REFORM OF THE SECOND CHAMBER.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE" SPECTATOR.") SIR,—With regard to the question of the reform of the Second Chamber, may I suggest that the function of a Second Chamber would properly be the revision of First Chamber legislation in the direction of lucidity, consistency, and co-ordination? Few people who have any experience of the law, its making and its administration, will differ from me when I say that the general grievance of the public Is the uncertainty of the law when made, until decisions are arrived at by the Courts. My contention is that this might be very largely avoided if it were recognized that the function of a Second Chamber, small or great, was to take the legislation passed by the House of Commons, and graftsit upon the existing law, calling attention incidentally to any anomalies or obvious defects of omission or commission. If this codification were proceeded with, we should gradually achieve the end of making. the law much more intelligible to the layman, and thus much mote, accessible to him. It might be an excellent thing if people avoided the Law Courts because their inclination was to compose their differences without such recourse; but we know, as a matter of fact, that people avoid the Courts because of the fearful expense of the law, and quite unnecessary uncertainty as to what the law is. I am aware that the above suggestion makes quite a modest matter of the Second or Revising Chamber, but in reality it is of great importance, as it interposes delay in new experiments, not for the sake of delay, but for the sake of
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