THE CRIMINAL LAW AMENDMENT BILLS. (Hansard, 10 July 1854)

THE LORD CHANCELLOR
moved, That a Select Committee be appointed to consider the Nine Criminal Law Bills, including those of last Session, with the letters of Judges to the Lord Chancellor, and to report as to the course which it will be expedient to pursue in relation to the said Bills, and the recommendations of the Criminal Law Commissioners. The noble and learned Lord said, that differences of opinion existed between noble and learned Lords as to the course that was proper to be pursued with regard to a codification of the criminal law. For himself he almost despaired of such a codification passing the House in the usual form. In the case of a former attempt 1442 eleven complete days had been spent in discussing it, and the measure was imperfect, and he believed that the failure was occasioned by their endeavour to strike off at once a complete whole, which should be a sort of model for all succeeding legislation. At the same time he thought much good would result from referring these Bills, which aimed at a consolidation of the Statute law, to a Select Committee, that they might determine upon the proper course to be taken with regard to them.

LORD CAMPBELL
thought that the only chance of obtaining a code would be by Parliament vesting the power of framing one in certain individuals—naming them—and then adopting or rejecting it as a whole. But, like his noble and learned Friend, he despaired of obtaining a code if it were to be passed in the usual manner by the two Houses, to be canvassed clause by clause in that House by Chancellors and ex-Chancellors, and in the other House by aspiring lawyers, by all who held or hoped to hold office. The Code Napoléon was framed as a whole and adopted as a whole; and it was only by dealing with the measure as a whole that they could ever hope to have a code in this country. With regard to the Bills referred to by his noble and learned Friend, he considered them as likely to be extremely useful as consolidations of the Statute law, following the excellent example which was first set by Sir Robert Peel, and which had been so beneficially followed by others since; but when they came to abolish the common law, its substitute could only be dealt with as a whole.

THE LORD CHANCELLOR
hoped it would not be understood that he expected all or any of these Bills to pass this Session. What he promised was this, that as soon as the Select Committee had agreed on their Report, he would devote himself during the recess, along with the gentlemen who had originally prepared them, to put them into a proper form, to be immediately introduced into their Lordships' House next Session. He agreed in much of what his noble and learned Friend had said with regard to a code. The noble and learned Lord (Lord Brougham), to whom they were indebted for most of these Bills, proposed to begin the code with enacting, that from and after the passing of such an Act, nothing should be unlawful except what was forbidden in it. Now, he always thought that was the point which they should endeavour to work up to, not that 1443 on which they should take their stand at first and work down from. When they had provided a consolidation of the various offences, then would be the proper time to abrogate all other provisions. He thought the Bills now before the House did tend to facilitate this course, and he therefore moved that they be referred to a Select Committee.