Lords Sitting of 12 February 1850

MINUTES.
Took the Oaths.—The Bishop of Down and Connor, and Dromore.
PUBLIC BILLS. 1o Acts of Parliament Abbreviation. 2o County Cess (Ireland).

ACTS OF PARLIAMENT ABBREVIATION.
LORD BROUGHAM, in presenting a Bill for abridging the wording of Acts of Parliament, observed that he had made frequent attempts in that House—he was going to say with more or less success, but it was hardly possible to do so with less success, unfortunately—to amend the only manufacture which had received no improvement for the last 150 years—that of Acts of Parliament. We went on from one generation to another without improvement, thereby causing the greatest evil to the subject, to the law, and to the courts of justice above all things. He had intended to introduce very large improvements in the law, but he would be contented to accept even the smallest possible improvement, which he had pleged himself to introduce in his letter to Sir J. Graham; and with that view he begged to lay before their Lordships a Bill for shortening the language used in framing Acts of Parliament. One clause now introduced into every Bill he proposed to supersede altogether, for it was a ludicrous one—"That this Act may be altered, amended, or repealed during the present Session of Parliament"

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—the ground on which it had been heretofore used being, that every Act was supposed to be part of one Act, all the Acts of a Session forming one statute. He proposed to enact that every Act should be alterable, repealable, or amendable during the Session. Another proposition was, that no necessity should exist of constantly repeating words "and further enacting;" but that each section of each Act should follow the word "that," which would be perfectly sufficient. Another very important improvement had been often suggested to him by special pleaders. At present you only cited a former Act by saying, "by virtue of an Act, entitled an Act to do so and so," &c, giving the title and the year of its passing. He meant to propose that in future you should be enabled to refer to any Act, merely stating the chapter and section, with the year of the king's reign. This, and one or two other points, might have been considered by the great Bentham as mock reforms, because they were of very small amount, but it did not therefore follow that they were of very small importance.
Bill read 1a.

THE CAPE COLONY.
LORD STANLEYhad to present to their Lordships two petitions from the Cape of Good Hope, one signed by 4,000 persons, the other from the district of Port Elizabeth, signed by 8,000. The petitioners entered at considerable length into the case of the convicts sent out from this country. It was not his intention to refer to the Order in Council, or the conduct of Government concerning it, inasmuch as he believed it had been withdrawn in deference to the unanimous feeling of the colonists. He would only express his regret that the order should have been issued before it was ascertained that the colonists were willing to receive the convicts, thereby placing the Government in a very inconvenient situation. He hoped that no attempt would be made to renew the order, and should wish to hear an assurance to that effect from the noble Earl opposite.
EARL GREYhad no difficulty whatever in giving the noble Lord the assurance he required. He could not conceive that there could exist, under present circumstances, any intention of again passing an Order of Council on this subject. As the whole course of the Government was fully explained in the despatches laid on the table, which, he believed, had now been distributed,
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he should follow the noble Lord's example in abtaining from comments, adding only one observation with reference to the passing of the Order in Council, that it was not intended to act upon it, except in one special and particular case, until the sentiments of the inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope had been ascertained. It would be seen by those despatchss, that Her Majesty's Government were placed in a situation of extreme embarrassment with respect to the disposal of certain convicts who were at Bermuda, having been sent there in consequence of offences committed during the unfortunate famine which had prevailed in Ireland. The objections to sending them to any other colony were extreme, and the course adopted was considered upon the whole the least objectionable of any. But, undoubtedly, it was never contemplated by Her Majesty's Government to establish, as a regular system, the practice of sending convicts to a colony not originally established as a convict colony, without the consent of the great body of the inhabitants.
LORD BROUGHAMmust again enter his protest against the conduct of the inhabitants at the Cape of Good Hope. A most unjustifiable course, he felt bound to say, was pursued by them. It was neither more nor less than harsh and cruel to treat in this way persons who, though criminal, were suffering a most cruel punishment, having been already confined for three months on board ship.
LORD STANLEYcertainly thought the colonists had gone far beyond what they were justified in doing, and did not mean to vindicate their conduct in all points.
The EARL of ELLENBOROUGHwished to draw attention to one circumstance connected with the lot of the persons whose transportation had produced such extreme excitement at the Cape. The captain of a ship engaged by contract to carry convicts to their destination was bound to have on board a quantity of provisions and water far exceeding the probable consumption of those on board. In this case it appeared that whilst the ship lay at the Cape, the water was expended, and only 4001bs. of beef remained, there being hardly any other provision on board. Had there been a gale off the Cape, the probability was that every one of these persons would have died of famine.
EARL GREYdid not know that there was any reason to find fault with the manner in which the contract had been performed

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in this case. Very probably the small quantity of provisions on board was to be accounted for by the extraordinary long passage of the vessel, which, on many accounts, was most unfortunate. The ship left Bermuda on the 22nd April, and arrived at the Cape of Good Hope on the 19th September, a period very considerably longer than the average passage from this country to New South Wales.
Petitions to lie on the table.
House adjourned to Thursday.