Unpopularity of Law.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5282, 12 June 1895, Page 4

Unpopularity of Law.

The English people of to-day are less litieious than their forefathers were, and there is room for believing that this ia sb much the result of increasing intelligence on the part of the masses of society, as of disgust at the del»y, uncertainty and costliness of the law. Ten years ago, it i 3 pointed out, the admissions to the legal profession in England were at the rate of 750 a year; now they have sank to 600. And though the aotual number of solicitors is now greater by 50 per cent than it waß twenty yeatß ago; the volume of legal work has j decreased very materially, so that the legal profession is overcrowded and the cry of depression arid want of employment ia heard within its ranks. The British public seems, indeed, to have discovered that the law is as Bentham said, a " technical aystem invented for the creation of costs." A writer to a London paper says that " the | public have got dissatisfied with the whole I business, and have invented other methods of meeting their case. The dissatisfaction has not been .of a sudden growth. The present depression would be less ominous if it were so. No ; the truth is that, after a J long trial of the lawyers and the lawcourts, the public has set its face against the profession and the whole legal oystem. Men already in the profession live in the hope thab brighter days are in store, and they try to believe that the death-knell of Arbitration Committees has sounded. But year after year the list of actions set down for trial becomes smaller and beautifully leas. This cannot possibly be acoidental and peculiar, say, to a decade ; for the fact is that, taking a long series of years, we find that the decline set in many yearß ago, and has continued moderately steadily ever since. For instance, there were over 100,000 writs issued thirty yearß ago where there are now fewer than 60,000. Yet, in the interval, as we all know, the trade, population and wealth of the community have increased by leaps and bounds. And then, bo far from the spirit of compromise being dead or dying, our own observation would lead ua to conclude that it is leading a most vigorous life. Once upon a time it was considered a right and proper thing for a dispute in the city to be settled by an appeal to the law courts. Neither side now ventures to think of such a thing, Indeed, particular classes of traders have established their own courts of appeal where decisions are obtained expeditiously and at small cost, with this further advantage that neither party to the suit considers such an appeal a bar to any further trade dealings." All this must be conceded to be eminently satisfactory and symptomatic of the emergence of a higher grade of intelligence among the people of England. .