Lord Norton is a man with convictions, and his convictions
are all in accord with those held by the bulk of his countrymen. Consequently, they are most creditable to him. Still, when he gives the world his reasons for them, he should pay some atten- tion to facts. He states, through the Times,this dogma, "That two Chambers are necessary for the practical working of legislation, is the matured judgment of history, experience, and philosophy." Is it P We should have said, on the contrary, that the immense bulk of the living and working legislation of the world had not been prepared by two Chambers, but by single Chambers and ruling individuals. English law is a great structure, but has it been more influential or successful for its objects than the Roman Law, the Mosaic Law, the Law of Munoo, the Confucian Maxims, the Code Napol6on, the Indian Codes, or the Canons ? None of those systems of law, except that part of the Roman law which is founded on decrees accepted by the Comitia, passed before two Chambers. As for "work- ing " laws, when a State wants a code, it is almost invariably obliged to tell an individual or a committee to prepare one, and then passes it ea bloc. The House of Lords is a most useful political body, but if it were superseded to-morrow by a Committee of great lawyers, with Sir James Stephen for Pre- sident and Sir H. Thring for Secretary, legislation would be indefinitely improved.
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