PREFACE. THIS volume contains the statutes passed in 1861 consolidating the criminal law of England and Ireland; with the enactments amending the same complete to the close of 1868: and embraces, so far as the Statutes of 1861 were complete, the existing statutes on the subject of the criminal law as amended to the present time. It would be superfluous to attempt to enumerate the causes which have led to the passing of these statutes: the circumstances which led to their occupying the prominent attention they have received were twofold: 1st. The Court of Queen's Bench, a few years since, spent some time in solemnly considering the effect of an act which was afterwards found to have been repealed some years previously, but of which repeal both judges, counsel, solicitors, and all the parties concerned were, at the time, profoundly ignorant, and 2nd, Very nearly at the same period an act was formally passed by Parliament to repeal several acts which had been actually repealed about 20 years previously. As it is a legal axiom that every Englishman is presumed to know the laws of his country, and as the preposterous proceedings just mentioned cast a grave suspicion before the eyes of the public upon the accuracy and extent of the knowledge even of judges and legislators, it was felt that some means ought to be adopted to determine with clearness and precision what laws were really in force and what were abrogated: hence arose the question of "Statute Law Reform," which for many years has received the intermittent attention of the legislature, and been handled by commissions of inquiry almost innumerable and uniformly expensive. The remedies proposed for the removal of the obscurity of the statute book, when divested of minor technicalities, are three, viz.-1. CONSOLIDATION; 2, EXPURGATION, and 3, a DIGEST and in considering these remedies it is important to remember that the particular inconveniences originally felt were inability to distinguish between statutes in force, and statutes which had, by repeal, expiration of time, or otherwise, ceased to be part of the existing law. 1. CONSOLIDATION. The consolidation of the statutes was the first remedy proposed to remove the obscurity of the statute book; gentlemen were employed who had long been hangers on of the legal authorities, and liberal salaries were given. In the question of consolidation alone the expenditure in salaries, &c., is said to have exceeded £100,000; and the statutes of 1861 contained in this volume were the result. A correct consolidation of the whole of the statutes constituting the public law of the realm, each branch complete in a separate act, would have been beneficial, but the result of the addition of these acts to the statute book, was the dismissal of the whole establishment, and the condemnation of consolidation as being an inefficient remedy. 2. EXPURGATION.-This remedy had a very humble beginning. It originated with the editor of this volume, who, in connection with his edition of the "General Railway Acts," and other editions of statutes, had to overcome the difficulty arising from the fluctuating nature of the public statutes, resulting from the repeal and expiration of statutes, and how amendments could be incorporated with a stereotype edition of the statutes. These difficulties were dealt with as they arose, and were overcome in each case without any idea of their ever being applied beyond the limits of his own editions; and it was not until the difficulties arising from the defects of the statutes had long been the theme of debate in the legislature, and thus attracted his attention, that the question suggested itself to him whether the course he had for many years pursued in reference to his own editions could not with advantage to himself and benefit to the public be applied to the whole of the statutes. The idea thus suggested led to more careful examination of the statutes, and the result of experiments which were made at his own expense having satisfied him that the plan he had hitherto pursued with reference to his own volumes of statutes could be applied to the whole of the statute book, and that by the application to the statutes of the process of expurgation, an edition of existing statutes 66 66 66 66 66 could be stereotyped and published, which should not only be completed to the time of publication, but could afterwards be so continued in perpetuity, he submitted the plan to several legal and other authorities, whose favourable opinion encouraged him to proceed, and eventually, on the 10th December, 1858, he submitted to the Treasury a "proposal for the pub"lication of a complete edition of existing statutes "relating to the general law of England, which shall "not only be perfect at the time of publication, but "also be capable of being so continued thereafter." It was added that "the plan now proposed will differ in one important particular from any that has hitherto "been suggested. Its adoption will not necessitate any pecuniary aid from the public revenue, and will to a great extent render unnecessary the continuance of "the annual expenditure to remedy the defects of the “statute book, which expenditure has amounted since "1835, to upwards of £70,000, but without effecting any beneficial results. The public statutes extend " to near 90,000 foolscap folio pages, of which the larger part have been repealed or have expired, and are spent ; and with this mass of repealed and expired "matter the existing statutes' are so mixed up as to "constitute (in the words of Chief Justice Cockburn) a chaotic mass' and practically a sealed book.'" This proposal was received with favour by the then attorney-general (Sir F. Kelly), by whom it was submitted to the consideration of the Statute Law Commission; it was also referred to the same commission by the Lords of the Treasury, but shortly afterwards the change of government took place, which placed Sir R. Bethell in the office of attorney-general, by whose influence the Consolidation Commission was dissolved, and by whom the papers referred to him by the Treasury were lost; and had not their Lordships previously referred the matter to the Stationery Office from whom they obtained copies of some of the documents which were printed and presented to the House of Commons (Sess. 1860, Nos. 375 and 578) all record of these papers would have been destroyed, and even as it was some of the most important papers, including several Treasury minutes, were totally suppressed. 66 66 6 It has been a main argument of Sir R. Bethell, and one which at a later period has occasioned considerable prejudice against the editor of this volume, that he is not a member of the legal profession, and that it is great presumption in him, under these circumstances, to suppose that he could remedy the evils which baffled the efforts of the legal profession. The editor of this volume is not a lawyer, but he had been for many years accustomed to edit editions of the statutes which had been deemed so useful by the profession generally that they had a considerable sale. It was not till the official career of Sir R. Bethell as attorneygeneral that such an objection was made. The editor never assumed to be a lawyer. For upwards of 30 years he has been engaged in editing editions of the statutes and various parliamentary works, and by the experience and information thus acquired, he was enabled to prepare a plan for the reformation of the statute book, which, when submitted to the following legal and other authorities, elicited their favourable opinion, which was communicated to him in writing as follows: John Bright, Esq., M.P.-"Such a work would be "of immense value if our parliament took any care in "the making of laws. As it is, I fear all your care "would scarcely save us, from the confusion which "parliamentary practice has led us into. The public is "much indebted to you for what you have done, and I hope your labours may be continued under the sanc"tion and with the aid of government." 66 Sir H. M. Cairns." I hope your very useful efforts "to make the statutes more accessible to the public "than they now are may be attended with success. "There is no work which is so much required, and "scarcely any which would involve more care and "labour than an edition of such a kind; and any one "who, like yourself, calls attention to the subject, and "leads the way by experiment and example, confers a great benefit on the public." 66 66 Lord Chief Justice Cockburn.- "Your plan for reducing the bulk of the statute book appears to me “to have great merit.” Lord Eversley."The experiment in which you have "been engaged is one in which I take a great interest." |