The issue of the first reports of the Council of
Law Reporting is a matter of more than mere professional interest. The storm of opposition which prejudice and self-interest raised against the Bar scheme of establishing a single authoritative series of Law Reports has passed off, and Mr. Daniel and his coadjutors are now entitled to celebrate their triumph. It appears by the re- port that the Law Reports are now officially recognized by all the legal authorities, Gray's Inn and Serjeants' Inn having at length given in their adhesion ; and there can be little doubt now of the complete success of a scheme which, though novel, has brought conviction to the minds of the ultra-conservative organiza- tion established in the precincts of Lincoln's Inn and the Temple. One thing only remains to be done, viz., to grant to the Council of Law Reporting a charter of incorporation, so that its perpetual succession may be insured. Seeing that the law of the land de- pends to a great extent for its enunciation and preservation upon the publication of judicial decisions, we can hardly conceive a case in which a monopoly of publication can be more advantageously permitted than in this instance, and we trust the effort to obtain a charter will be successful. It would be almost as sensible to give the reports of the debates in Hansard the force of an Act of Parliament as to allow the present system to continue, under which any inexperienced note-taker in Court may, by publishing his impressions of the judge's decision in a case, establish a pre- cedent which has all the force of law.
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