cessantly developing the application of every useful rule to all the variety of cases to which it may be practically applicable. "But although it is very useful thus to subdivide an Act into minute articles, it is, on the other hand, most pernicious to subdivide and disperse the parts of one subject in different "The elements, whatever they be, with which Acts. Nothing contributes so effectually to legislation can deal, have, as shown in the the due composition of all its parts, as the pre- previous paper, a certain indissoluble relation sence to the mind of the legislator and the to each other, and one order alone in which draftsman of the whole of the connected they can be logically treated, and this method matter. Nothing conduces in an equal degree is as applicable to the smallest fragment of the to simplicity and clearness and compactness as law, to a single phrase in legislation, as to the the consideration and expression at the same entire body of the law. Every separate fragtime of all that is substantially, incidentally, ment would have to be treated in the same way; or logically connected. No one thing-per- and when any number of fragments connected haps not all influences together-has produced by their subject matter have been so consoliso much confusion in the law as the practice of dated at different times and by different hands, scattered legislation, of references, adoptions, their simple re-enactment under one head and their consequences, citations, preambles, would be a consolidation of the whole. non obstante clauses, and the like incumbrances." 'It results that consolidation can be most easily effected and proceed with most rapid The proposed chief rule of framing Statutes effect, and with the most certain prospect of is thus propounded: eventual assimilation and consistency, if it be undertaken in the smallest possible parts. "It is of the first importance to simple, clear, "And in order not to incur danger of disand effective consolidation that all that is in- turbing portions of the law already sufficiently cidental to any one subject be included in one accessible and intelligible, it might be well to Act. In the general and permanent law no make a commencement chiefly on those subjust occasion exists for two identical projects which by their acknowledged unsatisfacvisions; no just occasion for an adoption by tory state the most require a systematic and reference; no admissible use of such forms as ameliorative treatment. All that is necessary 'the Consolidated Clauses' Acts,' applicable to is for those who are engaged in the process to transitory and private and local legislation. have a common understanding of the nature The rule for effectual consolidation is to dis- and practical application of the process. regard any temptation to shorten any Act by "Still the work of consolidation would not the device of reference or adoption, -to include in each Act frankly all that is logically part of its subject; in short, in each Act to include one subject, the whole of that subject, and nothing but that subject." The following cautious course of proceeding is suggested to effect the objects in view :"Nor is it by any means necessary that subjects so comprehensive, and involving so considerable an exertion of practical and political discretion, should be chosen for the subjects of consolidation; not only does a comprehensive object involve a larger amount of labour and a greater exertion of ability in its digestion, but it necessarily includes more subjects which will give occasion to parliamentary and other discussion, and so in both ways retard the progress of the process. be done in any case, unless the subject taken in hand were sufficiently distinct and complete of itself, had sufficient unity of character to allow of its being treated as a whole, to allow of the cotemporaneous repeal of the Statute the Consolidated Law is to occupy, and to disLaw previously occupying the ground which pense absolutely with all citation and reference to other statutory matter. Unless this be done, the multiplicity, cumbrousness, intricacy, and confusion now justly complained of, and which it is the object of consolidation to remove, will only be commenced afresh and perpetuated." the Common Law and to judicial interpretaThe supposed dangers of consolidation to tion are thus stated and considered : "The first danger apprehended, that of in"It is no doubt greatly conducive to logical terfering by surprise or mischance with the consistency to take into view, and subject to Common Law, may be wholly avoided by the one treatment the largest possible aggregate of instruction to the digestor to adhere to the analogous or connected subjects; but logical very terms of the Statute Law to be consoli consistency, however desirable, is not a prime dated. If this rule be observed, any disparity object of legislation, and is obtained too dearly, between the terms of the digest and those of when practical, specific, individual adaptation the Consolidating Act would always display of the law to the circumstances,-when particu- any encroachments or contractions in the lar fitness,-is sacrificed to formal simplicity. latter, and indicate the extent to which the It is neither desirable, nor, if it were desirable, field of the Common Law is invaded or enwould men be prepared to submit to it, that larged by its operation. the law should be systematized by any artificial "Indeed the more probable operation of the or logical process, or by any other than that process of Consolidation would, inasmuch as natural organic process by which men discover, it would chiefly tend to remove a vast mass of apply, and assimilate the legal provisions most anomalous, heterogeneous encroachments of fit for each case, in which process they are in- the Statute Law made in various times on the 236 Construction of the Statutes.-Inns of Court.-Queen's Equity Counsel. Common Law, and still by their position in the statute book blockading and preventing the development of the Common Law, the operation would, I say, tend rather to enlarge and disencumber the field of the Common Law than to encroach upon it. "But another objection felt is, that by Consolidation we might lose the advantage of those beneficial interpretations and applications which the Courts of Law have put from time to time on the existing Statute Law. "It is wholly a matter of choice, which may be adopted or rejected, whether a Consolida tion shall operate so or not. If the legislature please to retain the exact combined effect of an old statute, and its existing interpretations, there is nothing more to be done than to reenact the operative parts in ipsissimis verbis of the old statute, and all the interpretation which has hitherto been made or would in the course of time have been made on the old statute will, ipso facto, as to the past interpretation, apply to those words in the re-enact. ment, and the prospective interpretation, by all analogy, upon the same data, would itself be INNS OF COURT. PUBLIC EXAMINATION OF THE STUDENTS. 11th, 12th, and 13th days of January, 1854. THE Council of Legal Education have awarded to Jasper Kenrick Peck, Esq., Student of Lincoln's Inn, a Studentship of Fifty Guineas per Annum, to continue for a period of Three Years. Walter Robinson, Esq., Student of the Inner Temple, a Certificate of Honour, as having passed the second best Examination. Charles Piffard, Esq, Student of Lincoln's Inn; Henry Rowcliffe, Esq., Student of the Inner Temple; and J. George Norton Darby, Esq., Student of Lincoln's Inn, Certificates that they have satisfactorily passed a Public Examination. By Order of the Council, Council Chamber, Lincoln's Inn, (Signed) RICHARD BETHELL, Chairman. 17th January, 1854. QUEEN'S EQUITY COUNSEL. ARRANGEMENT AS TO COURTS. "And all that mass of construction which has turned upon the question whether and how far a later enactment controls, enlarges, limits, or supersedes an earlier one, would also unTHE following arrangement has been doubtedly become useless so soon as the exist- made (21st January), by the Queen's ing effect of the later and the earlier were Equity Counsel, as to the Courts in which brought into synchronous operation in one they will for the future practise :— Master of the Rolls. act. "And so of all those constructions as to the question whether two or more enactments be co-ordinate, or one subordinate to another,which would become useless and inoperative so soon as the relation of generality or specialty was shown by the places occupied by the respective provisions of one consolidated enact ment. "As to all this mass of judicial construction, it is not law, it is one almost unmitigated evil, only rendered necessary and endurable by the fear of one still greater. It is but the cobbling of statutory provisions not originally made to fit their subject matter, and not made so as to hold together, and few happier results would flow from Consolidation than such a consistent reformation of any part of the law as would at once abolish all the constructions that have ever been applied to it, and all future construc. tion other than the plain reading of consistent terms. This is a result too perfect to be hoped for, but an approach to it in any degree is not to be held forth as a subject of alarm to us." R. P. Roupell, Esq. Vice-Chancellor Kindersley. C. T. Swanston, Esq. William Bulkeley Glasse, Esq. Vice-Chancellor Stuart. J. Walker, Esq. Vice-Chancellor Wood. John Rolt, Esq. Practice in Taxing Costs in Chancery.-Local and Personal Acts. Thomas Chandless. Esq. John William Willcock, Esq. William Thomas Shave Daniel, Esq. W. M. James, Esq. PRACTICE IN TAXING COSTS IN CHANCERY. To the Editor of the Legal Observer. SIR,-The taxation of costs in Chancery really seems to call for some alteration. The practice is not to issue a warrant upon any bill of costs until the whole of the bills to be taxed are left. This necessarily causes some few days' delay (probably weeks in some cases) before the party having charge of the order can obtain a warrant to tax. On his application for such warrant, notwithstanding all the costs are left, he is then informed, that as well his papers and vouchers as those of all other parties, must be left before he is allowed the warrant. This causes some few days further delay, and when all is completed, he obtains his warrant returnable in about three weeks. Surely some better practice should be adopted than that of compelling a plaintiff to wait a fortnight before he can obtain a warrant to tax his bill, and that returnable three weeks after. The three weeks should run from the time he has left his bill, with liberty for the Taxing Master's Clerk to alter the appointment in case the other bills and papers are not left within a fortnight, and, if necessary, warrants could be granted for the purpose of having them brought in within the time appointed. No inconvenience would arise by adopting this course, as many parties would be but too glad to avail themselves of the vacant appointment-only having to wait a week to tax their costs instead of three. E'C. LOCAL AND PERSONAL ACTS. 237 Scottish Central Railway near Loaninghead to the Town of Crieff. 189. An act for making a Railway from Tralee to Killarney. 190. An act for consolidating and amending the Powers of the Acts of "The Imperial Continental Gas Association." 191. An act for reclaiming, inclosing, and appropriating certain Parts of the Harbour or Estuary of Castlemaine and the Creeks of Caragh and Rossbehy in the County of Kerry. 192. An act to revive and amend the Powers of the Acts relating to the Chard Railway Company, to regulate the Capital of the Com pany, and to enable them to extend their authorised Railway into Taunton. 193. An act for constructing a Railway and Landing Places within the Borough of King's Lynn, for regulating the Share Capital of the East Anglian Railways Company, and for other purposes, and of which the Short Title is "The East Anglian Railways' Act, 1853." 194. An act for the Improvement of the Borough of Limerick. 195. An aet for enabling the Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company to make new railways; and for other purposes. 196. An act to enable the Severn and Wye Railway and Canal Company to improve their Railway and Harbour; and for other purposes relating to the Company. 197. An act for making a railway from the South Wales Railway at Britonferrry to Glyncorrwg in Glamorganshire, to be called "The South Wales Mineral Railway." 198. An act to consolidate and amend "The Staffordshire Potterics Waterworks Act, 1847," and "The Staffordshire Potteries Waterworks Extension Act, 1849," and to extend the Provisions and enlarge the Powers thereof. 199. An act for making a Railway from Stamford Baron in the County of Northampton to the Great Northern Railway at Essendine in the County of Rutland, and for other purposes connected therewith. 200. An act for better paving, draining, Declared Public, and to be Judicially Noticed. cleansing, lighting, watching, supplying with 16 & 17 VICT. 1853. [Concluded from page 199.] 183. An act to enable the Newry and Enniskillen Railway Company to extend their Railway to the Landing Quay at Newry, to effect a Junction with the Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway, and for other purposes. 184. An act for making a Railway from Worcester, with certain Branches therefrom, and for other purposes. 185. An act for improving and maintaining the Port and Harbour of Westport in the County of Mayo. 186. An act for making a Railway from the North-western District of the Metropolis to Battle Bridge in the County of Middlesex. 187. An act to enable the West Cornwall Railway Company to make certain new Railways; and for other purposes. 188. An act for making a Railway from the Water, regulating in regard to Markets and other purposes, for making new Streets, and otherwise improving the Town of Galway. 201. An act for regulating the depasturing and Management of certain Pastures in the Parish of Richmond in the County of York. 202. An act to consolidate the Acts relating to the Cork and Bandon Railway Company, to authorise the Company to construct Extension and Branch Railways, and for other purposes. 203. An act for granting further Powers to "The Electric Telegraph Company," and to such Company to make Arrangements for the working of Telegraphs adjoining their Works. 204. An act for authorising the South Wales Railway Company to deviate the Line of their Railway in the Forest of Dean, and for other purposes. 205. An act to enable the London and North Western Railway Company to make a Railway to connect the Buckinghamshire Rail 238 Local and Personal Acts.-Professional Lists. way with the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolver-pany to enter into Arrangements with certain Proprietors of the Company. hampton Railway. 206. An act for reclaiming from the Sea cer- 220. An act for the Improvement of the tain Lands near Harwich, for constructing Town of Rochdale, and for providing a CemeDocks and a Pier on such Lands, and for tery there, and for other purposes, and of other purposes. which the Short Title is " The Rochdale Im 207. An act for making a Pier and Break-provement Act, 1853." water in the Bay of Galway, and for conferring additional Powers on the Galway Harbour Commissioners, and for other Purposes. 208. An act for making a Railway from Banbridge to join the Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway at Scarvagh. 209. An act for granting further Powers in reference to the leasing and selling the Undertaking of the South Wales Railway Company to the Great Western Railway Company, and authorising working Arrangements between the said Companies, and for other purposes. 210. An act to enable the South Wales Railway Company to extend the Pembroke Line of their Railway to Pennar Mouth, and to make a Deviation in their said Pembroke Line; and for other purposes. 211. An act to reduce and regulate the Tolls payable in respect of Traffic passing between Liverpool and certain Places on the Liverpool, Crosby, and Southport Railway, and also the Payments or Tolls payable to the Lancashire and Yorkshire and East Lancashire Railway Companies in respect of Traffic to and from the last-mentioned Railway; and for other purposes. 212. An act to extend the Periods limited for completing and for purchasing Lands for the Stratford-upon-Avon and Kingswinford Branches of the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway, and to extend such respective Branches, to construct a Branch Railway to Stourbridge, and to authorise the raising of certain Sums of Money by Preferential Shares, and for other purposes. 213. An act for the Construction and Maintenance of a Harbour at Llandudno in the County of Carnarvon. 221. An act to enable the Eastern Union Railway Company to redeem their Preference Shares; and for other purposes. 222. An act for making a Railway from the London and North Western, Railway at Willesden to the North London Railway, with a Branch to the North and South Western Junction Railway, to be called "The Hampstead Junction Railway," and for other purposes. 223. An act for making a Railway from the Great Northern Railway at Boston in the County of Lincoln to the Great Northern Railway at Barkstone in the same County, and for other purposes. 224. An act for incorporating the Life Association of Scotland, for enabling the said Association to sue and to be sued, to take and hold Property, and for other purposes relating to the said Association. 225. An act for the Appointment and Regugulation of Vestries in the Parishes of Saint Margaret and Saint John the Evangelist in the City of Westminster. 226. An act to amend an Act, intituled "An Act for incorporating the East Indian Railway Company, and for other purposes connected therewith. 227. An act for making a Railway from the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhamp ton Railway near Hartlebury in the County of Worcester to the Borough of Shrewsbury in the County of Salop, with a Branch to be called "The Severn Valley Railway;" and for other purposes. PROFESSIONAL LISTS. PERPETUAL COMMISSIONERS. 214. An act for making a Railway from Wellington to Coalbrookdale, and an Extension to Appointed under the Fines and Recoveries' Act, the River Severn, all in the County of Salop; and for other purposes. 215. An act for the Incorporation of the Westminster Association for improving the Dwellings of the Working Classes. 216. An act for enabling the London and North Western Railway Company to construct a Railway from Crewe to Shrewsbury, and other Works in connexion with their Undertaking; and for other purposes relating thereto. 217. An act for making a Railway from the Newport, Abergavenny, and Hereford Railway in the Parish of Llanvihangel Pontymoyle in the County of Monmouth to Coleford in the County of Gloucester, with a Branch to the Monmouth Gas-works: and for other purposes. 218. An act to enable the Warrington and Altrincham Junction Railway Company to make Deviations and Branches at Warrington, and to use certain neighbouring Railways. 219. An act to enable the South Sea Com with dates when gazetted. Spurr, James Frederick, Gainsborough, in and for the parts of Lindsey, in the County of Lincoln. Dec. 30. Townsend, Jackson, Birkenhead, in and for the County of Chester. Jan. 10. LONDON COMMISSIONERS TO ADMINISTER OATHS IN CHANCERY. Appointed under the 16 & 17 Vict. c. 78. Benthall, Francis, 22, Lincoln's Inn Fields. Bockett, Dan. Smith, 60, Lincoln's Inn Fields. Professional Butt, Robert James, 97, Great Russell St. Chester, Edward, 11, Staple Inn. Clarke, Wm. Tredway, 30, Great James St. Davidson, Septimus, Weavers' Hall, Basinghall Street. Dawes, Richard, 9, Angel Court. De Jersey, Hy., 2, Little St. Ann's Lane, City. Emmet George Nelson, 14, Bloomsbury Sq. Gant, John Castle, 37, Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street. Grant. Fred. Allan, 13, King's Road, Bedford Row. Gray, George Mounsey, 9, Staple Inn. Hooker, James, 8, Bartlett's Buildings. Murray, William, 11, London Street, City. Norton, William Hebeler, 1, New Street, Ouvry, Frederic, 13, Tokenhouse Yard. Randall, John, 10, King's Bench Walk. Scadding, Edwin Ward, 1, Gordon Street, Storey, Andrew, Featherstone Buildings. Street, Thomas Henry, 1, Brabant Court, Philpot Lane. Tattershall, Edward Brooksbank, 9, Great Taylor, James Wells, 28, Great James Street. Watson, Barclay Farquharson, 36, Lincoln's Inn Fields. Weatherall, Edward, 7, King's Bench Walk. White, John Meadows, 10, Whitehall Place. Williams, Stephen, 16, Bedford Row. Williamson, James, 10, Great James Street, Bedford Row. Woodhouse, Henry William, 5, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. Wren, Robert, 32, Fenchurch Street. Fleet Street. COUNTRY COMMISSIONERS TO ADMINISTER Appointed under the 16 & 17 Vict. c. 78, 17. Bridgman, Joseph, Chester. Jan. 6. with Dodd, Grantham Rt., St. Hilier, Jersey. Seaton, Matthew Mease, 17, Bond Street, St. Wheeler, Henry, Middleton. DISSOLUTIONS OF PROFESSIONAL PART NERSHIPS. From Dec. 27th, 1853, to 20th Jan. 1854, both inclusive, with dates when gazetted. Bishop, Frederick, and Wykeham Wheeler, Shelton, Attorneys and Solicitors. Jan. 10. Burnett, William Hope Whidbey, and Herrmann Lang, 5, Serjeant's Inn, Fleet Street, Solicitors. Jan. 3. Deane, Charles, and Arthur Goodrich, 61, Lincoln's Inn Fields, Attorneys and Solicitors. Jan. 20. |