"IT IS NOT IN THE BILL."
WHEN one of the deputation of Liverymen pointed out to Lord John Rus- sell that the City Abolition Bill proposed to extinguish the popular election of Sheriffs, Lord John, like a true son of the house of Russell, could not disguise his dislike to the proposition ; but when this aspect of the bill was rat mentioned he observed—" That is not in the bill." And it is not in the bill, you only discover that the ancient popular right will be abolished by putting together the several provisions which abolish all elections by the Livery, transfer the election of the London Sheriffs to the Court of Alder- men, and leave the nomination of the Middlesex Sheriffs to lapse sub eilentio to the Crown. The actual abolition of the ancient privilege in so many terms is "not in the bill."
But this is the very characteristic of the worst class of our legislation. The most mischievous provisions of all modern measures are not in the bill. The vicious working which has been discovered in the statute establishing the Divorce Court was not in the bill. Some of the worst operations of the Reform measure which had to be corrected were "not in the bill." It is the points overlooked by men who originate legislative provisions, without having made themselves thorough masters of the subject, that has caused the greatest amount of injury to the community. Here is the grand source of those endless "Amendment Acts" which encumber our Statute Book with conflicting legislation. The worst part of every bill is "not in the bill" ; and the confirmed habit of neglecting to examine that portion of very measure which lies outside the narrow bounds of the parchment is he great fault of our modern legislators.
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