- - ART. X.-COMPULSORY ENFRANCHISEMENT OF COPYHOLDS. 1. Report from the Select Committee on Enfranchise- ment of Copyholds' Bill, together with the Proceedings of the Committee on Minutes of Evidence. Ordered to be printed 17th July, 1851. 2. A Bill (No. 3.), as amended by the Select Committee, to extend the Provisions of the Acts for the Com- mutation of Manorial Rights and for the gradual ART. XIII. REPORT OF THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING ART. XV.-THE LAW AMENDMENT SOCIETY: ITS PROGRESS Reports and Papers of the Society for promoting the Amendment of the Law. Printed by Spottiswoodes THE LAW REVIEW. ART. I. THE CONDITION AND POLICY OF THE PROFESSION. 1. England as it is. By Wм. JOHNSTON, Esq., Barrister. Murray, 1851. 2. A Letter on Reform of the Superior Courts of Common Law to the Right Hon. Lord John Russell. By R. P. COLLIER, of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law, Recorder of Penzance. Turpin, 1851. 3. A Letter to the Right Hon. Sir James Graham, M.P., on the Establishment of an Issue Court. By EDWARD MORTON. 1851. No reflecting man will doubt that a strong feeling of distrust and alienation has sprung up recently between the professional lawyer and the public, now no longer the client. A member of the Legal Profession is looked upon with a kind of terror as a destructive engine, which, though necessarily employed against an enemy, yet may possibly recoil upon the person who so employs it, and involve him, as well as his antagonist, in destruction. Most prudent men now take care to avoid lawsuits; to submit even to wrong and injustice rather than subject themselves to the expense and anxiety occasioned by forensic contention; and thus it is that only on some great occasion, or strong excitement, the professional man is employed. This is not a state of things that we wish to see prolonged. It is not at all desirable for the interests of the public, still less so perhaps for the interests of the Profession. This then may be a proper time for considering the causes of the estrangement; of pointing out freely, but in a friendly spirit, some of the errors of all branches of VOL. XV.-Nov. 1851. B the Law, and for throwing out some suggestions which may promote a better understanding. The Profession are suffering, but the community heeds it not; they are utterly insensible to the groans of the lawyer, nay, many of them secretly enjoy his calamity, and could have no better sport than to see one branch of the Profession at war with the other; some indeed would consider this a species of retributive justice. As the friends, then, of the Profession, we shall endeavour to give them counsel as to their true interests; being well satisfied that without due attention to the signs of the times, a perilous season is at hand for them, and that they never stood in greater need of sound and honest guidance than at a time when the public are beginning to feel their strength, and would most willingly throw off the yoke under which they have so long, and we must say so grievously suffered. Let us then, in an affectionate spirit to the Profession, but having also in view the just rights of the other branches of the community, endeavour to trace the history of the disaffection that now exists, the surest sign of which is the want of employment of the lawyer. In this inquiry we shall take with us the observations of Mr. Johnston, who, in his " Inquiry into the Present State of England," has very properly devoted several chapters to the state of the Profession, and may be referred to as an impartial and attentive spectator by no means sanguine or extensive in his views as to Law, or any other species of Reform. He agrees with us as to the general distaste prevailing for the Law as now administered. "We have, indeed, come to such a pass in respect to these matters, that, in the opinion of many, there is no such practical tyranny in this country as the condition of the Law. And this opinion is formed in no spirit of hostility to the Government or the State, but concurrently with the belief that the State is sincerely desirous of mitigating this evil as much as it can. But there are evils of society which grow with its growth, and even strengthen with its strength, and which become so interlaced and interwoven with the very framework and structure of society itself that, without its dissolution, such evils must, in some considerable degree, remain. It is, perhaps, not going too far to say, that all but the very vindictive or the very rich are, in this country, exceedingly afraid to engage in law, even when convinced they have a good cause. The former class are for the moment reckless, and the latter indifferent; and so they order law proceedings to be taken. Many questions also go into the hands of the lawyers as a matter of course, because they evidently must go there. But where a choice of going to law, or not going to law, is to be deliberately exercised, many persons in England forego their rights every day, either from policy or in disgust.". Johnston, c. 27. And Mr. Collier says much the same thing. "The public have long viewed the administration of the Law with deep dissatisfaction, in spite of their perfect confidence in the ability and purity of the Judges. The most cursory glance at the jurisdiction and modes of procedure of our various Courts abundantly shows this dissatisfaction not to be referable to a mere spirit of grumbling; which a more intimate acquaintance with them affords, from the evidence of the delays, the hardships, and injustice of the Law, as well as of the patience with which those evils have been endured." · Collier, p. 3. The state of the Legal Profession in England has thus become for some time the subject of much anxiety and trouble to many persons removed from any personal interest in professional concerns. The lawyer has so much to do with the daily affairs of life, that his condition is of no mean importance to the whole community. To him are entrusted so many of the affairs of mankind; he is the friend, adviser, referee, and administrator of so many; so few steps in life can be taken without his assistance; his powers are so great; his knowledge so extensive; his influence so weighty; that his state and position are matters of public importance. In a small neighbourhood he often wields all the real power of the parish or the borough, and sometimes rules as a tyrant. He acts and thinks for the community. He pervades society. Another great characteristic of the Profession of the Law is its apparent omnipresence. The first temporal subject of the realm, the Lord Chancellor, walks close to the sovereign; seek out the vilest felon in the prison, and you find him in |