COMMITTEE. (Hansard, 18 July 1884)

§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY

said, this was not a mere Consolidation Bill. 1588 It effected some very extensive alterations of the law; but it was of a very peculiar character, for it was so framed as to be perfectly unintelligible to the ordinary mind, because almost all its enactments were done by repealing sections picked out of a variety of Statutes. He supposed the noble and learned Earl upon the Woolsack would not admit that Acts of Parliament were given to them to conceal their thoughts; but that was the way the subject was treated in this Bill. Where such extensive alterations were made in the Statute Book, he thought it would have been a matter of great convenience to affix, as was sometimes done, statements showing what were the points on which it was proposed to change the law. He remembered one case in which the House were legislating in such a manner as to sweep away the whole military law of the Indian Army, and he trusted that nothing so calamitous would occur in the present case. If they were to exercise any supervision over legislation of this kind, such a Memorandum as he had suggested was absolutely indispensable.

THE LORD CHANCELLOR

said, there were a large number of Acts which were open to the same kind of objection, and the various Consolidation Acts that had in recent years been passed would all have been open to this criticism of the noble Marquess. Parliament, in this matter, was obliged to place considerable confidence in the learned and careful persons who drafted Bills of this description, and in those who examined them after their preparation; and although this kind of legislation had been carried on for a long time, and upon a large scale, he did not know of any case where there had been an oversight on the part of the competent and careful draftsmen, or that any inconvenience to the public had arisen. Parliament, therefore, had been right in bestowing that confidence. The present Bill, with some trifling alterations, and those of a formal character, was the same as passed through this House last Session, when the noble and learned Earl (the Earl of Milltown) watched its progress; and he thought he might venture to say that it might be safely passed by their Lordships.