Your Committee conceive that the importance of having some recognised and powerful functionary to supervise the arrangements of our judicial establishments, to correct any abuses that may grow up within them, to see that their records are properly made up, and safely kept, and to keep their expenditure within proper bounds, can hardly be over-estimated.

Hitherto no constant controlling action has been exercised in England over our judicial officers of any grade; remedies having only been applied in flagrant cases, and to meet urgent and importunate complaints. The course of the controlling power, your Committee venture to think, should be constant and continuous, and directed rather to the prevention than to the cure of evil. This can only be accomplished by the exertions of a public officer expressly created for the task.

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(3.) The Necessity of some recognised Official to carry out necessary Amendments in the Law.

Your Committe are further of opinion that the constant alterations and amendments requisite to be made in every system of municipal law, in order to keep it in harmony with the changing wants of the age, are of themselves sufficient to demand the creation of some department especially charged with the care of public justice. It is probable that no code could be framed which would not be found, in the course of some years, uncertain and imperfect in some particulars ; that of Justinian required the addition of the Novels during his lifetime, and that of Napoleon has become the subject of numerous commentaries and decisions. It is, at any rate, certain that our own law is very far from that point at which further amendments would be considered unnecessary; and and your Committee are of opinion that many of the difficulties that have attended Law Reform have arisen from the want of some authorised official to introduce measures framed to remedy the imperfections in our jurisprudence, to watch any bills that may be introduced by private members, and to take care that new enactments are in harmony with the rest of the statute-book. The necessity of some central authority, even for instituting inquiries into the existing condition of

our law, is shown by the number of detached Commissions now at work; which are separately obtaining information that ought properly to flow into one channel, and that ought to be obtained, not by irregular starts, but systematically and continuously. Your Committee conceive that a Minister of Justice charged, amongst other duties, with the office of discovering and remedying the inequalities in our legal system, might be the instrument of incalculable good, alike, to the public and to the profession.

II. IN WHOSE HANDS THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE

SHOULD BE PLACED.

YOUR Committee conceive that it will be evident from the foregoing observations, that the Minister of Justice ought to be an official clothed with the highest possible authority and dignity, in order that due weight might be attached to his decisions in the many difficult and delicate matters that would continually come under his cognizance. At the same time it is desirable, in establishing any office, to make use as far as possible of existing machinery, and to interfere as little as may be with the present course of administration.

Many considerations point to the Lord Chancellor as the person to whom this important branch of the executive ought to be assigned. As the highest law officer in the realm, as the confidential adviser of the Sovereign, as the first in the ranks of our judges, and as the President of the highest court of judicature in the kingdom, the Lord Chancellor already combines many of the attributes of a Minister of Justice. At the same time, a considerable portion of the patronage which would attach to the office is already in his hands, and he holds a supervising power over the greater part of our judicial establishments. He is also a member of the Cabinet, a position absolutely necessary for the Minister of Justice, and he is generally selected by the ruling administration to bring before Parliament any contemplated alterations in the laws. To invest the Lord Chancellor with the functions of a Minister of Justice would therefore be, not so much to assign to him any new duties, as to complete those which he at present performs.

At the same time your Committee are fully aware of the multifarious and various occupations devolving on the Woolsack, and of the plea which may be urged, that any addition to those occupations might impede the due administration of justice. They are also aware that the qualities which fit a man for a high judicial position are by no means identical with those required for the due distribution of patronage and the necessary amendment of the law, and that more than one example has shown how widely they may be occasionally dissevered. It might be justly feared that were the Lord Chancellor, still encumbered with his present duties, to be invested with the recognised functions of a Minister of Justice, difficulties might frequently arise as to the selection of any individual at once qualified to pronounce the decisions of the court of ultimate appeal, and possessed of that frame of mind which can remedy and remould the various branches of our legislative jurisprudence. These latter considerations point strongly to a separate Minister of Justice, who should be independent of the Woolsack, who should not necessarily be a member of the legal profession, and who should, like the heads of the other departments of State, be seated either in the Upper or the Lower House, as the convenience of the public service might require. Your Committee cannot but be fully alive to the great advantages that would flow from having in the House of Commons, a Minister entrusted with the amendment of the law; but to whosesoever hands the important functions of a Minister of Justice may be entrusted, it is essential that they should be unencumbered with other duties, and be made as far as possible directly responsible to the Legislature.

Your Committee of course contemplate the establishment of a regular department of Justice, similar to those which regulate the Home Affairs, the Foreign Affairs, and the Colonies, with a staff properly subdivided and trained to its tasks, for the assistance of the head of the department in the discharge of his duties.

ART. IV. THE HISTORY OF THE LAW AMENDMENT SOCIETY, FROM ITS INSTITUTION, IN 1844, TILL THE PRESENT TIME.

SECT. V. The Criminal Law.

THE all-important, yet much-neglected Criminal Law, has not entirely escaped the notice of Law Reformers. A variety of circumstances has even forced it upon the attention of the country at large. The principle of the new Digest, so long advocated by Lord Brougham (the indefatigable President and father of the Society), so long acknowledged, yet postponed to make room for other more-favoured and lesslaborious legislation, -ultimately received the sanction of Lord St. Leonards, and is now under the guardianship of the Lord Chancellor. Party sentiment is willing to give way when grave considerations are brought upon the scene. Mr. D'Israeli admitted in his financial exposition that the time was convenient for the discussion of secondary punishment. The expense and difficulties of transportation appal our Chancellors of the Exchequer; the increase of population, and with it, of small larcenies, alarms the executive; the many-featured aspect of crime confounds the moralist; the misdemeanours of educated men embarrass the advocates of learning. The standard of security is shaken-the lovers of justice are either outraged at the reaction of undue mildness, or displeased by some unwise rigour; and the caprice of local tribunals causes the penalty for an offence to rest too much on uncertainty for the purpose of profitable example. Capital punishment encounters many obstacles: it is most difficult to inflict it without inviting a comparison between the sufferers; it has been found impossible to carry it out in every instance; it is equally a hard task to find a proper commutation of punishment. Under such emergencies, the efforts of enlightened men are ever received with thank

fulness; and, whether they are the labours of Captain Maconochie, Mr. Hill, or Mr. Pearson, they are acceptable to such as look forward to a better state of society, and welcome to the Institution whose history we are endeavouring to trace. Captain Maconochie was for some time the Superintendent at Norfolk Island. He conceived, and not without reason, that there is another way to reach the feelings of ignorant men besides coercion or the lash. His mind was at once fully imbued with the expensive mischiefs of time-sentences, fixed rations, and unproductive imprisonments; and, on the other hand, with the benefits of a graduated scale with regard to imprisonment, food, and labour. Captain Maconochie opened a debtor and creditor account with the criminal. To his credit he placed the fruits of his industry, the improvement of his morals, and his general fitness to return to society. To his debit was entered an amount of labour measured by a given number of marks registered in books kept for the purpose, by charges made in the same currency for all supplies of food and clothing, and by any fine for misconduct. Captain Maconochie would have this probation at first in a state of separate confinement, from whence, according to the number of his marks, novice should be advanced to the social state, i. e. to a class composed of from six to eight persons.

"The members of such class to have a common interest, the marks earned or lost by each to count to the gain or loss of his party, not of himself exclusively."

The Captain considers the ordinary mode of imprisonment to be a gregarious existence. He would exchange this for a social existence. He refers to tables as showing the partial success of his operations, but at the same time affirms that he was unable, for want of specific instructions and other difficulties, to put his system into full management. The Committee of the Society have considered his plans, pressed him with the objections which occurred to them', and having heard his answers, came to the conclusion that his efforts were highly deserving of notice.

1 See the Report.