be as mournful, as it is humiliating, to reflect by how little, even of that little, much of the evil that is under the sun, might have been averted, if there were not some consolation in the hope, that the days which speak will at length be heard, and the multitude of years bring wisdom. New colonies are now rising in the remotest part of the world; and under whatever form of government they may settle when the foundations are firmly laid, the language, at least, of England will be retained there. Great Britain, which may truly be called the hive of nations, is sending, and must continue to send, forth its swarms. Do what we will at home; (our readers know that we entirely agree with Mr. Sadler-as in other momentous points-so also in the opinion, that there is much which may and ought to be done in providing employment for the able and industrious ;) let what may be done, new countries will always offer an inviting field for hope and enterprise; and it is desirable that hope and enterprise should take that direction. Reasonable apprehensions must be felt concerning the future character of society in these colonies if they are to be formed only with the worst materials,-the refuse of the parent state, its criminals, its runaways, and its paupers. Nor is the evil, which may be looked for from this cause, to be counteracted by the temporary abode of persons who go thither to pursue their commercial speculations, meaning to return to England with the fortune which they may accumulate. The best colonists are those who are influenced by the best motives; who go with the intent of taking up their final abode in a new country, because they can there secure a certain independence in all respectability and comfort for their children to the third and fourth generation. To such a course, the settlers in New England were led by a principle of religious zeal; and the contrast which New England at this day presents to the new States of the American Union, and to all colonies which have been founded either by conquerors or mere traders, may teach us that as the root is, so will the tree prove. There are some things in which our Australian colonies have an advantage over all others in their beginning. The natives are so few that any danger arising from them is too trifling to be taken into the account of inconveniences; our right in the land is that of occupancy, not of conquest. It is an open country-man has only to break the ground, not to clear it. It is a good climate, perhaps the best that could be named, though not as sanguine men were at one time ready from our short experience to infer, exempted from all febrile diseases: within these two years, it has suffered from what may be called a pestilence: still, in no other country, have new settlers been so free from sickness. The curse fof of slavery has not been carried thither, and at so great a distance from Europe, it may be hoped, that the evil of our wars will not be felt there. New England suffered severely from that cause. Founded upon better principles than any colonies, some of the American states alone excepted, and in a better age than those, it may be hoped that, after the expiration of three centuries, the annals of Australia may be more honourable to religion and human nature than those of the West Indies have proved during an equal course of time; that it may be the task of the anualist, instead of relating a melancholy series of crimes and sufferings, the desperate achievements of wicked men in guilty enterprises, or the unproductive exertions of honourable courage in lawful wars, to record the uninterrupted progress of improvement among a peaceful and happy people. ART. IX.-1. Present State of the Law.-The Speech of Henry Brougham, Esq., M.P., in the House of Commons, on Thursday, February 7, 1828. (The only authentic edition.) Lon 2. A Letter to the Right Honourable Robert Peel on the Subject of some of the Legal Reforms proposed by Mr. Brougham. By Charles Edward Dodd, Esq., Barrister at Law. London. 1828. 3. Suggestions for some Alterations of the Law, on the Subject of Practice, Pleading, and Evidence. By Edward Lawes, Sergeant at Law. London. 1827. 4. The Mirror of Parliament. Esq. Part V. London. 'L AW,' says Roger North, must be kept as a garden, with frequent digging, weeding, turning, &c., for that which was in one age convenient and, perhaps, necessary, becomes in another prejudicial;' and how cordially we are disposed to lend our feeble aid to any judicious plans for the amendment of actual grievances and defects, whether caused by time or otherwise, is abundantly proved by observations in former Numbers of this Journal. But while reform of the law, to a certain extent, is advisable, every one who views the subject in all its bearings, and with that temperance which it demands, will admit that the utmost caution and judgment are requisite in selecting the points on which to apply it, in marking the limits to which it may wisely be carried, and fixing on the mode by which it may be most safely accomplished. Those who cannot appreciate those who are indifferent to the valuable properties belonging to the basis of our Edited by John Henry Barrow, March 3, 1828. VOL. XXXVIII. NO. LXXV, R laws, laws, may feel careless as to the manner in which they set about their alterations. If their rude changes should shake or dilapidate the whole structure, to some it may be matter of apathy'impavidos ferient ruinæ ;' but by the judicious and considerate reformer, and, we are convinced, by the bulk of the nation, the preservation and stability of the building will be consulted in all attempts at its improvement :-The law of this country will never be regarded by the people as a tabula rasa, on which the experiments of politicians may be tried. Above all, no judicious reformer will forget Lord Hale's recommendation (in that essay which Mr. Brougham cites with praise) : It is of great importance, upon any alteration of the laws, to be sure:-1. That the change be demonstrable for the better, and such as cannot introduce any considerable inconvenience in the other end of the wallet. 2. That the change, though most clearly for the better, be not in foundations or principles, but in such things as may consist with the general frame and basis of the government or law. 3. That the changes be gradual, and not too much at once, or, at least, more than the exigence of things requires.'* If cautious and delicate management be necessary in all reforms of settled institutions, it must be admitted that it is doubly so in alterations of the laws. All that the people at large can ever know of the laws must arise from observation of their practical enforcement; how can they know rules which are subjected to perpetual change? The efficacy of laws mainly depends on the sanction of the public opinion; but nothing that has not a character of permanence can long retain popular respect. If an institution is to be changed to-day because a clever argument may be raised against it, a more subtle reasoner may show to` morrow that another alteration is desirable. In truth, it is not as master-pieces of abstract reason that laws or institutions ever did or ever can gain their hold on the public mind—it is by the force of custom-by the close connexion with other institutions, -and by the familiar sense of their practical utility felt during a long series of years. Ignorance of the law, distrust as to its regulations, uncertainty as to important rights and duties, a check and damp on all contracts and dealings of any kind, are the necessary evils attending a frequent change of the legal and judicial systems. Lord Bacon, who is perpetually quoted as a friend of reform, though in truth a not less strenuous respecter of existing systems, says, it is good also not to try experiments in states, except the necessity be urgent or the utility evident; and well to beware that it be reformation that draweth on the change, and not the desire of change that pretendeth the reformation.' Considerations touching the Amendment of the Laws, cap. 1. Next to the evil of tampering with the existing laws, by too frequent or injudicious alterations, is the inconvenience resulting from vivacious and popular discussions on the subject, and attacks upon the law, tending more to injure its general estimation than to advance its immediate improvement. To expose the sore without prescribing the balm, is, in legislation as in surgery, but an imperfect proceeding, of very doubtful utility. We confess we regard with no very favourable eye that mode of legal reform which consists in expatiations upon defects, rather than in sober inquiries for cures in a rhetorical exhibition of those apparent anomalies from which no laws can be free, and in a studied emblazoning of those extreme cases where rules of law at first sight appear to work hardship,-those occasional inconveniences in practice which must arise in applying the wisest rules to the varied transactions of life-in throwing out general objections at some branches-doubts as to the utility of others-hints at maladministration of more. The reformers of our laws whom the country have to thank for the greatest real, though limited, improvements-Lord Somers, Lord Ellenborough, Lord Redesdale, Lord Eldon, Sir Samuel Romilly, Mr. Peel-have adopted the safe, the practical, the unassuming course of seizing on some conspicuous mischief felt in practice, and providing for it a matured remedy by legislative enactment, wisely abstaining from assailing or throwing doubts upon other matters which did not fall within the immediate scope of their plan. If their schemes were not gigantic, their suggestions were matured and practical, and their results positive and complete. If their performances have been moderate, they have been at least as large as their promises; where they could not improve, they have had the wisdom not to disturb. Other legislators, who have not confined themselves to such reforms as they could effect by means of a single act of legislation, but who have found it expedient to proceed by a commission or parliamentary committee, have still concentrated their views upon some one particular branch of law or department of judicature. Even in instituting a protracted inquiry by a co-operation of able individuals, they have felt the indispensable necessity of defining its objects and limiting its scope. If these temperate reformers have accomplished anything valuable in the work of improvement, we believe it has been principally because their plans have been of reasonable compass and tangible dimensions-because they have heaved the lead every inch of way they have made,'-because they have pursued objects which the capacities of ordinary men, with ordinary application, could embrace at once, and could complete in a moderate timeand, above all, because they have themselves presided over, or R 2 actively actively co-operated in the practical maturing and carrying into effect of those improvements which they have themselves suggested. We think it is to be regretted that Mr. Brougham, in directing his great talents, his inexhaustible industry, and his considerable legal knowledge towards the amendment of the law, has departed so widely from the path marked out by such judicious precursors. In making a long and inevitably a somewhat superficial speech upon law, he has only done that which many could do with equal knowledge, though certainly not with equal eloquence and piquancy. It is the creative part of the reformer's work which at once shows his skill and produces real fruit. The negative branch, the exposition of defects, is a cheaper and easier, and a far less useful office. No speech was necessary to explain to lawyers-that is, to those alone who really can understand the matter those real grievances which are stated by Mr. Brougham. It is the sagacity to devise the scheme of amendment, it is the patience to prosecute it, the caution, the conciliation, the dexterity, the unwearied perseverance to carry it through all difficulties to a practical consummation; these are the qualities wanted for the safe and judicious reform of the law, much rather than the eloquence and point which can emblazon the subject to the public, and which generally, by their very embellishments, prejudice its sober and temperate consideration. The vastness of the plan of Mr. Brougham has also, we think, in many ways diminished the efficacy of his speech. When he sought to obtain a Committee for Inquiry into the defects occasioned by time and otherwise in the laws of this realm, and into the measures necessary for removing the same,' however excellent a text such a motion might form for a popular speech upon all objections adducible against any branch of our laws and judicial establishments, he proposed an inquiry too immense, too varied, and too multifarious for any human commission to grapple with promptly and effectually. Had the commission issued in these unbounded terms, we believe that the utmost learning and diligence which the commissioners could have furnished would only have enabled them to produce, at least in any reasonable time, a report glancing over the surface of this vast field, and presenting little accurate information or matured suggestion, for practically amending any definite branches of the subject. Any reader who casts his eye over the contents of Mr. Brougham's speech, may judge whether the investigation of any four or five of its subjects would not occupy a commission a much longer time than the public or Mr. Brougham would choose to wait for its report. Any lawyer who considers the qualifications and knowledge requisite for the complete inves tigation |