THE LORD CHANCELLORpresented a Bill for promoting the Revision of the Statute Law and expurgation of the Statute Book. The statutes of the realm were at present contained in forty-four quarto volumes. The Bills presented by him on former occasions, and which had passed into law, carried the revision and expurgation down to the reign of James II. inclusive, and the Bill which he had now the honour to introduce completed the entire work of revision. He was happy to say that if this Bill passed into a law the new edition of the whole of the living statutes which would follow would probably be comprised in ten volumes only, of the same average size as at present. This, however, was by no means the end of the work. The next step would be to arrange the Statute Law in the form of a digest, under the most appropriate heads, forming a complete analytical arrangement, and then to revise and expurgate the unwieldly and still increasing mass of the decided cases, reducing them to such as constituted the body of existing authorities, and which might in their turn be digested and arranged. Their Lordships would be glad to hear that the House of Commons had voted a sum of money for this purpose, and he trusted that the work would go on successfully until the whole of the written and unwritten law was ascertained, reduced into order, and brought within a reasonable compass.
§ Bill for promoting the Revision of the Statute Law by repealing certain Enactments which have ceased to be in force or have become unnecessary—Was presented by The LORD CHANCELLOR; read 1a. (No. 172.)