§ LORD ST. LEONARDSsaid, that it was not his intention to press the Criminal. Law Amendment Bill during the present Session. Their Lordships would recollect that at the commencement of the Session, 158 on the proposal of his noble and learned Friend Lord Lyndhurst, a Commission was appointed in order to prepare the way for legislation in reference to the subject of a digest of the criminal law. The whole question was subsequently referred by their Lordships to a Select Committee, and he was bound to say that it had there undergone as much consideration and as much discussion as, probably, had been applied to the Code Napoleon, which, as their Lordships were well aware, was a subject that had been most elaborately discussed, as well as most attentively considered. The proposal which he had now to make to their Lordships was, that the matter should not be further prosecuted in Parliament this year, but that the Bill should be printed and circulated, and that—the attention of each of the several Judges having been invited to its details—it should be proceeded with next Session, after their Lordships had received all the advantage of having had the Judges' opinions upon the several Amendments which had been introduced.
The LORD CHANCELLORexpressed his entire concurrence in the course proposed to be taken by the noble and learned Lord. He felt perfectly persuaded that there had been devoted to the consideration of this subject, on the part of lay as well as the law Lords, as much attention as had ever been given to any measure brought before their Lordships' House. Perhaps it was hardly necessary for him to say, that nothing which must be introduced into such a code or digest would present so great a difficulty as the definition of the graver cases, such as murder and manslaughter—cases which, if your definitions failed, would be involved in inextricable difficulties. He begged to inform their Lordships that the learned gentlemen who had been appointed to inquire into the subject, on being released from that duty, had, at his (the Lord Chancellor's) request, immediately proceeded to the preparation of another measure; and accordingly, within the very last week, they had sent him in a Bill, reduced to a very nice form, on the subject of larceny, and offences of that nature; and he would propose that, with regard to that measure also, it should be submitted to the consideration of the Judges during the recess, it being quite impossible that it could undergo any examination at the hands of a Select Committee this Session.
LORD CAMPBELLwished to express his 159 great gratification at the course which the noble and learned Lord (Lord St. Leonards) proposed to take with regard to the criminal digest law, and to bear testimony to the ardent zeal which the noble and learned Lord had devoted to the digest of the criminal law. It was manifestly impossible that such a great and important measure as that was could be pressed further this year.
LORD BROUGHAMwas happy to be able to confess that at last there was every reason to expect that the country was on the eve of receiving a sound and well-digested code of criminal law; and although their Lordships had already heard enough of compliments, he could not allow the moment to pass without stating his deep sense of the services rendered to the country by his noble and learned Friend (Lord St. Leonards) in reference to this great work. And what made his noble Friend's exertions the more praiseworthy was the fact, that, though he originally entertained certain doubts on the matter, he set to work most manfully in the preparation of the object. He might also speak in the highest terms of the assiduity of another noble Friend of his (Lord Beaumont), who, though not a member of the profession, had nevertheless contributed the most valuable assistance to the Committee. He earnestly hoped, then, that the learned Judges, on receiving a copy of the Bill, would apply themselves to its consideration before the end of the long vacation.