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8
This Characteristic applies also the Measure itself. That
Consolidation Bills, so styled, has passed from time to time,
is evidenced by the Statute-Book; but, in truth, these bills
have been the substituting of one system for another. So
much of the ancient system as was deemed compatible
with existing relations has been retained, the residue rejected;
and such additions as those relations demanded
have been made. This, however, has been achieved
either by the Government of the country, or by those individuals
in whom the Government have placed their
confidence, or whom, from their eminence, they deemed
worthy of discretionary power. But suppose that, after
the conference between the two Houses in 1816, and
the result to which it led, (the abandoning of the present
measure as impracticable,) an individual had submitted to
the legislature a reform of any given department of the
law, for example, the Criminal Law. They would naturally
have said, "Show us the precise state of the existing law,
with all its crudities and imperfections, that we may be
enabled to judge to what extent you retain the existing
system, and in what particulars you repudiate it. We have
only your own conviction of the nature, extent, and propriety
of the change which you advocate; and we must be
furnished with proper means for deciding upon the value of
your judgment." This was exactly my own situation, and
it therefore became incumbent on me to do this. The
difficulty lies in ascertaining the precise influence which a
series of enactments, relating to the same subject, have had
upon each other. And it may with confidence, and, it is
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Identifier: | JB/011/200/008"JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 11. |
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1826 |
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011 |
law amendment |
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200 |
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008 |
a letter to the members of the different circuits |
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printed material |
23 |
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recto |
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3897 |
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