ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE LAW AMENDMENT SOCIETY.

TIM annual meeting of the Law Amendment Society was too remarkable an occurrence to be passed over with the brief men- tion that we were able to make last week. The attendance was unusually numerous ; comprising Law Lords and Lay Lords, Members of Parliament, barristers, and a miscellaneous body of gentlemen having little in common besides intelligence and public spirit. The attendance of two classes, in particular, was sig- nificant. Practising lawyers and judges signified by their mere presence, that the2- law which it is their vocation to administer is in such a state Abet a combined effort is necessary for its tho- rough revision. Country gentlemen titled and untitled, actively interested in improving the value of land, evinced an expectation of something that will result in the improvement of property by improving the law which regulates its conveyance. It has been objected by a clever contemporary writer, that such missions as that of the Law Amendment Society are not effected by organized agitation, but demand some one man with the de- votion and will adequate to the work. As free trade in corn de- manded a Peel, so the amendment of the law pines, not for want of a society, but for want of a Romilly,—who, by the way, carried only two law reform bills in his whole life The objection would be more apt if it did not happen that the Law Amendment Society comprises men who do attest their sincerity by devoting large slices of their time—that valuable property of the lawyer; and if the Society, by help of the energy which such individuals impart, could not, point to improvements already accomplished, as earnest of yet greater achievements. The Society has given force and steadiness to the general ef- forts made for the amendment of the law within the last five years. Thus, the establishment of Local Courts and the steps taken by the Inns of Court for providing a better system of legal education, have been aided by the Society's publications. And. there are at least three branches of the law in which the reports of the Society have been of direct benefit.

First, its earliest report was levelled at the present mode of drawing acts of Parliament, and pointed to the establishment

of a Revising Board for the purpose; a plan often hinted at, but never before distinctly proposed. The vague ideas of many were collected together, and they now assume a substantial place in the list of those measures which must sooner or later, but we think soon, be carried into effect.

Secondly, the Society has grappled with the monster evil in the Court of Chancery—the Masters' Office. In a series of reports, the Equity Committee has exposed the absurd system of proce- dure pursued in that office, till at last the very clerks have confessed, before a Committee of the Commons, that "a clever solicitor may, in the Masters' Office, protract a suit to eternity." One of these reports has established the fact, that in many cases a Judge could at once dispose of all the points in a cause without any reference to the Master at all. At present, two persons with judicial power must be employed in every cause, one of them to hear some part of it, and the other to hear the other part of it : the Society has shown that this double authority is the main cause of the present delay and expense in the Masters' Office. This may seem to some a very slight discovery ; but on it will turn the remodelling of the procedure of the Court and the effectual relief of the suitor. Indeed, within the last few months, Lord Langdale, the Master of the Rolls, has given weight to the particular suggestion, by expressing his willingness as a judge to carry it into operation.

But, thirdly, it is in the law of property that the labours of the Society have been most valuable and most successful. Their re-

ports will undoubtedly be the guides of future legislation on this subject ; for every day confirms the conclusions to which they have come. A register of lands, founded on a map, to be in

itself evidence of the title, is now admitted to be the great desi- deratum both for England and Ireland : each point of this pro- position has been cleared up and elucidated by the reports of the Law Amendment Society. Such is its direct operation, but probably its indirect operation is greater. Those who most dislike it begin not only to say that

"something must be done," but are now in many directions set-

ting to work to do it themselves. What one body will do from love of the cause, another will do from—no matter what motives,

so that the public good is served. A race is thus run by many : a law reformer from necessity will bid against the law reformer from love. Take an instance of this. Two conveyancing acts

were passed, at the suggestion of the Society, for shortening forms : learned books forthwith came out to show that the acts were unnecessary, as without any act at all short deeds might be drawn ; and thus it is that deeds are certainly now more concise than they were. If the Society merely met and made speeches about reform, little good would be done : it is because its Committees be-

stow real thought and patient labour—because they evolve

practical proposals for amendment of the law in its most im- portant branches—that we regard the Society as a valuable in-

stitution. Let those who doubt, quietly sit clown and consider how any one of the subjects we have mentioned stood five years ago, and how it stands now. Some people get im-

patient, and say, Show us tangible results—is not the law as

tedious, expensive, and dilatory as ever ? We say, No; it is not. Even in those respects, the consequences of amendment

are already felt. To be safe and sure, however, the path of the law reformer must be painstaking, and necessarily slow : great part of his duty lies not only in removing abuses, but in prevent- ing mischief from the operation of removal—in preparing the

public mind to witness change of special laws without apprehen- sion for that great aggregate institute which we call "the law."

This work the Society is doing : it is preparing new laws ready to the hands of the legislator, new opinion for the public reception of those laws, new views in the profession for their practical and, intelligent working.