aggre- 
 gate of the " grains" of the honom*able gentle- 
 man's time and attention ? 
 
 Under the bare supposition that Individuals 
 there may be, to whom some such query may 
 suggest itself, we shall add, and we shall only 
 add, that all- curiosity on this point may be 
 instantly satisfied, by referring to the annals of 
 the pleadings that take place — at the bar of 
 the House of Lords — before the Lords of the 
 Council — in the Court of Chancery — in the 
 Courts of King's Bench and Exchequer — in 
 Sheriffs' Courts— before Compensation Juries — 
 and before Commissioners of Enquiry relative to 
 Lunatics ; — the latter occasions, it is worth no- 
 ticing, calling the learned gentleman, sometimes,
 
 liki" till' circuit, into tlic rcinotcst districts of 
 the kinudoni. 
 
 AiUDiij; ski'tclus like those we an- hefe i;ivin^, 
 it noiilil not l)e justice to otliers to ])ass by — 
 Mr. Suutlen : wlio, alter (hveis al)ortive efforts, 
 has at length succeeded, as tlie reader well 
 knows, in })laMtiH«^ himself in Parliament. 
 
 l^pon what lijrounds tlie learned gentleman's 
 temerity can be, for one moment, vindicated, we 
 are totally at a loss to conceive. — Without, how- 
 ever, stopping further to indulge in our astonish- 
 ment on that head, we shall proceed to state as 
 follows. The learned gentleman's practice at 
 the Chancery-bar, and in the House of Lords, 
 is by competent judges calculated to be not less 
 than 10,000/. a year. He is so clogged by his 
 professional engagements, that he is unable at 
 times to answer cases submitted to him, for 
 many \veeks together ; and, a very few months 
 ago (August 6th, 1828), upon the Vice-Chan- 
 cellor proposing to sit an extra hour per day, to 
 get through " the heavy arrear of business" 
 there was in his Court, Mr. Sugden, in loudly 
 and successfully deprecating the proposition, 
 thus spoke of himself; — " For my part, against 
 the fatigue of attending for so many hours in 
 the Court eacli dav, as I alreadv do, I am
 
 167 
 
 scarcely able to bear up. Independently of the 
 great labour in Court, I find it almost impos- 
 sible, even though I remain up all night, to 
 prepare myself for the business of the next day ; 
 such masses of papers have I to wade through." 
 As if a practical demonstration had been 
 needed, that, at some periods, from the distract- 
 ing number and nature of his cares, the learned 
 gentleman, in familiar language, did not know, 
 whether he was on his head or his heels — this 
 precise demonstration was, we think, only a 
 few weeks ago afforded us. We allude to the 
 proceedings in the case of King v. Turner, in 
 the Vice-Chancellor's Court, January 26th last ; 
 wherein Mr. Sugden being retained, he, in due 
 course, rose, and to use his own subsequent ex- 
 pression, '' mistaking his side," he set to work, 
 and fairly beat to shivers — his own Chent ! An 
 ominous symptom this, surely, not only for the 
 learned gentleman's immediate constituents at 
 Weymouth, but for all England— of the people 
 of which, universally, he at his election had 
 kindly averred he should evince himself, the 
 faithful Representative ! 
 
 Whatever may be the case at the present Mr. 
 moment with Mr. Brogden, it was but the other '^'"^ ^"' 
 day that a syllabus of tlie Posts held by the 
 honourable gentleman, and consequently of the
 
 I()8 
 
 ( aii's iiitailcd ujxni liim, must liavc hccn. il al 
 all ac\'urati'. ti) sonu' such purport as tlu' tbllow- 
 iug : — 
 
 Mcniher of Parlianu'ut for Launceston ; 
 
 C'liainnan of the Coniinitteos of flic House of 
 (oninions of Ways and Means ; 
 
 Ditto of the Protector Insurance Ofiice ; 
 
 Ditto of the United General Gas Company ; 
 
 Ditto of the Hock Assurance Society ; 
 
 A Director of the Arigna Mining Company ; 
 
 Ditto of the Equitable Loan Company ; 
 
 Ditto of the Australasian Agricultural Society ; 
 
 Ditto Irish Provincial Bank ; 
 
 Ditto London and Birmingham Rail Way ; 
 
 Ditto Colombian Mining Company ; ■ 
 
 Ditto Eastland Company ; 
 
 Ditto Russia Company ; 
 
 Ditto Waterloo Bridge Company ; 
 
 Ditto Surrey and Sussex Rail Way ;. 
 ' And a Commissioner of the Lieutenancy. 
 
 ^r. w. When Mr. W. Ward was returned for his 
 
 Ward. present seat, for the City of London, he declined 
 adding further to his public avocations. He said 
 particularly, he thought " the proper fulfilment of 
 the duties of a City Magistrate, incompatible 
 with those of a Member of Parliament."—" Be- 
 ing, also," he observed, " actively engaged in 
 Commercial pursuits, and at the same time a
 
 169 
 
 Bank Director, be considered that his hands 
 would be most amply occupied." — This gentle- 
 man appears to have rightly opined with regard 
 to the sufficiency of his future occupation. In- 
 deed, fully bearing out the augury which many, 
 we think, must have formed, one of his earliest 
 speeches in the House of Commons [May 15, 
 1827], was to the effect, that to some particular 
 business then under discussion, he had devoted 
 — the worthy Member did not say — as much 
 time and attention as the matter demanded — but 
 
 " AS MUCH TIME AND ATTENTION AS A JUST REGARD 
 TO HIS OWN AFFAIRS WOULD ADMIT OF !" 
 
 If Mr. Ward thus found his hands too full, as ^ir- ^^^^■ 
 
 Thompson 
 
 he evidently did, although, besides being a Mem- 
 ber of Parliament, he was on/// a Merchant and 
 a Bank Director, what must be our prognosis of 
 the situation of the Individual— the catalogue of 
 whose Functions, as far as we have the means 
 of checking it — is this : 
 
 A private Trader, or Merchant, on a large 
 scale ; 
 
 A Director of the British Gas Company ; 
 
 Ditto of the St. Catharine's Dock Company ; 
 
 Ditto of the South London Docks ; 
 
 Ditto of the Equitable Loan Company ; 
 
 Ditto of the Irish Piovincial Bank ; 
 
 Ditto of the Anglo-Mexican Mining Company;
 
 170 
 
 Ditto (il tlu' ( 'olombiaii ditto; 
 
 Ditto olthc llo])t' Insurance; 
 
 Ditto of" our of the Water ('oinj)anies ; 
 
 An Auditor of" the Colouihian A^^rieultural 
 Company ; 
 
 Ditto of" tile Tlianu's 'I'unnel ("ompanv ; 
 
 A Trustee of the General Steam Navigation 
 Company ; 
 
 Vice-President of St. Ann's Schools ; 
 
 President of Christ's Hospital ; 
 
 Memher of the Committee for conducting Im- 
 ])rovements of the City ; 
 
 Chairman of the Reversionary Interest Society ; 
 
 Chairman at Lloyd's ; 
 
 A Bank Director ; 
 
 Alderman of the Ward of Cheap ; 
 
 Member of the House of Commons; 
 
 And Lord Mayor of London ! ! ! 
 Of course, in the party we refer to, every one 
 will instantly recognize — that Leviathan of the 
 City — Mr. Alderman Thompson. 
 
 If we wish to break in here for one moment 
 upon the reader's own reflections, it is only to 
 ask of him not to overlook, of all things, in this 
 connexion, the mass of Petitions, the crowd of 
 bulky Reports, and the many folio Volumes of 
 printed Papers, which, as we had occasion at the 
 commencement of our Work to show, are every
 
 171 
 
 Session submitted to the Legislature ; and by a 
 careful study or digest of 'wbich— as we at the 
 same time intimated - so far as human ability can 
 compass this, it must be the bounden duty of 
 every individual Member to shape his course in 
 Parliament. 
 
 — But to turn to a different but still most im- 
 portant aspect or two, under which this same 
 Plurahsm of honourable Members presents itself, 
 and demands to be contemplated: 
 
 " Of my own "knowledge," said Mr. Hobhouse 
 emphatically, in the House of Commons, April 
 27, 1826, " I can assert, that upon particular 
 questions, Officers of the Army and Navy, who 
 have seats in this House, do not hke to give 
 their Votes." 
 
 In the hope of thereby conciliating in some 
 degree the Cathohc Freeholders of the County 
 of Clare, during the late never-to-be-forgotten 
 Election there, Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald protested 
 from the hustings, [June 30th, 1828], that "all 
 the convictions of his Colleague, Sir George 
 Murray, were in favour of the Catholic Claims ; 
 but the gallant General," said Mr. Fitzgerald, 
 *' happening, at the time of the last decision in 
 the House of Commons, to hold the command 
 of the Forces in Ireland, he felt there would hv
 
 172 
 
 an awkwardness in his voting in l\irliament lor 
 your question." 
 
 *' It is true," observed Mr. Hrougliani in bis 
 place in P;n-li;nnent, May 17. 18-27, "a Petition 
 from Mr. nislio]) Hiniutt 1 did ])resent to tbe 
 House, andtbat,not without taking tlie pre\ious 
 precaution of examining and cross-examining 
 Mr. Burnett, as to tbe correctness of bis charges. 
 Four or five days, bowxner, after I bad done 
 this, I found myself professionally retained in an 
 A})peal Cause before tbe Privy Council. Upon 
 looking at my instructions, it appeared tbat tbe 
 party, who, in tbe Petition, complained of the 
 alleged Corru})tion of the noble Governor of the 
 Cape, had ajiplied to the Privy Council for a 
 revision of the decision of tbe Governor; and 
 that I was retained as Counsel at tbe opposite 
 side. This was the reason why 1 proceeded no 
 further in the business of the Petition. Tbe 
 delicacy of my situation forbade it. I felt my- 
 self bound, right or wrong, to discharge my duty 
 as a Counsel ; and to advocate tbe interests of 
 one party before the Privy Council, one day, 
 and the interests of the rival party in this House 
 tbe next; — bow was it possible for me to do it?"* 
 Away, therefore — taking the case from Mr. 
 
 • Sec the Reports of the Debates of theDaj.
 
 173 
 
 Brougham's own lips—away went Mr. Bishoj) 
 Burnett, and his host of reputed Wrongs, toge- 
 ther with the Grievances of the whole Cape of 
 Good Hope population ! and, as a Legislator— 
 as a Judge, indeed, in the Cause of these various 
 parties, the learned gentleman fi'om that moment 
 stood before us all, as he has ever since re- 
 mained—not merely mute, but fairly emascu- 
 lated. 
 
 A story is current of a rebuff met with by 
 Lord Colchester, while a private Member of the 
 House of Commons, which both illustrates the 
 general view we are taking at present, and 
 shews that special impediments may arise to 
 important parliamentary proceedings, owing to 
 that feature in the character of Members, which 
 we are discussing. The Chief Justice of the 
 King's Bench, (we believe it was Lord Kenyon), 
 had been required to afford information respect- 
 ing the fees and emoluments of his Court, to a 
 Committee of the House of Commons, of which 
 Mr. Abbott was the Chairman, who himself 
 
 HELD also an INFERIOR OFFICE IN THE KiNG's 
 
 Bench. The patience of the Chief Justice hav- 
 ing been exhausted by a series of questions too 
 nearly touching that delicate subject — the fees 
 of his office, he began to demur to any further 
 interrogatory. Mr. Abbott, assuming what he
 
 171 
 
 intt'iulfti to l>f ;i liiiili ;iik1 coiniiiaiKliii^' alti- 
 tiidf. |)on)|)()iisly c'iu)iii;h inloinud his Loidshi]), 
 that lie (Mr. Ahbott), ^vas annetl witli th(> au- 
 thority ol' tlu' Coninioiis House of Parlianicut. 
 '• Sir!" was tlic pitliy reply ol" the Chief Justice, 
 " I will uot he yel})ecl at hy my own turnspit." 
 
 Again, i^limpses, at least, may he caught of 
 the gross unseemliness or impro])riety, attend- 
 inir this Pluralism of Members, in the followin<2' 
 circumstances : 
 
 When Mr. Baring, House of Commons, June 
 14, 1825, declared himself perfectly astonished 
 that the Attorney-general — in possession as 
 he was of those facts, with so much earnestness, 
 and seeming sincerity, pleaded by him, in a late 
 trial regarding Mr. Kenrick — that he could — 
 standing in the relation in which he did to the 
 Government and country — reconcile it to his 
 conscience to allow that individual to proceed 
 on in the unmolested discharge of his judicial 
 functions — '* Oh !" replied the learned gentle- 
 man, " the facts adverted to by the Member for 
 Taunton, and w'hich, on the occasion in ques- 
 tion, may have led me to inveigh against the 
 honourable Judge with some severity, came to 
 my knowledge, and w-ere descanted upon by me, 
 in my capacity of a private barrister only ; — in no
 
 175 
 
 degree had I any cognizance of tliem publicly 
 or officially." 
 
 During the proceedings— the still pending 
 proceedings, against the notorious Doctor Free, 
 Mr. Secretary Peel has loudly expressed his chs- 
 satisfaction at their course:— that is, at the cross- 
 ings and jostlings, the quirks and quibbles, pur- 
 suant to which that exemplary Minister of Reli- 
 gion has so long been able to elude the grasp of 
 Justice. Upon one occasion, especially, [Feb. 
 19, 1828], Mr. Peel avowed this feehng in the 
 House of Commons, and stated, that in a na- 
 tional point of view, the whole matter presented 
 the most serious claims to the attention of the 
 House. — The bearing which this circumstance 
 has upon our Argument, is, that the professional 
 defenders of the reverend gentleman have been 
 during the progress of the affair, or still are. 
 Members of the very " House" thus appealed 
 to ;— while it was the result of their measures — 
 that is, of their stratagems or devices — legally, 
 doubtless, but as we all know, offensively, to the 
 Country, and disgracefully, successful— which was 
 so '* seriously" appealed against. — As names may 
 be expected here, we give those of Sir James 
 Scarlett and Mr. Denman. 
 
 Quite enough has now, we are confident, been
 
 i7(; 
 
 Ijioiiiilit torwartl by us. to demonstrate — not 
 only till' niaunilndc. tlu' positive i-nonnitv of the 
 peenliar e\il, wliieh, at this eonchi(lin<( sta}2je of 
 our " Ar<::unu'nt" we have felt it our dnty to 
 treat of hut to prove also, that not the faintest 
 expectations of a nniedy for that evil are to be 
 entertained from any moderation which our Pub- 
 lie mi>n will imj)ose uj)()n tliemselves. The 
 views of these Individuals, as it regards their 
 pliysical Ca])al)ilities only (not to raise questions 
 about hmits to theii- mental ones) ; their notions 
 of Responsibility ; nay, even their ideas of com- 
 mon Decency, being what we see them to be — 
 manifestly not one ray of hope remains to us, 
 that, from among themselves, there will spring 
 up any correction or reform of their present 
 practices. 
 
 In some quarter, therefore, where the weight 
 of the parties inteifering, will command success, 
 the task must be taken in hand, of instituting 
 barriers to — of setting up mounds against— that 
 insatiable craving after influence, or importance, 
 after honour, or emolument, which certain in- 
 dividuals will yield themselves up to. In effect, 
 specific boundaiies, or Hues of demarcation, 
 being fixed upon, it must be proclaimed to the 
 whole class of Characters under consideration 
 — and it must be proclaimed to them in a voice 
 not to be misunderstood— Hitherto shall you
 
 177 
 
 come and no further ; and here shall the rest- 
 less, the ever-encroaching, all-circumventing 
 waves of your Ambition be stayed! 
 
 Shall we be told for a moment, that the state 
 of things we are now more immediately repro- 
 bating—that the feature in the character of so 
 many of our Members of Parhament to which 
 we are so uncompromisingly hostile— is to be ac- 
 counted for, and excused, on the ground — That 
 all Interests have to be represented in Par- 
 liament ? 
 
 To this our answer would be. Give us an ex- 
 planation of what is meant by All Interests 
 -being so represented. If anything substantive 
 is contained in that doctrine, it implies, as far 
 as we can perceive, that each Interest of the 
 Country — by possessing Representatives belong- 
 ing to its own ranks, or circle, shoidd, as often 
 as its peculiar Concerns come to be agitated in 
 Parliament, be secure of the exertions and votes 
 of these Representatives, in its exclusive favour. 
 — But such an miderstanding, be it observed, in- 
 volves in it a principle no other than this : — 
 that our Statesmen — the Legislators for the en- 
 tire Empire, may be governed in their conduct 
 by a direct regard to their personal Interests ; 
 or, in any case, by a regard to individual, in 
 preference to the collective Interests of the 
 
 N
 
 17S 
 
 Coinnmnity. A nilo of action, against wliich 
 every feelini; ot" justico and propriety — aijjainst 
 which, indci'd, ("onnnon Sense itself revolts! 
 and a ruK- of action which never has hcen de- 
 tected in onr Legislators, but to be branded with 
 the o])])rol)riuni it deserves. 
 
 If, however, the doctrine ini])lies less than 
 this; if, in short, nothing more is intended by 
 it, than that Parties should have Seats in the 
 House of Connnons, who may serve there as 
 Text-books, or Vade-mecums, respecting parti- 
 cular \\'alks or Vocations in life— or, should the 
 reader prefer the phrase, respecting particular 
 Interests in the Country — upon those Interests 
 happening to cause discussion or to need inves- 
 tigation ; — then immediately the danger presents 
 itself, that a regard to individual Interests may 
 bias these Members in what they say ; may, 
 even unconsciously, warp the Statements they 
 think fit to give : — besides which, any such in- 
 terpretation completely gives the go-by to what 
 is an integi'al part of our Legislative Economy, 
 namely, the system of appointing Committees to 
 enquire and report to the House ; and whieh 
 Committees, it is well-know^n, have power over 
 all Persons, Papers, Books, &c. that are in any 
 way connected with the topic, or subject, pro- 
 posed to be investigated. 
 
 Of this Committee System— in the whole of the
 
 179 
 
 Cases that are in themselves proper to be re- 
 ferred to a Legislative Tribunal — it may safely 
 be affirmed, that it is, if rightly worked, most 
 
 amply adequate to its intended purposes : that 
 
 for getting at the technicalities of a question — 
 for arriving at a knowledge either of the arcana — 
 or of the minute details of a matter, nothing 
 can well surpass it : — while, besides the greater 
 range of scrutiny, and, therefore, far greater se- 
 curity, which it admits of, the mode itself in- 
 finitely better comports with the dignity — with 
 the supremacy, indeed, which a Legislative As- 
 sembly ought ever to maintain. 
 
 But we have one additional answer to give 
 to the rejoinder to us we are supposing : and 
 provided it be for a moment ruminated upon, 
 the inexpediency, though it should be on ac- 
 count of the single fact there pleaded, of at all 
 persisting in that rejoinder, will, we doubt not, be 
 instantly discerned. That additional answer is, 
 that All Interests are not represented in our 
 Legislature. 
 
 If the dictum we here advance, stands in the 
 slightest need of corroboration, we have but to 
 adduce the frequent and bitter complaints which 
 our Ship-Owners utter, of being unrepresented 
 in Parhament ;— also the loud murmurs, to the 
 same effect, which escape from the Manufac- 
 turing, and, at times, from the Commercial
 
 ISO 
 
 Inlcrcsts n{' tlio C'DUiUrv.— I'lulor iho ciiTuni- 
 staiiros we arc iniai^iiiiiiir. ^v(' ourselves should 
 he temnti'd to exchiini, \\\\i\\ single Member of 
 the Leu;isliiture interposes his shield there, to 
 screen from the harshest ret^ulations, to s;.Ae 
 from the most devouring ini])osts, that numerous 
 class in the Conuuunity who devote themselves 
 to the juofession of Letters ? Who, too, take 
 under their protecting care there, the Interests 
 of the labouring Poor of the Country — particu- 
 larly the Agi'icultural portion of them ? Where 
 again, we might ask, were to be seen in Par' 
 liament, the sturdy, unflinching Champions of 
 the Inhabitants of our Colonies, and foreign 
 Dependencies, \vhen Mr. Brougham, in the Cape 
 of Good Ho])e (juestion, before mentioned by us 
 — found himself necessitated to retire from the 
 combat? and when one other Member — Mr. 
 Lombe, of mysterious memory — after zealously 
 taking up the cudgels in the same Cause, 
 mutely and so inscrutably laid them down 
 again ? 
 
 Finally, will it be said, that recourse must be 
 had to our Official Characters, our professional 
 Men, and others, engaged in the active Walks 
 of life, for the purpose of securing a sufficiency 
 of talent in the Legislative Body ? To this we 
 would reply, that the means exist of bringing
 
 181 
 
 intd play a far gi-eater quantum of the talent of 
 the Country— that is of the disengaged, and 
 every way independent talent of the Country, 
 than at present offers. For instance, by re- 
 leasing from the scandalous bonds, from the 
 insulting fetters, in which they are held, that 
 vast proportion of Places, possessing the right 
 of returning Members to Parliament — but where, 
 as things now are, the yclept Electors have not 
 the smallest choice of Candidates. And further, 
 by taking effectual steps to do away with the 
 hideous disbm-sements which generally attach 
 to Candidates, where the Election is an open 
 one : — and the indisputable effect of which is, 
 often to deter all from consenting to be put in 
 nomination as Representatives, but the hair- 
 brained, the reckless, or the infatuated ; very 
 desirable parties, it must strike every one, for 
 the (festinies of an Empire to be confided to ! 
 
 But the measures here hinted at apart, most 
 important do we deem it to obseiTe — indeed, if 
 we mistake not, the declaration will prove con- 
 clusive in favour of the feasibleness and propriety 
 of our Views— tliat we quaiTel not with the class 
 or classes of individuals we have been directing 
 attention to, as individuals : — we regard them all 
 as ineligible to fill tlie Legislative Office, solely 
 because of their " Pluralism ;" solely l)ecausc 
 they, in that, bring, and must bring, to the dis-
 
 lS-2 
 
 ih;ir^c' ol' tluir Icu^islativo duties, a distracted 
 mind, and a " divided allepance." 
 
 It is only while this impntation rests upon 
 tlu ni, that our ban, as it respects them, is meant 
 to ap])ly. Tlu'ir subordinate avocations, at tlieir 
 own gotxl time, abjured — themselves, in conse- 
 (pienee, rendered the free, unsliackled, and so 
 lar, at all events, dignified Agents, which Legis- 
 lators ought ever to be — and their accession to 
 the Senate— the devotion, in fact, to the pubhc 
 service, of tlieir time, of their energies, of their 
 experience, and mental endowments — there pre- 
 cisely, where it has been the drift of our obser- 
 vations now to forbid them entrance — we will be 
 among the foremost to hail. 
 
 By reserving the elevation to the Legislature, 
 or eligibility for that elevation, as the highest 
 distinction to which the majority of the parties 
 in question could aspire ; but, as a distinction 
 too exalted to co-exist wdth minor dignities or 
 baser pursuits, — benefits of magnitude — though 
 of a less direct kind than those we have been 
 contemplating — would, unless we greatly err, 
 accioie to the Comnuuiity. But that is a fea- 
 tm'e in the case, which the present is not the 
 place for insisting upon. 
 
 END OF PART I. 
 
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