7 FEBRUARY 1857, Page 20

HOW STATUTES SHOULD BE CONSTRUED.

Sin—At the commencement of a new session of Parliament, destined doubtless to produce the usual quantity of verbose and incoherent acts, it may not be immaterial to point out, that a part of the difficulty of legislation arises from the habit of Judges to construe acts strictly.

That penal acts should be so construed has become a legal axiom ; to 'which, however, I do not assent : but I further complain that the same habit of mind is carried into the construction of all statutes, partly from an honest fear of usurping undue power and making laws instead of interpreting them, and partly from the minuteness of an acute intellect, intent more on splitting straws than on grasping the broad meaning of the law in question.

It is from this habit of the Judges more than from ignorance or pedantry that those employed in framing acts of Parliament or other legal documents are guilty of the verbosity and frequent repetitions of which they are accused. And this again confirms the habit complained of in the Judges, who argue, with some plausibility, that where so much is expressed nothing can be intended to be implied, and that any omission must be taken to be intentional.

Allow me to illustrate my meaning by the old story, true or false, of the man who was acquitted of horse-stealing because he had stolen a mare. What wonder if the framer of the next act on this subject inserted every synonym for a horse he could think of? and what wonder if on the next subsequent trial for horse-stealing it were successfully argued, that, as the animal stolen was a "filly," and that word did not occur in a statute carefully enumerating "horse," "mare," "gelding," "foal," &c., it must be presumed that the case in question was not intended to fall under the act ?

The remedy would seem to be, an act declaring that every act, penal or not, ia to be construed, not literally, but according to the apparent intention of the Legislature, and in favour of the public for whose benefit it was passed. It would then be possible to frame statutes in few words, since

each would form a mere nucleus, enlarged by enlightened and liberal decisions into a corpus jtuis on the subject. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Srvr.rrEs.

For Booxs, FINE ARTS, and STATISTICS see the accompanying Monthly Supplement.